The User Interface
You can use Finding the Celtic to do several different kinds of activities, each of which is done with a particular area of the browser window or on a different page.
You can reach different pages — Search/Browse, Exhibits, Settings, Timeline, Atlas and Graph — by selecting their names from the grey horizontal bar at the top of the screen.
Searching and Browsing Objects
The first screen you see when you go to Collex is the Browser window. It allows you to browse and search for objects in the FtC collection by setting constraints. You can also use it to collect and tag objects.

The Browser page
The yellow labels indicate the three main panels of the Collex browser:
- The sidebar panel (far left)
- The constraints panel (top right)
- The results panel (lower right)
The Sidebar Panel
The sidebar panel on the far left allows you to work with objects that have been collected and the tags that have been attached to them. In order to tag and collect objects, you must have an account and be logged in. The top area of the sidebar panel indicates if you are logged in and allows you to log in if you are not.
For more on the operations of the Sidebar panel, see the Collecting and Tagging Objects section below.
The Constraints Panel
The top end of the right hand side of the browser window contains the constraints panel. The constraints panel consists of two subpanels containing related sets of constraints:
- All possible constraints subpanel (on the left hand side)
- The current set of constraints subpanel (on the right hand side)
Each of the different metadata facets are listed in the Possible Constraints subpanel. Each possible value for each metadata facet is listed according to frequency (given the current constraints): in other words, the most common value is listed first, then the second most common value, and so on. The pie chart on the far right side of the column gives a graphical depiction of the frequency of that value.

The Constraints Panel
In the illustration above the user has selected a single constraint, that of restricting objects whose ItemType value is Text. That condition is shown in the Current Constraints subpanel on the right.
The Possible Constraints subpanel on the left displays the numbers and percentages of other values for objects in the FtC database whose ItemType code is Text: you can quickly see that the majority of the texts are from the Modern period, that there an equal number from Ireland and Scotland, and so on.
Only the top two most common values for each metadata facet are shown. To see the other possible values, select the show more ... link.
If you are logged in, you will be able to save a particular set of constraints, re-apply them again, and even have access to a URL that you can use in your own webpages or emails to recreate the constraints.
Constraints can be be applied positively or negatively: that is, when you apply the constraint from the Possible Constraints subpanel to the Current Constraints subpanel, you can specific whether the value of the metadata tag must appear (positive) or must not appear (negative) in the resulting selection.
The Results Panel
The Results panel in the bottom part of the right hand side of the Browser window displays all of the items in the FtC database that meet the conditions of the current constraints.
Each item in the Results panel has a collect link. If you select the link (and you are logged in), you can tag and annotate (i.e., collect) the object.
Each item in the Results panel also has a selection box to the left of it. If you select the collect selected link (on the far right of the Results panel, on the top and bottom), a window will appear to allow you to tag and annotate all currently selected objects.
Logging in
In order to collect objects and save your settings, you'll need to have a user account on Finding the Celtic.
Press the log in link on the top line of the Sidebar panel. The Login subpanel shown below will appear.

The Login Subpanel
From the Login subpanel you can log into your account, create a new user account or change your account information.
Collecting Objects
The Sidebar panel of the Browser window allows you to view objects and browse through the tags that other users have created. This is the aspect of social networking on online sites that is commonly called "folksonomy" tagging. When you "collect" an object, you apply a tag to it (which is owned by you) and can add an annotation to it as well.
Tagging Objects
There are two ways of tagging objects from the Results panel of the Browser:
- Select the collect link below a single object to tag and collect it alone
- Select the collect selected link on the far right hand side of the Results panel.
When you collect objects, a small window will appear that allows you to tag the objects with one or more tags and to create an annotation associated with those objects.
IMPORTANT: Each tag is one word only! If you enter more than one word in the keywords field, each of the words will become a separate tag. So if you want to tag a set of objects with the tag "Lordship of the Isles" you will need to do it by removing spaces: "lordshipoftheisles".
Browsing Tagged Objects
You can browse folksonomy tags from the Sidebar panel. To view only those tags that you have created, select my ... on the left hand side; to view tags created by all users of the system, select all ....
The Sidebar panel allows you to browse collected objects by one of four metadata facets (ItemType, Role, Period, or Country), by the names of folksonomy tags given by system users, or by the names of the users in the system who gave them.
Whichever of these six possible views you select, a "tag cloud" will appear in the Sidebar panel, each of which is a hotlink. These will be listed in order of frequency: those tags (or facets) corresponding to the largest selection of objects will be the largest in size.
If you enter text into the text box (initially containing "filter tags"), only those tags which begin with the text you type will appear.
Folksonomy tags can be viewed by selecting the keywords link. The illustration on the right shows the result of a user selecting all keywords to view all of the folksonomy tags created by all users (rather than selecting my keywords). In this example, the lordsofisles folksonomy tag is the tag with the largest number of associated collected objects.
If you press on one of the hotlinks (such as Artifact in the types list or magic in the keywords list), the Sidebar panel will display all of the collected objects corresponding to the tag or facet you selected.
In this example, the user selected Artifact from the types list (shown above). This resulted in displaying all of the collected objects whose ItemType has a value of Artifact.
Browsing, Creating and Editing Exhibits
You can get to the Exhibits section by pressing Exhibits on the grey horizontal bar.

The Exhibits page
You will see a list of all of the current exhibits and be able to view them by selecting their name from this list. If you are a registered user of the system, you'll also be able to build your own exhibits (and edit or delete ones you've already created).
The Exhibit Builder
Once you have collected objects you can create exhibits, drag and drop collected objects into those exhibits, create text for explanation and annotation, and share your exhibits with other users of FtC.
Each exhibit contains any number of pages; each page contains any number of sections; each section can contain a text area and collected objects, arranged in any order you'd like.
To create a new Exhibit, select the New Exhibit hotlink from the upper right corner of the Exhibit screen (shown above). You will need to indicate which type of Creative Commons license you wish to apply to your exhibit, the type of exhibit you'd like to create and its title. After making these choices, you will be able to add objects and text to it.

The upper-right corner contains a corner box with hotlinks which allow you to do the top-level editing to your exhibit, such as creating new pages or new sections to your current page.
As you are editing a section you can drag collected objects into the "hot receptacle" of the section. Each element (text and objects) in a section has arrows which allow you to change its order within that section. Each section also has arrows which allow you to change the order in which they appear on that page.
Click on existing text to edit it. To indicate that you have finished editing text and wish to save it, select the disk icon in the top-right corner of the text-editing box. To undo your changes, select the "cancel" link in the top-left corner.
An exhibit can be in one of three states:
- Unshared: Only the author can see the exhibit (and FtC editors and administrators).
- Shared: All users can see the exhibit, but it is not considered officially validated for publication.
- Published: All users can see the exhibit and it has been officially validated as a published exhibit (only FtC editors and adminstrators can validate).
To change the state of an exhibit, use the links in the top-left corner box.
Settings
The Settings page allows you to change the colors assigned to facet values in visualizations. In order for settings to be saved from one use of the system to the next, you will need to have an account and be logged in.
The Max Visualized Objs setting allows you to set the maximum number of objects to be represented on a graphical visualization (timelines, maps, etc). You may want to restrict the number to minimize clutter or the time needed to download the objects (although the most effective way to do so is to set the constraints appropriately).
There are five panels of checkboxes that allow you to specify the colors assigned to facet values — ItemTypes, Country Codes, Periods, Languages and Materials — on visualizations.
In order for the changes to your settings to be saved, you must select the Save Settings button at the bottom of the Settings page.
Timelines
When you select the Timeline link, a timeline will be created for all of the objects that meet the conditions of the Current Constraints specified on the Browse page (as long as the total number does not exceed the Max Visualized Objs setting specified on the Settings page).

The Timeline page
The Timeline has two parts: the upper panel of the Timeline (with the lighter background) shows more detail; the lower panel of the TImeline (with the darker background) shows a greater range of years. In the example above, the upper panel shows a range of just over 200 years, while the lower panel shows over 1,000 years. You can scroll back and forth through time by grabbing any point in either panel and moving the mouse left or right.
The title of the object will appear as the label on the bar or the point (depending on whether the Date facet is a single year or a range of years). Select a bar or point to see more detail about it in a small pop-up window. If the object has a thumbnail image, it will appear as a small icon in the window. If the object has an associated URL (a value for the SeeAlso facet), the title in the pop-up window will be selectable; if you select it, your web browser will lead you directly to the object's webpage.
You can specify how the facet values of the objects are used by the Timeline display with the pull-down menus at the top of the display. Each bar on the TImeline can be colored (unless the object's Date is a single year value); the label for each object can appear in a particular color; and text can appear in the pop-up window.
You can specify which each of these three possible visual attributes correspond to the value of the object's ItemType, Country, or Period facet, or if the system default should be used.
In order for your new settings to be applied and a new Timeline generated with those settings, press the Redraw with new settings button.
Atlas
When you select the Atlas link, a GoogleMap will be created for all of the objects that meet the conditions of the Current Constraints specified on the Browse page (as long as the total number does not exceed the Max Visualized Objs setting specified on the Settings page).

An Atlas view of data
Each object that has a Long/Lat coordinate value will apper on the map (objects that do not have this data included cannot be placed at all). The controls on the top-left corner allow you to zoom in and out and to scroll around the map.
Graph
When you select the Graph link, a bar graph visualization will be created for all of the objects that meet the conditions of the Current Constraints specified on the Browse page (as long as the total number does not exceed the Max Visualized Objs setting specified on the Settings page).

An Graph view of data
The Graph page allows you to visualize the distribution of facet values of the contents of the database in two dimensions. In the example above, the user is looking at the number of items belonging to each Period according to the ItemType facet. It is immediately clear that objects from the Modern period (yellow in this display) are contained in all ItemType categories. It is also easy to see that nearly all objects from the Romano-Celtic period are of the Artifact ItemType.
You can change the color associated with each facet value on the Settings page.
The radio buttons on the right-hand side allow you to set the graph bars to be horizontal or vertical. To change which facets are displayed on the graph, choose the facet from the pull-down menu. To create a new graph with your new settings, press the Redraw with new Settings button.