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Metadata in searchable fields is hyperlinked automatically in the item display template. By clicking on hyperlinked metadata terms, end-users can perform quick searches within the collection.

To prevent irrelevant words from being hyperlinked within the item display page, you can add stop words to the CONTENTdm program files. A stop word is a common word (such as "the") that the search engine has been programmed to ignore. Stop words are deemed irrelevant for searching purposes because they occur so frequently.

CONTENTdm Versions 3.5 and higher automatically utilize a preconfigured list of common stop words. In Version 3.4 and earlier, the stop words list is applied only when you use the Query Builder Tool to create predefined queries into your collection.

The item display template below shows stop words and hyperlinked metadata.

Stop words within CONTENTdm apply to all collections on the Server.

To add stop words to CONTENTdm, you must be able to access the root server directory. If you do not have access to the root server directory, see your CONTENTdm Server Administrator about adding stop words.

To add additional stop words to CONTENTdm 3.4 or later:

1. Locate the existing stop words file within the docs directory of the CONTENTdm Server, \docs\stopwords.txt

2. Open the file stopwords.txt. Review the list to be sure the stop words you want to add are not on the list already.

3. Type new stop words or paste them from another document. Use only one word per line. Stop words are not case sensitive.

4. Save your changes and close the stop words text file. Words in the stop list will no longer appear as hyperlinked, searchable metadata within Query Builder-created item display pages. The stop word list may be modified at any time.

To add stop words using CONTENTdm 3.3 or earlier:

1. Create a list of stop words using only one word per line. Stop words are not case sensitive.

2. Name this file stopwords and save it as text (.txt) file in the docs directory of the CONTENTdm Server.

3. The words in the stop list will no longer appear as hyperlinked, searchable metadata within Query Builder-created item display pages. The stop word list may be modified at any time.

HTML Tags

CONTENTdm recognizes the HTML tag, <BR>. The <BR> tag may be used to impose some basic formatting on your metadata. To use the tag to format metadata and prevent it from appearing in your metadata, add the tag to you stop words list.

The preconfigured stop words list in Version 3.4 and higher already contains the <BR> tag.

Users of Version 3.3 (or earlier) who wish to use the <BR> tag to format metadata will need to add it to the stop words list. To use this tag to format metadata without having the tag appear in your metadata, add BR without the opening and closing symbols (<>) to the list of stop words.

Use of the <BR> tag is supported within all versions of CONTENTdm.

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