DISKURS

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Installing and getting started with DISKURS
Description of the module window
Description of the main functions (the button bar)
How to write a scientific hypertext
Glossary
Example text

Installing and getting started with DISKURS

Quit your Word97.
Download diskurs.dot and save it to your templates directory (this is, by default, c:\Programs\Microsoft Office\Templates or something like it on your system, but may be somewhere else; if you don't know where, look it up in Word: menu 'Tools'/'Extras', 'Options...'/'Optionen...', card 'Location of files'/'Dateiablage': there you may have set a directory for your templates).
Restart Word97.
Create a new file with the 'New...'/'Neu...' command in the 'File'/'Datei' menu; choose diskurs.dot as the template.
You will be asked to:
- give your project a name;
- enter your name (by default, the name in the Windows registry of the current user is taken, but you can create a new one or a pseudonym);
- set the directory in which you want DISKURS to store your files; preferably, choose a directory which is also accessible by others (in case you want to work on a project in common) and/or accessible via the internet (in case you want to publish your hypertext).
DISKURS will start by creating your first module (the start page) which is named like the project and begins with a header with again this same name (but which can be expanded or otherwise altered at any time).
Ready! Now you can start writing your first hypertext. See below for further details.

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Description of the module window

The basic unit of a hypertext, the module, is shown in the module window:

The upper part of the module window consists of the text of the module. The text may contain hyperlinks (external or internal) – shown here in blue.

The next part contains the 'paths', i.e. those links the author suggests to his/her readers. This section, just as the previous one, is filled by the author of the module.

The lower parts are, by contrast, generated automatically. The third contains a list of links to those modules which link to the present module. The fourth part on the bottom contains the name of the module, the author and the date and time of creating the module.

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Description of the main functions (the button bar)

As soon as you have created a start module for a new hypertext, a new button bar appears in your Word window:

This bar contains all the tools you need for creating a hypertext with DISKURS. The buttons are explained in the following (you may also click on one of the buttons in the tool bar above to move direectly to the description of that button).

CREATE LINK TO NEW MODULE: Clicking on this button does the following: if a part of the text (e.g. a word or a, preferably small, group of words) is highlighted (marked) in the active module, then DISKURS

creates a new module
names it using the (group of) word(s) previously highlighted in the text
takes the same name as the heading of the module
inserts the name, the author and the date of creation in the bottom line of the module
inserts a hyperlink from the newly created module back to the original module (this link is shown in the section 'Modules linking to here')
inserts a hyperlink from the original module, more precisely from the (group of) word(s) you have originally highligthed, to the newly created module
and stops by placing the cursor in the first text line of the new module.

To sum up, this button creates a new module starting from a word marked in the previous module, makes vice-versa links and prompts you for continuing to write in the new module. In other words, this function does more or less the same as pressing the <ENTER> key on your keyboard if you are writing a standard linear text: it just creates a new paragraph, but with the difference that, in a hypertext, you would need a series of commands to just create a new module (i.e. the equivalent of a 'paragraph') since this involves creating a new file, naming and linking it and so on. This is the main point of DISKURS.

CREATE LINK TO EXISTING MODULE: Clicking on this button does the following: if a part of the text (see above) is highlighted in the active module, then DISKURS

opens a dialogue box where you can chose an already existing module to which you want to link
opens the chosen module
inserts a hyperlink from the chosen module back to the original module (this link is shown in the section 'Modules linking to here')
inserts a hyperlink from the original module, more precisely from the (group of) word(s) you have originally highligthed, to the chosen existing module
and stops by placing the cursor in the text of the original module.

To sum up, by clicking on this button you just create a vice-versa link between the module you are just editing and any of the already existing modules which you can chose from a list. Again this facilitates creating hyperlinks considerably since you only need to click on one button, chose the target module and DISKURS does all the rest for you, i.e. inserting the links back and forth between the two modules.

MAKE PATH: a new feature since version 1.2 which facilitates making a chain of standard links throughout a hypertext, called "Path". Just start in the first module, click on this button, then choose the second module and click OK. DISKURS will insert in the box called "Paths" of the first module a link named "FORWARD" and in the second module a respective link named "BACK". Then go to the second module, click again on this button and choose the third module in the row and so on and so forth.

Note, that it seems useful to start making a main path only just before publishing the hypertext since it is laborous to change a path once it is made in case you insert a new module inbetween.

CREATE EXTERNAL LINK: This is the standard button of the Word web tool bar which gives you the opportunity to insert a link to the 'world outside your project', i.e. to internet sources such as PDF files, homepages or email addresses. Vice-versa linking, of course, is not possible here. Make sure not to have the 'make relative path' option checked since this would not make sense for documents outside your own web space.

CHANGE AUTHOR: This button opens a dialogue box where you can change the name of the current author. The change of name will only be effective for the next new module you create, but will not affect any of the existing modules, whether they are open or not. The idea behind this feature is that it gives you the opportunity to create a hypertext project together with another author in front of the same screen. You could use this e.g. to track a partly oral, partly written discourse: each time one of you is adding an argument (i.e. a new module) to your project, you switch to the other 'identity'.

QUIT: Clicking this button will close all currently open files crated by DISKURS, remove the button bar and quit the programme (but not Word!).

INFORMATION: This button will pop-up a small window with information on the current version of the programme, its authors and the contact email address.

HELP: This button will open the file you are just reading within Word in a separate new window.

As soon as you have started DISKURS, there will be another new button in your main button bar which looks like this:

OPEN: Clicking on this button will open a dialogue box to choose among all your existing DISKURS files. If you had exit DISKURS before with the above quit button, this operation will not only open the selected module but also put the DISKURS button bar again on your screen.

When you start Word for the next time, this button will not appear again. In this case, if you try to open a DISKURS project by using the standard 'Open...'/'Öffnen...' command from the 'File'/'Datei' menu (or by choosing the project file from the list of recently used files on the bottom of the 'File' menu), you will not get the full functionality of DISKURS, i.e. the module window will open full size, the button bar will not appear etc. (The reason for this is that DISKURS creates HTML files which cannot be associated with standard word templates.) To avoid this, you can either

load the diskurs.dot by chosing 'Templates and Add-Ins...' from the 'Tools'/'Extras' menu (just check the appropriate box in the lower part of the dialogue box) or
you put the diskurs.dot in the startup directory of your Office Word directory. This will load the template each time you start Word.

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How to write a scientific hypertext

While the previous chapters were all highly technical, this one is the most difficult chapter to write. In fact, the whole point of creating DISKURS is exactly to find out how to write a hypertext. Since it is difficult to discuss this in theory, I thought I needed a tool which would help me to experiment with writing hypertexts without bothering with the technicalities of actual HTML coding. Therefore, the following suggestions are still 'ex ante' considerations, mainly based on the few hours I have already spent testing version 1.0 of DISKURS.

In the starter module, I suggest to give a one-paragraph overview of the topic you are dealing with (not a fully-fledged abstract – this should rather be in a separate module to be accessed from the starter module). After this introductory paragraph, it seems to be a good idea to start with a bulleted list of main topics to be treated. Make each of the entries in this list a hyperlink to a new module and start creating your hypertext around these.
As you need to make sense of the names of the modules when you are linking to an existing module afterwards, you should think twice when marking a (group of) word(s) for creating a new module. Be as short as possible, but, at the same time, as precise as possible. My tip: If the text from which you want to link does not contain the 'right' word, just put the right expression into brackets and create the new module from there!
Initially, don't bother with creating the 'main path' through your hypertext. Certainly, you should have this in mind when writing, but you can fill in the section on 'Paths' lateron if you have created a series of modules. Doing this already in the beginning will probably distract you from your main enterprise which is, after all, wirting the content of your arguments into the modules.
Try to keep the lenght of the text in your modules as short as possible. The default size of the module window may be a suggestion: If you need more than one 'screen' of a module window, this seems a good sign for being too long. The whole point of writing a hypertext is in modularising your argument, i.e. in exactly defining the 'borders' of your argument by keeping it short and precise.

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Glossary

Hypertext: A hypertext is a non-linear text, consisting of discrete modules which are interconnnected by links.
Links: Links (or hyperlinks) connect modules of a hypertext; clicking on links will lead the reader to the linked module for further reading.
Module: A module is the smallest unit of a hypertext. A hypertext consists of many interlinked modules.
Module window: Each module is shown in a window on the screen in which you can edit its contents.
Path: A path is one of many possibles ways to read a hypertext, i.e. a series of links tobe followed through the various modules. A path may be suggested/recommended by the author, like a red threat, or just created by the readers while reading.
Project: A project is a set of modules which form a hypertext.

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