netXtract Frequently Asked Questions
Go to the applicable section, or directly to your question. For technical issues, please visit the Technical Support area.
General questions
Question: How does netXtract® extend IE’s basic functionality?
Answer: In two ways, both of which will be of high value to anyone making use of the Net as an information resource:
Viewing on-line documents: netXtract indexes documents on the fly from within your browser. That means that you can immediately look for and immediately extract all occurrences of the words you’re interested in right away. You don’t have to use the IE “Find in Page” command anymore.
Saving information: netXtract also allows you to save any selected context to your netXtract Knowledge Base which stores exactly what you need from the document, including: document title, date saved and server URL.
Question:What is the Knowledge Base?
Answer:A Knowledge Base is a generic term for a repository of information. In the context of netXtract, the Knowledge Base is the collection of documents or pieces of documents that you have saved from online documents using netXtract’s Save feature. It is essentially a local storage containing all pieces of information you have determined to be relevant while working on the Web. The netXtract Knowledge Base Manager allows you to explore it any time in very efficient ways.
Starting with version 1.6, netXtract allows you to add entries to your Knowledge Base from any document, not only those in your browser.
Question:How many pieces of information can the netXtract Knowledge Base Manager hold?
Answer:As many as you want it to, and your disk space allows.
Question:On which platforms does netXtract run?
Answer:The current version runs on Pentium class systems running Windows 95/98/NT/2000, with Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 or higher.
Question: Can I share my netXtract Knowledge Base with other people?
Answer: Yes, if you have purchased netXtract Team Edition. netXtract Team allows you to share any knowledge base with other licensed netXtract Team users.
Question: What’s new in Version 2.0?
Answer: netXtract Version 2.0 offers a broad range of new functionality, but the most important are:
Support for Phrase Searching: netXtract allows you to define custom phrases to include as searchable terms within netXtract’s on-the-fly indexing.
Support for Share-able Knowledge Bases: netXtract 2.0 allows a knowledge base to be quickly and easily shared among a group of researchers.
Here is a more complete list of the new features added to 2.0.
Trial vs. Purchase version
Question: How long will the trial version of netXtract run for?
Answer: The trial version of netXtract will run for 30 days following the date of installation.
Question: What happens after the trial period is over?
Answer: netXtract will cease to function and will display a message prompting you to purchase the commercial version; a link to our “Buy” area will be provided.
Question: After the trial expires, is my netXtract Knowledge Base data preserved?
Answer: Absolutely. To will still be able to explore your Knowledge Base using the Knowledge Base Manager, but you cannot save anymore to it. Just purchase a copy of netXtract and perform the installation. netXtract will re-access the data generated by the previous installation, provided that you installed it in the same location.
Question: Can I install the trial version more than once?
Answer: No. A single trial installation is all that will be supported under the license agreement.
Question: How do I get access to netXtract, once I’ve installed the trial or the paid version?
Answer: To begin using netXtract, simply start your Internet Explorer browser. You’ll see netXtract in a panel to the left of the main browser window. You’ll also see a netXtract menu item and tool bar button in the navigational area of your browser, which allows you to turn netXtract on or off (the toolbar button is only available with IE 5.0 or later).
Question: How do I learn how to use netXtract?
Answer: Although we believe netXtract to be very intuitive to use, netXtract has a standard help system built into the application. From the Windows Start button, go to “Programs | netXtract” and select “netXtract”.
Question: How do I turn off netXtract?
Answer: To turn netXtract off, simply close the panel window, or click the netXtract tool bar button.
Question: How are the main features of netXtract accessed?
Answer: The main features of netXtract are accessed with the mouse, through double-clicks on words or by right-clicking on a word, or within a blank area of the netXtract word or context panels. Right-clicking will bring up context-sensitive feature menus; double-clicks will perform the action on the item under the mouse pointer.
Question:Does NetXTrack support frames?
Answer:Yes. netXtrack deals with frames very well, providing a frameset is not multiply- nested. netXtract will automatically index all documents within the frameset and allow you to navigate directly to any context within any frame.
Question:Does netXtract support multiple browser windows?
Answer: Absolutely. netXtract supports as many browser windows as you need. Better yet, all changes to keyword dictionaries or your viewing preferences are centrally and dynamically managed. A change in one browser window is a change to all browser windows.
Question:Must netXtract always be on?
Answer: No. You can turn netXtract on and off from within your IE browser’s toolbar.
Question:Can I save to the Knowledge Base from other programs?
Answer: Yes. NetXtract installs a hotkey (Ctrl+Alt+Insert) which activates the Save To Knowledge Base feature from anywhere in the system. Simpy copy the text that you want saved (usually with Ctrl+C), then press this hotkey combination to save to your Knowledge Base. The default hotkey combination can be changed from the Preferences.