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Proofreading Guidelines
Version 2.0, revised June 7, 2009 (Revision History)
Proofreading Guidelines in French / Directives de Relecture et Correction en franais
Proofreading Guidelines in Portuguese / Regras de Reviso em Portugus
Proofreading Guidelines in Spanish / Reglas de Revisin en espaol
Proofreading Guidelines in Dutch / Proeflees-Richtlijnen in het Nederlands
Proofreading Guidelines in German / Korrekturlese-Richtlinien auf Deutsch
Proofreading Guidelines in Italian / Regole di Correzione in Italiano
Check out the Proofreading Quiz and Tutorial!

Table of Contents

The Primary Rule
Summary Guidelines
About This Document
Project Comments
Forum/Discuss This Project
Fixing Errors on Previous Pages

Proofreading at the Character Level:
Double Quotes
Single Quotes
Quote Marks on Each Line
End-of-sentence Periods
Punctuation Spacing
Extra Spaces or Tabs Between Words
Trailing Space at End-of-line
Dashes, Hyphens, and Minus Signs
End-of-line Hyphenation and Dashes
End-of-page Hyphenation and Dashes
Period Pause "..." (Ellipsis)
Contractions
Fractions
Accented/Non-ASCII Characters
Characters with Diacritical Marks
Non-Latin Characters
Superscripts
Subscripts
Large, Ornate Opening Capital Letter (Drop Cap)
Words in Small Capitals
Page 1 of 42 DP: Proofreading Guidelines
3/21/2011 http://www.pgdp.net/c/faq/proofreading_guidelines.php
The Primary Rule
"Don't change what the author wrote!"
The final electronic book seen by a reader, possibly many years in the future, should accurately
convey the intent of the author. If the author spelled words oddly, we leave them spelled that
way. If the author wrote outrageous racist or biased statements, we leave them that way. If the
author put commas, superscripts, or footnotes every third word, we keep the commas,
superscripts, or footnotes. We are proofreaders, not editors; if something in the text does not
match the original page image, you should change the text so that it does match. (See Printer's
Errors for proper handling of obvious misprints.)

Proofreading at the Paragraph Level:
Line Breaks
Chapter Headings
Paragraph Spacing/Indenting
Page Headers/Page Footers
Illustrations
Footnotes/Endnotes
Paragraph Side-Descriptions (Sidenotes)
Multiple Columns
Tables
Poetry/Epigrams
Line Numbers
Single Word at Bottom of Page
Proofreading at the Page Level:
Blank Page
Front/Back Title Page
Table of Contents
Indexes
Plays: Actor Names/Stage Directions
Anything else that needs special handling or that you're unsure of
Previous Proofreaders' Notes/Comments

Common Problems:
Formatting
Common OCR Problems
OCR Problems: Scannos
OCR Problems: Is that really a degree sign?
Handwritten Notes in Book
Bad Image
Wrong Image for Text
Previous Proofreader Mistakes
Printer Errors/Misspellings
Factual Errors in Texts
Inserting Special Characters
Alphabetical Index to the Guidelines

We do change minor typographical conventions that don't affect the sense of what the author
wrote. For example, we rejoin words that were broken at the end of a line (End-of-line
Hyphenation). Changes such as these help us produce a consistently formed version of the book.
The proofreading rules we follow are designed to achieve this result. Please carefully read the
rest of the Proofreading Guidelines with this concept in mind. These guidelines are intended for
proofreading only. As a proofreader you are matching the image's content while later the
formatters will match the image's look.
To assist the next proofreader, the formatters, and the post-processor, we also preserve line
breaks. This allows them to easily compare the lines in the text to the lines in the image.
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Summary Guidelines
The Proofreading Summary is a short, 2-page printer-friendly (.pdf) document that summarizes
the main points of these Guidelines and gives examples of how to proofread. Beginning
proofreaders are encouraged to print out this document and keep it handy while proofreading.
You may need to download and install a .pdf reader. You can get one free from Adobe here.
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About This Document
This document is written to explain the proofreading rules we use to maintain consistency when
proofreading a single book that is distributed among many proofreaders, each of whom is
working on different pages. This helps us all do proofreading the same way, which in turn makes
it easier for the formatters and for the post-processor who will complete the work on this e-book.
It is not intended as any kind of a general editorial or typesetting rulebook.
We've included in these proofreading guidelines all the items that new users have asked about
while proofreading. There is a separate set of Formatting Guidelines. A second group of
volunteers will be working on the formatting of the text. If you come across a situation and you
do not find a reference in these guidelines, it is likely that it will be handled in the formatting
rounds and so is not mentioned here. If you aren't sure, please ask about it in the Project
Discussion.
If there are any items missing, or items that you consider should be done differently, or if
something is vague, please let us know. If you come across an unfamiliar term in these
guidelines, see the wiki jargon guide. This document is a work in progress. Help us to improve it
by posting your suggested changes in the Documentation Forum in this thread.
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Project Comments
When you select a project for proofreading, the Project Page is loaded. On this page there is a
section called "Project Comments" containing information specific to that project (book). Read
these before you start proofreading pages! If the Project Manager wants you to do something
in this book differently from the way specified in these Guidelines, that will be noted here. Instructions
in the Project Comments override the rules in these Guidelines, so follow them. There may also be
instructions in the project comments that apply to the formatting phase, which do not apply during
proofreading. Finally, this is also where the Project Manager may give you interesting tidbits of
information about the author or the project.
Please also read the Project Thread (discussion): The Project Manager may clarify project-specific
guidelines here, and it is often used by proofreaders to alert other proofreaders to recurring issues
within the project and how they can best be addressed. (See below.)
On the Project Page, the link 'Images, Pages Proofread, & Differences' allows you to see how other
proofreaders have made changes. This forum thread discusses different ways to use this information.
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Forum/Discuss This Project
On the Project Page where you start proofreading pages, on the line "Forum", there is a link titled
"Discuss this Project" (if the discussion has already started), or "Start a discussion on this Project" (if it
hasn't). Clicking on that link will take you to a thread in the projects forum dedicated to this specific
project. That is the place to ask questions about this book, inform the Project Manager about problems,
etc. Using this project forum thread is the recommended way to communicate with the Project Manager
and other proofreaders who are working on this book.
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The Project Page contains links to pages from this project that you have recently proofread. (If you
haven't proofread any pages yet, no links will be shown.)
Pages listed under either "DONE" or "IN PROGRESS" are available to make proofreading corrections
or to finish proofreading. Just click on the link to the page. Thus, if you discover that you made a
mistake on a page or marked something incorrectly, you can click on that page here and reopen it to fix
the error.
You may also use the "Images, Pages Proofread, & Differences" or "Just My Pages" links on the
Project Page. These pages will display an "Edit" link next to the pages you have worked on in the
current round that can still be corrected.
For more detailed information, refer to either the Standard Proofreading Interface Help or the Enhanced
Proofreading Interface Help, depending on which interface you are using.
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Double Quotes
Proofreading at the Character Level:
Proofread double quotes as plain ASCII " double quotes. Do not change double quotes to
single quotes. Leave them as the author wrote them. See Chapter Headings if a double quote is
missing at the start of a chapter.
For quotation marks other than ", use the same marks that appear in the image if they are
available. The French equivalent, guillemets like this, are available from the pulldown
menus in the proofreading interface, since they are part of Latin-1. Remember to remove space
between the quotation marks and the quoted text; if needed, it will be added in post-processing.
The same applies to languages which use reversed guillemets, like this.
The quotation marks used in some texts (in German or other languages) like this are not
available in the pulldown menus, as they are not in Latin-1. They are often converted into
guillemets like this (or like this for languages that use the quotes this way), but
be sure to check the Project Comments in case the Project Manager has given different
instructions.
The Project Manager may instruct you in the Project Comments to proofread non-English
language quotation marks differently for a particular book. Please be sure not to apply those
directions to other projects.
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Single Quotes
Proofread these as the plain ASCII ' single quote (apostrophe). Do not change single quotes to
double quotes. Leave them as the author wrote them.
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Proofread quotation marks at the beginning of each line of a quotation by removing all of them
except for the one at the start of the quotation. If a quotation like this goes on for multiple
paragraphs, leave the quote mark that appears on the first line of each paragraph.
However, in poetry keep the extra quote marks where they appear in the image, since the line
breaks will not be changed.
Often there is no closing quotation mark until the very end of the quoted section of text, which
may not be on the same page you are proofreading. Leave it that waydo not add closing
quotation marks that are not in the page image.
There are some language-specific exceptions. In French, for example, dialog within quotations
uses a combination of different punctuation to indicate various speakers. If you are not familiar
with a particular language, check the Project Comments or leave a message for the Project
Manager in the Project Discussion for clarification.
Original Image:
Clearly he wasn't an academic with a preface like this
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Proofread periods that end sentences with a single space after them.
You do not need to remove extra spaces after periods if they're already in the OCR'd textwe
can do that automatically during post-processing.
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Punctuation Spacing
Spaces before punctuation sometimes appear because books typeset in the 1700's & 1800's often
used partial spaces before punctuation such as a semicolon or colon.
In general, a punctuation mark should have a space after it but no space before it. If the OCR'd
text has no space after a punctuation mark, add one; if there is a space before punctuation,
remove it. This applies even to languages such as French that normally use spaces before
punctuation characters. However, punctuation marks that normally appear in pairs, such as
"quotation marks", (parentheses), [brackets], and {braces} normally have a space before the
opening mark, which should be retained.
one. I do not give the name of the play, act or scene,
in head or foot lines, in my numerous quotations from
Shakspere, designedly leaving the reader to trace and
find for himself a liberal education by studying the
wisdom of the Divine Bard.

There are many things in this volume that the ordinary
mind will not understand, yet I only contract with the
present and future generations to give rare and rich
food for thought, and cannot undertake to furnish the
reader brains with each book!
Correctly Proofread Text:
Clearly he wasn't an academic with a preface like this
one. "I do not give the name of the play, act or scene,
in head or foot lines, in my numerous quotations from
Shakspere, designedly leaving the reader to trace and
find for himself a liberal education by studying the
wisdom of the Divine Bard.

"There are many things in this volume that the ordinary
mind will not understand, yet I only contract with the
present and future generations to give rare and rich
food for thought, and cannot undertake to furnish the
reader brains with each book!"
Original Image:
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Extra Spaces or Tabs Between Words
Extra spaces between words are common in OCR output. You don't need to bother removing these
that can be done automatically during post-processing. However, extra spaces around punctuation, em-
dashes, quote marks, etc. do need to be removed when they separate the symbol from the word.
For example, in A horse ; my kingdom for a horse. the space between the word "horse" and the
semicolon should be removed. But the 2 spaces after the semicolon are fineyou don't have to delete
one of them.
In addition, if you find any tab characters in the text you should remove them.
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Do not bother inserting spaces at the ends of lines of text; any such spaces will automatically be
removed from the text when you save the page. When the text is post-processed, each end-of-line will
be converted into a space.
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Dashes, Hyphens, and Minus Signs
There are generally four such marks you will see in books:
1. Hyphens. These are used to join words together, or sometimes to join prefixes or suffixes to a
word.
Leave these as a single hyphen, with no spaces on either side. Note that there is a common
exception to this shown in the second example below.
2. En-dashes. These are just a little longer, and are used for a range of numbers, or for a
mathematical minus sign.
Proofread these as a single hyphen, too. Spaces before or after are determined by the way it was
done in the book; usually no spaces in number ranges, usually spaces around mathematical minus
signs, sometimes both sides, sometimes just before.
3. Em-dashes & long dashes. These serve as separators between wordssometimes for emphasis
like thisor when a speaker gets a word caught in his throat!
Proofread these as two hyphens if the dash is as long as 2-3 letters (an em-dash) and four
hyphens if the dash is as long as 4-5 letters (a long dash). Don't leave a space before or after,
even if it looks like there was a space in the original book image.
4. Deliberately Omitted or Censored Words or ames.
If represented by a dash in the image, proofread these as two hyphens or four hyphens as
described for em-dashes & long dashes. When it represents a word, we leave appropriate space
and so it goes ; ever and ever.
and so it goes; ever and ever.
around it like it's really a word. If it's only part of a word, then no spacesjoin it with the
rest of the word.
See also the guidelines for end-of-line and end-of-page hyphens and dashes.
ExamplesDashes, Hyphens, and Minus Signs:
Original Image: Correctly Proofread Text: Type
semi-detached
semi-detached
Hyphen
three- and four-part harmony
three- and four-part harmony
Hyphens
discoveries which the Crus-
aders made and brought home with
discoveries which the
Crusaders
made and brought home with
Hyphen
factors which mold char-
acterenvironment, training and heritage,
factors which mold character-
-environment,
training and heritage,
Hyphen &
Em-dash
See pages 2125
See pages 21-25
En-dash
It was 14C outside.
It was -14C outside.
En-dash
X Y = Z
X - Y = Z
En-dash
21/2
2-1/2
En-dash
A plague on both
your houses!I am dead.
--A plague on both
your houses!--I am dead.
Em-dashes
sensationssweet, bitter, salt, and sour
if even all of these are simple tastes. What
sensations--sweet, bitter,
salt, and sour--if
even all of these are simple
tastes. What
Em-dashes
sensestouch, smell, hearing, and sight
with which we are here concerned,
senses--touch, smell,
hearing, and sight--with
which we are here concerned,
Em-dashes
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun!
It is the east, and Juliet is
the sun--!
Em-dash
how a--a--cannon-ball goes---
-"
Em-dashes,
Hyphen,
& Long Dash
"Three hundred" "years," she was going
to
say, but the left-hand cat interrupted her.
"Three hundred----" "years,"
she was going to
say, but the left-hand cat
interrupted her.
Long Dash
As the witness Mr. testified,
As the witness Mr. ----
testified,
Long Dash
As the witness Mr. S testified,
As the witness Mr. S----
testified,
Long Dash
the famous detective of B Baker St.
the famous detective of ----B
Baker St.
Long Dash
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Where a hyphen appears at the end of a line, join the two halves of the hyphenated word back
together. Remove the hyphen when you join it, unless it is really a hyphenated word like well-
meaning. See Dashes, Hyphens, and Minus Signs for examples of each kind. Keep the joined
word on the top line, and put a line break after it to preserve the line formattingthis makes it
easier for volunteers in later rounds. If the word is followed by punctuation, then carry that
punctuation onto the top line, too.
Words like to-day and to-morrow that we don't commonly hyphenate now were often hyphenated
in the old books we are working on. Leave them hyphenated the way the author did. If you're not
sure if the author hyphenated it or not, leave the hyphen, put an * after it, and join the word
together like this: to-*day. The asterisk will bring it to the attention of the post-processor, who
has access to all the pages and can determine how the author typically wrote this word.
Similarly, if an em-dash appears at the start or end of a line of your OCR'd text, join it with the
other line so that there are no spaces or line breaks around it. However, if the author used an em-
dash to start or end a paragraph or a line of poetry, you should leave it as it is, without joining it
to the next line. See Dashes, Hyphens, and Minus Signs for examples.
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Proofread end-of-page hyphens or em-dashes by leaving the hyphen or em-dash at the end of the
last line, and mark it with a * after the hyphen or dash. For example:
On pages that start with part of a word from the previous page or an em-dash, place a * before
the partial word or em-dash. To continue the above example:
You Yankee, she yelled.
"You ---- Yankee", she
yelled.
Long Dash
I am not a dd Yankee, he replied.
"I am not a d--d Yankee", he
replied.
Em-dash
Original Image:
something Pat had already become accus-
something Pat had already become accus-*
Original Image:
tomed to from having to do his own family
These markings indicate to the post-processor that the word must be rejoined when the pages are
combined to produce the final e-book. Please do not join the fragments across the pages yourself.
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The guidelines are different for English and Languages Other Than English (LOTE).
EGLISH: An ellipsis should have three dots. Regarding the spacing, in the middle of a sentence treat
the three dots as a single word (i.e., usually a space before the 3 dots and a space after). At the end of a
sentence treat the ellipsis as ending punctuation, with no space before it.
Note that there will also be an ending punctuation mark at the end of a sentence, so in the case of a
period there will be 4 dots total. Remove extra dots, if any, or add new ones, if necessary, to bring the
number to three (or four) as appropriate. A good hint that you're at the end of a sentence is the use of a
capital letter at the start of the next word, or the presence of an ending punctuation mark (e.g., a
question mark or exclamation point).
LOTE: (Languages Other Than English) Use the general rule "Follow closely the style used in the
printed page." In particular, insert spaces, if there are spaces before or between the periods, and use the
same number of periods as appear in the image. Sometimes the printed page is unclear; in that case,
insert a [**unclear] to draw the attention of the post-processor. (Note: Post-processors should replace
those regular spaces with non-breaking spaces.)
English examples:
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Contractions
In English, remove any extra space in contractions. For example, would n't should be proofread as
wouldn't and 't is as 'tis.
*tomed to from having to do his own family
Original Image: Correctly Proofread Text:
That I know . . . is true.
That I know ... is true.
This is the end....
This is the end....
The moving finger writes; and. . . The poet
surely had a pen though!
The moving finger writes; and.... The poet
surely had a pen though!
Wherefore art thou Romeo. . . ?
Wherefore art thou Romeo...?
I went to the store, . . . said Harry.
"I went to the store, ..." said Harry.
... And I did too! said Sally.
"... And I did too!" said Sally.
Really? . . . Oh, Harry!
"Really?... Oh, Harry!"
This was a 19th century printers' convention in which the space was retained to indicate that
'would' and 'not' were originally separate words. It is also sometimes an artifact of the OCR.
Remove the extra space in either case.
Some Project Managers may specify in the Project Comments not to remove extra spaces in
contractions, particularly in the case of books that contain slang, dialect, or poetry.
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Fractions
Proofread fractions as follows: becomes 1/4, and 2 becomes 2-1/2. The hyphen prevents the
whole and fractional part from becoming separated when the lines are rewrapped during post-
processing. Unless specifically requested in the Project Comments, please do not use the actual
fraction symbols.
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Accented/on-ASCII Characters
Please proofread these using the proper symbols or accented characters to match the image,
where possible, including the use or non-use of accents. We can only use Latin-1 characters
during proofreading; if you aren't sure if a character is in the Latin-1 character set, check the
tables below. If they are not on your keyboard, see Inserting Special Characters for information
on how to input these characters during proofreading.
The character (oe ligature) is not in Latin-1, so we mark it with brackets like in man[oe]uvre,
or [OE]dipus for the capital . Note that the character (ae ligature, as in encyclopdia) is in
Latin-1, so that character should be inserted directly.
For other characters outside of Latin-1, see Diacritical marks for how to proofread accents or
other marks above or below Latin letters. For characters that are not addressed in these
guidelines, see the Project Manager's instructions in the Project Comments.
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In some projects, you will find characters with special marks either above or below the normal
Latin A...Z character. These are called diacritical marks, and indicate a special pronunciation for
this character. For proofreading, we indicate them in the text by using a specific coding, such as:
becomes [)a] for a breve (the u-shaped accent) above an a, or [a)] for a breve below. Be sure
to include the square brackets ([ ]). In the rare case when a diacritic is over two letters, include
both letters in the brackets.
The post-processor will eventually replace these with whatever symbol works in each version of
the text produced, such as 7-bit ASCII, 8-bit, Unicode, html, etc.
Note that when some of these marks appear on some characters (mainly vowels) our standard
Latin-1 character set already includes that character with the diacritical mark. In those cases, use
the Latin-1 character (see here), available from the drop-down lists in the proofreading
interface.
In the table below, the "x" represents a letter with a diacritical mark. When proofreading, use the
actual character from the text, not the x shown in the examples.
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on-Latin Characters
Some projects contain text printed in non-Latin characters; that is, characters other than the Latin
A...Zfor example, Greek, Cyrillic (used in Russian, Slavic, and other languages), Hebrew, or
Arabic characters.
For Greek, you should attempt a transliteration. Transliteration involves converting each
character of the foreign text into the equivalent Latin letter(s). A Greek transliteration tool is
provided in the proofreading interface to make this task much easier.
Press the "Greek Transliterator" button near the bottom of the proofreading interface to open the
tool. In the tool, click on the Greek characters that match the word or phrase you are
transliterating, and the appropriate Latin-1 characters will appear in the text box. When you are
done, simply cut and paste this transliterated text into the page you are proofreading. Surround
the transliterated text with the Greek markers [Greek: and ]. For example, would
become [Greek: Biblos]. ("Book"so appropriate for DP!)
If you are uncertain about your transliteration, mark it with ** to bring it to the attention of the
next proofreader or the post-processor.
Proofreading Symbols for Diacritical Marks
diacritical mark sample above below
macron (straight line)
[=x] [x=]
2 dots (dieresis, umlaut)
[:x] [x:]
1 dot
[.x] [x.]
grave accent
`
[`x] [x`]
acute accent (aigu)
['x] [x']
circumflex
[^x] [x^]
caron (v-shaped symbol) [vx] [xv]
breve (u-shaped symbol) [)x] [x)]
tilde
[~x] [x~]
cedilla
[,x] [x,]
For other alphabets that cannot be so easily transliterated, such as Cyrillic, Hebrew, or Arabic, replace
the non-Latin characters or OCR garbage with the appropriate mark: [Cyrillic: **], [Hebrew: **],
or [Arabic: **]. Include the ** so the post-processor can address it later.
Greek: See the Transliterating Greek wiki page, Greek HOWTO from Project Gutenberg, or the
"Greek Transliterator" pop-up tool in the proofreading interface.
Cyrillic: While a standard transliteration scheme exists for Cyrillic, we only recommend you
attempt a transliteration if you are fluent in a language that uses it. Otherwise, just mark it as
indicated above.
Hebrew and Arabic: Not recommended unless you are fluent. There are significant difficulties
transliterating these languages and neither Distributed Proofreaders nor Project Gutenberg have
yet chosen a standard method.
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Superscripts
Older books often abbreviated words as contractions, and printed them as superscripts. Proofread these
by inserting a single caret (^) followed by the superscripted text. If the superscript continues for more
than one character, then surround the text with curly braces { and } as well. For example:
If the superscript represents a footnote marker, then see the Footnotes section instead.
The Project Manager may specify in the Project Comments that superscripted text be marked
differently.
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Subscripts
Subscripted text is often found in scientific works, but is not common in other material. Proofread
subscripted text by inserting an underline character _ and surrounding the text with curly braces
{ and }. For example:
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Original Image:
Gen
rl
Washington defeated L
d
Cornwall's army.
Gen^{rl} Washington defeated L^d Cornwall's army.
Original Image:
H
2
O.
H_{2}O.
Large, Ornate Opening Capital Letter (Drop Cap)
Proofread a large and ornate graphic first letter of a chapter, section, or paragraph as if it were an
ordinary letter. See also the Chapter Headings section of the Proofreading Guidelines.
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Words in Small Capitals
Please proofread only the characters in SMALL CAPS (capital letters which are smaller than the standard
capitals). Do not worry about case changes. If the OCR'd text is already ALL-CAPPED, Mixed-Cased,
or lower-cased, leave it ALL-CAPPED, Mixed-Cased, or lower-cased. Small caps may occasionally
appear with <sc> and </sc> around it; see Formatting in that case.
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Line Breaks
Leave all line breaks in so that later in the process other volunteers can easily compare the lines in the
text to the lines in the image. Be especially careful about this when rejoining hyphenated words or
moving words around em-dashes. If the previous proofreader removed the line breaks, please replace
them so that they once again match the image.
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Chapter Headings
Proofread chapter headings as they appear in the image.
A chapter heading may start a bit farther down the page than the page header and won't have a page
number on the same line. Chapter Headings are often printed all caps; if so, keep them as all caps.
Watch out for a missing double quote at the start of the first paragraph, which some publishers did not
include or which the OCR missed due to a large capital in the image. If the author started the paragraph
with dialog, insert the double quote.
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Put a blank line before the start of a paragraph, even if it starts at the top of a page. You should not
indent the start of the paragraph, but if it is already indented don't bother removing those spacesthat
can be done automatically during post-processing.
See the Sidenotes image/text for an example.
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Proofreading at the Paragraph Level:
Remove page headers and page footers, but not footnotes, from the text.
The page headers are normally at the top of the image and have a page number opposite them.
Page headers may be the same all through the book (often the title of the book and the author's
name), they may be the same for each chapter (often the chapter number), or they may be
different on each page (describing the action on that page). Remove them all, regardless,
including the page number. Extra blank lines should be removed except where we intentionally
add them for proofreading. But blank lines at the bottom of the page are finethese are removed
when you save the page.
Page footers are at the bottom of the image and may contain a page number or other extraneous
marks that are not part of what the author wrote.
A chapter heading will usually start further down the page and won't have a page number on the
same line. See the example below.
Original Image:

In the United States?[*] In a railroad? In a mining company?
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Illustrations
Ignore illustrations, but proofread any caption text as it is printed, preserving the line breaks. If
the caption falls in the middle of a paragraph, use blank lines to set it apart from the rest of the
text. Text that could be (part of) a caption should be included, such as "See page 66" or a title
within the bounds of the illustration.
Most pages with an illustration but no text will already be marked with [Blank Page]. Leave
this marking as is.
In a bank? In a church? In a college?

Write a list of all the corporations that you know or have
ever heard of, grouping them under the heads public and private.

How could a pastor collect his salary if the church should
refuse to pay it?

Could a bank buy a piece of ground "on speculation?" To
build its banking-house on? Could a county lend money if it
had a surplus? State the general powers of a corporation.
Some of the special powers of a bank. Of a city.

A portion of a man's farm is taken for a highway, and he is
paid damages; to whom does said land belong? The road intersects
the farm, and crossing the road is a brook containing
trout, which have been put there and cared for by the farmer;
may a boy sit on the public bridge and catch trout from that
brook? If the road should be abandoned or lifted, to whom
would the use of the land go?

CHAPTER XXXV.

Commercial Paper.

Kinds and Uses.--If a man wishes to buy some commodity
from another but has not the money to pay for
it, he may secure what he wants by giving his written
promise to pay at some future time. This written
promise, or note, the seller prefers to an oral promise
for several reasons, only two of which need be mentioned
here: first, because it is prima facie evidence of
the debt; and, second, because it may be more easily
transferred or handed over to some one else.

If J. M. Johnson, of Saint Paul, owes C. M. Jones,
of Chicago, a hundred dollars, and Nelson Blake, of
Chicago, owes J. M. Johnson a hundred dollars, it is
plain that the risk, expense, time and trouble of sending
the money to and from Chicago may be avoided,

* The United States: "Its charter, the constitution. * * * Its flag the
symbol of its power; its seal, of its authority."--Dole.

Original Image:

Martha told him that he had always been her ideal and
that she worshipped him.

Frontispiece
Her Weight in Gold
Original Image: (Illustration in middle of paragraph)
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Footnotes/Endnotes
Proofread footnotes by leaving the text of the footnote at the bottom of the page and placing a tag
where it is referenced in the text.
In the main text, the character that marks a footnote location should be surrounded with square brackets

such study are due to Italians. Several of these instruments
have already been described in this journal, and on the present
FIG. 1.--APPARATUS FOR THE STUDY OF HORIZONTAL
SEISMIC MOVEMENTS.
occasion we shall make known a few others that will
serve to give an idea of the methods employed.
For the observation of the vertical and horizontal motions
of the ground, different apparatus are required. The
([ and ]) and placed right next to the word being footnoted[1] or its punctuation mark,[2] as
shown in the image and the two examples in this sentence. Footnote markers may be numbers,
letters, or symbols. When footnotes are marked with a symbol or a series of symbols (*, , , ,
etc.) we replace them all with [*] in the text, and * next to the footnote itself.
At the bottom of the page, proofread the footnote text as it is printed, preserving the line breaks.
Be sure to use the same tag before the footnote as you used in the text where the footnote was
referenced. Use just the character itself for the tag, without any brackets or other punctuation.
Place each footnote on a separate line in order of appearance, with a blank line before each one.
Do not include any horizontal lines separating the footnotes from the main text.
Endnotes are just footnotes that have been located together at the end of a chapter or at the end
of the book, instead of on the bottom of each page. These are proofread in the same manner as
footnotes. Where you find an endnote reference in the text, just surround it with [ and ]. If you
are proofreading one of the pages with endnotes, put a blank line before each endnote so that it is
clear where each begins and ends.
Footnotes in Tables should remain where they are in the original image.

Original Image:
The principal persons involved in this argument were Caesar*, former military
leader and Imperator, and the orator Cicero. Both were of the aristocratic
(Patrician) class, and were quite wealthy.
* Gaius Julius Caesar.
Marcus Tullius Cicero.
The principal persons involved in this argument were Caesar[*], former military
leader and Imperator, and the orator Cicero[*]. Both were of the aristocratic
(Patrician) class, and were quite wealthy.

* Gaius Julius Caesar.

* Marcus Tullius Cicero.
Original Footnoted Poetry:
Mary had a little lamb
1

Whose fleece was white as snow
And everywhere that Mary went
The lamb was sure to go!
1
This lamb was obviously of the Hampshire breed,

well known for the pure whiteness of their wool.
Mary had a little lamb[1]
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Some books will have short descriptions of the paragraph along the side of the text. These are
called sidenotes. Proofread the sidenote text as it is printed, preserving the line breaks (while
handling end-of-line hyphenation and dashes normally). Leave a blank line before and after the
sidenote so that it can be distinguished from the text around it. The OCR may place the sidenotes
anywhere on the page, and may even intermingle the sidenote text with the rest of the text.
Separate them so that the sidenote text is all together, but don't worry about the position of the
sidenotes on the page.
Whose fleece was white as snow
And everywhere that Mary went
The lamb was sure to go!

1 This lamb was obviously of the Hampshire breed,
well known for the pure whiteness of their wool.
Original Image:

Burning
discs
thrown into
the air.

that such as looked at the fire holding a bit of larkspur
before their face would be troubled by no malady of the
eyes throughout the year.[1] Further, it was customary at
Wrzburg, in the sixteenth century, for the bishop's followers
to throw burning discs of wood into the air from a mountain
which overhangs the town. The discs were discharged by
means of flexible rods, and in their flight through the darkness
presented the appearance of fiery dragons.[2]

The Midsummer
fires in
Swabia.

In the valley of the Lech, which divides Upper Bavaria
from Swabia, the midsummer customs and beliefs are, or
used to be, very similar. Bonfires are kindled on the
mountains on Midsummer Day; and besides the bonfire
a tall beam, thickly wrapt in straw and surmounted by a
cross-piece, is burned in many places. Round this cross as
it burns the lads dance with loud shouts; and when the
flames have subsided, the young people leap over the fire in
pairs, a young man and a young woman together. If they
escape unsmirched, the man will not suffer from fever, and
the girl will not become a mother within the year. Further,
it is believed that the flax will grow that year as high as
they leap over the fire; and that if a charred billet be taken
from the fire and stuck in a flax-field it will promote the
growth of the flax.[3] Similarly in Swabia, lads and lasses,
hand in hand, leap over the midsummer bonfire, praying
that the hemp may grow three ells high, and they set fire
to wheels of straw and send them rolling down the hill.
Among the places where burning wheels were thus bowled
down hill at Midsummer were the Hohenstaufen mountains
in Wurtemberg and the Frauenberg near Gerhausen.[4]
At Deffingen, in Swabia, as the people sprang over the mid-*

Omens
drawn from
the leaps
over the
fires.

Burning
wheels
rolled
down hill.

1 Op. cit. iv. 1. p. 242. We have
seen (p. 163) that in the sixteenth
century these customs and beliefs were
common in Germany. It is also a
German superstition that a house which
contains a brand from the midsummer
bonfire will not be struck by lightning
(J. W. Wolf, Beitrge zur deutschen
Mythologie, i. p. 217, 185).

2 J. Boemus, Mores, leges et ritus
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Multiple Columns
Proofread ordinary text that has been printed in multiple columns as a single column. Place the
text from the left-most column first, the text from the next column below that, and so on. Do not
mark where the columns were split, just join them together. See the very bottom of the Sidenotes
example for an example of multiple columns.
See also the Index and Table sections of the Proofreading Guidelines.
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Tables
A proofreader's job is to be sure that all the information in a table is correctly proofread. Separate
items with spaces as needed, but do not worry about precise alignment. Retain line breaks (while
handling end-of-line hyphenation and dashes normally). Ignore any periods or other punctuation
(leaders) used to align the items.
Footnotes in tables should remain where they are in the image. See footnotes for details.
omnium gentium (Lyons, 1541), p.
226.

3 Karl Freiherr von Leoprechting,
Aus dem Lechrain (Munich, 1855),
pp. 181 sqq.; W. Mannhardt, Der
Baumkultus, p. 510.

4 A. Birlinger, Volksthmliches aus
Schwaben (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1861-1862),
ii. pp. 96 sqq., 128, pp. 103
sq., 129; id., Aus Schwaben (Wiesbaden,
1874), ii. 116-120; E. Meier,
Deutsche Sagen, Sitten und Gebruche
aus Schwaben (Stuttgart, 1852), pp.
423 sqq.; W. Mannhardt, Der Baumkultus,
p. 510.
Original Image:

TABLE II.

Flat strips compared Copper. Copper.
with round wire 30 cm. Iron. Parallel wires 30 cm. in Iron.
in length. length.

Wire 1 mm. diameter 20 100 Wire 1 mm. diameter 20 100

STRIPS. SINGLE WIRE.
0.25 mm. thick, 2 mm.
wide ...... 15 35 0.25 mm. diameter .... 16 48
Same, 5 mm. wide .... 13 20 Two similar wires ...... 12 30
" 10 " " 11 15 Four " " 9 18
" 20 " " 10 14 Eight " " 8 10
" 40 " " 9 13 Sixteen " " 7 6
Same strip rolled up in Same, 16 wires bound
the form of wire .. 17 15 close together ..... 18 12
Original Image:

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Poetry/Epigrams
Insert a blank line at the start of the poetry or epigram and another blank line at the end, so that
the formatters can clearly see the beginning and end. Leave each line left justified and maintain
the line breaks. Insert a blank line between stanzas, when there is one in the image.
Line Numbers in poetry should be kept.
Check the Project Comments for the specific project you are proofreading.
Agents. Objects.
{ 1st person, I, me,
{ 2d " thou, thee,
Singular { " mas. { he, him,
{ 3d " fem. { she, her,
{ it, it.

{ 1st person, we, us,
Plural { 2d " ye, or you, you,
{ 3d " they, them,
who, whom.
Original Image:

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Line umbers
Line numbers are common in books of poetry, and usually appear near the margin every fifth or tenth
line. Keep line numbers, using a few spaces to separate them from the other text on the line so that the
formatters can easily find them. Since poetry will not be rewrapped in the e-book version, the line
numbers will be useful to readers.
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Proofread this by deleting the word, even if it's the second half of a hyphenated word.
In some older books, the single word at the bottom of the page (called a "catchword", usually printed
near the right margin) indicates the first word on the next page of the book (called an "incipit"). It was
used to alert the printer to print the correct reverse (called "verso"), to make it easier for printers'
helpers to make up the pages prior to binding, and to help the reader avoid turning over more than one
page.
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Blank Page
Most blank pages, or pages with an illustration but no text, will already be marked with [Blank Page].
Leave this marking as is. If the page is blank, and [Blank Page] does not appear, there is no need to add
it.
If there is text in the proofreading text area and a blank image, or if there is text in the image but none
in the text box, follow the directions for a Bad Image or Bad Text.
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THE CHAMBERED NAUTILUS

This is the ship of pearl which, poets
feign,
Sails the unshadowed main,--
The venturous bark that flings
On the sweet summer wind its purpled
wings
In gulfs enchanted, where the Siren sings
And coral reefs lie bare,
Where the cold sea maids rise to sun
their streaming hair.

Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl;
Wrecked is the ship of pearl!
Proofreading at the Page Level:
Proofread all the text just as it was printed on the page, whether all capitals, upper and lower
case, etc., including the years of publication or copyright.
Older books often show the first letter as a large ornate graphicproofread this as just the letter.
Original Image:

GREEN FANCY
BY
GEORGE BARR McCUTCHEON
AUTHOR OF "GRAUSTARK," "THE HOLLOW OF HER HAND,"
"THE PRINCE OF GRAUSTARK," ETC.
WITH FRONTISPIECE BY
C. ALLAN GILBERT
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Table of Contents
Proofread the Table of Contents just as it is printed in the book, whether all capitals, upper and
lower case, etc. If there are SMALL CAPITALS, see the guidelines for Small Capitals.
Ignore any periods or other punctuation (leaders) used to align the page numbers. These will be
removed later in the process.
NEW YORK
DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY
1917
Original Image:

CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE

I. THE FIRST WAYFARER AND THE SECOND WAYFARER
MEET AND PART ON THE HIGHWAY ..... 1

II. THE FIRST WAYFARER LAYS HIS PACK ASIDE AND
FALLS IN WITH FRIENDS .... ... 15

III. MR. RUSHCROFT DISSOLVES, MR. JONES INTERVENES,
AND TWO MEN RIDE AWAY 33

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Indexes
You don't need to align the page numbers in index pages as they appear in the image; just make sure
that the numbers and punctuation match the image and retain the line breaks.
Specific formatting of indexes will occur later in the process. The proofreader's job is to make sure that
all the text and numbers are correct.
See also Multiple Columns.
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Plays: Actor ames/Stage Directions
In dialog, treat a change in speaker as a new paragraph, with one blank line before it. If the speaker's
name is on its own line, treat that as a separate paragraph as well.
Stage directions are kept as they are in the original image, so if the stage direction is on a line by itself,
proofread it that way; if it is at the end of a line of dialog, leave it there. Stage directions often begin
with an opening bracket and omit the closing bracket. This convention is retained; do not close the
brackets.
IV. AN EXTRAORDINARY CHAMBERMAID, A MIDNIGHT
TRAGEDY, AND A MAN WHO SAID "THANK YOU" 50

V. THE FARM-BOY TELLS A GHASTLY STORY, AND AN
IRISHMAN ENTERS .. .. 67

VI. CHARITY BEGINS FAR FROM HOME, AND A STROLL IN
THE WILDWOOD FOLLOWS 85

VII. SPUN-GOLD HAIR, BLUE EYES, AND VARIOUS ENCOUNTERS ... 103

VIII. A NOTE, SOME FANCIES, AND AN EXPEDITION IN
QUEST OF FACTS .. ,, 120

IX. THE FIRST WAYFARER, THE SECOND WAYFARER, AND
THE SPIRIT OF CHIVALRY ASCENDANT , 134

X. THE PRISONER OF GREEN FANCY, AND THE LAMENT OF
PETER THE CHAUFFEUR ... ....148

XI. MR. SPROUSE ABANDONS LITERATURE AT AN EARLY
HOUR IN THE MORNING .. ... , 167

XII. THE FIRST WAYFARER ACCEPTS AN INVITATION, AND
MR. DILLINGFORD BELABORS A PROXY 183

XIII. THE SECOND WAYFARER RECEIVES TWO VISITORS AT
MIDNIGHT ,,,.. .... 199

XIV. A FLIGHT, A STONE-CUTTER'S SHED, AND A VOICE
OUTSIDE ,,,.. ...., 221
Sometimes, especially in metrical plays, a word is split due to page-size constraints and placed
above or below following a (, rather than having a line of its own. Please rejoin the word as per
normal end-of-line hyphenation. See the example.
Please check the Project Comments, as the Project Manager may specify different handling.
Original Image:

Has not his name for nought, he will be trode upon:
What says my Printer now?
Clow. Here's your last Proof, Sir.
You shall have perfect Books now in a twinkling.
Lap. These marks are ugly.
Clow. He says, Sir, they're proper:
Blows should have marks, or else they are nothing worth.
La. But why a Peel-crow here?
Clow. I told 'em so Sir:
A scare-crow had been better.
Lap. How slave? look you, Sir,
Did not I say, this Whirrit, and this Bob,

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Anything else that needs special handling or that you're unsure of
While proofreading, if you encounter something that isn't covered in these guidelines that you think
needs special handling or that you are not sure how to handle, post your question, noting the png (page)
number, in the Project Discussion.
You should also put a note in the proofread text to explain to the next proofreader, formatter, or post-
processor what the problem or question is. Start your note with a square bracket and two asterisks [**
and end it with another square bracket ]. This clearly separates it from the author's text and signals the
post-processor to stop and carefully examine this part of the text and the matching image to address any
issues. You may also want to identify which round you are working in just before the ] so that later
volunteers know who left the note. Any comments put in by a previous volunteer must be left in place.
See the next section for details.
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Previous Proofreaders' otes/Comments
Any notes or comments put in by a previous volunteer must be left in place. You may add agreement
or disagreement to the existing note but even if you know the answer, you absolutely must not remove
the comment. If you have found a source which clarifies the problem, please cite it so the post-
processor can also refer to it.
Should be both Pica Roman.
Clow. So said I, Sir, both Picked Romans,
And he has made 'em Welch Bills,
Indeed I know not what to make on 'em.
Lap. Hay-day; a Souse, Italica?
Clow. Yes, that may hold, Sir,
Souse is a bona roba, so is Flops too.
Original Image:

Am. Sure you are fasting;
Or not slept well to night; some dream (Ismena?)

Ism. My dreams are like my thoughts, honest and innocent,
Yours are unhappy; who are these that coast us?
You told me the walk was private.
If you come across a note from a previous volunteer that you know the answer to, please take a moment
and provide feedback to them by clicking on their name in the proofreading interface and posting a
private message to them explaining how to handle the situation in the future. Please, as already stated,
do not remove the note.
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Formatting
You may sometimes find formatting already present in the text. Do not add or correct this formatting
information; the formatters will do that later in the process. However, you can remove it if it interferes
with your proofreading. The <x> button in the proofreading interface will remove markup such as 
and from highlighted text. Some examples of formatting tasks include:
italics, bold, <sc>Small Caps</sc>
Spaced-out text
Font size changes
Spacing of chapter and section headings
Extra spaces, stars, or lines between paragraphs
Footnotes that continue for more than one page
Footnotes marked with symbols
Illustrations
Sidenote locations
Arrangement of data in tables
Indentation (in poetry or elsewhere)
Rejoining long lines in poetry and indexes
If the previous proofreader inserted formatting, please take a moment and provide feedback to them by
clicking on their name in the proofreading interface and posting a private message to them explaining
how to handle the situation in the future. Remember to leave the formatting to the Formatting
rounds.
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Common OCR Problems
OCR commonly has trouble distinguishing between the similar characters. Some examples are:
The digit '1' (one), the lowercase letter 'l' (ell), and the uppercase letter 'I'. Note that in some fonts
the number one may look like I (like a small capital letter 'i').
The digit '0' (zero), and the uppercase letter 'O'.
Dashes & hyphens: Proofread these carefullyOCR'd text often has only one hyphen for an em-
dash that should have two. See the guidelines for hyphenated words and em-dashes for more
detailed information.
Parentheses ( ) and curly braces { }.
Watch out for these. Normally the context of the sentence is sufficient to determine which is the correct
Common Problems:
character, but be carefuloften your mind will automatically 'correct' these as you are reading.
Noticing these is much easier if you use a mono-spaced font such as DPCustomMono or Courier.
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Another common OCR issue is misrecognition of characters. We call these errors "scannos" (like
"typos"). This misrecognition can create a word that:
appears to be correct at first glance, but is actually misspelled.
This can usually be caught by running WordCheck from the proofreading interface.
is changed to a different but otherwise valid word that does not match what is in the page
image.
This is subtle because it can only be caught by someone actually reading the text.
Possibly the most common example of the second type is "and" being OCR'd as "arid." Other
examples: "eve" for "eye", "Torn" for "Tom", "train" for "tram". This type is harder to spot and
we have a special term for them: "Stealth Scannos." We collect examples of Stealth Scannos in
this thread.
Spotting scannos is much easier if you use a mono-spaced font such as DPCustomMono or
Courier. To aid proofreading, the use of WordCheck (or its equivalent) is recommended in P1,
and required in the other proofreading rounds.
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OCR Problems: Is that really a degree sign?
There are three different symbols that can look very similar in the image and that the OCR
software interprets the same (and usually incorrectly):
The degree sign : This should be used only to indicate degrees (of temperature, of angle,
etc.).
The superscript o: Virtually all other occurrences of a raised o should be proofread as ô,
following the guidelines for Superscripts.
The masculine ordinal : Proofread this like a superscript too unless the special character
is requested in the Project Comments. It may be used in languages such as Spanish and
Portuguese, and is the equivalent of the -th in English 4th, 5th, etc. It follows numbers and
has the feminine equivalent in the superscript a ().
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Handwritten otes in Book
Do not include handwritten notes in a book (unless it is overwriting faded, printed text to make it
more visible). Do not include handwritten marginal notes made by readers, etc.
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Bad Image
If an image is bad (not loading, mostly illegible, etc.), please post about this bad image in the
project discussion and click on the "Report Bad Page" button so this page is 'quarantined', rather
than returning the page to the round. If only a small portion of the image is bad, leave a note as
described above, and please post in the project discussion without marking the whole page bad.
The "Bad Page" button is only available during the first round of proofreading, so it is important
that these issues be resolved early.
Note that some page images are quite large, and it is common for your browser to have difficulty
displaying them, especially if you have several windows open or are using an older computer.
Before reporting this as a bad page, try zooming in on the image, closing some of your windows
and programs, or posting in the project discussion to see if anyone else has the same problem.
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If there is a wrong image for the text given, please post about this bad page in the project
discussion and click on the "Report Bad Page" button so this page is 'quarantined', rather than
returning the page to the round. The "Bad Page" button is only available during the first round of
proofreading, so it is important that these issues be resolved early.
It's fairly common for the OCR'd text to be mostly correct, but missing the first line or two of the
text. Please just type in the missing line(s). If nearly all of the lines are missing in the text box,
then either type in the whole page (if you are willing to do that), or just click on the "Return Page
to Round" button and the page will be reissued to someone else. If there are several pages like
this, you might post a note in the project discussion to notify the Project Manager.
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If a previous proofreader made a lot of mistakes or missed a lot of things, please take a moment
to provide feedback to them by clicking on their name in the proofreading interface and posting a
private message to them explaining how to handle the situation so that they will know how in the
future.
Please be nice! Everyone here is a volunteer and presumably trying their best. The point of your
feedback message should be to inform them of the correct way to proofread, rather than to
criticize them. Give a specific example from their work showing what they did, and what they
should have done.
If the previous proofreader did an outstanding job, you can also send them a message about
thatespecially if they were working on a particularly difficult page.
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Correct all of the words that the OCR has misread (scannos), but do not correct what may appear
to you to be misspellings or printer errors that occur on the page image. Many of the older texts
have words spelled differently from modern usage and we retain these older spellings, including
any accented characters.
Place a note in the text next to a printer's erorr[**typo for error?]. If you are unsure whether
it is actually an error, please also ask in the project discussion. If you do make a change, include
a note describing what you changed: [**typo "erorr" fixed]. Include the two asterisks ** so
the post-processor will notice it.
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Do not correct factual errors in the author's book. Many of the books we are proofreading have
statements of fact in them that we no longer accept as accurate. Leave them as the author wrote
them. See Printer Errors/Misspellings for how to leave a note if you think the printed text is not
what the author intended.
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If they are not on your keyboard, there are several ways to input special characters:
The pull-down menus in the proofreading interface.
Applets included with your operating system. If you use one of these, be sure to insert only
Latin-1 characters (those listed in the charts below).
Windows: "Character Map"
Access it through:
Start: Run: charmap, or
Start: Accessories: System Tools: Character Map.
Macintosh: Key Caps or "Keyboard Viewer"
For OS 9 and lower this is on the Apple Menu,
For OS X through 10.2, this is located the in Applications, Utilities folder
For OS X 10.3 and higher, this is in the Input Menu as "Keyboard Viewer."
Linux: The name and location of the character picker will vary depending on your
desktop environment.
An on-line program, such as Edicode.
Keyboard shortcuts.
(See the tables for Windows and Macintosh below.)
Switching to a keyboard layout or locale which supports "deadkey" accents.
Windows: Control Panel (Keyboard, Input Locales)
Macintosh: Input Menu (on Menu Bar)
Linux: Change the keyboard in your X configuration.
For Windows:
You can use the Character Map program (Start: Run: charmap) to select an individual
letter, and then cut & paste.
The dropdown menus in the proofreading interface.
Or you can type the Alt+NumberPad shortcut codes listed below for these characters. This
is faster than using cut & paste, once you get used to the codes.
Hold the Alt key and type the four digits on the umber Padthe number row over the
letters won't work.
You must type all 4 digits, including the leading 0 (zero). Note that the capital version of a
letter is 32 less than the lower case.
These instructions are for the US-English keyboard layout. It may not work for other
keyboard layouts.
(Print-friendly version of this table)

Windows Shortcuts for Latin-1 symbols
` grave
acute
(aigu)
^
circumflex
~ tilde umlaut ring ligature
Alt-0224 Alt-0225 Alt-0226
Alt-
0227
Alt-0228 Alt-0229 Alt-0230
Alt-0192 Alt-0193 Alt-0194
Alt-
0195
Alt-0196 Alt-0197 Alt-0198
Alt-0232 Alt-0233 Alt-0234 Alt-0235
Alt-0200 Alt-0201 Alt-0202 Alt-0203
Alt-0236 Alt-0237 Alt-0238 Alt-0239
Alt-0204 Alt-0205 Alt-0206 Alt-0207 / slash
Alt-0242 Alt-0243 Alt-0244
Alt-
0245
Alt-0246 Alt-0248
Alt-0210 Alt-0211 Alt-0212
Alt-
0213
Alt-0214 Alt-0216
Alt-0249 Alt-0250 Alt-0251 Alt-0252
Alt-0217 Alt-0218 Alt-0219 Alt-0220 currency mathematics
Alt-0253
Alt-
0241
Alt-0255 Alt-0162 Alt-0177
Alt-0221
Alt-
0209
Alt-0163 Alt-0215
edilla Icelandic marks accents punctuation Alt-0165 Alt-0247
Alt-0231 Alt-0222 Alt-0169
Alt-
0180
Alt-0191 Alt-0164 Alt-0172
Alt-0199 Alt-0254 Alt-0174
Alt-
0168
Alt-0161 Alt-0176
superscripts Alt-0208 Alt-0182
Alt-
0175
Alt-0171 Alt-0181

Alt-
0185 *
Alt-0240 Alt-0167
Alt-
0184
Alt-0187 ordinals
Alt-
0188

Alt-
0178 *
sz ligature Alt-0166 Alt-0183
Alt-
0186 *

Alt-
0189
* Unless specifically requested by the Project Comments, please do not use the ordinal or
superscript symbols, but instead use the guidelines for Superscripts. (x^2, fô, etc.)
Unless specifically requested by the Project Comments, please do not use the fraction symbols,
but instead use the guidelines for Fractions. (1/2, 1/4, 3/4, etc.)
For Apple Macintosh:
You can use the "Key Caps" program as a reference.
In OS 9 & earlier, this is located in the Apple Menu; in OS X through 10.2, it is located in
Applications, Utilities folder.
This brings up a picture of the keyboard, and pressing shift, opt, command, or
combinations of those keys shows how to produce each character. Use this reference to see
how to type that character, or you can cut & paste it from here into the text in the
proofreading interface.
In OS X 10.3 and higher, the same function is now a palette available from the Input menu
(the drop-down menu attached to your locale's flag icon in the menu bar). It's labeled
"Show Keyboard Viewer." If this isn't in your Input menu, or if you don't have that menu,
you can activate it by opening System Preferences, the "International" panel, and selecting
the "Input Menu" pane. Ensure that "Show input menu in menu bar" is checked. In the
spreadsheet view, check the box for "Keyboard Viewer" in addition to any input locales
you use.
The dropdown menus in the proofreading interface.
Or you can type the Apple Opt- shortcut codes list below for these characters.
This is a lot faster than using cut & paste, once you get used to the codes.
Hold the Opt key and type the accent symbol, then type the letter to be accented (or, for
some codes, only hold the Opt key and type the symbol).
These instructions are for the US-English keyboard layout. It may not work for other
keyboard layouts.
(Print-friendly version of this table)

Alt-
0179 *
Alt-0223
Alt-
0170 *

Alt-
0190
Apple Mac Shortcuts for Latin-1 symbols
` grave
acute
(aigu)
^
circumflex
~ tilde umlaut ring ligature
Opt-`, a Opt-e, a Opt-i, a Opt-n, a Opt-u, a Opt-a Opt-'
Opt-`, A Opt-e, A Opt-i, A
Opt-n,
A
Opt-u, A Opt-A Opt-"
Opt-`, e Opt-e, e Opt-i, e Opt-u, e
Opt-`, E Opt-e, E Opt-i, E Opt-u, E
Opt-`, i Opt-e, i Opt-i, i Opt-u, i
Opt-`, I Opt-e, I Opt-i, I Opt-u, I / slash
Opt-`, o Opt-e, o Opt-i, o Opt-n, o Opt-u, o Opt-o
* Unless specifically requested by the Project Comments, please do not use the ordinal or
superscript symbols, but instead use the guidelines for Superscripts. (x^2, fô, etc.)
Unless specifically requested by the Project Comments, please do not use the fraction symbols,
but instead use the guidelines for Fractions. (1/2, 1/4, 3/4, etc.)
Note: No equivalent shortcut; use drop-down menus if needed.
Back to top

Opt-`, O Opt-e, O Opt-i, O
Opt-n,
O
Opt-u, O Opt-O
Opt-`, u Opt-e, u Opt-i, u Opt-u, u
Opt-`, U Opt-e, U Opt-i, U Opt-u, U currency mathematics
Opt-e, y Opt-n, n Opt-u, y Opt-4
Shift-Opt-
=
Opt-e, Y
Opt-n,
N
Opt-3 (none)
edilla Icelandic marks accents punctuation Opt-y Opt-/
Opt-c (none) Opt-g Opt-E Opt-? (none) Opt-l
Opt-C (none) Opt-r Opt-U Opt-1
Shift-Opt-
8
superscripts (none) Opt-7
Shift-
Opt-,
Opt-\ Opt-m
(none) * (none) Opt-6 Opt-Z
Shift-Opt-
\
ordinals (none)
(none) * sz ligature (none)
Shift-Opt-
9
Opt-0 * (none)
(none) * Opt-s Opt-9 * (none)
Alphabetical Index to the Guidelines
About This Document
Accented/Non-ASCII Characters
Actor Names (Plays)
ae Ligatures
Anything else that needs special handling
Back Title Page
Bad Image
Bad Text
Blank Page
Bold Text
Capital Letter, Ornate (Drop Cap)
Capitals, SMALL
Language Other Than English (LOTE),
Ellipses in
Large, Ornate Opening Capital Letter (Drop
Cap)
Latin-1 Characters, Inserting
Ligatures
Line Breaks
Line Numbers
Lowered Text (Subscripts)
Minus Signs
Misspellings, Printer
Mistakes, Previous Proofreader
Captions, Illustration
Catchwords
Chapter Headings
Characters, Accented/Non-ASCII
Columns, Multiple
Comments, Previous Proofreaders'
Common OCR Problems
Contents, Table of
Contractions
Dashes
Dashes, End-of-line
Dashes, End-of-page
Degree Signs
Diacritical Marks
Double Quotes
Double Quotes, missing at start of chapter
Drama
Drop Cap
Drop-down Menus
Ellipsis
Em-dashes
Endnotes
End-of-line Space
Epigrams
Extra Spaces Between Words
Errors, Factual
Errors, Printer
Footers, Page
Footnotes
Formatting
Forum
Fractions
Full Stops, End-of-sentence
Greek Text
Handwritten Notes in Book
Handy Proofreading Guide
Headers, Page
Headings, Chapter
Hebrew Text
Hyphenation, End-of-line
Hyphenation, End-of-page
Hyphens
Illustrations
Image, Bad
Multiple Columns
Non-ASCII Characters
Non-Latin Characters
Notes, Handwritten
Notes, Previous Proofreaders'
Numbers, Line
OCR Problems, Common
OCR Problems: Is that really a degree
sign?
oe Ligatures
Ordinal Symbol
Ornate Capital Letter (Drop Cap)
Other things that you're unsure of
Page, Blank
Page, Title
Periods, End-of-sentence
Plays: Actor Names/Stage Directions
Poetry
Preexisting Formatting
Previous Proofreaders' Notes/Comments
Previous Pages, Fixing Errors on
Primary Rule
Project Comments
Project Discussion
Punctuation Spacing
Quotes, Double
Quotes, Missing at start of chapter
Quotes, Single
Raised Text (Superscripts)
Scannos
Shortcuts for Latin-1 Characters
Sidenotes
Single Quotes
SMALL CAPITALS
Space at End-of-line
Spaces, Extra
Spacing, Paragraph
Spacing, Punctuation
Special Characters, Inserting
Stage Directions (Plays)
Subscripts
Summary Guidelines

Indenting, Paragraph
Indexes
Italics
Keyboard Shortcuts for Latin-1 Characters
Superscripts
Table of Contents
Tables
Tabs
Text, Wrong Image for
Title Page
Titles, Chapter
Word at Bottom of Page
WordCheck
WORDS IN SMALL CAPITALS

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