The reading room

The transcription desk is for making a text. The reading room is for reading one: a single column, the page numbers in the margin, and nothing to edit. It reads one item, or a set of them one after another.

What it reads

An item is read from whichever text it has:

• an imported text, such as an EEBO-TCP transcription brought in from ESTC, set out by its own headings, paragraphs and verse lines;
• a transcription made beside the facsimile, leaf by leaf;
• for a reference filed from a record, the words of that record in the volume it came from;
• otherwise, the text Pangur read from its file when it indexed it: a PDF’s text, or a plain-text or HTML edition, set out as paragraphs with the PDF’s page numbers in the margin. A line under the heading names the file, and says so when the text was recognised from a scan or only part of the file could be read.

Each item is read from one of these, in that order. If a manuscript has transcriptions on more than one facsimile, the finished one with the most text is read. If an item has several files, its reading copy’s files are read in the copy’s order, so a work in three volumes reads as three; without one, the largest file is read. Notes are never read: they are yours about the item. An item with none of these is still listed in its place, with a line saying there is no text of it yet. A run of letters that left three out would read as a shorter run.

Opening it

• One item: the expand button on its Text copy, on the item’s Read tab. (Read the text on the Transcribe tab opens that copy.)
• What the library is showing: the open-book button in the library toolbar reads the listing in front of you, under the same collection, filters, search and sort. Filter to letters by one author, sort by date, and the reading room opens them in that order.
• A selection: tick items in the library and choose Read in the bar. They are read in list order, including items ticked on another page of the list, and the address is /library/read?k=KEY,KEY with the list’s sort.
• A corpus: Read on a corpus page reads its sources in the corpus’s order.
• The records of a corpus in date order: Read these in date order on the Timeline’s Records view reads every dated record across the corpus’s sources, the undated ones after them. Read from here on any row opens the same run at that record.
• The records that name someone: an entry’s evidence in a corpus has Read the records that name this. It is how the letters of one person, scattered through three letter books, are read as one run.

A set is limited to its first 500 entries, and says so when there are more.

On the page

The rail on the left lists what is being read, each entry with its date, and marks where you are. For a single text it lists the contents instead: the headings of a printed book, or the leaves of a manuscript.

Each entry begins with its title, date and author, and links back to the item in the library. A record also links to the review desk. A long text arrives as you read; the pages you have passed stay above.

• Page numbers sit in the margin where a page begins. A page that turns in the middle of a paragraph is marked there with a small raised number.
• Marginal notes of the source are set in the line where they fall, in brackets.
• Transcription marks are kept: deletions struck through, uncertain and supplied readings marked as they are on the desk. Page numbers, catchwords and running titles are left out, since the margin already says where you are.
• People, places and works an analysis has found are underlined in a record. Select one for the name and its role, and a link to it in Analysis.

Reading settings

Reading settings, at the top of the rail, holds the text size, line width, line spacing and font. For a manuscript, Manuscript lines chooses between the lines as written and flowing text. Marginal notes and analysis marks can each be hidden. Smaller text and Larger text in the bar, the same zoom buttons every viewer has, change the size without opening the settings. The choices are remembered on this device.

Reading offline on iPhone and iPad

In the iPhone and iPad app, Keep offline in an item’s More menu keeps it on the device: its details, notes, stored files, highlights and text. Hold a collection in the collection list and choose Keep offline to keep every item in it, and the ones filed there later. Library’s view menu opens On this device. With no connection when the app opens, it opens straight on what is on the device, as the account you last signed in with, and reconnects by itself when it can. Sections that need your library on the server, such as Ask and Write, say so until then.

The app also keeps a copy of every project’s library on the device: its items, collections, tags, notes and highlights, brought up to date whenever the app is open and connected. On mobile data only the project you are in is updated; the others wait for Wi-Fi. With no connection, Library lists, searches, filters and sorts from that copy, and an item shows its record, notes and highlights. Files you have opened before open again too: the app keeps recently opened files up to a size you choose in Settings → Offline (2 GB unless you change it), removing the ones opened longest ago first. Items you keep offline are never removed. Signing out removes the copy and the recently opened files from the device.

You can also change the library with no connection: edit a record, add a reference or a note, delete an item, and make, rename, move or delete collections or file items in them. Each change shows straight away and waits on the device; Library says how many are waiting, and they go to your library, in the order you made them, when Pangur can be reached. If the same thing was changed elsewhere in the meantime, different fields are simply combined. Where the same field was changed in both places, nothing is overwritten: Library asks you to choose, showing both versions, and for a note you can keep both. A change your library refuses is shown with the reason. Signing out with changes still waiting says so first; the changes stay on the device and are sent when you next sign in as the same account.

Reading offline in the browser and on the Mac

The web app, and Pangur for Mac, keep a copy of the project you have open too, in the browser’s own storage, brought up to date while Library is open. Once you have opened Library with a connection, it opens again without one: the list, search, filters, collections, tags and each item’s record, attachments, notes and highlights come from that copy, under an Offline notice, and Pangur reconnects by itself when it can. Once Library has brought the copy up to date, the project’s other screens and the reader are kept as well, so they open without a connection even if you have not visited them yet; only the library’s own contents are on hand there offline. Files you have opened there open again offline (the most recent sixty are kept). Changes work as they do on the iPhone: made with no connection, they show straight away, wait in the browser, and go to your library by themselves when it can be reached. That includes highlights made in the reader, and their removal. Library says how many are waiting, and asks you to choose only where the same thing was changed in both places. A viewer’s changes are not kept, since a viewer cannot change the library.

A kept PDF opens with its highlights whether or not there is a connection. Without one, the reader says so: new highlights, colours, comments, topics and removals are kept on the device, as are notes added from the item. They go to your library, in the order you made them, when Pangur can be reached again. If a highlight was changed elsewhere in the meantime, your library’s version stays and the app tells you which one.

Kept items refresh when you are connected, and a file that changed in your library is fetched again. Settings → Offline shows the space used, what is waiting to be sent, and a switch to download on Wi-Fi only. Signing out removes kept items from the device.

Assistants and the CLI

A connected assistant reads the same texts with read_text, a window of blocks at a time, and finds an order to read them in with reading_sequence: chosen items, or a corpus by source or by record. In a terminal, zcp reading KEY… prints them, and zcp reading --corpus ID reads a corpus. See the tool reference and the CLI.

Copying

Copy a passage and its reference comes with it: author, title, date, the page or pages it was copied from, and a link to the item. A selection that runs across two entries is copied as it stands, because it has no single reference.