Re: Wartime Diaries - please help

Thanks to everyone who has helped with the transcription. All 56 pages have been sent out, and over 50 have already been transcribed and sent back.

The second stage is to post the transcribed text onto the website. Then this new diary will start appearing in the daily email messages you receive.

If you'd like to help with this, (I estimate it will take about 30 minutes a page) just reply "ok", and I'll send you the files. I include the instructions below so you can see what's involved.

Best regards, David

How to post the transcribed diary

You'll have received a .txt file containing the transcribed copy of one page from the diary. I've also attached the scanned original in case you need to refer to it.

First of all you'll need to be logged in to the website, http://gwulo.com/. If you don't have an account, you can sign up at http://gwulo.com/user/register

Then for each day's entry in the diary, if it doesn't have any text we skip to the next day. If it does have text we'll create one page on the website by clicking
http://gwulo.com/node/add/book-doc-page

You should then be looking at a page titled "Create Page(s) from Book / Document", and can start filling in the fields:

• Title: - Leave this blank, the website will fill it in for you when you click "Save"
• Book/Document: - Type mac and wait until you see Eric MacNider's wartime diary appear. Click that text, and the box should be filled automatically with Eric MacNider's wartime diary [nid:20327]
• From date: - Type the date for the diary entry, using the format YYYY-MM-DD. eg if your diary entry is for 30th July 1944, you'd type 1944-7-30
  
• To date: - Leave this blank.
• Tags: - Leave this blank.
• Text: - copy & paste the text for this day from the text file to the web page. Some guidelines:
  > Don't include the day's date, or any "/" characters at the start of the line.
  > Eric used the "/" to separate different items on the same day. We'll put them on separate lines instead. Except on Sundays! He puts the preachers' names in pairs, so we'll keep them on the same line (see examples below).
  > We've used ((...)) to identify comments we've added during transcription. Please change that text to italics, ((like this)), to make it doubly clear it is different from the original text.

Then scroll down to the bottom of the page and click "Save".

Repeat for each day, then send a reply back to me saying "Finished". If you can handle another page, please let me know and I'll send it over.

Here is an example, using an extract for the .txt file for June & July 1944:

27

28 / B.O.

29. / B.O.

30 / B.O.

July 1944

1 Bulletin….”2 second-hand tyres for hosp. stretcher cost Y 550 each” / Twydale, Brenchley / B.O.

S2 Wittenbach / Ream / Petition about rations read  / To Mr. & Mrs. J.E.D. McDermott – a daughter / Jenner / Pearson / B.O.

We'd skip the 27th. Then each of the 28th, 29th, and 30th would read:

B.O.

We skip the month and year, then July 1st will read:

Bulletin….”2 second-hand tyres for hosp. stretcher cost Y 550 each”

Twydale, Brenchley

B.O.

The last day, S2, begins with an "S" so we know it is a Sunday. We format it like this:

Wittenbach / Ream

Petition about rations read

To Mr. & Mrs. J.E.D. McDermott – a daughter

Jenner / Pearson

B.O.

Here's how that last page looks on the website: http://gwulo.com/node/20338

On 6/13/2014 12:56 PM, David Bellis wrote:

Dear Wartime Diaries subscribers,

Some good news is that I've been sent a new diary. It was written by Eric Macnider, and has a brief entry for most days of internment.

Please can you help me to post it on to the website? Then it will be added to the daily email message you receive.

For each hand-written page there are two jobs to do.

1. Transcribe.
Carefully type up exactly what is written in the diary. So for the attached example page, the transcription would begin:

April 1944

1.
Cigs, 2pkts. 45 sen each.
Issue oil, sugar.
Heath.

S2.
Palm Sunday.
Brown / Ream.
Roll call down ((sp?)) by Bl Rgn ((sp?)) 8am + 9.30pm
Drown / Jenner

3.
Septic tank queue Bl.18, I.Q.
Issue curry powder.

(Note the attached page is an average page. Some will be easier to transcribe, some will be harder.)

2. Proof read and post to the website.
Check the transcription for any mistakes, then post the transcribed text to the website, one entry per day.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

There are 56 pages to transcribe, so that's 112 jobs to do. BUT... there are over 200 subscribers to the Wartime Diaries, so if we each do one job, it will be finished in no time.

If you can help, please reply and mark the boxes below to let me know what you can help with. Then I'll send you a page to work on, together with instructions.

Yes, I can help:
   [ ] transcribe a page
   [ ] proof read & post a page to the website

Thanks for your support,

Regards, David