May 8, 2009
From DPCanadaWiki
Volume 2, Issue #37--May 8, 2009
(Full listing of previous issues is available at DPC Newsletters)
My first PP journey
By firefox88 (aka Tess)
It took me several agonising weeks to take the leap into the world of Post Processing. I think I always wanted to give it a try; but when reading some of the tutorials and forum posts both here and over at DP-Int, I started to doubt that I was going to be able to do it. I think that it was the HTML part that scared me the most. I had once upon a very distant past had composed my own webpage, hmm... way back when you had to input all the html codes yourself--before decent wysiwyg editors came around--so although very rusty I do know a little bit of html coding ... but what on earth is CSS and XHTML and all the other things mentioned?
In the end I PM'ed Simple Simon asking if he would mind mentoring me, and once I sent that I guess there was no going back…. Simple Simon advised me to find a simple project with few or no illustrations, no footnotes or index, so I chose The Transplanted by Fredrick Niven as my first project.
Armed with newly downloaded WinGuts for editing, I just followed Simon's instructions point by point and out came first the text version and then after following the next set of instructions and a finished template from--wow!--I managed to create my own html version... and it didn't look bad! And best of all, although there was a few minor changes to be made, it went fine through PPV (Post Processing Verification) as well!
Poor Simon was bombarded with questions from me in the process of getting this far though (sometimes stupid things like "how install the spellchecker" or "how on earth do I submit the file"), so I will here officially thank him for being an angel and patiently answering all my questions and dampening my doubts that I could do it!
Then came the several weeks wait for it to actually get up at PGC, but when it was finally there it actually finally felt real--I had done it and I just had to shout from the roof tops (or at least in the "DP-Canada PP happy dance" forum thread)! [Editor: see here… http://www.pgdpcanada.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=9731#9731 ]
I have now submitted my third PP'ed book for PPV and I can recommend PPing to anyone. It is very rewarding to see the end result.
Don't be afraid to try, there are lots of help to get and a lot of people to ask if you get stuck.
Editorial
Simon Says...--Although Simon won't be providing anything for this issue, he promises to have a couple of topics next issue that should be very interesting. Stay tuned....
Server and site problems--Simple Simon advises that any remaining problems on-site are set aside now until the "synch-up" (unless something really major rears its ugly head). If you see something that you believe requires handling before the summer, please send him a PM.
Checklists--As promised several months ago, Simon has been producing basic checklists for DPers. He started with PPing basic checklists for simple projects: he has done checklists for startup, text version, HTML version and HTML Tables. There won't be a checklist this issue, but he is doing some tidying up of the ones he's already created.
Simon has created a wikipage (linked to the main DPC Wiki) for the Checklists for New PPers. He has included the checklists that he has done so far. You can see from the Table of Contents what he plans for future checklists.
Any and all comments and/or questions from PPers are requested and welcome. Anyone else can comment as well. Send any questions or comments to Simple Simon.
Once the PPing checklists are done, he'll do some for CPing and PMing.
Sychronization of Guidelines--In the last newsletter issue, Simple Simon discussed his ideas about synchronization of DP-Int/US and DPC proofing and formatting guidelines. He set up a discussion thread in the Documentation Suggestions Forum which includes those ideas. There have been a couple of responses … have you any comments, ideas, suggestions, …?
Proofing/Formatting combined guidelines--There will be a significant delay in publishing this combined guidelines document. Simon has been caught up in the site code project (as well as his campaign on DP-Int) … so he's been a bit busy. ;)
ÜberProjects--see the updates below.
Check out the list of "possible future articles" at the end of the newsletter--are you interested in contributing or do you know of someone who could, or would like to, contribute, we'd love to have your article and/or thoughts. And you can do so anonymouslyAnd you can do so anonymously if you choose. It doesn't have to be long: a sentence or two, a short paragraph or two, 500 words or more if you really like to "talk"; send a PM to Quill.
Revisions to Guidelines, FAQs and the DPC site code
Guideline Differences--See article at beginning of last issue. There is also a discussion thread--see Editorial comments above.
Combined Proofing and Formatting Guidelines--Simon has reiterated his promise that he will put together a combined Proofing/Foofing wiki page for those Formatters who like to have only one document open at a time but also want to be able to check on certain Proofing Guidelines. Unfortunately there has been a delay. Simon hopes to produce them sometime in the near future.
The "combined guidelines" will be a very summarized version, not a complete document--but it's a huge task, which is the reason for the delay in issuance. Even DP-INT has no such animal--so we can't copy theirs. Once it is drafted, Simon will ask for review by experienced proofers and foofers to ensure that it is understandable--that is, not confusing or missing some extremely important rule.
ÜberProject #1: Chronicles of Canada
There continue to be lots of spaces for volunteers to PM, PP and even CP. To see the current status of the volumes, check out the ÜberProject wiki page for The Chronicles of Canada here: http://www.pgdpcanada.net/wiki/index.php/The_Chronicles_of_Canada.
- De2164 and IonaV are doing the prep on the rest of the volumes. Sufficient PMs have volunteered--we just need PPers, but the volumes can be picked up from the PP pool when they have completed the rounds unless there is a volume that a PPer really wants to do--in that case let the PM know sooner rather than later.
- We've arranged to get "mint condition" copies of the full set and so will be able to get good scans of all the maps and illustrations as well as picking up missing pages (if any). Thank you to hugger1935 for the use of the books.
- Volumes 4 and 12 have been split into multiple parts and are being used for BEGIN projects. A number of parts of each volume are sitting in P1: Waiting (English BEGIN) until they are needed; several parts are currently in various rounds undergoing proofing or formatting; and several parts of each volume have made it through to PPing though they won't be finalized until all parts are done--that may take awhile depending on how many newbies we get.
- Volumes 6, 9 and 32 are in P1: Waiting, Volumes 8, 11 and 21 are in Post-Processing; Vols. 3 and 18 have completed PPing. There are several in New Project being prepared for the P1: Waiting queue.
- PP standards have been set and the books do not have anything extremely difficult at all. Check the Chronicles wiki page for the PP standards. Some of the standards for PPing have been updated.
- Volumes 13, 17 and 24 are being done at DP-Int since the authors of these volumes are out of DPC's copyright purview. They will be posted to PG-Int in due time. For those that are interested, the books are all in the P3 waiting queue.
- Six volumes have been posted to PGC:
- Volume 1: The Dawn of Canadian History, A Chronicle of Aboriginal Canada,
- Volume 2: The Mariner of St Malo: A Chronicle of the Voyages of Jacques Cartier,
- Volume 5: The Seigneurs of old Canada: a Chronicle of New World Feudalism,
- Volume 20: Adventurers of the Far North, A Chronicle of the Arctic Seas,
- Volume 27: The Winning of Popular Government: A chronicle of the Union of 1841, and
- Volume 29: The Day of Sir John MacDonald, A Chronicle of the Early Years of the Dominion.
ÜberProject #2: Jesuit Relations
Vol. 65: Lower Canada, Mississippi Valley, 1696-1702, our first, is currently in F1: Available. Simple Simon is the PM and has decided that he will definitely PP this first volume, though he says that he will undoubtedly seek help from someone fluent in French to "look over his shoulder" on that side of things. He'll probably do the same for other languages as well.
Vol. 66: Illinois, Louisiana, Iroquois, Lower Canada, 1702-1712, our second, is in P3: Available. It is just like Vol. 65: strange characters, old style French spellings and accents, bits and pieces of other languages--lots of fun.
Simon advises that he's prepping Vol. 67: Lower Canada, Abenakis, Louisiana; 1716- 1727 as the third in our series.
A set of standards has been determined and added to the Project Comments. An ÜberProject wiki page for Jesuit Relations has been created. It includes the basic instructions for proofing and formatting.
ÜberProject #3: Governor General's Award Books
Warmheart has created an ÜberProject page for this uberproject. The page looks very good and has lots of links. You can see the details of what she has completed to date here: http://www.pgdpcanada.net/wiki/index.php/Governor_General%27s_Literary_Awards Check it out, you might find something interesting there....
There are only a couple of books that are available since many of the authors are still alive--ah, well, we'll get them eventually. :)
ÜberProject #4: Periodicals
Graham's Magazine is the first part of our ongoing periodicals ÜberProject. All the first year's volumes are either in process or completed. There are six issues currently undergoing proofing or formatting with two in P1: Waiting. Two issues are in PP; and two issues have been posted to PGC.
Year two will be coming in due course.
Simon also needs some volunteers for PPing these periodicals--if you are interested, send him a PM.
Our Young Folks, An illustrated Magazine for Boys and Girls; Issued monthly; Publication Dates: January 1865 thru October 1873 when it merged with St. Nicholas.
Three issues are in PP and two in P1: Waiting. Warmheart also has a bunch of them in prep as well. :wink:
To those who have worked on this periodical: comments, anyone? Do you like it?
Warmheart's wikipage for the Periodical can be found through this link: http://www.pgdpcanada.net/wiki/index.php/Our_Young_Folks.
Scientific American--these are very early issues, too--from 1846. The first issue is now in P2: Available.
We've started a wiki page for it: http://www.pgdpcanada.net/wiki/index.php/Periodicals/Scientific_American. I've also been told that Tizz has agreed to co-PM/PP it.
The Maple Leaf--This is a Canadian juvenile periodical published between 1852 and 1854. Susan and IonaV are going to share the duties of PMing. Iona is handling the prep, Susan has downloaded the scans and will do the PPing. They are hoping to get it into the rounds within the next couple of weeks.
Remember, these aren't the only periodicals that we can do--there are lots of others out there and some that are very different than "Graham's". Is there one that you'd like to do? Suggestions for favourite OLD periodicals are always welcome, but they must meet 3 criteria:
- published before 1860 to avoid the need for copyright checking
- good quality scans of a reasonable number of issues (preferably in whole volumes=a year)
- interesting content, out of the ordinary
ÜberProject #5: Works by Charles Dickens
Simple Simon and IonaV are Dickens fans. We know that there are many more out there. Although there are some of Dickens' works on the other PG sites, some of it is text only. We've got early editions of those books with illustrations as well as stories that have not yet been posted. As well, there are letters and essays and ...
- Bleak House, the original version illustrated by "Phiz", is in prep.
- The Mystery of Edwin Drood is currently in F2: Available.
- A Christmas Carol is in post processing.
- Two short stories for our anniversary blitz are posted to our wiki (http://www.pgdpcanada.net/wiki/index.php/Dickens_%22First_Anniversary%22_project): The Christmas Tree and What Christmas is as we get older. They will be posted to PG Canada with other Dickens' short stories.
More details and an ÜberProject wiki page to come.
We Grow Every Day
We are now up to 670 members. Welcome to all new members; I hope you find some projects that you will enjoy doing. Many of our members are also members of DP-Int/US and/or DP Europe--we welcome them and thank them for all their continued support and interest in DPC. (Numbers are accurate up to "press" time.)
| New | |
|---|---|
| May 2009 | 6 |
| April 2009 | 22 |
| 2009 Q1 | 168 |
| 2008 total | 235 |
| 2007 total | 239 |
| Total to date | 670 |
Milestones
We are going to use this space to "celebrate" notable milestones achieved by a member, team, group or project. For example, we'll report when a member completes 5,000 pages in any one round; then we'll let you know when they've done 10,000 pages and so on.
The "team" numbers are the cumulative totals for each round for each member while they are members of a particular team. So that's why, the team pages go up whenever a team member's totals increase. Another reason to join a team or two....
Completed 30,000 pages in a round:
- uwe-joachim in F2
Completed 25,000 pages in a round:
- rolands in P3
- Team USA in P3
Completed 20,000 pages in a round:
Completed 15,000 pages in a round:
- Foofers' Corner in F2
Completed 10,000 pages in a round:
- Team Canada in P1 and P2
- Team German in F2
- Foofers' Corner in F1 NEW!!!
Completed 5,000 pages in a round:
- Bibi in P3
- Daniel G in P1
- rcool in P1 and P2
- snowseraph in P2
- supo88 in P2
- De2164 in F1
- Warmheart in F1
- yajeulb in F1
- hugger1935 in F1 and F2
- Team USA in P2
- Team Canada in F1
- DPing with Cats in P2 and F1
- LOTE Flotes my Bote in F2
Great work, people!!!
Proofing & Formatting Stats
All rounds made their page goals for April; P3 exceeded 235% and F1 just about made 200%. Way to go, guys!!
Starting May 1, page goals were increased to 110 per day for P1, P2 and F1; and to 100 per day for P3 and F2--the new goals are noted under the site stats on each round's page.
Each round is over 25% of their page goals with F2 at over 40%; we've got 3 weeks to go. Can we keep it up and make the new page goals?
| Round | P1 | P2 | P3 | F1 | F2 |
| May goal | 3,410 | 3,410 | 3,100 | 3,410 | 3,100 |
| *May to date | 905 | 937 | 1,034 | 1,164 | 1,352 |
| May to date % | 26.54% | 27.48% | 33.35% | 34.13% | 43.61% |
| April goal | 3,000 | 3,000 | 2,250 | 3,000 | 2,250 |
| April final | 3,361 | 3,549 | 5,288 | 5,915 | 2,564 |
| April final % | 121.03% | 118.30% | 235.02% | 197.17% | 113.96% |
*Numbers accurate to "press" time.
For more statistics and related links go to: Statistics Central.
Books In Process And/or Posted To PG Canada or PG-International
At press time, we had 168 Gold Star books posted to PGC or PG-Int (with 3 in PPV). Fantastic work, all.
There are currently 140 Silver Star projects in post processing and 115 Bronze Star projects which are currently undergoing proofing or formatting. For more details about these projects, please see the listings on the bottom of the DP Welcome page.
User Team Talk
Have you checked out our user teams? To check out the teams or to join one go to: User Teams. The Team threads are located under Proofing Team Talk. Is there a team that you'd like to see? You can create a team from the link on the User Teams page--you might be surprised by who shows up to join you.
We currently have 23 teams; more are always welcome.
Possible Future Articles
This is YOUR newsletter: yes, there are forum posts and user team posts, but is there something that you want to tell the whole DPC community? You are allowed to brag here. You can also be anonymous if you choose ... we won't tell.
- Tips or Hints: for those people who do/did a lot of proofing and/or formatting on DP-Int/US &/or DP-Eur, do you have any tips or "rules" that you follow to help yourself while you proof or format? Even a re-wording of a guideline that helps you remember how to do something specific.
- Tell us why you joined DPC.
- Quotable Quotes: have you seen a thought-provoking quote that is relevant to the DP Community while you were doing your proofing that you just had to pass on?...
- The most interesting, outrageous, or strangest line you proofed: before it was proofed (if that was the outrageous or strange part) and what it was after proofing (please do not submit obscene language, it will not be published).
- New projects: PMs is there a series of books or books by a very prolific author that you'd like to do?--let us know so that we can help pass the word to the proofers so they'll be there to jump in and work on them.
- Kudos, Bouquets & Compliments: are there any DPers that you would like to give special thanks and/or recognition to: a mentor who gave you lots of guidance, a PPer that made your project into a very wonderful looking book for posting to PG, a CPer or image/text preparer who went the extra little bit to provide you with clean scans, well OCR'd text, or good illustrations for your project, another DPer who made you feel really welcome or provided you with some good advice or....
- "Guest articles" by anyone and everyone who wishes to....
