- Ethno's Opening Display
- Creating Events
- Searching the Sequence
- Editing the Sequence
Popup menus for moving around in the program appear in the darkened
area at
the top of the display.
- The leftmost menu is the Help menu.
- The middle Operations popup menu invokes
different program functions. Selecting Define sequence takes
you to the opening display of the program, being described here. Link
events takes you to a page where you specify event prerequisites. Chart
shows you a picture of the linked events, and allows you to develop a
process model and abstracted events. Import-Export
allows you to save and recall your analyses.
- The rightmost popup menu, Events, allows you to
examine events that you have defined. The events are listed in
alphabetic order. While examining an event, you are able to define and
examine entities, people, and actions.
Narrative Box
The box in the lower-right part of the opening display is where you
put the
text of a
narrative you are analyzing.
Sequence
The box on the left lists the sequence of events that you have
defined. The buttons
and popup menu at the bottom are for searching and for editing the
sequence.
If you define generalized events during your work with Ethno,
the generalized events will be added automatically to the sequence,
immediately following each instantiation.
Short Name Field
The field labeled Next event is where you type a short name
for an
event. Press Enter when you have the short name as you want it.
For an alternative way to enter events, see the help message on
importing-exporting.
Optional. Including Narrative Text
In your word processor, display the narrative text
describing the
episode.
Select all of the narrative text, and
copy the text to the clipboard.
In Ethno, click inside the Narrative box, and clear
whatever was there.
Paste the narrative text from the clipboard into the Narrative
box.
Now you can scroll through the narrative, using it as a reference
while you
define events. The narrative will be saved with the study when you
export your work to a file.
Event Name
- Optional. As you begin naming the next event, drag the
mouse over the relevant text in the Narrative box in order to
select it. Selected narrative text will be saved with the event for
later reference. The selection must be made just prior to the next
steps.
- Compose a short name for the next event in the abbreviated-name
field.
Names should be short, so that they fit on the event
structure chart. This is especially important with narratives involving
50 or more distinct events because charts of big structures get quite
crowded. Short names that work well as reminders of the full event
usually include a verb. Individuals often can be abbreviated to a
single letter. For example, the short name P welcomes Q
probably will remind you of the full event.
- Press Enter on the
keyboard. The short name of the event will
appear at the end of the sequence list. It also will be added to the Events
popup menu, allowing you to visit a display for that event.
At any time you may visit the event's display in order
to add a longer description for the event. The long description appears
at the bottom of Ethno's opening display when you click on the
event's short name in the sequence list, and if available the long
description is the text presented when linking events. Visiting the
event's display also allows you to edit any text that you entered
previously.
Repeating an event:
Select the event in the popup menu below the sequence list. Another
instance of
the event will appear at the end of the sequence. The pair of radio
buttons below the popup menu must be set to Repeat for
this to work.
When Find is selected in the pair of radio buttons
below the
popup menu, the popup menu allows you to find all instances of an event
in the
event sequence.
Selecting an event in the popup menu causes all instances of that
event in
the sequence to be highlighted in the event sequence box.. You may have
to
scroll through the sequence to see all instances.
New events may be added at any time by entering another short name,
as
described in the section on Creating Events. The new event will be
placed at the
end of the sequence, but may be repositioned as described next.
Moving an event:
First click on the event that you want to move in order to select
it. Second,
click the Move button. The button will turn red to
signal that the
selected event will be moved. Third, click the event that should follow
the
selected event after it is moved. The selected event will be taken from
its old
position and inserted just ahead of the event where you release.
Keep in mind that an event that instantiates a generalized event
should
immediately precede the generalized event.
Cutting an event:
- When Repeat is selected in the pair of radio
buttons next to the popup menu:
- Click on an event in the sequence list to select it. Then click
on the Cut button. The selected instance will be removed
from the sequence.
-
- If that is the last instance of the event in the list, then a
Confirm dialog will appear asking if you truly want to
remove the event from your study. You may cancel the deletion.
-
- If you confirm that you want the event deleted, the
event will be purged from the analysis. Consequences of the purged
event will be transferred to events that are prerequisites of the
purged event.
- When Find is selected in the pair of radio buttons
below the popup menu:
- Select an event in the popup menu in order to select all
instances of that event in the event sequence. Click on the Cut
button. All but the first instance of the event will be deleted from
the event sequence.
-
- A Confirm dialog will appear to ascertain whether you
want the remaining instance deleted from the sequence and the event
deleted from your study.
URL:
www.indiana.edu/~socpsy/ESA/Sequence.html