You can create an additional entity, which is a semantic object, for your project.
| Use this | To do this |
|---|---|
| Words/phrases identifying entity or Add Synonym | Enter the words or phrases that identify the entity. For example, for an entity represented by the Employee table, you could type: employee, worker, associate (with a comma after each entry). Note that the words should appear in their singular forms, not in the plural. |
| Entity type | Select a type from the drop-down list:
None—The default. No additional language capabilities enabled. Person—Allows the entity to be referred to as “who.” For example, indicating that customers are people allows “Who bought a lawnmower?” to be interpreted as “Which customer bought a lawnmower?” Also allows the word “person” to be used to refer to the entity. For example, “Which person bought the most hammers?” Animate object—Allows the entity to be referred to as "who.” For example, indicating that companies are animate objects allows "Who sold the most computers?" to be interpreted as "Which company sold the most computers?" Physical object—Indicates the entity represents a physical object. Knowing that an entity is a physical object can help Microsoft English Query give more meaningful error messages when users ask questions about physical traits that are not in the database (such as the colors of products). Date or time—Allows the entity to be referred to as "when" and allows it to be used in the When, Start, and End options of the Time/Location tab for a relationship. Address—Indicates that the entity is composed of several fields, which collectively represent an address. This allows the entity to be referred to as an "address." For example, "Show the employees and their addresses.” This allows you to ask about the fields of the address individually. For example, "What is John Smith's postal code?" |
| Entity is not associated with a database object | Specify that the entity is not represented by an existing database object; in other words, it is not represented by a table or field. See More Information on Entity Is/Is Not Associated With a Database Object. |
| Entire table is associated with this entity | Specify that the entity is represented by the rows in the table, not by individual fields. See More Information on Entity Is/Is Not Associated With a Database Object. |
| Kind of name | Specify the type of name for the entity. If an option is selected other than No name type, then Add Values of this entity to the domain is enabled. |
| No name type | This data does not represent a name or unique ID. This is the default choice. If this option is selected, the Add Values of this entity to the domain is unavailable. |
| Proper name | Indicate the proper name of something. Proper names are capitalized and are not preceded by an article (a, an, or the). For example, Mary Smith. |
| Common name | Specify a general term for something. Common names are not capitalized and typically include an article: a, an, or the. For example, a wrench. (An exception to the requirement for an article is an e-mail name.) |
| Classifier name | Select a name of something commonly preceded by a, an, or the, and the entity word is included in the name. For example, the Finance Department includes the name of the entity: department. |
| Model name | Select a name capitalized and preceded by the word a, an, or the. For example, brand names such as a Mustang. (Note that you don’t typically include the name of the entity. For example, you would not say, a Mustang car.) |
| Unique ID | Specify that this entity is represented by a special type of name in the database that makes each entry unique. For example, Employee 37541. |
| Add values of this entity to the domain | Add data in the selected table or field to the domain so that questions about that data can be answered. Depending on the size of the database object that represents this entity, the process of loading these values may take as little as a few minutes or as much as a few hours when building the application. This option is available when a Kind of name option is selected (other than No name type). |
| Entity ID | Display the identification of the entity (by default, the first word used to define it). Entity IDs are used to create relationships. An existing entity must be selected for this option to be displayed. |
| Change Entity ID | Change the identification of the entity. When you click Apply, a dialog box appears in which you can make the change. |
| Autoname | Quickly specify the type of name and specify the fields used in a name entity. This option is available for table entities that don't already have a name (that is, a relationship defined as a name phrasing such that the name entity has a name type other than Unique ID). |
| Autotrait | Automatically create the minor entities for each field in the table that is represented by this major entity and the relationships with trait phrasings that relate them to the major entity. This option is available if any field in the table is not associated with a minor entity. |
| Show Relationships | Display a list of relationships that involve this entity. |
| Advanced | Display the Advanced Entities Properties dialog box. |
| Module | Specify the module (.eqm file) of which you want the current entity to be a part. |