Each community will have different needs when it comes to complying with community protocols around language.

Miromaa has been developed with these needs in mind and offers many options to give you control over the way you work with your language.

We understand that meeting your communities needs is one of the most important parts of your language work and can be one of the most complex.

We are always available to speak with you about your community’s needs and how to best use Miromaa’s features to meet your requirements.

The earlier in your language work that Miromaa is set up for your community protocols the better.

Please don’t hesitate to contact us to discuss the best option for your community.

Summary of Miromaa’s Controls for Supporting Community Protocols Around Language.

Miromaa supports community protocols by giving you control over access to your language at all stages of your work:

Set up

• Choose to keep languages and dialects on separate databases or on the same database
• Control access to Miromaa through user accounts with User Names, Passwords & User Group protection.
• Separate screens control which User Groups can view which words:
  The Editor - for entering words with cultural information or controls Learner View - to view words that have been given permission to be visible
  Entry View - for entering words with no cultural information or controls

Entering Words via the Editor In the control panel:

• Categorise the visibility of each word according to the classifications: Unrestricted, Questionable, Sacred, Sexual, Restricted
• Enter cultural knowledge in the Knowledge field in the Editor
• Control which words are visible to learners
• Check and lock words.
• Classify which era words are from: Traditional, Modern, Uncertain, Post Contact, Imported.

Filtering Which Words Go into Dictionaries, Wordlists and Apps

You can easily filter which words are included in your resources using the Filters Panel, which is included in the screens from which you create your word lists, dictionaries and apps.

Miromaa can be used to work on multiple languages and/or multiple dialects at one time.

For those people who aren’t computer geeks like us the database is like the computer’s brain. We can think of Miromaa like the head, they can’t work without each other.

Working With Separate Languages On Separate Databases

Many Miromaa users are working in a language centre that works with many different languages at one time, where it is crucial to keep the languages separate. In this case it is possible to keep each language on a different database. which is like having two different completely separate Miromaa ‘brains’.


You will have to swap back and forth between your brains to work on each language. You can do that in the Login Screen by clicking on ‘Choose’
See 'Swapping Between Languages on Different Databases' section.

To create a new database with a different language
See 'Creating a New Language Database' section.

Working with Separate Languages on One Database

Some users will be working on one language that has several dialects. Other users will work on languages that don’t need to be kept separate. In this case you can work on multiple languages or dialects on the one database, this is like having one brain but two different sections’.

You can keep the brain in the head but swap between different parts of the brain, through the Language field of the login screen.

You can set up different dialects in the Options screen
See 'Creating Dialects Within A Language Database And Assigning Permission to Users'.

In either case you can control which users have access to which languages/ dialects and you can control which words get exported into your wordlists, dicionaries and apps.

To create dialects within an existing database:

1. Access the 'Options' screen through the ‘Tools’ option in the Menu Bar or the Main Menu:
   
   
2. Select 'Options'
3. Click on ‘Languages’
4. Click on ‘Add’
   
   
   
   
5. Write in the name of your language/dialect
6. Click ‘OK’
   
   
   
   
7. Click on the name of the language/dialect in the list:
   
   
   
   
8. Click on the names of the people who are allowed to have access to that language or dialect
   
   

Repeat steps 2-8 for any additional dialects. 

You can access your different language/dialects from the Login Page by clicking on the [v] next to your language name.

To create a new database:

1. Click on ‘Create’ in the login screen
   
   
   
   
2. Type in the name of the new language
3. Click ‘OK’:
   
   
   
   
4. Choose the location for the second database file, we recommend keeping it in your Miromaa Language Work ‘Data’ folder along with your other language’DAT.mdb file
   
   
5. Click ‘Save’:
   
   
   
   
   
   Congratulations you have created another language database!

To swap between languages on different databases:

1. In the login screen, click on I want to ‘Choose’:
   
   
   
2. Click on the database (DAT file) you would like to choose
3. Click ‘Open’:
   
   
   
   
   Wait a few seconds...
   
   Your chosen database will appear.
   
   
   
   Congratulations you have swapped between your language databases!