Making a lens public (Authors only)

New lenses are always private, but can be made public by authors.

Freezing a lens

Lenses are dynamic by nature — they are evaluated at the time they are accessed. If, however, you have a need to preserve the specific results of a lens, you can use the “Freeze” option. Once a lens is frozen, it will always return the same items. Note: Authors may still edit the content of frozen items, or delete them entirely.

Creating a path or tag from a lens (Authors only)

Lenses offer a quick way to create new paths and tags. Choose the “Create path from lens” or “Create tag from lens” options to instantly create a new path or tag from the contents of the current lens.

Clear lens

This option restores the lens to its initial state.

Duplicate lens (Authors only)

Makes a copy of the current lens.

Export to CSV

Takes the content returned by the current lens — including all metadata — and exports it as a comma separated value file for further analysis.

Submit to authors (Readers only)

Readers who have created lenses can use this option to submit their lenses to authors to be considered for publication. Authors will receive a notification email and can review submitted lenses on the Manage Lenses screen for their project, either accepting or rejecting the submissions.