Digital publishing involves a different mindset

Quality now rather than later

Some features of USFM are often not employed until typesetting. Examples of this could be

• H (Header)
• TOC (Book names)
• MT (Main Titles)
• R (References)
• W (Key words)
• Q (Poetry)
• B (Blank Lines)
• F (Footnotes)

It is important to think about adding these earlier in the translation process.

Additional data is required

Book abbreviations

Used in some menus and for hyperlinking Scripture references

Copyright

A digital publication will need copyright information, just like print. We need to be aware of this rather than leaving it for the publication department.

Space is not a problem

Print publications are very strict on limiting whitespace in the document. Blank lines and poetry are often limited to save on paper for the publication cost and size. This is not an issue for digital publications and it might be helpful to make good use of whitespace in the document to make it easier to read.

Front matter

The front matter or preface from a print publication will need to be modified for the digital publication you are targeting, if it allows it. Front matter often directs people how to deal with footnotes or verse numbers and will need to be customized for the digital output. For example, tapping on a reference will open that reference in an overlay window for Scripture App Builder.

Preparing your data for digital publishing

This process is designed to help you get your data in good form for digital publishing through the Digital Bible Library or Scripture App Builder, Bible dropbox, or Pathway output options.

Set up and configure the Paratext Basic checks

For more information on each basic check, read the corresponding section below.

Chapter/Verse Numbers

Checks for duplicate or invalid chapter or verse numbers. Checks that all chapters and verses defined in the versification or custom versification for the project are present in the text.

Markers

Checks that all markers in your text are in the stylesheet; that the markers are not out of order; and that markers requiring a closing marker have one.

Characters

Checks for characters in your text that you have specified as Invalid or whose status is Unknown.

Before running this basic check, you must select Characters Inventory... from the Checking menu, and specify the status of the characters in your project.

Punctuation

Checks for punctuation in your text that occurs in contexts you have specified as Invalid or for punctuation in your text that occurs in contexts whose status is Unknown. Checks for missing punctuation at the end of a paragraph, section, chapter, or book.

Before running this basic check, you must do both of the following:

• Select Punctuation Inventory... from the Checking menu, and specify the status of the punctuation in your project.
• Select Quotation Rules... from the Checking menu, and specify the quotation marks used in your project.

References

For any markers which can have a Scripture reference following (for example, \r parallel passage references and \xt cross references), checks that the format of the Scripture reference is valid.

Before running this basic check, you must select Scripture Reference Settings... from the Project menu, and specify the Reference Format and Book Names used in your project.

Capitalization

Checks that words beginning with a lower case letter:

• Do not follow markers where you have specified that a lower case letter may not occur.
• Do not follow punctuation where you have specified that a lower case letter may not occur.

Before running this basic check, you must do both of the following:

• Select Markers Followed by a Lower Case Letter... from the Checking menu, and specify which markers can be followed by a word that begins with a lower case letter.
• Select Punctuation Followed by a Lower Case Letter... from the Checking menu, and specify what punctuation can be followed by a word that begins with a lower case letter.

Repeated Words

Checks for sequences of identical words with no intervening punctuation (for example, had had or the the).

To limit the number of errors reported by this check, select Repeated Words... from the Checking menu and specify sequences found as Valid.

Unmatched Pairs of Punctuation

Checks that punctuation that is usually one of a pair is matched by the other half of the pair.

Before running this basic check, you must select Unmatched Pairs of Punctuation... from the Checking menu, and specify the status of unmatched punctuation.

Quotations

Checks that opening quotation marks are followed by closing quotation marks and that closing quotation marks are preceded by opening quotation marks.

Before running this basic check, you must select Quotation Rules... from the Checking menu, and specify the quotation marks used in your project.

Numbers

Checks for numbers which have invalid format.

Before running this basic check, you must select Number Settings... from the Checking menu, and specify characters that are used with digits in your text. If numbers in Scripture references in the text (for example, in \ip or \ft) cause false errors, select Scripture Reference Settings from the Project menu, and specify the Reference Format used in your project.

Creation of the Scripture Canon in Paratext

The Scripture Canon is the targeted range of books for publication, stating whether or not the deuterocanonical books are included or not, and whether the full Bible or only the New Testament is in view. This is required for publications that go into the Digital Bible Library. In order to specify the canon in Paratext, hold down shift while clicking on the Project menu, then select "Project canons"

If it has not already been configured it will say "No canons present". In that case, click on the "Add canon" button. Select the range of books, then select the traditional order of the books based on one of the Christian traditions.

Creation of TOCs

The TOC 1, 2, and 3 fields should follow the \h marker.  If the TOC fields are missing from the text, you should add them just after the \h header field. Please note that you can always do this manually, it won't take that long for one text. But if you do this often or for a full Bible, you may want to try a more automated approach. This is done with Paratext RegExPal which uses Regular Expressions to make consistent changes to the data. Paratext Regex Pal is found in the Paratext program directory, usually here:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Paratext 7\ParatextRegExPal\ParatextRegExPal.exe

You will want to make a shortcut on your desktop or pin it to the Start menu to find it easily.

Next, you need to add this menu addon for RegExPal by downloading this userMenu.txt file and copying it into your MyParatextProjects directory. Close RegExPal if you have it open, then open it. Now, in the User menu of RegExPal you will find a series of scripts that can be run against the data that will help create the TOC fields if they are missing. Make sure you select the correct text for the project you are working on before beginning to run these scripts.  Also, please make a backup of the Paratext Project before beginning.

These are the User menu scripts you can run:

—————————SCRIPTURE REF PREPERATION—————————

Run these as needed

       ———TOC—————————
       a-review existing \h, \mt, \toc's -Make a list of what is already there
       b-compare \h with \toc1 — if equal, delete \toc1 -\toc1 should not be equal to \h
       c-remove TOC's (to start from scratch) -Use this if existing \toc fields are not helpful
       ———TOC1—————————

Run 1-6 in numerical order to assemble full book titles in \toc1 from the \mt1,2,3 fields

       1-create TOC1 from 4 part book titles
       2-create TOC1 from 3 part book titles
       3-create TOC1 from 2 part book titles
       4-create TOC1 from 1 part book titles
       5-restore \mt's from temporary \a's
       6-cleanup all duplicate spaces (some created in 1-4 above)
       ———TOC2 & TOC3————————

Run these only as needed, and not necessarily in numerical order to add content to \toc2 and \toc3

       11-change TOC2 to TOC3 when TOC2 contains abbrev.
       12-change TOC1 to TOC2 when TOC1 contains short name.
       13-swap   TOC1 and TOC2 contents
       14-create TOC2 from \h & and create a TOC3 @
       15-create TOC3 from bookid in \id XXX   (Use when BK ABBR. DO NOT exist)
       16-add missing TOC3 @ after existing TOC2 (Use when BK ABBR. DO exist)
       17-change toc3 @ to match toc 2 short name
       18-review TOC3
       19-reorder TOC2,3,1 --> TOC1,2,3

 

Glossary word marking and GLO file (for SAB)

In Scripture App Builder, the words marked with \w for key words will be hyperlinked to the glossary entry if the GLO book is included in the app. In the future other digital publications will take advantage of this also. It is so convenient, early readers don't have to struggle with learning the alphabetic order to find words in a glossary, they can just press on the word to see the definition.

Fill out a spreadsheet with metadata not handled by Paratext

To create a DBL bundle, all of the information regarding the copyright holder and licensing information need to be specified, as well as the book name in English and in the local language. Only a DBL librarian can enter this information, but you will need to help provide it by filling out the attached spreadsheet

Then send the spreadsheet to your DBL librarian.

Create the DBL bundle and get it to your DBL librarian

At present, field teams can't create a complete DBL bundle because they lack the permission to include the metadata from the Global Bible Catalogue in the bundle. The DBL bundle would normally be created in Paratext 7.6 or later in the Tools menu under Advanced, then "Create DBL text bundle".  If you are creating a bundle for a different purpose, such as the creation of an app with Scripture App Builder, you won't be able to log in, but can cancel the login process and it will go into offline mode. Check the box next to "Create text bundle and metadata supplied only from Paratext". Before you will be able to create the bundle, you have to click the button to check the data for errors. This check will not succeed unless all of the errors have been fixed in the text. In some cases, there are errors which you will have to manually override or "reject". Only then will the process of bundling succeed.

For now, we recommend that you share your project or send a backup of the project to the DBL librarian so that they can create the bundle and upload it to the DBL with the aid of the spreadsheet linked in the section above.