Using Chronolator Documents
Highlighting Sources of Information
Chronolator can highlight events from different agencies in a multi-agency chronology in several ways. Agencies are distinguished by the Source Prefix they are given when their chronologies are imported.
The highlighting tool is found at Tools > Highlight Source > Define and Do:
Highlighting will be lost when some other features are run, so it is recommended that you do not do it until you have finished with those other features. Chronolator warns you about this by displaying Message 7010 the first time you use the highlighting tool in a Word session. Press OK to continue. |  |
When you press Tools > Highlight Source > Define and Do (and reply OK to Message 7010 if it is issued), the Highlight Source options form is displayed: |  |
The main choices you make here use the buttons in the Scope and the Colour Scheme boxes.
The Scope controls how much of the event is highlighted. The lowest scope highlights just the text of the agency's Source Prefix, while the most extensive scope highlights the background of the entire row.
For example, here is how the agency Berrick Police would be highlighted using each Scope:
Chronolator's built-in Colour Schemes provide a quick way to set the highlighting for all prefixes.
For example, this is the Mixed Colours scheme:
This is the Bright scheme:
The first number in each coloured box is its Chronolator reference number, which can be used if you want to override a scheme colour for a particular agency.
The numbers in brackets give an idea of how legible the highlight might be when viewed on a computer screen. They are calculated using the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (Version 2.0) at www.w3.org/TR/WCAG/. Higher values represent better legibility. All the Chronolator Colour Scheme highlights meet or exceed WCAG level AA.
A complete list of schemes can be created by pressing the Show Samples button.
When there are only a few agencies in the chronology a default scheme should make it easy to distinguish each one. However, when there are lots of agencies you might get a better distinction between them by choosing highlights from different schemes.
For example, in the Mixed Colours scheme it is quite easy to see the differences between the first eight highlights, but probably not so easy to distinguish between highlights 004 and 014. In such a case, you can override the scheme colour for one or more agencies by using the Custom Settings box on the Highlight Source options form:
Select the agency you want to modify, and then choose its colour by using the left/right arrows or typing in its Reference Number. Note that you will not be able to type in a number that is already in use.
Highlighting a large chronology can take a few minutes. The Preview button quickly produces a new document illustrating how each agency will appear. When you are happy with your definitions, press OK to highlight the chronology. |  |
When reviewing a large chronology, you can get an overview of which agencies did what when by highlighting it and then using Word's Zoom feature to zoom out. For example, the following chronology has been highlighted with Scope: Row and Colour Scheme: Bright, and zoomed to 10%:
