Getting Started
Voyant Tools is a web-based text reading and analysis environment. It's designed to make it easy for you to work with your own text or collection of texts in a variety of formats, including plain text, HTML, XML, PDF, RTF, and MS Word.
Selecting a Corpus
There are three main ways of selecting a corpus in Voyant Tools:
- type or paste into the main text area, either normal text or a set URLs, one per line; then hit the "Reveal" button
- open an existing corpus (such as Austen or Shakespeare
- upload one or more files from your computer
The upload file selector should allow you to choose one or more files using Ctrl and Shift keys. If you have several documents to add at once, it may be easiest to first create a zip archive containing the files and then upload the one zip file.
For more information on selecting a corpus, including advanced options, see loadingcorpus
Working in the Default Skin
Once you select a corpus you will be presented with the default skin (the default configuration of tools) that includes the following tools:
The various tools in the interface are designed to interact with one another. For instance, if you click on a word in Cirrus, you’ll see the Trends tool update with information about the selected work. Similarly, if you click on a node in the Trends tool the Contexts tool should update as well. Interactivity and navigation between the different scales of a corpus (from the macroscopic Cirrus overview to the microscopic individual word occurrences) are a key part of the design of Voyant Tools.
Additional Tools
Additional tools are readily accessible by clicking the tabs in each tool pane. For instance, beside the Cirrus header label is the Corpus Terms label, clicking on the tab will switch the tool. Tools readily available through the tabs are Corpus Terms, Links, Collocates, Documents, Phrases, and Bubblelines.
Beyond the tools visible in the tabs, it's possible to access most of the other tools available by clicking on the window icon that appears when the mouse is in the header of a tool (grey) or of the skin (blue). The menu that appears shows recommended tools for that location above the line and a hierarchy of other tools below the line.
For more information about the available tools, consult the List of Tools
Bookmarking Your Corpus
One of the most interesting features of Voyant Tools is the ability to bookmark and share URLs that refer to your collection of texts. Among other advantages, this allows you to work with the same texts during different sessions, without having to reload all the documents each time. You can export a link for your corpus and the current set of tools clicking on the “Export” (diskette) icon in the blue bar at the top, or export a link for an individual tool by clicking on the “Export” icon in one of the tool panes.
Generally speaking, a corpus will remain accessible as long as it accessed at least once a month.
