Termboard

Appearance

Creating a Taxonomy with Termboard ​

Taxonomies are fundamental for organizing knowledge. They classify concepts into a hierarchical structure, typically using "is-a" relationships (e.g., a "Car" is a "Vehicle"). Termboard makes it easy to create, manage, and visualize these hierarchies.

What is a Taxonomy? ​

A Taxonomy is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types.

In Termboard, a taxonomy is built using:

  • Terms (representing concepts or categories).
  • Relations (specifically "Generalization" relations) that link a child term to a parent term.

1. Setting up the Relation Type ​

To create a proper taxonomy in Termboard, you need a relation type that represents the hierarchy.

  1. Map the relation names you want to use to the Generalization type, as described here
  2. Ensure there is a relation type (usually named Generalization or is a) where the Type is set to Generalization.

2. Creating the Hierarchy ​

You can build your taxonomy manually or use AI to generate it.

Manual Creation ​

  1. Create Terms: Add terms for your categories (e.g., "Animal", "Mammal", "Dog").
  2. Link them: Draw a relation from the specific concept (Child) to the general concept (Parent).
    • Example: Draw a line from "Dog" to "Mammal".
  3. Set Relation Type: Give it (one of the) name you mapped to Generalization. It is handy to set Color Relation types in Settings > DOCUMENT. The color of the relation arrow should now automatically be set to blue.

Using the Hierarchy View ​

For large taxonomies, the Hierarchy View is the most efficient tool.

  1. Open the Hierarchy View tab in the right sidebar.
  2. This view displays your terms in a tree structure based on the Generalization relations.
  3. Drag and Drop: You can often drag terms within this view to re-parent them (depending on your specific Termboard version's capabilities).
  4. Navigation: Click on any item in the tree to locate it on the canvas.

3. AI-Assisted Taxonomy Generation ​

Termboard's AI capabilities can jumpstart your taxonomy.

  1. Go to Tools > Add in Bulk/Chatbot.
  2. Select the prompt "Taxonomy for selected terms" (if you have terms selected)
  3. The AI will generate the terms and the necessary Generalization relations automatically.

You can also easily copy paste taxonomies or import One way of doing this is

  1. Give the AI a role of taxonomist. Here is a Claude Skill file
  2. Ask it to generate first the taxonmoy with terms and relations: source|is a|target
  3. This you can paste in the bulk add relation field
  4. (optional) Improve you taxonomy in Termboard, then export it in excel for example
  5. Give the taxonomy to the AI and ask it to generate definitions in the format: an X is an Y that Z to make a complete and consice definition. It should give as output: name|definition
  6. Paste this in the bulk add sidebar term field

4. Visualizing and Managing ​

Tree Layout ​

When working with taxonomies, the layout of your graph matters.

  • Use the Auto Arrange feature.
  • Select Hierarchical layout algorithm to visually arrange your terms in a clear top-down or left-right structure.
  • If there are many terms, you can also try the wider layout.

Semantic Checks ​

Use Semantic Checks to validate your taxonomy:

  • Circular Hierarchy: Ensures you don't have loops (A is a B, B is a A).
  • Multiple Parents: While allowed in some taxonomies (poly-hierarchy), often you want a strict tree. Termboard can warn you about this.

5. Exporting ​

You can export your taxonomy in standard formats:

  • OWL (Web Ontology Language): Your generalization relations will be exported as rdfs:subClassOf.
  • JSON: For custom processing.

See Import/Export for details.