# Working with QWICK

This document will give you a brief introduction to working with QWICK. It will briefly describe the main components of its user interface and will then explain several important concepts that you need to know in order to work effectively with QWICK.

## How to work with QWICK

QWICK's user interface is made up of a panel with three tabs. These tabs are, in order, Corpus, Concordance, and Collocation. This is the natural sequence of steps when working with QWICK: first you select the corpus data you want to work with, then you query the corpus material in order to get a set of concordance lines, and finally you can perform statistical calculations on this set to get a table of collocations.

Before we look in detail at each tab, there are some generic functions which are available on every tab.

### The Toolbar

The other important component of the user interface is visible in the top right hand corner: the toolbar. This toolbar always stays visible and will not change. It provides a standard set of functions for each tab. If a function is not available for a given pane, the respective button on the toolbar will be greyed out.

LOAD

  The load button enables you to retrieve data previously saved in machine- readable format, so that you may continue working with it. You will be presented with a list of available corpus or collocation files, from which you select the one you want. You will only see the files corresponding to the tab you are currently viewing; you cannot load corpus files from the collocation tab or vice versa.

SAVE

  The save button gives you the option of saving the result of your work in a choice of up to three formats.

  - You can save the work you have done on the current tab to a file as HTML. This is the default option. The work you save will either be your current selection of corpora, the current set of concordance lines, or your set of collocations, depending on which tab you are viewing when you click save. With this option you can view your data through a web browser. You will not be able to reload your work into QWICK from a file at a later stage.
  - You can save your work to a file as plain text . This works in the same way as the option above, saving as HTML. With your data as plain text however, you can load it into a word processor or other application. Again, if you save your data in this format you will not be able to reload it into QWICK later.
  - You can save the work you have done on the current tab in a machine-readable format, so that you can reload it back into QWICK when you want to use it again. If you choose to save your data in this format on the Concordance tab, QWICK will automatically also save the corpora you had selected in the Corpus tab - you do not need to do this separately. When you reload your concordance data, QWICK will reload the correct corpora.

    NOTE: This option is not available on the Collocation tab - you cannot save your statistical calculations in machine- readable format.

PRINT

  If you want to take your results away on paper you can print them using the print button. Alternatively you can save them as html or plain text with the save option above and print them out using a word processor or include them into your own documents.

SORT

  This button presents a dialogue box where you need to set two parameters in order to define your sort key.

  - Select either left or right to specify which side of the node word you want to sort on.
  - Specify a value for the relative position of the sort key from the node word. For instance, to sort on the word which is three words away from the node word enter `3`.

HELP

  The help button brings up a window with online help text. This will give you a brief summary of your options, depending which tab you are currently on.

EXIT

  The exit button exits QWICK.

Now we'll look at the particular options available on each tab.

1. The Corpus Tab
2. The Concordance Tab
3. The Collocation Tab

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