Orbis Orbis is part of Scholar’s Workstation and Lingua Workstation

Orbis is a free-form text-retrieval system that converts your computer from a glorified typewriter into an indispensable tool for organizing your correspondence, research notes, lectures, field notes, lists, or articles and books you write. It does so by making everything you’ve ever written, along with data imported from outside sources, instantly accessible as you work, without requiring you to define keywords or remember filenames. Simply indicate the directories and/or documents you want to search, and Orbis will manage everything for you automatically, keeping track of files as they are edited, added, or deleted. Then, while you're writing, Orbis can instantly show you every passage (from up to eight million different files!) that contains the given word or combination of words, in a simple and elegant table view (with keywords highlighted like a “keyword in context” concordance), with the full text shown in another window. You can then insert any passages into your open document with a single keystroke. (Or select a fragment, and paste it in.) And—most amazing of all—if the text retrieved is a note linked to an Ibidem bibliographic record, Orbis can automatically insert the correct citation into your document. You will never need to worry about inadvertent plagarism again! By finding long-forgotten passages or displaying new relationships between disparate texts, and keeping track of sources, Orbis saves you from the rote, mechanical part of your job, all the while serving to jog your memory and excite your imagination.

Is it as good as it sounds?

• instant access from within the word processor (make files searchable in Orbis as you create them) • easy-to-use interface for creating textbases (with option to automatically include any file you create or edit) • incorporate as many as eight million files (8192 files in 1024 folders), or over a trillion characters, into a textbase • no need to specify keywords in individual files—every word in your file is automatically a keyword (unless you override this) • add optional coded keywords for more focused retrieval • single-key hypertext lookup of current word (in up to eight million files) while writing (or even while viewing matches from another Orbis search) • search using boolean operators (“and,” “or”, “exclusive or,” and “not”) and wildcards • expand search using user-defined synonym list • see structure of search (how many matches for each term, expansion into wildcards, number of times each word appears in textbase, and more) • view matches in table view (in “keyword in context” style concordance view) • full text of match displayed in another window • expand search results to display as much of the context as you desire • view and sort files that contain matches by date, number of matching entries, density of matches, or filename • multiple options for viewing search results (show just paragraphs, or include filename and/or folder) • retains history of searches, so you can pick up threads where you left off • insert matches (with or without context) into open documents with a single keystroke or simple mouseclick • or select fragment of matching entry, and paste that in • if match contains bibliographic citation, Orbis automatically copies that as well • if match lacks bibliographic citation, but is from note-taking file linked to an Ibidem bibliographic record, Orbis alerts you to link • generate vocabulary lists, as well as frequency of occurrence • display and print by keyword or frequency of occurrence • define textbase entries by paragraphs, sentences, pages, and more • program automatically updates textbases with new or changed files Click on a thumbnail below to see a full screen shot.

When creating a textbase, simply select the files you would like Orbis to incorporate. You can select files individually, or you can include every file in one or more specified directories. Create one large textbase of all your files, or organize your work with different textbases for different purposes -- business correspondence, notes you've taken, documents from colleagues, text files downloaded from the Internet, etc.	While you are writing, access Orbis with a click of a button or keystroke in the word processor. Do hypertext searches of the current word, or perform boolean searches (using "and," "or," "not," and "exclusive or" operators) to find the information you need. Orbis even plots the number of matches found as you type!	In viewing the matches to your search, you can scroll through a short list of results, choose specific entries to view, or do both simultaneously. Then, paste any text displayed into your document with a click of your mouse or a simple keystroke.

For more information, click on the following links: Nota Bene — word processor Ibidem — bibliographic database and formatter Orbis — text-retrieval and information-processer IbidPlus — customizable database manager Lingua — multilingual module