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Adding Terms

You can add terms to a Topic in one of the following ways:

• Manually typing terms, one at a time
• Pasting one or more terms from an external file, such as a Word or Excel file

SMART allows you to check whether terms you have added also appear in other Topics, and lets you set custom Confidence requirements for terms. In addition, SMART notifies you if a term is too short to be accurately recognized.

To manually add a term:

1. In the Term field above the list of terms, type the term.
2. Press Enter, or click the New button to the right of the text field. The term is added to the list.

   

   Term added to Topic

To paste one or more terms:

1. Copy one or more terms from an external file, such as a text file or a Word file. Each term should be in a separate paragraph in the original file.
2. Right-click the Term field above the list of terms, and then click Paste. The last term in the list you pasted appears in the text field.
3. Click the New button. All of the terms you pasted are added to the Topic list.

Short Terms

When you add a new term to a Topic, the system checks to see if the term is long enough to be accurately recognized in call audio. If it is not, a Too Short Terms warning message appears:

Too Short Terms message

The term is still added to the list, but a red icon () identifies it as too short.

Red icon identifying short term

Although you can leave the short term in the list as it is, the system will not necessarily be able to recognize it in a call. If you can, add additional words to the term. You may even want to add a number of variations to the term. For example, if the term is "can I refinance," you could modify it to "can I refinance my loan," and also add in the variations "can I refinance my mortgage" and "can I reschedule my payments."

To modify a term that is too short:

1. Click the term in the list. The term appears in the Term field above the list, and the New button to the right of the field become an Update button.
2. In the Term field, modify the term by adding additional words to it.
3. Click Update. The term is updated in the list.

If you try to save a Topic that contains terms that are too short, the system notifies you of the existence of the short terms and asks you how to handle them. You can choose either to keep them as they are or to delete them. (You can restore deleted terms later if you wish; see Modifying a Topic.)

Checking for Other Occurrences of Terms

If you wish, you can include the same term in more than one Topic. If two Topics that contain the same term are linked to a single Program, the term is sought by SpeechMiner twice - once for each Topic - and, if it is found, it is marked twice. Nevertheless, you may wish to check whether an existing Topic already contains the same terms as those you have included in the Topic you are creating. If you find one, you may be able to use it, with or without modifications, instead of creating a new Topic.

SMART can check to see if other Topics contain any of the terms that are in the current Topic, in one of the following ways:

• Checking each term as you enter it into the list
• Checking all of the terms whenever you choose to do so

Checking the entire database of Topics for duplicate terms can require significant system resources. If you choose to check each term as you enter it, you may have to wait a while before you can enter the next term or perform other SMART actions. Checking all of the terms at once may therefore be more efficient.

To check each term as you enter it:

• In the term-list controls, select the Check Similar checkbox. Any terms you add when this option is selected are checked before they are inserted into the list. Terms that are duplicated elsewhere are still inserted into the list, but a flag () is inserted beside them and they are displayed in blue text until you perform another action.

   

  Duplicated term

To check all of the terms that are currently in the list: 

•  In the term-list controls, click the Check Similar button. The terms in the list are checked one by one. A flag () is inserted beside each duplicated term, and they are displayed in blue text until you perform another action.

Regardless of which method you used to check for duplicate terms, you can see information about which Topics contain the duplicates.

To see which other Topics contain a duplicate term:

• Place your mouse pointer on the flag beside the term. A screen tip displays the details.

  

  Information about a duplicate term

Customizing the Strictness of a Term

By default, each of the terms in a Topic are assigned the Strictness value that is assigned to the Topic (in the Topic's properties). You can change the Strictness values of individual terms if you wish. When the Strictness of a term has been customized, the custom level appears beside the term.

Term with a custom Strictness value

To set a custom Strictness value for a term:

1. In the term list, select the term. The Set Strictness button () becomes active.
2. Click the Set Strictness button. The Term Strictness dialog box opens.

    

   Term Strictness dialog box

3. Select Custom. A value field opens.

   

   Value field added to dialog box

4. Specify the required Strictness value
5. Click OK. The custom Strictness value is set for the term.

See also