Creating a glossary and terms

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A glossary is a group of terms that you have defined to build consistent, common terminology for your project.

About this task

You can create a glossary by first defining the terms to include in the glossary. After you have defined terms, you can then either:
  • Add the terms to a collection.
  • Use tags to keep track of your glossary terms.
  • Put the terms in a folder and create a view to display relevant attributes.

Glossary terms can contain links to new and existing artifacts, related terms, and synonyms. They also can contain comments and alternative spellings. You can assign attributes to the glossary and view, filter, and sort links to other artifacts using the sidebar.

Creating Terms

Before you can create a term, make sure that a term artifact type has been created for the project and that the Use Artifacts of this Type as Glossary Terms check box is selected. To display or create artifact types for a project, click Manage Project Properties from the Administration icon menu.
Note: If configuration management is enabled for your project, on the Administration menu, click Manage Component Properties.

To create a term:

  1. From the Artifacts page, click the Create Artifact menu, and select Term (or whatever type name that was created for glossary use). The Create an artifact with attributes window opens.
  2. Type a name for the term.
  3. Ensure the artifact type is Term (or whatever type name that you configured to be used as a term) and the Artifact Format is Text. For more information, see Creating artifact types.
  4. Provide optional information, such as a description, a folder, or tags.
  5. Optional: Check the Open Artifact check box if it is not already checked.
  6. Click Finish. If you selected the Open Artifact check box, the rich-text editor opens.
  7. To start editing the term, click Edit.
Note: You can also import an existing set of terms using the IBM® Engineering Requirements Management DOORS® Next import facility.

Defining alternative spellings and synonyms for a term

To define alternative spellings for a term, edit the term, and enter a value in the Alternative Spelling attribute. To define more than one alternative spelling, separate entries by a comma. To define a synonym of a term, create a Synonym link type between two term artifacts.

For more information on creating glossaries, refer to the documentation on the Jazz.net development site.