3B. Using Solid
General principles for using Solid
Tips before beginning
Make sure your file is Unicode.
Your file can have either Unix or Windows line endings. Solid will change it to Windows line endings every time you save it. If you will be doing other operations after this that expect Unix line endings, you will need to change them before you do those operations. Keep this in mind every time you open your file in Solid.
Before even opening the database in Solid, determine whether it places Part of Speech over Sense in the hierarchy, or below it. This affects which template you choose the first time you open the database. [TO DO--I am not sure *any* of the templates allow ps under sn. Need to provide more guidance.]
Make sure the database uses \lx as the field marker. If it doesn't, Solid will think it has no entries. Change the database to use \lx if necessary.
There is a video tutorial about getting working with Solid.
It covers getting started, a detailed explanation of the settings, and examples of using it to solve some common problems. The notes below also cover general principles. Not all of the principles explained below are demonstrated in the videos; working with both the videos and the notes below might give a fuller picture. However, there is a lot about working with Solid that involves "developing an intuition" for how to do it effectively. What is presented here is intended as a way to get started.