The Spreadsheet Viewer

The spreadsheet viewer allows you to edit slot values in the current KB within the context of a spreadsheet. The columns are the slot names. The rows are the frame names. The cells in the sheet are filled with the corresponding slot values from the current KB.

There are three steps to launching the Spreadsheet viewer. The spreadsheet viewer is lauched by selecting frames you want to examine from the Taxonomy Viewer. When you choose the "Spreadsheet Viewr" command from under the Applications Menu, you are then presented with a dialog that allows you to select which slots to display in the spreadsheet and the order. Frames can be listed in the spreadsheet in class order or alphabetically. They can also be displayed as pretty names or frame names. The frames, selected slots and corresponding slot values are then ported into the spreadsheet. The Spreadsheet Viewer does not have the full editing capabilities that you would expect. Being that this is the first release of the Spreadsheet Viewer, there are a number of limitations that you should be aware of.

Instances in the Spreadsheet Viewer
Only instances are displayed in the Spreadsheet Viewer. When you select a class frame from the taxonomy viewer, its instances are displayed in the spreadsheet. Selected instance frames are themselves displayed.
Multiple-valued slots
The Spreadsheet viewer also does not address mulitple values. In the case of multi-valued slots, one arbitrary value is chosen from the list of values that exist for a given mulitple-valued frame/slot cell in the spreadsheet. This is an issue which we expect will be better adressed in the future.
Facets and Annotations
The Spreadsheet Viewer also does not deal with facets and annontations.
Frames and Slots
The Spreadsheet Viewer allows you to add frames to the KB. But you should take note that the same is not true with slots. When the data in the spreadsheet is ported back to GKB Editor, any extra slots in the spreadsheet will be ignored. Any frames that have not been added to the spreadsheet explicitly with the menu command will also be ignored. Unpon exiting the Spreadsheet Viewer, you will be notified of which framed have been added to the KB, which frames have been modified, and which slots have been ignored.

NExS Spreadsheet

NExS spreadsheet is the product used to feature the spreadsheet viewer. You will have to have this software to use the spreadsheet viewer. For now, all the original NExS Spreadsheet commands are available to the user, but we are working to remove those NExS commands that are not relevant in the context of the GKB Editor. The NExS spreadhseet commands allow you to edit the cells in the spreadsheet, searches, sorts, graphing, formatting...

GKB Menu

The GKB Menu within NExS is also available to you by the NExS spreadsheet. The existence of this menu is for the specific purpose of the Spreadsheet Viewer. The commands under this menu provide the interaction between NExS and the GKB Editor.

Add Frame(s)
Adds new frames to the current KB. You are presented with a dialog that asks for the name of the frame that you want to add to the spreadsheet. When you've typed in the name of the frame, you receive feedback as to whether it was accepted by the KB. If so, the name appears below in a list of frames that you have added to the KB thus far, if not, a message appears letting you know what the problem is. There are two buttons to the right of the list of frames, Delete and Edit. When you selecta frame from the list, the buttons are activated. Pressing Delete will remove the frame from the list of frames that will be added to the KB. Choosing Edit will remove the name from the list and make it reappear in the box above for editing. WHen you are done, the edited frame name apperars in the list.
The frames that comprise the list when the dislog is exited are sent to the spreadsheet. These frames are assumed to be added to the current KB. The displays in GKB Editor are updated to reflected the changes when the spreadsheet view is exited.
Save to KB
Saves changes in the spreadsheet to the current KB without exiting NExS. The windows open in the GKB editor are updated to reflect those changes.
Revert Sheet
Executing this command reloads the old information from the KB into the spreadsheet. This does not mean that the spreadsheet is reverted to the way it was when the viewer was invoked. Whatever changes were saved to the KB since invoking the Spreadsheet Viewer are reflected when the spreadsheet is reverted.
Reorder Slots
Reorders the columns in the Spreadsheet Viewer by slot. You are presented with the list of slots that are presently displayed in the spreadsheet viewer. Reorder the list by dragging the slot names up and down. The first slot name corresponds to the left most slot name in the spreadsheet. When you are finidhed reordering the list and press "OK", the columns in the spreadsheet are moved around to reflect the new order of the slots.
Close View
Exits the Spreadsheet Viewer without saving changes to the KB. An additional dialog appears to confirm exiting the viewer. From the Spreadsheet Viewer, you are returned to the GKB Editor.
Close & Save
Upon exiting the spreadsheet viewer, the data from the spreadsheet is saved to the current KB, reflecting the changes in the open displays. You are also informed of the frames that were added to the KB, frames that were ignored if any, slots that were ignored if any, and frames that were modified while in the Spreadsheet Viewer.