If you find DELTA too difficult you can try my software.

http://drawwing.org/dkey

DKey is a free software which does not generate key automatically but makes writing dichotomous key easier.

http://drawwing.org/dkey

Hello there!

Delta is not very easy in the beginning but extremely helpful, once you get used to it. I would always recommend it if you want to do taxonomic descriptions, create keys, etc.

Maybe you should start right away with the new open DELTA system: http://code.google.com/p/open-delta/

It should be able to do the same as the old application but being a java application, it can be used on all sorts of systems (OS, Win, Linux) and you don't need to run the virtual machine. Good luck!

Torben

@Torben Riehl, Thank you very much! It is not easy for me now and it take a lot time on editing the character. But I found the Key-Generation is so useful and helpful! I wish more people around me could use DELTA and share the experience with me.

Hi, I used it in an initial stage of a taxonomic revision + key of a large group (over 100 species) of insects. My experience was not that positive; I had to re-write everything, and the key appeared spurious (after all, I did it entirely indpendendent of DELTA, as the characters and their order selected by DELTA as key characters did not correspond with my common sense or utility of them). In the end, I decided to discard everything related to DELTA. As compared this experience with those of others, it may well be that either I was not fully competent with using it, or alternatively, the benefit of using it depends of the kind of data and taxa in question.

Thank your @Alejandro González Medina. Would you please give some advice on programs choosing for plant taxonomy research, and how about the non-DELTA-format programs? (There are some listed on the website of Free DELTA:

http://freedelta.sourceforge.net/)

Well DELTA is not so much a user-friendly program. And it really helps if you've got somebody who can introduce you to how everything needs to be set up. I am using DELTA mainly for species descriptions. My database consists of more than 1000 characters with many dependencies and inapplicables - so it is rather complex. In order to achieve a nice and readable description output, you need to use some tricks, such as the extensive use of angle brackets in coding the characters. This however leads to problems with the key output and so on and so forth. It is still extremely helpful and there are solutions to most shortcomings. I don't know of any other program that would do the same job in a better way. If anybody knew a program, spreading the word would be much appreciated!

I started using DELTA from 1998 till now 2013. I found it very good software for building keys, description, even analysis of your date to find the relation between the studies taxa.

=====

All the best.

Sami Rabei

http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=GexZOhIAAAAJ

Sincerely Yours

----------------------------------

With my Best Wishes

Sami Hussein Rabei,

Botany Department

Faculty of Science,

Damietta University,

New Damietta , Post Box 34517

Damietta

Egypt .

Hi!

I am using DELTA sincemore than 10 years. Even if it is a little bit difficult to self-learn, I found it very usefull. I use it mainly for description of species and to generate dichotomic keys. These two kinds of output needs some tricks and several tests to weight correctly the characters. But in final, the outputs are used with very minor improvement.

One problem I had with its installation is that under Win7 (premium/family), you need to use a virtual machine with XP (all works fine after). Under Win7pro, you need to fully install all the .exe .com files (including the installation one) in compatibility mode (win XP) before to start any works. But it works well.

The Open-Delta java platform is a good alternative to DELTA. A little bit younger but running well.

Finally, I think that when LUCID will produce also dichotomic keys (and not only the interactive ones) it will become a major competitor for DELTA.

Have fun!

As a tropical ecologist with a great interest in taxonomy for plant identification and computing, I set up my own system based on Access with a good deal of application programming for a database of descriptions using up to 83 vegetative characters of over 500 tree species. However, I felt obliged to also create Delta format files to interface to the taxonomic world. I then used PANKEY programs (Pankhurst 1995), from Exeter Software - NY, on my own Delta files to create taxonomic keys which I then presented as an interactive key using Access forms. It immediately produced an interesting demonstration but it didn´t give good enough results for my expert botanical colleagues. This was a first try and I didn't work on it sufficiently to totally abandon the idea - I would like to return to it at a future date. Instead I turned my energies to an automatic character comparison program which worked very well. See my publications of 2006 and 2009.

Hi Peter,

Your post remember me an other interesting software DeltaAccess which interface DELTA with Access databases and allow easy use of several formatting in output text. Unfortunately it does not evolve since 2005 But it could be usefull for someone http://diversityworkbench.net/OldModels/Descriptions/index.html

Yves, thank you for reminding me about DeltaAccess and that it didn't develop further. That is unfortunate as Access, Forms in particular, can be used to provide user friendly interfaces. I briefly looked at it in 2005 but by that time I was happily set up with my own system. I would have thought that you would be more involved in character comparison systems - you still find printed keys useful? They are certainly still popular for plant identification.

If you find DELTA too difficult you can try my software.

http://drawwing.org/dkey

DKey is a free software which does not generate key automatically but makes writing dichotomous key easier.

http://drawwing.org/dkey

I'm using DELTA since .... decades! And now the ALA DELTA version is running fine for automatic descriptions, key building and interactive identification (INTKEY). As for any software, some learning curve is necessary. A motivated student can use it thoroughly after one week learning. Some older friends entomologists (older than me!) learned to use it in 1-2 months. There are good tutorials and also a very useful forum to ask when some problem arises, and Mike Dallwitz, one of its creator, is very nice man for helping. The main difficulty which is not due to DELTA, is to define sound and objective characters and their states when building the descriptive database with the editor. There is also an extensive litterature of works showing the use of the DELTA format. Enjoy!

Please could you provide a link to the ALA DELTA version? I don't find any link on the WEB.

Thank you for your help

You can try BIOKEYS at iebr.ac.vn (both for polyclave and for dichotomous keys)

Cher Yves, voici le lien pour ALA DELTA

http://downloads.ala.org.au/p/Open%20DELTA

cordialement

Nicolas