VisibleThread Docs Training for New Users - Updated July 2014 (VT version 2.10)

1 day Training for RFP & Proposal Development
Copyright Visible Thread 2014
Suitable for: VisibleThread Docs version 2.10
Updated: October - 2014.

Agenda
2
1. Getting Started Notes – Areas covered
2. Is your proposal clear? – is your proposal readable?
3. Creating a Starter Compliance Matrix
4. Is your Proposal risky OR giving a bad impression?
5. Editing & Creating Dictionaries
6. Using Concept Tracking to identify gaps and inconsistencies
7. Collaborating with Discussions & Notes

Some Starting Notes
1. The VisibleThread dashboard is a web based interface to VisibleThread. There is no
installation involved.
2. These file types are supported:
a) Word 2003 (.doc)
b) Word 2007 & Word 2010 (.docx)
c) Rich Text Format (.rtf)
d) Excel 2003 (.xls)
e) Excel 2007 & Excel 2010 (.xlsx, .xlsm)
f) Adobe PDFs (.pdf)
3. Your User id is your e-mail address. Your default password is ‘password1’, you can
change it later.
4. Online help under ‘User Name’ menu
5. Our support forum at: support.visiblethread.com
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1. Getting Started
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Lay of the Land
1. Navigation Pane on left,
a) folders
b) dictionaries
2. Click in Nav. Pane, detail
on right changes
3. Folders
a) are used to group docs
4. Dictionaries are ‘accordion’
i.e. click on one, the other
contracts
5
Navigation Pane on left
Summary Screen on right

Creating folders and adding documents
1. Tool bar, allowing:
a) Create Folder
b) Upload documents
c) Additional actions under the ‘Actions’ menu apply to a folder or a
document
6
Tool bar, add remove
Folders / docs

General Tabbed Navigation – Selecting a document
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Each tab shows a different set
of data for the selected doc
‘LIU Onbord….doc’
Just Added. Doc selected

Understanding Folder versus Doc Views
 Folder view show analysis for
content in a collection of docs
 Doc view shows analysis for
content in just 1 document
8

Folder vs. Doc View – Example: Concept Tracking
9
In this case of ‘Concept
Tracking’ we can see coverage
stats across 8 docs in the folder

Folder vs. Doc View – Example: Concept Tracking
10
In this case of ‘Concept Tracking’ we
can see coverage stats across 1 doc
Headings
where phrases
are found
Results Grid showing
occurrence of in document

Lay of the land: Dictionaries & Structure Outlines
‘Dictionaries’ accordion bottom left – we will cover usage examples later
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Click ‘Dictionaries’ in bottom
left.

What are dictionaries?
1. Used to collect groups of phrases and terms that we will verify exist
(or don’t exist) in documents.
2. Why interesting?
a) Allow us check for existence of terms that we expect. In a proposal
development context, it allows us validate if we’re compliant:
- Section L & M
b) Allow us to check for negative (waffle) indicators. Pose a risk to
winning bid and can impact program delivery
- Lack of completeness, trite, open ended, clichés, legally risky…
3. More later
12

and what are structure outlines… ?
1. Enforce consistent structures across documents.
2. Create new documents with expected outline
In context of Proposal Development:
1. Check your proposal has the right structure (headings)
a) Program delivery Plan
b) Quality Plan
2. Creates clean docs quickly based on repetitive structures.
a) Applicable where you have repetition – e.g.: Task Orders
13

Exercise 1a: Navigate around
1. Sign into Dashboard
- Use your mail address & provided password
(Default is generally ‘password1’)
2. Select ‘Sample Project-IT’ by clicking on it.
Notice the tabs on the right
3. Expand the folder by clicking the + icon. Select
one of the docs.
4. Click ‘Actions’. Note the drop down men
14

Exercise 1b: Create a new folder and upload a
document
2. Create a folder / folder. Name this folder with
your first name and surname initial, for example
‘MaryN’ OR ‘JohnM’
3. Now add a document to this new doc set
15
Create new Folder Add document(s)

Exercise 1c: Explore Dictionaries
- Use your mail address & provided password
(Default is generally ‘password1’)
2. Select ‘Dictionaries’ on bottom left
3. Expand ‘Concept Dictonaries’ by clicking the +
icon. Select one of the outlines.
4. Click Edit on right hand side. Then click ‘Cancel
edit’
5. Click ‘Actions’. Note the drop down menu
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2. Is your proposal clear?
Complex statements make a reviewers life hard! And may
make your proposal non-compliant
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Why Plain Language?
‘Plain Language’ seeks to simplify written language; the result is
clear and unambiguous communication.
From: http://www.plainlanguage.gov/examples/before_after/index.cfm
“When the process of freeing a vehicle that has
been stuck results in ruts or holes, the operator will
fill the rut or hole created by such activity before
removing the vehicle from the immediate area.”
OR
“If you make a hole while freeing a stuck vehicle,
you must fill the hole before you drive away.”
Plain Writing Act of 2010 (Obama signed on Oct 2010), E.O. 12866 & E.O. 12988
http://www.plainlanguage.gov/plLaw/index.cfm

Average words per sentence: 10.5
Hard Words: 2.9%
FOG Index (readability): 5.5
VS
Average words per sentence: 21.6
Hard Words: 5.11%
FOG Index (readability): 10.7

Plain Language Analysis
1. Metrics: Readability, Passive Constructs, Long Sentences
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Metrics: Readability, Passive
Language, Long Sentences etc.
Exact Text in document

Sections and paging
1. Color-coding shows content eg: blue for long sentences (> 25 words)
2. Hidden Verbs (also called nominalisations) are green, passive is
maroon
3. Sections show occurrences to right
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Sections where
violations occur

Passive Voice in context (maroon)
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Prior to making a decision on applying to be registered as a self-insured
employer, you should become familiar with the
requirement of self-insurance contained within the Code of
conduct for self-insured employers under the WorkCover
Scheme.

Long Sentences in context (blue)
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A self-insurer must pay a fee as a contribution to the
overheads of the WorkCover scheme and this includes a
component to cover the liabilities of self-insurers in the
event of insolvency

Nominalisations
1. “Please make an application” versus “Please apply”
2. Which is easier?
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Verb or noun to use Nominalisation
advance the advancement of
arrange the arrangement of
complete the completion of
complex the complexity of
decide making a decision
facilitate the facilitation of
implement the implementation of
introduce making an introduction
investigate conducting an investigation
occur the occurrence of
provide the provision of
(re)develop the (re)development of

Nominalisations (hidden verbs) in context (green)
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Prior to making a decision on applying to be
registered as a self-insured employer…
OR
Before deciding to register as a self-insured
employer… [reduce word count]

Readability – what is it?
1. Flesch Reading Ease Index (Rudolf Flesh - Austria)
2. Attempt to generically measure how readable a document is
3. Formula – number between 0 and 100
4. 0 – most complex, 100 least complex
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Readability for document

Readability – a note on readability in the context of tech documents
(206.835 – (1.015 x Average Sentence Length) – (84.6 x Average Syllables per
Word)) heavily weighted towards syllables per word
Score:
• 0–29 (Very Difficult);
• 30–49 (Difficult);
• 50–59 (Fairly Difficult);
• 60–69 (Standard);
• 70–79 (Fairly Easy);
• 80–89 (Easy);
• 90–100 (Very Easy)
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1. For non-tech pubs,
readability measure is
important. e.g. Consumer
Facing Credit Agreements
2. BUT, if you have a tech
heavy document you may
see limited improvements.
3. Focus more on reducing
long sentences and
passive voice. These will
improve the readability
score, but it may not be
significant.

Creating PDF reports from the Plain Language view
1. You can export the Plain Language results to a printable format
from the Plain Language tab
2. This is useful for sharing reports with colleagues.
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Setting language thresholds for colors (Red, Green, Yellow)
1. Click “Settings >> Clear
Language Thresholds”
2. Settings drive the colors
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Exercise 3a: Examine Plain Language statistics
(TEAM into PAIRS)
1. Select a sample document
2. Click on ‘Plain Language’ tab at right
3. Review
1. Hidden verbs (nominalisations)
2. Review Long Sentences.
3. Review Passive Language.
4. Choose 2 examples of each & rewrite
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Exercise 3b: Export to a pdf
1. Select a sample document
2. Click on ‘Plain Language’ tab at right
3. Click the ‘View PDF report’ button
4. Open the report, and attach it to a mail. Send to
colleagues
Test this by sending to yourself
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Exercise 3c: Export to Excel
1. Click the ‘export’ button in the Plain Language
Tab
2. In your browser pop up window, right click and
hit ‘select all’
3. Copy to clipboard by clicking CTRL + ‘C’ or
clicking CTRL + ‘Insert’
4. Open an empty excel spread sheet. Select cell
A1, paste into the spread sheet.
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Comparing Plain Language statistics across multiple documents
1. You can compare how the PL stats compare from the Home >>
Summary view.
2. One nice idea is to set goals or benchmarks (using clear novels)
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Our documents
Progressing to
better values
The best of Issac Asimov
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

Exercise 3d: Compare multiple documents
 Click “Home” in the navigation pane
 In Summary View, expand a number of folders
 See how the stats compare.
 Which doc do you feel needs most attention?
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3. Creating a Starter
Compliance Matrix
Searching the solicitation for ‘will’, ‘shall’, ‘must’
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What is a Starter Compliance Matrix?
1. Based on keyword searching
2. Analyzes PDF and MS Word
docs
3. What it does:
a) Searches for keywords (e.g.
will, shall & must etc.) defined
in a dictionary
b) Extracts text and context (in
MS Word it is the heading, in
PDF it is the page no)
c) Allows you export to PDF
and/or Excel (or CSV)
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How to - Steps
1. Select document
2. Click ‘Quality Analysis’
3. Click ‘Use different dictionary’
4. Choose ‘Bid – Compliance Scan v5’ or another suitable dictionary
5. Check Boxes to right of terms
6. Click Export >> Export to Excel
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Quick Notes
• Not a ‘fire and forget’ exercise OR magic panacea
• Does the initial time consuming work, get’s you to a starting
position quickly.
• Must be vetted to add/modify certain content
• Also can be used to size effort during initial estimation phases
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4. Is your Proposal risky OR
giving a bad impression?
Identifying Weak Language with quality scans
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What is Bad Language?
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Examples of Bad Language in different fields...
Trite “best of breed”
“world class”
“seamless”
“state of the art”
“unique”
… many more
Legal Terms that imply a contractual obligation:
“ensure”
“insure”
“everywhere”
“fastest”
“fully”
“greatest”
Latin Abbreviations “etc”
“De minimis non curat lex”
“Ad diem”
“Ad hoc”
“Ad idem”
“Ad infinitim”
“Bona fide”

Viewing Bad Language in a document
1. Results are presented in ‘Quality Analysis’ tab
2. Check boxes in list of terms show occurrences in bottom grid
41
Phrases found in document
with number issues found
Headings where risky
phrases are found
Results Area showing
occurrence of issues in
document

Applying a different dictionary
1. Select a document in the navigation tree
2. Click ‘Quality Analysis’ tab to right
3. Click ‘Use different dictionary…’ and choose the specific Bad
Language dictionary
4. Click ‘Set Dictionary’
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List of available
dictionaries

Interacting with the results
1. Checking the box to the right of a number flags results in ‘Results
Area’
2. Checking a ‘category’ e.g. ‘Sexist’ checks everything in that
category. Checking the column header checks everything
43
Checkboxes – check and
the results show in bottom
grid

Receiving Guidance
1. When you hover over coloured text, you will receive guidance.
NOTE: The guidance is specified as part of the term description in the dictionary.
Change it by editing the dictionary.
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Hover over showing
guidance

Publishing to PDF
1. You can create a report by clicking the ‘View PDF report’ button.
2. If you have no boxes checked, the report will contain all terms and
full content details
TIP: If you want to create with only certain terms check those boxes and then generate
the report.
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View PDF report

Exporting to Excel (CSV) for manipulation
1. You can also export statistics from most screens to CSV (Comma
Separated Values) by clicking on the ‘Export’ button. Some screens
also support native Excel. The export is specific to the results
showing in that area.
By default, CSV files open in Excel if you have Excel installed on your desktop.
46
Export to CSV button available in
different contexts.

Exercise 4a: Run a Quality Analysis Scan
1. Select the doc you uploaded earlier.
2. Click ‘Quality Analysis’
3. Click ‘Use different dictionary…’
4. Choose ‘Bid – Review Scan v6’, click ‘Set
Dictionary’
47

Exercise 4b: Explore detailed Results
1. Once scan completes, look at the results on the
right` under the .Quality Analysis tab.
2. Expand categories in the middle list area
a) Click ‘+’ to left of ‘Cliches and Professionalism’, do you
see any hits?
b) What about the rest?
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Exercise 4c: Export to PDF
1. Select the doc you uploaded ealier in the
navigation area. Click ‘Quality Analysis’ tab
2. Check some boxes where there are hits (using
the header checkbox).
3. Click ‘View PDF report’
4. Try generating a 2nd report with everything
checked, & with nothing checked.
49

Exercise 4d: Export & Save as Excel
1. Select the doc you uploaded ealier in the
2. Check all boxes where there are hits (using the
header checkbox).
3. Click ‘Export’ on the bottom area.
4. Open result and view in Excel
5. In Excel, highlight the first row with shading and
freeze the first row, wrap the content column.
6. Save the result as ‘Bad Language report’ and
as an xls or xlsx format
50

Comparing multiple documents in a folder
1. You can see how many hits each doc in a folder gets
2. Click ‘folders’ then Quality Analysis tab
3. expand all by clicking the button in the tool bar. Click through
to the specific document
51
Hits occuring
where red font
appears
Number shows how many
hits

White listing Bad Language
1. There may be cases when you see hits in the Quality Analysis that
you consider benign.
2. White Listing is designed to cater for these cases.
3. You click ‘Start Review’ on the grid area
4. Then highlighting specific text and selecting ‘Add to whitelist’ allows
specific text to be white listed. Once done, clicking ‘Finish Review’
prompts for a comment.
52
Tool bar for white
listing

Exercise 4e: Add items to white list
1. If not already done, select the sample doc
‘Iowa-Venturi Cat 1-ITQ-Response’ in the
2. Check all boxes where there are hits
3. In the bottom grid area click ‘Start Review’
4. Position your cursor to the left of a colorised
item in the grid.
5. Select it and hit ‘Add to whitelist’
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Maintaining the whitelist
1. White lists are stored at folder level
2. White lists apply to all documents within a specific folder.
3. To modify a white list select the folder in the navigation tree
4. Select the ‘Quality Analysis’ tab & modify the white list in the bottom
area
54
White List at folder
level

5. Editing & Creating
Dictionaries
55

Creating new & duplicating Quality Dictionaries
1. Go to dictionaries
2. To create a new dictionary
a) Click ‘Quality Dictionaries’ or expand and select a specific scan
b) click ‘Create new ref practice’
3. To duplicate (copy) a current dictionary
a) Select a specific dictionary that you want to copy
b) click ‘Duplicate selected dictionary’
56
Create New
Dictionary
Duplicate
dictionary

Toolbar for editing. Click ‘Edit dictionary’ to enable this
toolbar. Then start adding categories and search terms
Editing Quality Scans (1)
1. Select the scan in the navigation tree
2. Click ‘Edit’
57
‘Bid – Review Scan v4’
Selected Set of Phrases / Terms to
search for, categorised by
logical area

1. Select the scan
2. Click ‘Edit’
3. Quality scans have Categories
and Markers
4. Markers are the search terms
58
Empty scan after you
create a new scan
Toolbar allows you add categories
and markers, remove categories
etc.

1. Click Add Marker or Add Category, enter name and description
(Note: Descriptions are used in the Quality Analysis Tab for hover overs)
2. To change a current marker or category, select it and edit below
59
Editable details for
selected Marker or
Category above
Set of Phrases / Terms to
search for with description

Quality Scans (4) –Bulk Import from CSV
1. Use CSV import for batch update of terms
2. 3 steps: Edit in Excel, save as CSV, click Import
60
Import terms from a CSV file
Specify CSV File to
import

Exercise 5a: Creating and editing a new scan
(TEAM into PAIRS)
1. Create a new Quality Scan. Call this new scan ‘Bad
Language – [First Name + Surname Initial]’. For
example ‘Bad Language - MaryN’ OR ‘Bad
Language - JohnM’
2. Click Edit and add 3 categories.
Choose categories that make best sense to you. Don’t
worry, you can reuse ‘Sexist’ etc.
3. See if you can come up with new categories.
4. Add at least 3 markers for each new category
5. Edit a marker & marker description, edit a category
61

Exercise 5b: Importing from CSV
1. Create a blank Excel spreadsheet
2. In cell A1, type ‘1. General’, copy this into cell A2
3. In cell B1 type ‘low cost’,
4. in cell B2 type ‘ISO certified’
5. Save spreadsheet as CSV, call it ‘Terms’ and store
locally.
6. Now switch back to your VT dashboard, create a
new dictionary, call it ‘Example Import’ then click
Import terms as text file.
7. Specify the CSV file ‘Terms’, click Import.
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6. Using Concept Tracking to identify
gaps and inconsistencies
63

What is Concept Tracking?
1. Similar to quality scans. But general words/phrases of
interest
2. Not necessarily a bad inference if found
3. Defined in much the same way as quality scans
4. The folder view is very different from Quality Scans
5. Can only be run against a folder, so all docs share
same concept scan
64

A sample Concept List Reference Practice
1. Just like quality, Concept Scans are defined under ‘Dictionaries’
65
‘Engineering - Checklist’
Selected
Set of Phrases / Terms to
search for, categorised by
logical area

Applying a Concept Scan for a folder or doc
1. Select a folder in the navigation tree
NOTE: You must always select a folder otherwise ‘Run Concept List
Analysis’ option is disabled.
2. Click ‘Use different dictionary…’ and choose the dictionary
3. Click ‘OK’
66
Use different
dictionary

Concept Tracking at folder Level
67
Each column shows a document. The numbers in each
column show ‘hits’ in that doc.
Sets of Phrases / Terms being
searched. Gray shows no hits.
Exact Text in
documents

Interacting with the results at doc set level
1. Checking the box to the right of a number flags results in ‘Results
Area’
2. Checking the column header checks everything
68
Checkboxes – check and
the results show in bottom
grid

Shortcut for adding New Concepts to the Concept Scan
1. There is a convenience mechanism that means you can modify
concept scans directly from the “Concept Tracking” tab
2. Click ‘New Concept’
69
Click ‘Add search term’
Enter new concept. Select
a category in the list then
click OK

Using Excel to create a concept heat map (1)
1. Exporting from the doc set screen.
2. By default these files open in Excel as a CSV
3. Highlight the cells with data, use Conditional formatting
70
Conditional Formatting >> ‘Color
Click ‘Export’ Scales’

Using Excel to create a concept heat map (1) (2)
1. Tips: Freeze Cell C2, resize width of col A, col B
71
Heat map in Excel

Exercise 6a: Run a Concept List Analysis
1. Select a folder.
2. Click ‘Actions’
3. Click ‘Run Concept List Analysis…’
4. Choose ‘Companies Act’, click OK
5. Once scan completes, look at the results on the
right` under the Concept Tracking tab.
6. Click around and see results changing in
bottom grid
72

Exercise 6b: Export to an Excel Heatmap
1. Select the LND-VAF folder in the navigation
area. Click ‘Concept Tracking’ tab
2. Check all boxes where there are hits (using the
header checkbox).
3. Click ‘Export’ on the top area.
4. Open result and view in Excel
5. In Excel, highlight cell .
6. Save the result as ‘Bad Language report’ and
as an xls or xlsx format
73

7. Collaborating with
Discussions & Notes
Supporting Team Reviews
74

Recording observations
1. Notes can be added by section
2. Select a section and click ‘add comment’
75
Add Notes here

Exercise 7a: Add Commentary
1. While still in the ‘Plain Language’ tab, find a
section to right where there is a long sentence
2. Click on ‘Add note’ button
3. Enter a comment:
a) Title: ‘Long Sentence here: need to fix’
b) Desc: ‘Team, let’s fix’
c) Put a category of ‘Issue’
4. Save Comment
76

The Discussion Tab
1. Discussions allow team reviews
2. Each comment is logged with author & categorized
77
Record observations and findings, flag
these for team. Use color coding to
highlight issues…Foster light touch team
collaboration…

Filtering, Replying and Closing Discussions
1. Filter discussions by checking on/off
2. Export discussions by clicking ‘Export’ button
3. Close and Reply by clicking buttons
78
Tool bar and filters
Reply in a closed
comment

Exercise 7b: Discussion Threads
1. Click ‘Discussion’ tab
2. Select the comment that was entered in
previous exercise
3. Click ‘Reply’
4. Add this reply ‘Yes reviewed this. Agree we
need to modify’
5. ‘Close’ this comment
6. ‘Re-open’ this comment
79

Exercise 7c: Discussion Threads – filtering
comments
1. Now click ‘Comment’ button to add a new
comment
2. Enter a new comment, title: ‘C1’, desc: ‘another
comment
3. Categorize this as: ‘Observation’
4. Filter the comments by clicking the checkbox to
the right of èach heading type
80

If time allows
8. Discovery
9. Structure analysis
10.User Admin
81

Useful Links and contact Details
 Any questions on usage or any other queries,
mail support@visiblethread.com OR
 Support forum: http://support.visiblethread.com/
 Our blog at: http://www.visiblethread.com/blog/
 Useful 3-minute refresher demos at:
http://www.visiblethread.com/products/demo/
82

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