Functionality

This web application allows you to search through the works of Aquinas in both English and Latin. It allows you to do proximity word and phrase searches. For each result found, the paragraph containing the result will be displayed together with a link to the website where the full text can be found. Furthermore, if desired, one can save and categorize results in user defined groups of results.

Instructions

(1) Make sure you have selected some pages to search by clicking on the checkboxes in the 'Domain Summary' pane.
(2) In the 'New Search' pane, fill any one of the word1 to word4 text fields with words you would like to find near to each other. You can specify the separation of the words by using the drop down menu. You can specify wild cards by using the '%' character. You can use the 'OR' keyword within a text field to specify different alternatives you would like to find. You can also search for exact phrase. For example, you could set the following:

• word1: Sacred Scripture
• word2: love% OR desire%

This search for the exact phrase "Sacred Scripture" near words such as love, loves, loved, desire, desires, desired etc. Here is one of the results: Sacred Scripture likewise records the love of God: “He hath loved the people” (Deut. 33:3); “I have loved you with an everlasting love” (Jer. 31:3); “For the Father Himself loves you” (John 16:27). Certain philosophers likewise made God’s love to be the principle of things. With this view the words of Dionysius agree when he says that “the divine love did not allow Him to be without offspring” [De div. nom. IV, 11].
(3) If desired, you can create groups of results that you can save for later reference. To do so, you will first need to sign up for a user account. Once you are logged into your user account, do the following: (a) click on the 'New Group' drop down menu item in the 'Groups' pane. (b) Select the directory you would like it to be in by selecting a radio button. (c) Use the text field to enter an appropriate group name. (d) Create the group by clicking on 'Create Group' (e) Do a search. (f) Among the search results, click on the corresponding check boxes if you want to add the search results to the group. (g) Click on 'Add Search Results' drop down menu item in the 'Groups' pane. (h) Click on the 'add results' link next to the group you want to add the results to.

Further Functionality

When I have time, I would like to add some further functionality:

• 1. Add other philosophers.
• 2. Allow users to add private comments to a search result.
• 3. Allow users to upload pdfs (with appropriate access control) which they want to search. (This may be tricky).
• 4. Autogenerate bibliographies in a variety of formats

If you notice any bugs or functionality you would like this web application to provide, please contact searchstthomas@english.op.org. Thank you for your patience.