Report:PatBase/Search History Interface/Preferences

Setting Preferences

In PatBase, user preferences can be set from the "Settings" tab on the main menu. From here, users choose from four links (equivalent access options through the floating toolbar menu are given in parentheses):

• Display & Search Options – the main user preference page. (Menu >> Display/search options)
• Define Custom Display Format – where the custom display format preferences are set. For more information, see Display Formats. (Menu >> Custom display formats)
• Change Password (Menu >> Change password)
• User Group Management - used to define pre-determined user groups in PatBase. See Saving Results for more information. (Menu >> Group management)

In the Display & Search Options menu, several options are available that can greatly impact search behaviors.

The Display & Search Options menu

Display Options

• Default keyword search - This menu defines the text sections that are automatically searched if text is entered into the command line without a field qualifier. Since most users will run keyword searches fairly often, this option is intended to take away the necessity of typing “FT=” before each full text search, if full text is the default. However, when wishing to search text fields other than the default, users must remember to place parenthesis around their queries to make sure they are interpreted correctly: TAC=beans and peas will conduct a search for “beans” in the title, abstract, or claims, but “peas” in the full text, while TAC=(beans and peas) will search for both terms in the title, abstract, and claims.
• Default number of records to display – This menu sets the number of records shown on a single page in the hit list. The minimum is 10, and maximum is 50.
• Default record display format – For a complete list of the available display formats, see Display Formats. A link to define a custom display format is also available from this window.
• Default Sorting Order – This menu defines the order that records are shown in the hit list. Records can be sorted by publication date, priority date, assignee, inventor, patent number, family number, most cited, and relevance.
• PDF export page size - A4 or Letter.
• Search History Display Order – Options are ascending vs. descending.
• Disable Floating Toolbar – This option does not allow the floating toolbar to “float” down the page along with the browser window, keeping it firmly fixed at the top of the hit list.
• Use Larger Fonts – This option will show the displayed records in a larger font.
• Disable auto stemming of words when highlighting – This option disables automatic stemming in the Highlighting features. Because the highlighting features already support stemming operators, stemming can be applied only to words that need it; disabling automatic stemming can make highlighting more useful, by allowing it to be more targeted and focused.
• Enable keyboard shortcuts for navigation of results – This option allows for keyboard shortcuts in the View and Browse sections to make for easy navigation. When enabled, "the family bar of the active record will be highlighted in yellow when viewing results within 'View' mode," and "In 'Browse' mode, the publication number of the active record is also highlighted in yellow within the list on the left hand side of the screen."^[1] For more information, see the section on Keyboard Shortcuts .
• Allow multiple popups – This option allows for a pop-up for each type of link selected (e.g., full-text, mosaics, etc). Each will have their own separate pop-up window.
• Show non-Latin assignees and inventors - As a result of the Minesoft's efforts to load non-Latin text records into PatBase, there are now a number of assignee names and inventor names in the system that appear in their original languages. Checking this box will enable the display of this additional information. An example is shown in the screenshot below.
• View simple families - In 2009, PatBase introduced an option that would subdivide the large INPADOC families into smaller simple patent families within the family viewing window present in many PatBase record viewing formats. For more information on this feature, see the Family Search Features section of this article.
• Use long field names in "Other Formats" exports - As of 2011, users now have the option to include full field names in "other formats" exports (i.e. Title instead of TI).^[1]

The assignee and inventor fields of a PatBase record displaying non-Latin text information.

Search Options

• Enable Japanese Classification – When this option is checked, three additional fields appear on the search form. These fields related to Japanese classification searching. See Structured Search for more information.
• Enable German Classification – When this option is checked, one can search the German classifications in the search form. See Structured Search for more information.
• Expand Command Line – When selected, this option keeps the command line larger throughout searching – so that it takes up more space in the browser window.
• Use Symbols +-, as Boolean operators – When enabled, this option means that the symbols + - and “,” act as the Boolean operators AND, NOT, and OR respectively.
• Enable autosuggest – Enable or disable autosuggest by selecting or deselecting the checkbox. An option to Delete autosuggest data is also situated beside this checkbox, so the user can delete autosuggest data from previous searches.^[1]

Usage Information

From the floating toolbar, the user can also access the option Menu >> View My Usage. The user can select a month for which they want to view usage information (number of logins, number of searches, number of records displayed, number of PDFs ordered, total cost in US dollars). The information about the length and activities taken place during the current session is also displayed in a side menu, to the right of the main "My usage" window. PatBase is not a pay-per-use service; this information is provided to help users bill third parties for the work that they performed on the customer’s behalf. For more information on this feature, see Other Features.

The "My usage" window.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} "PatBase Manual." PatBase website (restricted), http://www.patbase.com/Manual.pdf . Accessed December 13, 2011.