Help on AEIOU

Content

AEIOU consists of several parts called Austria Albums. Each Album is an independent part connected with the other Albums in AEIOU by hyperlinks.

Technical Aspects

AEIOU is implemented on a Hyperwave server.

The entirety of all documents in an Austria Album is called a Collection in Hyperwave. Hyperwave Collections can be of type Sequence. In this case an additional menu bar is shown that permits navigation through the Sequence like leafing through a book (eg. in Stamp Album)

In tackling the technical aspects of the project, we opted to use only those features that could be accessed with widely used browsers without additional software. The newest data formats have purposely not been added until they have been established as standard formats.

Language Setting

Allthough the main language of AEIOU is German, most parts of AEIOU are also available in English. With HyperWave it is possible to change the language in any document at any time. The only exceptions are documents found by the search function.

Annotate

The letter A in the acronym AEIOU stands for "annotatable". Annotations - visitors` contributions to AEIOU - can be new entries for individual topics as well as supplements to existing entries. After the content has been reviewed, the submitted annotations are integrated into the corresponding portion of the system, thus creating a living, steadily growing information system about Austria.

To send an annotation, click on "annotate" in the menu bar.

Search

HyperWave offers integrated search facilities. You can search by titles, keywords, or in the content of the documents. Start the search with a click on "search" in the menu bar. The search form lets you customise your search. You should your preferred languages set before starting the search. It is not possible to change the language of the document once it has been found.

Search Tips:

Title or headword search

This search option allows you to search in the titles (headwords) only. Please note that the original German headword still appears in some cases, especially where the German terms are highly specific to Austrian culture and history. In such cases, an English explanation is given in the body of the entry. Therefore, it may be necessary to search the titles first and then the full text of the encyclopaedia.
If there is more than one word for a term, you will find the entry under the word most frequently used and can also check for cross references to the entry you are looking for. Names consisting of more than one word (i.e. names of companies, ministries etc.) are placed under the most important word in the name (i.e. Education, Ministry for)

Full-text search

When using this search option, please bear in mind that you may have to enter multiple search terms in order to retrieve a manageable number of results. Therefore, it may be advisable to search the titles only first and then the full text of the encyclopaedia.

Spelling

Please note that words with different spellings, like those beginning with the letter "C", may also be found under the letters "K", "Tsch" or "Z" and vice versa. The same holds true for words beginning with the letters "V" and "F", "I", "J", "Y" as well as "V" and "W".

Keyword search

All of the entries in the encyclopaedia have been classified using keywords, which can also be used as search criteria. This classification system has been devised to help global users find their way around a collection of information which was originally structured on the basis of Austrians' local knowledge.

Since the original German version was compiled for an Austrian target group which would search information on the basis of already known words and terms, the information is structured in such a way that access is gained primarily through known words and terms. In other words the Austrian user generally knows what s/he is looking for.

For the English version, we had to bear in mind that international users would not only have a different background knowledge of Austria from the original target group, but would also approach the information search with different motives and different assumptions. Instead of, for example saying "I wonder whether Großlobming is a village or a town?", the non-Austrian user is more likely to approach the question from another angle and ask, for example, "What towns and villages are there in Styria or Austria?". This applies mutatis mutandis for most of the entries.

To cater for this users will be able to find information via categories accessible through keywords, which classify the entries found in the Encyclopaedia.

When searching for very general categories, please bear in mind that the number of results will be very high. Obviously, the keywords are best used in combination with each other (e.g. people & 20th century & journalism, etc.) to return a manageable number of results.

Please note that in many cases precision was sacrificed in order to limit the number of search terms and keep this feature relatively simple.