SIL FieldWorks Language Explorer

Last corporate release: version 2.0, released December 2007.

What Was New

Here is the list of features added to each release of FieldWorks Language Explorer.

Speed improvements in Dictionary view, Interlinear text, Show in Lexicon jump.
Import/Export lexical data in LIFT format
Discourse charting
More access to 'Find in dictionary' in Data Notebook
Concord on specific morphemes, lexemes, analyses, etc. available in Lexicon Edit and other views.
Choose the writing system(s) for each field in Lexicon Edit.
Bulk Edit Wordforms

Concord on morphemes, glosses, etc.
Concordance results filters and sorts. " Genre and other text metadata.
Filter texts.
Root-based or stem-based dictionary view layout options.
Interlinearize text from Translation Editor (see caution below under known issues).
Corpus look-up tool in the lexicon, for finding candidate example sentences.
Special filtering options for dates, numbers, and list reference fields.
Additional export options.
Most of the Language Explorer user interface can now be localized into other languages. (French is available if the French Language Pack was selected during the installation of FieldWorks.)
Configurable columns in the Find dialog box.
Better support for languages relying on a Graphite font, and which are right-to-left.
Try a Word now has a parse-only option in addition to the trace option.
Enhanced Custom Fields dialog box.
Enhanced Encoding Converters dialog box, now with access to Python and Perl scripts.
Enhanced Configure Dictionary dialog box and range of options.

Support for interlinearizing phrases.
New "example sentence finder" function in the lexicon, using the text corpus.
Improved performance of the 'Find lexical entry' dialog.
Stem Names, to control stem allomorphy that is dependant on the presence of certain inflection features.
New filter options in the Lexicon for list reference fields.
Correct sorting of Number fields and Date fields. Appropriate filter options.
Find and Replace in the Baseline of Texts Edit.
Etymology and Picture fields now available in browse views.
Complex Forms and Variant fields in Lexicon Edit, which list linked complex form and variant entries.
Improved support for languages relying on a Graphite font, and which are right-to-left.
Windows Vista compatibility
A new draft document on recommended lexicography practices using Language Explorer (by Ron Moe)
Various bug fixes and minor improvements.

New export format for root based dictionaries. This MDF standard export format will list subentries under the main entry rather than as separate entries with links to the main entry.
Bug fixes:
Program error when undoing very large Bulk Edit operations
Problem with exporting interlinearized text: capitalized words are no longer dropped from the baseline text in the exported file.
Problem with printing the dictionary view: the time to print a draft of a dictionary was reduced from hours to minutes.
Problem with systems set to GMT time zone: file operations now work properly for systems set to any time zone including GMT.
Diacritics and tone marks can now be configured as wordforming characters.
Problem with sort and filter information being applied to the wrong lists has been fixed.
The fundamental morph type for an entry can now be changed from any morph type to any other morph type in bulk edit.

Export interlinear text (to XML, XLingPap, HTML, Microsoft Word, and Open Office).
Configure dictionary view.
Export configured dictionary (to Standard Format or XML).
Bulk Edit enhancements (more bulk editable columns, and an indication of which columns can undergo bulk edit operations).
Import LinguaLinks data.
Jump links (right-click in Edit views).
Reversal Index changes to support multiple writing systems per analysis language index).
Bulk Edit Reversals.
Drag and drop to reorganize lists (for example, imported grammatical categories).
Tone and CV Pattern fields in the pronunciation group of fields.
Audio file link in the pronunciation group of fields.
Classified Dictionary view, which displays any senses that have been classified by semantic domains. (Essentially this only supports printouts in this version.)
Import of Standard Format data has been made more flexible as regards field order. Various improvements to import.
Support for longer texts.
Multiple column sorting (Shift+click to add secondary and tertiary sorts)
Context-sensitive Help for dialog boxes and fields in edit view.
Redesigned Words Analyses view allows creation of new analyses, editing of analyses, and analysis usage control.
Regular expression drop-down menu on the Filter dialog box.
New icons.
Parser now runs in the background without impacting performance.

Bulk Edit Entries and Bulk Edit Senses views (Lexicon area).
Reversal Indexes view (Lexicon area).
Inflection features and exception features (Lexicon and Grammar areas).
Pronunciation fields (Lexicon area).
Etymology fields (Lexicon area).
Pictures (Lexicon area).
Additional fields available in browse views. Enhanced configuration options (Lexicon area).
Additional lexical fields supported in Standard Format import.
Customizable interlinear view (Texts area).
Regular expressions supported in filters.
Insert Special Character.
Turn off all filters button on the toolbar.
Better handling of incorporation category in compound rules (use of overriding category - Grammar area).
Improved performance.