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T here are quite a few products on the market called taxonomytools. To choose just a few for a comparative evaluation requiresnarrowing the field a bit. Since taxonomies are typically used for

tagging and searching, a number of taxonomy products integratetaxonomy creation and maintenance features along with capabilitiessuch as auto-categorization, human tagging, or search to providemore complex, full-featured solutions. This article, however, looks atproducts that facilitate only taxonomy creation and maintenance.

Taxonomy tools are used by individuals who call themselvestaxonomists or who otherwise are familiar with best practices forcreating taxonomies, including librarians, controlled vocabularyeditors, lexicographers, and some information architects. The toolsare not difficult to use, but creating a good taxonomy requiresspecific skills and knowledge of categorization practices. The use ofthe software alone does not necessarily result in a usable taxonomy,just as a good HTML editing tool does not necessarily result in a goodwebsite if the user is not skilled in the techniques of web design.

There are different definitions and types of taxonomies: simplelists of terms with synonyms, hierarchical trees, faceted categories,standard thesauri, and complex ontologies. The productsreviewed here serve the creation of all of these types of tax-onomies, except for limitations in ontologies. The designation“taxonomy” can refer to all of these or, more specifically, to ahierarchical, tree-type taxonomy. We will refer to taxonomies inthe broader sense. An information retrieval thesaurus can beconsidered a more complex type of taxonomy, which supportsnot only hierarchical relationships but also associated termrelationships, cross-references from nonpreferred (used for)terms. The products evaluated here each support these thesauruscharacteristics, so they are marketed as “thesaurus constructiontools,” rather than taxonomy tools. Yet thesaurus tools are thebest options for creating a simple hierarchical taxonomy as well.

The basic requirement of a taxonomy tool is to maintainterms and their associated relationships and other attributes.The relationships are reciprocal between pairs of terms, so byusing a taxonomy tool, the user only needs to create or edit therelationship in one place. If the user decides to rename or deletea term, all its relationships will reflect the change. Support for

optional scope notes and user-defined classification categoriesfor each term is also standard in a taxonomy tool.

The products covered in this evaluation all meet the basicrequirements and share several additional features. Theseinclude designating candidate and approved terms, indicatingterm creation date and modification date, permitting multiplehierarchies (polyhierarchies), and disallowing illegal termrelationships. They all run only on Windows and includeonline Help. They are available as affordable single-user desktoptools in addition to having multi-user versions and can exporttaxonomies in platform-neutral formats for use in other systems.

Product name: MultiTes Pro, version 2007.02.01Product vendor: Multisystems (Miami)Price: $295 single user; $1295 for 5 users; $2495 for 10 users; $3950 enterprise deploymentwww.multites.com

TAXONOMY DISPLAY

A thesaurus is typically displayed alphabetically, with rela-tionships and attributes listed at each term, whereas a simpletaxonomy, with its emphasis broader-narrower (parent-child)relationships, is typically displayed as a hierarchy. Therefore, athesaurus and taxonomy tool could present the list of terms morethan one way. MultiTes displays the taxonomy in an alphabeticallist of all terms. To view a hierarchy of the taxonomy requiresselecting the “Hierarchical” or “Top term” options from theReport menu, which generate simple text files to the screen.

TERM DISPLAY AND EDITING

Creating and editing terms and their relationships is easy andefficient in MultiTes. To view or edit a term’s details involvesclicking on the desired term and calling up a new pop-up window.The term window provides the term name, classification,relationships, notes, and other attributes, which are logicallygrouped. From here the details window of any associated termcan also be jumped to, a feature limited in the other tools.

MultiTes has a clean, compact term-editing interface. All types

Heather Hedden

W W W.E C O N T E N T M A G .C O M1

Taxonomy ToolThis article is reprinted with permission from EContent magazine, April, 2008. © Online, a division of Information Today, Inc.

TaxonomyToolRoundup 8/14/08 10:31 AM Page 40

the user, who needs to know whether agiven term has already been created. InMultiTes, the user simply types the startof the term, with truncation within aword, and hits enter. In addition, anAdvanced Search option allows the userto select from terms which start withtruncated text, contain text, are flagged,belong to a category, have a status, havea term number, whose date contains text,or whose note contains text. A list ofmatching terms then appears in thesearch window. From the list one canjump to an individual record. Anotheroption is copying the list of terms to theclipboard for offline manipulation.

USER-DEFINED RELATIONSHIPS

AND ATTRIBUTES

The ability to define relationships,types of notes, and categories of terms is

an important set of features for making a taxonomy tool versatile and extensible.More complex, or semantic, types of relationships (such as “produced by,”“owned by,” and “utilized for”) are whatcan distinguish an ordinary taxonomy froman ontology. MultiTes allows unlimiteduser definition of relationships, aslong as they fall into one of threemain categories: hierarchical (broader/narrower or parent/child), associative(related terms), or equivalent (use/usefor). The creation of reciprocal terms isalso enforced.

Similarly, MultiTes supports user-defined categories and notes for terms.Categories are often used in taxonomiesto classify terms by source, for end use, orfor any purpose the taxonomy developermay have. User-defined notes might be

of relationships, categories, and notes canbe added by selecting their label code froma single alphabetical drop-down list. Themain term-editing drawback is that exist-ing relationships cannot be changed in onestep, but rather they have to be deleted andnew ones added.

MultiTes allows the creation of rela-tionships to existing terms and the creationof relationships to new terms that the usersimultaneously creates. When creating arelationship to a term that does not yetexist in the taxonomy, a pop-up windowalerts the user and asks if it shouldproceed with creating the new term. Thisis a nice feature, because often it is difficultto remember if the target term of a linkalready exists.

TAXONOMY SEARCHING

Taxonomy navigation is important for


desired for different audiences: taxono-mists, indexers, and the end users.MultiTes does not support additionaluser-defined attributes, but there is noreason why the notes field cannot beused for any purpose, such as a physicaladdress for a company name term.

IMPORTING, EXPORTING, AND REPORTS

MultiTes accepts imported data as atext file, with specifications of one ormore relationships or attributes for theterms. The data must follow a specificformat but does not use tags. This is theonly import format that MultiTesaccepts. MultiTes has the advantageover the other tools of acceptingimported data not merely as files but alsosimply as pasted text from a clipboard.This is often a practical way for the userto batch load even just a couple of termsor relationships.

The features of exporting and gener-ating reports are combined in MultiTes,allowing a full range of displays, subsetsof terms to include or exclude, and terminformation to include or exclude. This isin addition to the different output formats.The output formats available are ANSItext, HTML (as a webpage), XML, andCSV delimited, or an output directly

to the printer. There is a full range ofdisplay formats and choices forinclusion/exclusion.

Product name: Term Tree 2000, version 2.3

Product vendor: This to That Pty., Ltd. t/a A.C.S. Active Classification Solutions (Australia)

Price: $800 Australian (about $700)

www.termtree.com.au

TAXONOMY DISPLAY

Term Tree’s user interface features asplit screen with the browsable taxonomy

in the left pane and the editable rela-tionships and details of a selected taxonomyterm in the right pane.

The terms are listed alphabeticallybut with the option to expand to shownarrower terms, which is lacking in MultiTes.Nonpreferred terms are interspersed amongthe preferred terms. The display makes useof various graphical icons next to all terms.Another nice feature is the View menu,which allows the user to limit the taxonomydisplay to just top terms, preferred terms,nonpreferred terms, unauthorized terms,and so on, which in other products canonly be done as a report.


Although Term Tree’s interface issomewhat graphically cluttered, the tooloffers an impressive number of optionsfor term creation, linking, and editing.Term details can be edited either fromthe term detail pane or by clicking on aterm in the taxonomy list and using acontext menu, toolbar buttons, or evenkeyboard shortcuts (function keys, insert,delete, and so on). Finally, relationshipscan be created by dragging a term in theleft pane taxonomy list and dropping it

Taxonomy Tool Roundup


Term Tree taxonomy display with selected term relationships

MultiTes taxonomy display with selected term details



Term Tree supports importing data asa tagged ASCII text file and in the pro-prietary formats of MultiTes and A.K.A.,but not XML. Of the tools tested, TermTree can export to the greatest number offile formats: XML, CSV comma delimited,tab delimited, Excel spreadsheet direct,HTML (as a website), Windows Explorer,Term Tree’s own tag format, and the pro-prietary netcat and MetaBrowser formats.

Reports can be generated from TermTree in more types than most users need forvarious thesaurus and records managementoutputs. The report output format, however,is limited to MS Word or direct to printer. Afull range of term inclusion/exclusion ispossible, as in MultiTes.

Product name: TCS-10, version2.26

Product vendor: Webchoir, Inc.(Los Angeles)

Price: $399 Personal edition (single user); $1495 for 10 users

www.webchoir.com

TAXONOMY DISPLAY

Webchoir’s TCS-10 offers two viewsbetween which the user can toggle: analphabetical list and a true hierarchy. The

hierarchical view lists only the tophierarchical terms, which can beexpanded to show narrower terms.The “expand all” and “collapse all”buttons are nice features. TCS-10 is theonly tool of the three that does not includenonpreferred terms in the taxonomylist. Since nonpreferred terms are stillsearchable in TCS-10, this is fine, and theexclusion indeed makes the term listeasier to browse.

TCS-10 has the benefit of supportingthe creation of multiple hierarchieswithin one thesaurus project. This waymultiple authority files or facets of thesame taxonomy project can be createdand interrelated. The user can alternatebetween them using the Window optionon the menu.


Like Term Tree, TCS-10’s userinterface features a split screen with thebrowsable taxonomy in the left pane andthe details of a selected term in the rightpane. A third section at the bottom of thetaxonomy pane allows single-click onlinesearching of a selected term through a chosenweb search engine. TCS-10 differs bymaking a distinction within its right panebetween a mere display and an editablewindow. When a term is selected the

into the relationship type of another termin the right pane details screen.

In addition to the standard relationshiptypes, Term Tree also has a “supersededterm” relationship for when a term isdeactivated and superseded by anotherterm. New terms can be created by startingfrom an existing term and creating arelationship or from scratch by variousmethods. Term Tree spell checks newterms and scope notes as they are typedin. A drawback, however, is that editingthe term name itself, such as changing itswording, cannot be done without deletingthe term and then adding back the newwording of the term.

TAXONOMY SEARCHING

Term Tree supports searching the startof terms in the taxonomy with type-ahead scrolling.

An additional search option permitssearching other fields, such as scope note,and allows restricting by source, code,class, and date. If multiple terms match thesearch, rather than getting a list of matches,the user needs to select “next occurrence”from the menu. In my opinion, a list ofmatches would be more practical.


AND ATTRIBUTES

In Term Tree—although system defi-nitions permit the user to rename therelationship labels of Use, Use for,Broader Term, Scope Note, and so on—creating additional kinds of relationshipsor types of notes is not supported.Actually, the system provides two notetypes called Scope Note and User Note,so having the possibility for a second kindof note is, in most cases, sufficient. Theuser can, however, create and name anynumber of categories, called Classes inTerm Tree. There is even an additionaltype of category called Codes, althoughthe need for a distinction between Classesand Codes is not obvious.

AP R I L 2008 ECO N T E N T 4

The TCS-10 taxonomy display with selected term details for viewing, not editing

TaxonomyToolRoundup 8/14/08 10:35 AM 3

reference type for relationships and relatedterm relationships, but it restricts thebroader/narrower relationships. Instead, itprovides the option to choose from threeadditional types of broader/narrower rela-tionships in accordance with thesaurus stan-dards: BTG (Broader Term—Generic),BTI (Broader Term—Instance), and BTP(Broader Term—Partitive), but onlyone BT relationship type of each kindis allowed.

TCS also supports unlimited user-defined notes and other attributes. User-defined attributes, ambiguously called“User Relation Type,” could be used forlocation or contact information for anamed entity term. A unique feature toTCS-10 is that one can even createauthority control for a relation type, suchas a look-up table of state names.


Of the tools tested, TCS-10 supportsthe greatest number of formats forimporting data, which include ASCII,XML, and MARC. For the import of

ASCII text files there are additionalsubmenu options and an ASCII importwizard. For importing XML, a tag-mapping table needs to be completed.TCS-10 supports exporting XML,ASCII, MARC, HTML (as a website),and a proprietary format forWebchoir’s other indexing and searchproducts. User-created look-up tablescan also be exported.

Report options from TCS-10 are com-parable with the other taxonomy tools,and terms can be included/excluded byvarious criteria. Additional kinds ofreports include URL list, image list,and category list. The reports are out-put as either ASCII text files or HTML(without hypertext).

uneditable display appears first, and theedit command must be selected in orderto make changes or additions, and after-wards one must click “Close.” This addedstep can slow down work. The editablefields for each term additionally includeURLs and images, but what is blatantlymissing are broader term and narrowerterm relationships. This is because termscan be created only as narrower terms ofexisting terms. While this might be themost common method by which taxono-mists work, it should not be the onlymethod permitted.

TCS-10 does have a limited drag-and-drop feature, which enables moving onlya term from one broader term to a differentbroader term. This is done within thetaxonomy tree display pane, though,which necessitates collapsing hierarchiesso that both the moved term and thetarget broader term appear within thesame display window.

TAXONOMY SEARCHING

As with MultiTes and Term Tree,TCS-10 features both a search box at thetop of the scrollable taxonomy list andalso an advanced search option. Althoughit does not support truncation, advancedsearch will match any word within aterm, not merely the first word. As thiskind of search can yield multiple results,a window pops up with all matchingresults from which any matched term canbe selected, a feature found only in theadvanced search of MultiTes. TCS-10’sadvanced search does not have as manylimiting options as advanced search in theother tools, but it does has the advantageof offering guided Boolean search.


AND ATTRIBUTES

TCS-10 supports unrestricted user-defined variations of the “use” cross-


All three tools have comparable features, and noone is clearly superior. A choice should be made

according to user needs and preferences.However, this chart compares some of the

features that do vary between these products.

HEATHER HEDDEN ([email protected]) IS ATAXONOMIST AT VIZIANT CORP., A TEACHER OFCONTINUING EDUCATION WORKSHOPS AT SIMMONSCOLLEGE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF LIBRARY ANDINFORMATION SCIENCE, AND FOUNDER ANDMANGER OF THE TAXONOMIES & CONTROLLEDVOCABULARIES SIG OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETYOF INDEXERS.COMMENTS? EMAIL LETTERS TO THE EDITOR [email protected].

Feature MultiTes Term Tree TCS-10

User-definable relationships Y N P

User-definable notes Y N Y

User-definable attributes P N Y

Spell checking N Y N

Single-step new term & relationship creation Y Y N

Drag & drop relationship adding N Y P

Descriptor name editing Y N Y

XML importing N N Y

Multilingual support Y N Y

Single-step move branch N N Y

Expandable hierarchy display N P Y

Online Help usability Y Y N

Note: (Y = yes, N = no, P = partial)

Taxonomy Tool Roundup

Taxonomy Tool Feature Comparison


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