Report:Delphion/Viewing Results/Saving Results

Flagging and Saving Results

Documents can be saved in Delphion at any point during the review process. To save documents for later review, users have the option to designate a saved results folder, called a work file. Up to 20,000 documents may be saved into a single workfile.

Work files can be defined before a search begins, or created on the spur of the moment via a menu option on the hit list or integrated (full text) record-view interfaces. A pre-defined list of documents can even be imported into the work file by pasting them into a special browser window or loading a file via the browse function (see Import Features for more information). Document import can occur at any time during the work file’s lifespan, even if it already contains documents from a Delphion search.

The “create work file” option is available from the hit list. Users can choose to append only selected documents, or add the entire hit list, to a new or saved work file.

Records can be added in to a work file at almost any time during the review process via a checkbox/add command system. When browsing or reviewing a current results set, users can add a record of interest into a pre-saved or new work file directly from the integrated view – there is no need to return to the hit list. Alternatively, the checkboxes that appear next to each document in a hit list can be used to selectively move references into a work file of choice.

When moving a single document or several selected documents into a work file from the integrated view or hit list view, the process opens a small pop-up window, which offers the user the ability to annotate the work file. This is merely an opportunity to add a descriptive statement that will be applied to the overall file.

Saved results sets within a work file, once loaded, behave exactly as references in a hit list would and appear under the “Current Results” tab in the normal user interface. Document ordering services and analysis tools can be applied to these results sets via the other tabs, just as they normally would be applied when working with an unsaved set of query results, and display options can also be changed. See the next section, Analyzing Results, for a description of system analysis functions.

Work files are managed from the Work File administration screen, which presents a number of additional options to allow the manipulation of data across saved files.

Files can be merged and compared against one another to create new files. This is done by selecting desired files and applying the requisite operators “AND,” (saves only records common to all selected work file for the creation of a new work file) “OR,” (combines files and eliminates duplicates) or “AND NOT” (saves all records from file 1 that do not also occur in file 2). Users can only combine files using “AND” or “OR,” but once selected users have a choice to also add the “AND NOT” operator onto their combined query. For example, suppose a user had finished reviewing all references from work file 1, called “pistons,” but had just created a second, larger work file for review, called “engines.” The user suspects that some of his piston-related references also occur in the engine results, but does not want to waste time by reviewing them again. The user could rely on the work file management page to perform the comparison “engines” AND NOT “pistons,” creating a third work file containing only the unique references from the “engines” file, minus any that were already contained in “pistons.” Those readers already familiar with complex search strategy will comprehend that these combination features perform the same actions as combining queries from a search history. Work files can also be hidden from view, deleted or cloned from this page.

No searching is available in a Delphion work file to further refine the data set. While the Current Results tab for an active hit list will show a small search bar that allows users to refine and re-run a search query, work files show no functionality from the Current Results tab. No searching can be performed within a work file; only the merge functions described above can further limit work file results.

New document numbers can be imported into a work file at any time; this must also be done via the work file interface. If the documents are in Delphion’s collections, they will be successfully uploaded and users can view Delphion records for those documents. For more information, see the Import Features section of this article.

Work files must be designated as private (to be viewed only on the users’ account) or shared, to be viewed by anyone, regardless if they have a Delphion account or not. These additional viewers may be hand-selected by the user, and the system can even send them an e-mail notifying them that the results set is open for viewing; alternatively, the file may be simply opened to every user within the company account. As a third option, users can even set up a URL account for outside parties without a Delphion ID to view the records within a saved work file. These features promote collaboration, even among interested parties from different entities.

Editor's Note:

The lack of ability to perform a search within a work file has been the subject of some frustration to users. Delphion is not alone in this: MicroPatent and PatBase do not allow searching to take place within a saved results file. MicroPatent only offers the same merge functions as Delphion allows, while PatBase will re-load the document numbers in a saved results file back into an active search query, effectively allowing users to search within it. QPAT allows searching within a saved results file, but using this capability requires the extra purchase of QPAT’s Patent Examiner application.

Annotating Work Files

Work files can be annotated by user-added text comments, or by user-defined files uploaded to the system. Uploading files as annotations may be useful for users who wish to share the work file with others in their company and would like to upload a description of the project goal or any other data which would help users understand the results in context. It could also be useful if the user plans to access the saved results from a remote location, and needs to use other files as a reference to aid continuing analysis.

Uploading a document as an annotation to a Delphion work file is done via the “annotate” screen for that work file.

When users add comments or upload files as annotation, these are stored by Delphion and associated only to the specific work file. These comments/files may be designated as public or private annotations (in other words, it is possible for users upload private documents or write private comments which cannot be seen by others viewing a shared file).

Individual record annotations (comments or uploaded files associated with an individual record rather than the entire results set) can also be made in Delphion, but only for records that are already saved in a work file. Users may choose to use this feature if they have comments or documents related to the analysis of only a particular record within a results file. Placing an annotation on an individual record within a work file can only be performed from the integrated record view (full text viewing window) for that record. Clicking the “annotate” link from the integrated view window will open the annotation screen, which allows the user to add a comment, or upload a file associated with that particular document.

Annotating an individual record in Delphion is performed when viewing that record within the work file.