State vs Hubbard and Bishop Regarding Assault of Two Slaves 11B Packet 117

Noting edits in a text

• Strikethroughs: If a word has been crossed out and is still legible, use the "strikethrough" function to cross through the words that have been edited in the original text; if a word is illegible, not in brackets as such [illegible strikethrough]
• Insertions: If a word is inserted above or below a line of text, transcribe it as it would naturally appear in the text.
• Underlines: Use the underline function on words/phrases as they appear in the original text.
• Illegible words/phrases: If a word/phrase is completely illegible, note the number of words or lines illegible in brackets as such: [3 words illegible]; if a word is partially legible or incomplete, note using brackets and two hyphens as such: [sm–]; if you have a question about the accuracy of your transcription or the word is unclear, use the "unclear" function to note the word(s) that are unclear; if a page is torn/cut, note where the legible line ends and tear begins (for example: I am in tolerable health at this [end of line, page is torn])
• Superscripts: Use the "superscript" function to note superscripts in the original text.
• Headings: Use the heading function to indicate headings in the original text.
• Marginalia: When word(s) are written in the margins of the page, use the marginalia function to note the word(s) in the line they are written by in the original text.
• Symbols instead of words: Fairly often in these documents, the writer will use a symbol for a word instead of spelling it out (for example "and"); if you come across this, please spell out the word instead of using or trying to describe the symbol used.

Helpful Documentation

Advanced Markup

Table Encoding

Encoding mathematical and scientific formula with LaTex

Linking Subjects

To create a link within a transcription, surround the text with double square braces.

Example: Say that we want to create a subject link for “Dr. Owen” in the text:

Dr. Owen and his wife came by for fried chicken today.

Place [[ and ]] around Dr Owen like this:

[[Dr. Owen]] and his wife came by for fried chicken today.

When you save the page, a new subject will be created for “Dr. Owen”, and the page will be added to its index. You can add an article about Dr. Owen—perhaps biographical notes or references—to the subject by clicking on “Dr. Owen” and clicking the Edit tab.

To create a subject link with a different name from that used within the text, use double braces with a pipe as follows: [[official name of subject|name used in the text]]. For example:

[[Dr. Owen]] and [[Dr. Owen's wife|his wife]] came by for fried chicken today.

This will create a subject for “Dr. Owen's wife” and link the text “his wife” to that subject.

Renaming Subjects

In the example above, we don't know Dr. Owen's wife's name, but created a subject for her anyway. If we later discover that her name is “Juanita”, all we have to do is edit the subject title:

1. Click on “his wife” on the page, or navigate to “Dr. Owen's wife” on the home page for the project.
2. Click the Edit tab.
3. Change “Dr. Owen's wife” to “Juanita Owen”.

This will change the links on the pages that mention that subject, so our page is automatically updated:

[[Dr. Owen]] and [[Juanita Owen|his wife]] came by for fried chicken today.

Combining Subjects

Occasionally you may find that two subjects actually refer to the same person. When this happens, rather than painstakingly updating each link, you can use the Combine button at the bottom of the subject page.

For example, if one page reads:

[[Dr. Owen]] and [[Juanita Owen|his wife]] came by for [[fried chicken]] today.

while a different page contains

Jim bought a [[chicken]] today.

you can combine “chicken” with “fried chicken” by going to the “chicken” article and reviewing the combination suggestions at the bottom of the screen. Combining “fried chicken” into “chicken” will update all links to point to “chicken” instead, copy any article text from the “fried chicken” article onto the end of the “chicken” article, then delete the “fried chicken” subject.

Auto-linking Subjects

Whenever text is linked to a subject, that fact can be used by the system to suggest links in new pages. At the bottom of the transcription screen, there is an Autolink button. This will refresh the transcription text with suggested links, which should then be reviewed and may be saved.

Using our example, the system already knows that “Dr. Owen” links to “Dr. Owen” and “his wife” links to “Juanita Owen”. If a new page reads:

We told Dr. Owen about Sam Jones and his wife.

pressing Autolink will suggest these links:

We told [[Dr. Owen]] about Sam Jones and [[Juanita Owen|his wife]].

In this case, the link around “Dr. Owen” is correct, but we must edit the suggested link that incorrectly links Sam Jones's wife to “Juanita Owen”. The autolink feature can save a great deal of labor and prevent collaborators from forgetting to link a subject they previously thought was important, but its suggestions still need to be reviewed before the transcription is saved.