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Contents

Tips for working with From the Page

Once you sign up for an account, a new Transcribe tab will appear above each page. In some cases, the material will already appear transcribed based on the original OCR (Optical Character Recognition) process before it was uploaded into From the Page. In such cases, you will see a Correct tab above each page. This means that the material will require correction based off of the original machine OCR.

• In the Correct and or Transcribe tabs, use the drop down menu at the top left to change the relative positions of the original document and the transcription screen. Experiment with this to find what works best for you and your document.
• You can create or edit transcriptions by modifying the text entry field and saving. Each modification is stored as a separate version of the page, so that it should be easy to revert to older versions if necessary.
• Click the Preview button to read through your transcription after completing the page.
• Check off Needs Review when you finish transcribing a page. Note that in some projects, all pages will automatically be marked for review after you have completed the page.
• Enlarge the image page by hovering the cursor over the image. The image adjustment control will display and will give you the option of increasing or decreasing the image's size, expanding it to full screen, applying image filters for readability, and rotating the image:





• Use the Page Notes field at the bottom of the screen to enter questions or comments for reviewers.
• To see a rendered preview of your work, click the Preview button above the transcription window. This is helpful if you are using tags or encoding tables. Click Edit to return to editing.
• When actively transcribing, click the Save Changes button often as you work.

General Transcription Conventions

Abbreviations and Contractions

If the abbreviation or contraction is not widely used today, spell it in square brackets after the original transcribed text. DO NOT spell out common abbreviations such as: Dr., Mrs., St. or the standard abbreviations of the months of the year, days of the week, etc.

Chemical formulas

Transcribe as written without use of subscript.

Columned data and tables

Encode tables and columned data according to From the Page's Table Encoding guidelines.

There are four parts that make up table formatting in From the Page. These include Table titles, Table headings, Table heading separators, and Table data rows.

Table titles

If there is title for the table, surround it with equal signs, increasing in length depending on the importance of the title. Typically, surrounding the table title with two equal signs on both sides will be sufficient:

==section or table title==
===more important section or table title===
====even more important section or table title====

Table headings

Table headings are separated by the pipe ( | ) sign. Put all table headings on a single line followed by a pipe:

| First column | Second column | Third column |

Table heading separators

Use three or more dashes between pipe ( | ) signs to mirror the table headings. For example, if a table has three headings, create three table heading separators:

| ----- | ----- | ----- |

The function of the table heading separators is to differentiate a heading from a data row, and to give an additional hint to the parser that it is processing a table. Do not leave empty lines between the heading, separator, and data rows. Leaving empty lines between the heading, separator, and data rows will result in the cell sizes not matching the rest of the table.

Table data rows

Table data is separated by pipes ( | ) just as table headings are. This is where you will include the table's various data:

| A particular apple variety | Number of apples grown | Total number of apples |
| Another particular apple variety | Number of apples grown | New total number of apples |

Putting it all together

Using the four different formatting parts above, a small table will be encoded as follows (we recommend copy and pasting the code below as a template when beginning work on a table. You may edit the code as necessary to suit the specifications of the table you are working on):

==section or table title==
| Heading column A | Heading column B | Heading column C | Heading column D |
| --------------- | --------------- | --------------- | --------------- |
| Row 1, column A | Row 1, column B | Row 1, column C | Row 1, column D |
| Row 2, column A | Row 2, column B | Row 2, column C | Row 2, column D |

Below is an example of a table encoded in From the Page. The table includes blank data fields and data that was crossed out or overwritten with new data with the transcriber using the appropriate tags:

To see the progress of your encoded table, press the Preview button above the transcription window:

Crossed-out and inserted text

Transcribe crossed-out text using the following tag:

<del></del>

and type replacement text (if any) immediately after. If you can’t decipher the crossed-out text, enter it as [illegible]. Transcribe any replacement or inserted text where it logically goes in the sentence. The example below shows transcription of “were” crossed out and replaced by “made.”

Ditto marks

When a line contains ditto marks ( “ ) or other typographical symbols such as a hard dash ( — ) or abbreviation for ditto ( DO ) used to indicate that the text in the line above is repeated, type the text out instead of transcribing the symbol.

Drawings, plates, and other illustrations

Using brackets, briefly describe the drawing or illustration within the following tag:

<fig>[  ]</fig>

Formatting text

• Do not indicate font style, text insertion marks, or underlined, bolded, or italicized text.
• Do not try to mimic the overall page layout by indenting or realigning text.
• Use a double dash (--) to indicate an em-dash ( — ).
• If a word is hyphenated because it goes across two lines, or two pages, type it out as one word on the line or page where the first part of the word appears.

The example below shows transcription of a hyphenated word (Pharmacy) and use of the double dash for the em-dash.

Gaps in text

If there is a gap within the text, such as a tear or damage to a page, ad an ellipsis ( ... ) within the following tag to indicate the missing text:

<gap>...</gap>

Indecipherable text

Use the following tag for indecipherable or illegible text:

<unclear></unclear>

Library stamps and markings

Do not transcribe stamps, date stamps, call numbers, or notes that were placed there by a library or archive. The example below shows a call number and date stamp.

Line and paragraph breaks

Hit Enter once after each line of text ends. Hit Enter twice to indicate a new paragraph. In handwritten documents, a new paragraph is often indicated by an indentation. In From the Page, lines are indicated by the numbers on the left side of the transcription window.

Margin text

Transcribe margin text at the end of the page unless the writer indicates that it should be inserted into the main text. Insert the margin text within the following tag:

<marginalia></marginalia>

Misspellings

Transcribe the word as it is written in the document. If you know the correct spelling, enter it in single square brackets after the misspelled word.

Plant (scientific) names

Transcribe as written, including capitalization. If you know the correct binomial nomenclature, enter it in single square brackets after the transcription. You may refer to the World Flora Organization's website for a comprehensive list of plant taxonomies.

Punctuation marks

In general, transcribe periods, commas, and other punctuation marks as they appear in the text, even if it is grammatically incorrect.

Exceptions:

• If just spacing is used to separate items, add commas to make the separation clearer. Use your judgment as to whether to add a single square bracket around the punctuation you’re adding.
• If a comma, dash, underscore, or some other mark is used instead of a full stop (a period), use the period. If there is no period ending a sentence, insert a period. See the example below:

Questions?

If you have any additional questions, feel free to contact NAL's Transcription Project coordinator:

• Clayton Ruminski, Digital Archivist, clayton.ruminski@usda.gov

Helpful Documentation

Advanced Markup

Table Encoding

Encoding mathematical and scientific formula with LaTex