Wanted: MS-Word Help

[JohnRich 4]

I am in possession of a manuscript written by my great grandmother in 1892, titled "The Old Testament In Verse". A sample page image is attached. She wrote this as a fun way for children to learn about the bible in Sunday school

I'm trying to preserve this piece of family history, by digitizing it. I wish to transcribe it using MS-Word word processing. I want to reproduce this as faithfully as possible to the original, and then send it out to family members so they can share in it. But I can't figure out how to format it.

What I need is five columns. The first column contains the bible chapter, the second the verse reference, the third is the rhyme written by grandma, the fourth the historical date of the event ("B.C. 884"), and in the fifth column, some cursive notes.

I've tried using the "columns" option, but you can't type text into subsequent columns, until you fill up the first column. And I need to type into columns independently from each other.

Then I tried setting tab stops, which works okay. But when I tried to add vertical lines to delineate the columns as in the manuscript, the vertical lines make the text disappear. So I tried setting properties on the lines to order them behind the text, and that didn't help.

I suppose I could use Xcel and treat it like a spreadsheet... I don't have PDF. I don't want to just scan images and use those, because many pages are very faded, and some of the handwriting is very difficult to interpret - I need to clean it up for future readers. So transcription is necessary.

But there's got to be some way to do this in Word. Does anyone have any ideas on how to format this kind of document, and allow text to be entered independently in the various columns?

I'd appreciate your expertise in this matter.

Also attached are two Word documents, where I experimented with columns and tab stops, which you could use to build upon or experiment with, from what I've already done (which isn't much).

- John

P.S. If this page's text is any indicator, it may have to be rated "R", for extreme violence!

[NWFlyer 2]

I think that a table with the gridlines not showing/printing will achieve what you're looking for.

(Assuming you're using Word 2003 or older):

Table
Insert Table
Number of columns: 5
Number of rows: (pick a number - as you tab through it'll keep adding rows to the bottom or you can manually add them).

Then once you've created the table, do this:

Table
Select Table
Format
Borders & Shading
Borders: None

After you do that you'll still see the borders in light gray on the screen but they will not print. You can adjust column width to suit your needs.

Hope that makes sense.

"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

[Mr.Bill 0]

I think you were on the right track. Try right clicking on the line you made and "format auto shape">layout>behind text.

Worked for me.

[Gawain 0]

Quote

I think that a table with the gridlines not showing/printing will achieve what you're looking for.

(Assuming you're using Word 2003 or older):

Table
Insert Table
Number of columns: 5
Number of rows: (pick a number - as you tab through it'll keep adding rows to the bottom or you can manually add them).

Then once you've created the table, do this:

Table
Select Table
Format
Borders & Shading
Borders: None

After you do that you'll still see the borders in light gray on the screen but they will not print. You can adjust column width to suit your needs.

Hope that makes sense.

To ride on her coattails, I was thinking that before I read her post...here's my idea...using tables...

So I try and I scream and I beg and I sigh
Just to prove I'm alive, and it's alright
'Cause tonight there's a way I'll make light of my treacherous life
Make light!

[BIGUN 1,297]

Taps fingers on table and thinks, "Hmmm... if he imported the external data source in a space delimited format in Excel, then use the trim space function... wouldn't it be more about formatting than about transcription?"

Edit: Each Book could be a worksheet tab within a single workbook?

Nobody has time to listen; because they're desperately chasing the need of being heard.

[JohnRich 4]

Quote

I think you were on the right track. Try right clicking on the line you made and "format auto shape">layout>behind text.

Hey! That's it!

I was doing an "order", "behind text", with no luck.
But you're right, "format auto shape", "behind text", does the trick.

I was so close, and didn't realize it. I had the "behind text" idea correct, but was using the wrong intermediate step to get there.

Gwain: the table option looks like it would work also. After creating the table, I just have to click on each column in the table, and make custom border settings, to eliminate all but the vertical lines between columns.

I'll play around a bit with both of these and see which one suits my needs best.

Thank you very much. This will get this project off the launch pad. I appreciate you sharing your expertise with me.
Great Grandma Gleaves would be glad to know that her hard work on this manuscript was being preserved - photo attached.

[skydiver30960 0]

Wow. What a piece of history.

If nothing else (or in addition to what you're doing, to save her original work), scan each page with a flatbed scanner and save them as images.

Your great-grammy would be proud!

Elvisio "old school can be cool" Rodriguez

[jumpwally 0]

Speaking of Word and not to highjack your thread but a while back there was spoof cover of Microsoft Word with Ice T or someone like that on it, any one remeber that ? funnier than shit. I can't seem to find it anywhere.....

smile, be nice, enjoy life
FB # - 1083

[JohnRich 4]

Quote

If nothing else (or in addition to what you're doing, to save her original work), scan each page with a flatbed scanner and save them as images.

Yes, I'm doing that too. The scanner has options that actually darken the faded text in the resulting digital image, making it more legible. But since some of it is too faint for me to make out, I'll be doing some guessing as to what the words might be. And when I distribute it to family members, I'll ask them to help me interpret those questionable sections, to try and get it right.

[Andy9o8 2]

That's some great material. It's literature, poetry, theology and history all in one.
You know, you should consider applying for copyright protection, in case your family wants to retain the rights to get it published.
And FWIW, I'll also bet the original manuscript has some monetary value, which will probably increase over time, so keep the original in a really safe place!

[mccurley 1]

What others have said - Tables

Watch my video Fat Women
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRWkEky8GoI

[MikeMcLean 0]

Quote

Wow. What a piece of history.

If nothing else (or in addition to what you're doing, to save her original work), scan each page with a flatbed scanner and save them as images.

Your great-grammy would be proud!

Elvisio "old school can be cool" Rodriguez

Better yet (and this might substitute for the word option if done right) is to scan as a PDF and than OCR the PDF in image fidelity mode (called different things depending on the OCR program).

Essentially ...

• text-only OCR looks for the text only (duh) and saves only that - not what you want


• "normal" ocr settings looks for text, and places the newly OCR'd text over the image to favor readability. Parts of the image that aren't recognizable as text are left as scans (good), if the OCR program can't match the font (typical) you lose fidelity to the original (bad)


• image fidelity mode places the newly OCR'd text behind the original, allowing indexing, searching, copy/paste, etc. while leaving the original "look" intact - this maybe a better solution for you as it archives your gram's work faithfully to the original

Here's an example using Acrobat 9's "ClearScan" mode (not necessarily the best, but a good start).

The fidelity of the original is there, and you can copy/paste text strings. Note I didn't spend any time hand-correcting the OCR which for a project like this is key.

I guess the real question is are you trying to "archive" or "re-create" ...

It wouldn't hurt you to think like a fucking serial killer every once in a while - just for the sake of prevention

[JohnRich 4]

Quote

The fidelity of the original is there, and you can copy/paste text strings. Note I didn't spend any time hand-correcting the OCR which for a project like this is key.

I guess the real question is are you trying to "archive" or "re-create" ...

I guess I'm trying to re-create it, so that it's easily readable by anyone. The original text is difficult, even when enhanced, as you did. I tried my IRIS OCR software at one point, but the text was so faded, that it didn't recognize a great many characters - I spent so much time correcting it, that it was easier just to re-type it manually. And I've found fonts in MS-Word which closely resemble gramma's personal handwriting style, which is neat.

Reading her handwriting has been a chore, but I'm getting used to it. For example, she has an odd way of crossing her "t"s - she puts the horizontal cross bar off to the right, like "l-". So if you have a word like "hearth", the "t" seems to be an "l", the t cross bar is on the "h", which makes it look like a "t" and an "n". It kinda drives you nuts until you adjust your brain to interpret it correctly.

Attached is an example of a note she wrote concerning the meter of the poem, in which you can see her writing style.

And here's my translation of that cursive note:

* It has not been attempted to place the whole of this Alphabetical Poem in the same metre. Each of the subdivisions is intended to stand out as a distinct poem, the connection being kept up wholly through the Alphabet, and this distinction is the most (?) managed through a change of metre as here appears.

She apparently deemed it necessary to explain why she was changing her "cadence", which must usually be considered bad form for poetry.

There are some words cut off at the bottom left, which I've been able to figure out except for one. Anyone got any idea, from the context, what that word might be?

[JohnRich 4]

Quote

That's some great material. It's literature, poetry, theology and history all in one.
You know, you should consider applying for copyright protection, in case your family wants to retain the rights to get it published. And FWIW, I'll also bet the original manuscript has some monetary value, which will probably increase over time, so keep the original in a really safe place!

Yep, going to do all of that. Thanks for the suggestions.

My bible knowledge is really rusty, but going through her text is a good refresher.

She actually has three different manuscripts. One is a poem of the Old Testament, about 70 pages long - that's the big one. Then a "Century Poem", where she highlights biblical happenings from each century of history. And third is an "Alphabetical Poem" for children, from which I've attached the first page below, as I've recreated it.

Gramma was apparently an educated woman, from France, who published a magazine for children in Baltimore in the early 1800's. I catch her spelling things the French way now and then, like "metre" instead of "meter" when referring to the poetic cadence. Then she married a doctor and moved to New Orleans.