In the last years several drafts, recommendations and concepts for a graphical notation for Topic Maps have be published, but till today no graphical notation is generally approved and used in the Topic Maps community. In this paper we present GTMalpha as a conceptual new notation for a graphical representation of Topic Maps. Our objective is, to provide a practical usable notation, which allow a complete, a consistent as well as an easy to use graphical representation of any given topic map draft. GTMalpha provides a domain as well as a subject centric view and most important it considers the unique characteristics of the Topic Maps paradigm. This paper serves as a user oriented GTMalpha manual for ontology designers, domain experts as well as end users.

1. GTM alpha towards a graphical notation for Topic Maps Hendrik Thomas 1 , Tobias Redmann 2 , Maik Pressler 2 , Bernd Markscheffel 2 1 KDEG Trinity College, Ireland 2 Ilmenau University of Technology, Germany

5. 3. General GTM Design (1 of 2) 1.) Which basic layout?  2D-graph layout with many different elements (topic, types, occ, etc.) 2.) How to separate the different elements?  different colors topic scope type occ   different geometric shapes topic scope type topic type topic type BUT: topics can be types AND instances 

7. 4. GTM alpha tutorial – Topics and Types (1 of 2)

8. 4. GTM alpha tutorial – Topics and Types (2 of 2)

9. 4. GTM alpha tutorial – Topic Names (1 of 3)

10. 4. GTM alpha tutorial – Topic Names (2 of 3)

11. EQUAL 4. GTM alpha tutorial – Topic Names (3 of 3)

12. 4. GTM alpha tutorial – Subject Identity

13. 4. GTM alpha tutorial – Occurrences (1 of 2)

14. 4. GTM alpha tutorial – Occurrences (2 of 2)

15. 4. GTM alpha tutorial – Associations

16. 4. GTM alpha tutorial – Views (1 of 2)

17. 4. GTMalpha tutorial – Views (2 of 2)

20. 4. GTM alpha tutorial – Reification