User:Randomstaplers/CFR Style Guide

This page documents the working stylistic decisions made (mostly by me at the moment... yeah) when transcribing/proofreading the Code of Federal Regulations (of historical interest). It's in my user space for now, because I'm currently the only one working on this, so there's no consensus yet. Thus, the language may be less formal than you may expect from official documentation.

Feel free to edit this, after letting your reasons be known on the talk page, if you want to propose changes other than copyediting.

So in the interest of transparency, let's continue...

A quick primer on transclusion
In summary, Wikisource uses 'page:' space and 'index:' space to allow other editors to transcribe/proofreading books with assistance from the MediaWiki software, without have to copy-paste from the editor's own OCR software.

To start the transcription of a CFR book, upload it first to Wikimedia Commons. Go back to Wikisource, then search 'Index:whatever.file' and create an index. Follow the Wikisource documentation on creating an index: Help:Page numbers. Alternatively, you could view this example: Index:30 CFR 1993.pdf, and press 'preview pagelist.'

Pages of the TOC to include in the index
Personally, I don't include the part of the TOS that has all the finding aids and chapter numbers in the index, because they matter less here, and it's more material for the layperson to scroll through.

... unless it's an old CFR with no other TOC. Then include it, because the other "TOC" just lists parts, which is not useful.

Tiny, Indecipherable Fractions
Use [?] if you really can't read it.
 * I guessed on a couple fractions in Part 30, Subsection 7, so I really hope you aren't relying on this for legal advice...

Title 1 Style

 * Edits directly on Wikisource mainspace.
 * No § symbol!

'Title Filler' Style (8, 15, 29, 31, 32, 40, 49)

 * Mostly composed of links to other sites

Title 30 Style
Title 30 is mostly focused on speed rather than formatting accuracy. Because there's way too much stuff for me to go through... by myself...


 * (Incidentally, it also makes mobile navigation a little easier. So that's a plus, I guess.)

Since Wikisource's templates are mostly designed for regular without sections, they will break if you try to use them. However, Without sections, the CFR becomes a pain to navigate and read for the general public. Here's how to get around that without avoiding transclusion altogether:

Follow the Mediawiki Labelled Section Transclusion Extension documentation, instead of the Wikisource documentation.

Note: if you do this, you cannot preview the page, as the proofread extension will override your work. Because of this, I recommend labeling your sections at the end.
 * For each page, add labels where one CFR Part transitions to another. Like this:
 * Transcription of page 11:

Alternatively, you could add:

and it would be like:

'Part 2' continues on the next page, but you must add a closing tag for each page of each section. By doing this, you can use the Mediawiki transclusion template. In main space, it goes something like this:
 * Assume Part 1 begins on page 10, and ends in the middle of Page 11, kind of like the transcription above. To transclude, use these templates:
 * This will exclude 'Part 2' from the 'Part 1' page in main space.

Transcription of sections and subsections
Note that by doing this, the 'Source' link up top will be broken, and you'll be directed, instead, to the CFR book's index.

With regards to transcribing sections in 'Page:' space, here's a quick guide:


 * Heading 2 should be used for subchapters.
 * Heading 3 should be used for Parts, including the Parts "Sec." contents just before the text of the Part begins.
 * Heading 4 should be used for be used for subsections
 * DO NOT use headings or create sections for the pages at the beginning of the CFR book, or the main table of contents at the start. Just stylize it like any other book on Wikisource.

One more thing: if you want to exclude the subchapter title text when transcluding, use the following template:

Transcription of the first table of contents, without sections

 * Option 1: Use Template:Pright.
 * Option 2 (a lot nicer): Use Template:Dotted TOC line, with placeholder Template:spaces inside parameter 'entrytext='.
 * You may also need some Template:breaks for correct line spacing

Page numbers
Add them in the header or footer with Template:Rh.

Double Columns?
No.

Serif Fonts?
The prefaces, year by year, seems to switch between serif and non-serif fonts in the parts before the actual law. This is a big pain for the parts without sections, since there is some goal for font accuracy.

Go ahead and serif the beginning parts, but...
 * I am not going to actively serif the page numbers.
 * Because the bulk of the transcribing/proofreading is way too long to even bother worrying about serifs, serif page numbers will only draw attention to the inaccuracies.
 * Therefore, I have chosen not to actively serif any page number, keeping the parts shared between pages (page numbers, headers, footers) as sans-serif.

Serif Templates

 * The documentation in Template:Serif doesn't say this, but you can use Template:Serif block instead.


 * I should probably change it...

Future Changes
Automatic transclusion with Wikisource templates could be used in the future, if someone is willing to put in the effort: to link everything in the first section, and use template alternatives in place of header sections...

Title 30, Old CFR Style

 * You can tell you have an old CFR book, because the page numbers will have the word page in it.
 * Here, the sections aren't aren't as much of an issue. Because the subsections that would normally use Heading 4... aren't sections. Therefore, there's no navigation argument.
 * Thus, there really isn't much of an issue just following the Wikisource instructions for proofing and transcluding a regular book. What would normally be heading 3 or heading 2 can just be a centered piece of text.
 * The main code should still not be in serif. Use CSS to serif the transclusion.


 * You'll also notice that there are way more parts in the older CFRs, as opposed to one giant part filled with subparts. That seems to help too.

Comparison of Part 11 and Part 84 Page Size

 * 1959 Part 11: 13-23. 11 pages. SCBAs only.
 * 1974 Part 11: 5-59. 55 pages.
 * 1993 Part 11: 47-111. 65 pages.
 * 2003 Part 84: 491-555. 65 pages.

Tip if you encounter a bug

 * Try putting label ## p(number)end ## at the beginning, before the text, end the section there, and see if that helps.

The Header

 * If it's the first section, the 'previous' parameter should link to the chapter navigation page, etc, etc.

Odd decisions made by accident

 * All caps on the current section
 * Granted, it is lower case in the TOC...
 * No caps on links

The Notes

 * Besides getting your sourcing right...
 * If you got a whole bunch of chapters scanned, place Template:commons link in the chapter navigation, and in all subpages. Place it at the end of the 'notes' parameter in the header. Here's an example header:

Historical Pages

 * You'll notice a bit of inconsistency in Title 30 on the naming of historical pages. One is "Chapter I-IV", the other is just the year, 1959.
 * From now on, just use the year for the historical main space navigation.

Other Helpful Templates

 * Template:x-larger
 * Template:xx-larger
 * Template:float right
 * Template:spaces | 3 spaces, usually

Categorization
If you're starting a new Title, make a new category, 'Category:Code of Federal Regulations, Title ##', and add the following: Don't forget to categorize your 'Index:' page too, as 'Code of Federal Regulations, Title ##'!

TBD
I'm currently using 'TBD' whenever I don't feel like adding a bunch of links on a given day.