Proofreader Needed: Buddhist Legends

[BKh]

I have been working on converting Burlingame's Dhammapada commentary, volunme 2, into e-book format. I took the text from here:
http://www.archive.org/details/buddhist ... 02burluoft" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Although there is already an e-pub and Kindle format available, they don't have any structure(headings, etc) so it is nearly impossible to navigate. The other issue is that the optical character recognition was rather poor so there are numerous typos.

I'm wondering if anyone would like to volunteer to do proof reading of the word-processing document that I am using to create the e-book. You don't need to own the original book as a good pdf is available from the site above. You would just need some word processor such as OpenOffice or LibreOffice which are free; or any version of MS Word or something similar. Having a large monitor would be a must so you could keep the PDF and the fie to be edited open at the same time. I would guess it would take about 20 to 25 hours. If you are using Windows I can help get you set up to be able to enter Pali diacritics.

If you are interested, send me a pm and I can get you the file. If multiple people are interested I will split it up. The errors are too numerous to work from reading the Kindle version I have created; better to just have someone edit the document directly.

Here is the Draft of the Kindle version for those who are interested:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/52341497/Buddhi ... DRAFT.mobi" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Even with the typos it is still very readable. Any feedback on the layout design will be welcome. After the original document is proofread I plan to convert the footnotes into proper links and take them out of the body of the text. The print version is still published by PTS, but it appears clear that this digital version is in the public domain.

[Khalil Bodhi]

Hi Bkh,

I would be wiling to proofread for you. In comparison to the last book I read for you how would you say this stacks up? Is the layout very bad or are there simply minor difficulties?

[BKh]

This one has far more typos. And It's 243 pages as a Word document. Also, for this project, I'm looking for someone to actually sit with the file open and make the corrections.

Formatting is not really an issue because I stripped it down to a pure text file before I started adding the markup for the chapter titles.

The errors are mostly with punctuation (for some reason quote marks and question marks were problematic) and words that converted poorly. So things like "considered witliin himself" instead of "considered within himself." The citations in the footnotes are also rather mangled. I'm tempted to jut cut them out completely, but often the provide valuable parallels in the suttas themselves.

There is no time line for the project, but it would be nice to get it wrapped up in a couple of months.

If you take a look at the Kindle version, you should know that I did a more detailed proof of the first story or so. To get a better idea of the work involved, best to check something further in.

[BKh]

I should also clarify that I just included the Kindle version link in my original post for anyone who is curious enough to read the book even though it has typos. To actually do the work I am requesting, someone would need to have the file open on a computer in a word processor and make the corrections.

[Khalil Bodhi]

Hi BKh,

I would be happy to do this. Let me know if there's anything else. Mettaya!

[BKh]

Thanks Khali Bodhi! (check your PMs)

If others are interested, you can feel free to contact me via PM. I hope to eventually have the other volumes ready for proofing.

[Ytrog]

Hmm, is writing a book in a word processor a good idea? Personally I would use LaTeX.

I know someone who edited a book in word and after about 300 pages word lost track of the page numbering (repeating things) and began to show other problems. I don't know how writer would hold up though.