LERA-AE Manual

The LERA user interface is divided into two areas: A menu bar at the top of the page, which can be used to access key functionalities, and a large content area where the aligned texts are displayed. In detail:

Menu bar

The following control elements are arranged from left to right:

• de | en: This button can be used to toggle between languages (German | English). The change of language affects the language of the control elements and explanations, not the language of the texts in the content area.
• Wrench: The wrench button in the center can be used to customize the comparison algorithm and the display of the results (see section 3.1 and section 3.2). As long as this menu is active, the button is highlighted in red.
• Barcode: The button with the barcode leads to a schematic representation of the aligned text segments, the so-called CATview (see section 4.1). As long as this menu is active, the button is highlighted in red.
• Search the edition: The search slot for the full text search is positioned in the top right corner (see section 4.2). The search is performed on all texts in the currently displayed comparison view.

Content area

The content area below the menu bar shows the synopsis of several texts:

• The grey bar contains the titles of the text versions included in the comparison. The titles correspond to the use in the AE portal.
• The text is displayed in columns, each column containing one text version, which in turn is divided into numbered segments.
• Differences and similarities between versions can be highlighted using different colors (wrench button, see section 3.1 and section 3.2).

For a group of text versions, LERA automatically generates a synoptical comparison of larger segments of texts (e.g. sentences, lines, paragraphs):

• Text versions in the columns are automatically segmented.
• Corresponding text segments from the different versions are matched algorithmically by their similarity and are aligned in rows.
• The aligned segments are numbered in ascending order; the grey number is positioned centrally above a row of aligned segments.
• In case there exists no correspondence between a segment of one text version and a segment of one of the other versions, this is marked by "no correspondence available".

The schematic representation of the aligned text segments, the CATview (accessible via the barcode button), provides an overview of the allocation of segments and the degree of similarity (see section 4.1).

LERA implements an equal comparison of the text versions, i.e. each version is compared with all the others.

• Differences and similarities in the text versions are highlighted in color (see below): Text variants and their aligned segments in all versions are marked in grey. Further, the specific type of variation can be emphasized by additional coloring (see section 3.2).
• For each segment, the identified variants are numbered consecutively, and the information is added as a superscript number in the text.
• Variants are presented in a critical apparatus with variants being displayed one below the other to allow a direct comparison of lemmas. The numbers in the apparatus refer to numbers in the segments. The critical apparatus can be viewed by clicking on the arrow below a row of aligned segments and then opening the Variants section.
• In addition, local options for tailoring comparison and display filters as well as the coloring are available in this control panel under the Filter and Color Mode tab (see section 3).

LERA offers filter options that can be used to control the comparison and presentation of the aligned texts. Clicking on the wrench button in the top menu bar opens the control panel for filters and color mode. As long as the control panel is open, the button is highlighted in red. To close the control panel, click on the button. The button turns white again.

Compare filters

Compare filters can be used to exclude text variants resulting from specific differences in characters and punctuation marks from comparison. This can be useful, for example, for text variants that originate from spelling norms in place at different times (such as the variance ß - double s) and that are not meaningful. The filters support two strategies: Ignoring certain characters in the text (e.g. punctuation marks) or normalizing the characters (such as ß → ss). This allows to exclude variant passages from the presentation that may not be relevant for a given question, and to improve readability.

Compare filters can be set in the tab Compare filters by activating the respective checkboxes. If sub-options are available, this is marked by an arrow following the checkbox label. Clicking on the arrow opens the sub-menu; now, available sub-options can be activated and deactivated individually. The checkbox of a group of filters activates or deactivates all sub-options.

Compare filters are grouped into three categories: Letters, Punctuation and Diacritics.

Clicking on the buttons all and none in the header of the filter menu activates or deactivates all filter groups incl. sub-options for the activated filter (compare filter or display filter).

To make the modified settings visible in the synopsis, the text comparison has to be updated via the blue Update button at the bottom right of the Filter and Color Mode control panel. Filters can also be set locally for individual segments by clicking on the arrow below a row of aligned segments, which opens the local Filter and Color Mode control panel. Changes have to be confirmed by clicking the blue Update button.

Display filters

Display filters control the rendering of specific text elements and text phenomena, for example, text additions by the editors can be removed from the text presentation.

Display filters can be set in the tab Display filters by activating the respective checkboxes. If sub-options are available, this is marked by an arrow following of the checkbox label. Clicking on the arrow opens the sub-menu; now, available sub-options can be activated and deactivated individually. The checkbox of a group of filters activates or deactivates all sub-options.

Display filters are grouped into three categories: Editor´s text, Source text and Layout.

Clicking on the buttons all and none in the header of the filter menu activates or deactivates all filter groups incl. sub-options for the activated filter (compare filter or display filter).

To make the modified settings visible in the synopsis, the text comparison has to be updated via the blue Update button at the bottom right of the Filter and Color Mode control panel. Filters can also be set locally for individual segments by clicking on the arrow below a row of aligned segments, which opens the local Filter and Color Mode control panel. Changes have to be confirmed by clicking the blue Update button.

The variant text passages identified by LERA in the text comparison can be color coded. By default variant text passages and their parallel passages in all versions are highlighted in grey. Clicking on the Wrench button in the top menu bar opens the filter and color mode control panel. As long as the control panel is open, the button is highlighted in red. To close the control panel, click on the button. The button turns white again.

In the Filter and Color Mode control panel, the type of highlighting of the variant passages can be adjusted in the “Color Filter” area. In addition to the grey highlighting, the following options are available for color coding depending on the type of variation:
To make the modified settings visible in the synopsis, the text comparison has to be updated via the blue Update button at the bottom right of the Filter and Color Mode control panel. Filters can also be set locally for individual segments by clicking on the arrow below a row of aligned segments, which opens the local Filter and Color Mode control panel. Changes have to be confirmed by clicking the blue Update button.

Clicking on the Barcode button in the top menu bar opens the CATview visualization and navigation bar. As long as the CATview is open, the button is highlighted in red. To close the control panel, click on the button. The button turns white again.

The CATview provides a schematic representation of the aligned text segments: Each text version is represented as a row of rectangles. Each rectangle stands for one segment of the corresponding version. The rectangles are placed according to their alignments, aligned text segments are represented by rectangles that are arranged in columns. Missing correspondences are indicated by blank spaces in the column. The degree of variance between segments is indicated by their coloring:

• Identical text segments are represented by grey rectangles.
• Deviation between segments is visualized by different shades of blue: The stronger the blue of the rectangles, the greater the differences between aligned text segments.
• The orange bar indicates the current scroll position in the text synopsis.
• Segments that contain a search match are highlighted in yellow (see section 4.2).

Clicking on a rectangle in the CATview brings the corresponding segment of the synoptical text presentation into view. The CATview can be zoomed in and out. The section displayed in zoomed mode can be moved using drag-and-drop.

A full text search in the texts presented in the comparison view can be carried out via the search slot on the right in the top menu bar. Enter a search term into the search field and confirm with ENTER. Currently only single terms can be searched. The asterisk (*) can be used as a placeholder (wildcard) at any position in the word. When performing the search, it will be replaced by any sequence of characters, with the restriction that the remaining sequence comprises at least three characters. Consider the following examples:

• philosophy*, philosopher*, *sophie, philo*e are possible.
• i*ph* is not possible, because there are less than three characters on either side of the wildcard.

Characters are automatically normalized during search (e.g. for upper/lower case, diacritical characters, conversion from Unicode to a compatible mode, cf. https://unicode.org/reports/tr15/#Canon_Compat_Equivalence).

To the right of the search slot, either the number of matches for the search term is displayed (e.g. 1/125), or the string “no match” in case there is no result. The segment with the first match is automatically brought into view in the content area; the search term is highlighted in yellow. The second number (here: 125) indicates the total number of matches, the first number indicates the match currently displayed in the text synopsis (here: 1). Arrows on the right can be used to navigate to the previous or next search result. The segments that contain a match are also indicated yellow within the CATview visualization (see section 4.1).

To conduct a new search, delete the entry in the search slot and enter a new term.