Toward the back of the desk (i.e., the top of the screen), you will find a row of 10 small nooks. Beginning from the right, they contain:
- The Menu-Icon: This shows or hides the top menu bar,
which enables you to access the various tools described below through
pull-down menus instead of images.
- The Quillpot: This allows you to make annotations as you research with Windows Write.
- Tape Recorder and Microphone: While this is not yet equipped to run on these machines, this will ultimately allow you to hear readings in Middle English and make recordings yourself.
- The Help Book: This opens with comments regarding your current context; click SEARCH at the top to find specific information. Like the Broken Pot below, the help menu keeps track of the topics you've covered. Thus, to return to a screen you've just left, use the BACK button; likewise, to review the list of all the searches made in this session, click on HISTORY.
- The Comments Notepad: Unlike the Quillpot, this will not allow you to record comments independently of an actual text. Once you have opened a text, however, clicking on this will open the ADD COMMENTS box, which will allow you to make notes and save them alongside whatever volume (e.g., the General Prologue of the Canterbury Tales) you happen to be in.
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N.B. It will not associate a comment with a particular
line, however; only with the volume as a whole. Once you have saved
it, a yellow box with an exclamation point will appear in the
Comments cubbyhole whenever you return
to that particular volume, reminding you that you have notations
saved. Simply click on it to review, append to, or delete these
notes.
- Bookmark: Allows you to mark positions in texts and return instantaneously to them later.
Magnifying Glass: While this is intended primarily to enlarge or reduce the size of the text, it will actually do much more. FONTS, FONT STYLES (bold, italic, etc.), EFFECTS (strikeout, underline), and COLORS may all be adjusted to make the text more legible.
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N.B. You cannot use this, unfortunately, to mark up
individual parts of the text.
- The Broken Pot: Displays history list of previously viewed topics. You may jump directly back to a topic by double-clicking on that part of the list.
Compass: Searching. You may limit your search to a particular kind of text (originals, translations, images, etc.), to the current text/topic, or to a previous search. You may search for a phrase, individual word(s), or-strangely enough-line numbers. [To go directly to a line in any text, simply use the GO TO LINE button in the right bottom corner of that text.] Be sure to click on the appropriate bullet on the left to move between options.
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Booleans and Wildcards: Chaucer does provide limited
boolean search options. Searching by WORD, you may enter two words and
attempt to find places where they occur together [And] or apart [Or].
However, this is of limited help, in that it will only return instances
of such words appearing in books, not in sentences. Searching for
"book" and "end," for example, will return 21 instances of these words
in a single volume-the translation of the General Prologue-where
they both happen to occur. Moreover, it should be noted that you are
searching within words as well: this search will return wend,
fender, friends, engender, and so forth.
This can be useful, but may also provide a good deal of extraneous
material, and there is no good way to get around it. Finally, wildcards
are not supported. Searching for "kn" may find you knight,
but searching for "kn*t?" will not return knights. [Not that
this is entirely certain: "kn," bizarrely enough, will return only
pictures. Be prepared to occasionally be confused by your results.]
- The Quillpot: This allows you to make annotations as you research with Windows Write.
To put this or any other object from the top cubbyholes away, click on MAIN MENU on the stone slab at the bottom of the screen.
Return to Table of ContentsUnderneath the cubbyholes, you will find further objects arranged on the desktop. From the top, going clockwise, we see:
- The Riverside Chaucer: The complete works in Middle
English, with substantial glossary links to aid in translation.
- Overview: Literary overviews of Chaucer's style, his world, and his major works, with hypertext links notes and images.
- Translations: of his major works.
- Life and Times: Full Chaucerian biography.
- The Hourglass: Contiguous timelines showing Chaucer's LIFE in the context of POLITICS AND HISTORY, as well as the ART, CULTURE, AND EDUCATION of his day.
- Overview: Literary overviews of Chaucer's style, his world, and his major works, with hypertext links notes and images.
To close any of these additional screens, double-click on the grey box in the upper left of that particular window. To return to the original set of options on the desktop, click MAIN MENU in the stone slab at the bottom.
Return to Table of Contents- The Text Environment
Once you have used the Riverside Chaucer or the book of Translations to open a text, you will see four buttons underneath the row of cubbyholes.
ILLUSTRATION displays the image(s) associated with the current topic. Clicking on this will take you to a particular entry in the image archive, which is arranged alphabetically by title. You may continue browsing through the list by using the PREV[ious] or NEXT buttons, or clicking on MAPS AND PICTURES to select from the list as a whole. The images will be presented without commentary, unless you select the CAPTION & COPYRIGHT box.
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N.B. While there may seem to be duplicate images in the archive, if you
look closely, you'll find they are similar illustrations from different
manuscripts.
Third, there is COPY. This will allow you to cut and paste text to the clipboard--in a fashion. You may take excerpts from Middle English or translations, but only in screen-sized blocks: no highlighting bits of text, unfortunately. When you're viewing ADDITIONAL TEXTS (Overviews, Life and Times, etc.), the same conditions are in effect. Here, however, instead of a button, you'll need to choose COPY from the TEXT menu at the top left of the screen.
Last, there is PRINT, which works in a similar fashion, only letting you print what you can see on the screen at any given time.
In addition to the cubbyholes and these buttons, you will usually see a row of icons at the bottom. These will allow you to access many of the features you would normally reach for on the desktop. The Hourglass (timeline), Overview binder, and book of Life and Times all function in exactly the same way. There are a couple additional features, however. The Milestones on either side of the screen- CANTERBURY and LONDON-will take you to the next or previous works, respectively. Clicking on CANTERBURY/NEXT from the General Prologue, for example, will take you to the opening of the Knight's Tale. The Parchment and book of Translations allow you to toggle between viewing a text in Middle English, modern English, or both side-by-side. Finally, in the center, there is the Drawer of Additional Resources, otherwise called The Reference Drawer.
Return to Table of Contents
When you initially "sit down" at the desk, there are cabinets and a drawer in the very front which hide additional tools not displayed on the desktop. Clicking on the drawer, these will all appear. On the left, you'll see two binders full of bibliographic information [Further Reading] and Critical Essays. To the right, you'll see the full Glossary used by the explanatory links in the pages of Middle English; in it, words are arranged not alphabetically, but by order of appearance in the various texts. Finally, there are four extra items in the drawer itself. The Photo Album will take you to the image archive. The Spectacles will take you to an essay explaining "How to read a Medieval Manuscript." The Scroll on the right--well worth looking at--will open a map showing the major routes of pilgrimage to Canterbury. If you are interested in an overview of PILGRIMS AND PILGRIMAGES, or in any of the towns along the way, simply click on that particular section of the map. Finally, we have the Rolodex. Offering predefined collections of texts and images pertaining to various topics, the Rolodex allows you to trace a major theme throughout Chaucer's works. What is more, it allows you to create your own. Besides being a tool for personal study, this provides an excellent resource for presentations. By clicking on the red dot on the upper left, you may record a series of selections from the program. You may arrange pages of text, insert comments, have a slide show of images--anything you might do in the program itself. You may then SAVE your presentation and edit it at your leisure. When you are ready for it to be viewed, simply hit PLAY. Moreover, if you need to leave, you may choose for it to CYCLE CONTINUOUSLY.