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Editorial marks

Editorial marks describe what the manuscript does and what the editor has done to it.

Gaps and supplied text

Section titled “Gaps and supplied text”
[...]          Gap (illegible or lost text)
[...3]         Gap of about three characters
[...3<ab>]     Gap of three characters, with ab supplied
<abc>          Supplied text on its own

Compiled output:

Marker TEI
[...] <gap reason="illegible"/>
[...3] <gap reason="illegible" quantity="3" unit="chars"/>
[...3<ab>] <gap reason="illegible" quantity="3" unit="chars"/><supplied>ab</supplied>
<abc> <supplied>abc</supplied>

The number in a gap is the approximate length in characters. Supplied text inside a gap is written after the gap element, not inside it.

A gap and a separate <supplied> can also be written next to each other:

[...3]<ok>

The difference from [...3<ok>] is only a matter of which is easier to read in the source. The compiled structure is the same.

Deletions

Section titled “Deletions”
-{abc}-        Deletion

Compiled to <del>abc</del>. The trailing - is required; without it the construct is a syntax error.

This is the editor’s deletion of text that is present in the manuscript, or the transcription of a scribal deletion, depending on the edition’s conventions.

Additions

Section titled “Additions”
+{abc}+        Addition

Compiled to <add>abc</add>. The trailing + is required.

Unclear readings

Section titled “Unclear readings”
?{abc}?        Unclear reading

Compiled to <unclear>abc</unclear>. The trailing ? is required.

Notes

Section titled “Notes”
^{note}        Note

Compiled to <note>note</note>.

This is a note in the transcription itself. Longer editorial notes can also be attached to a word in the word panel, which keeps them out of the shorthand.

Block forms

Section titled “Block forms”

Two constructs take a whole shorthand fragment rather than plain text:

.head{...}       A heading
.supplied{...}   A larger supplied passage

The content inside the braces is itself shorthand, so it can contain words, line breaks, entities and inline marks. It compiles to <head>…</head> or <supplied>…</supplied> with the inner markup compiled normally. Words inside a block are counted like any other word, so lemmas and annotations line up.

.supplied{...} is useful when a whole phrase or line is supplied editorially; <...> is the shorter form for a few supplied words.

Nesting

Section titled “Nesting”

Inline marks such as -{...}- and ?{...}? contain plain text, not further shorthand. Write one construct at a time rather than nesting mark inside mark. Block constructs (.head{}, .supplied{}) are the exception: their content is shorthand.