Letter posts

The Letters and Diaries page of this web site is used to present images and related transcriptions of letters associated with members of the 15th Battalion. (On the site menu click Archives then Letters and Diaries.) This page presents a list of soldiers. Each soldier post can have one or more letter posts attached to it.

Process overview

Create the soldier post first. Essentially all you have to enter in the soldier post is the soldiers name in the title and his first and last names.

Then create the letter post. Since you have already created the soldier post, you will be able to complete the “related soldier” field. Note that, when you complete the “related soldier” field for the letter post, the corresponding field in the soldier post will be automatically created.

For most letters, the site will present the original scan(s) of the letter and the transcription. The content associated with one letter is entered into a single letter post. There might be several letters associated with any given soldier and, therefore, several letter posts.

Getting started

Before you try to add a “Letter” post, you must prepare the inputs.

Images

The images can be created either by scanning or photographing the originals. The result will be an image in either  photographic form (jpg, jpeg, or png) or as a pdf document. However, pdf images cannot be connected to a letter post on this site: they must be converted to a photographic image type.

Once you have all the images for a letter, the file name of the image must be changed to ensure they can be found amongst the thousands of images on this site. Finding images involves searching using various search programs. The file name must include the following information:

• The name of the associated solder. This is required even though the soldier may not have been the author of the letter. Include the service number, rank (abbreviated) and complete first and last names.
• Date of the letter in format d mmm yyyy. Essential if there are two or more letters associated with this soldier.
• Page or image number. If there is more than one image for the letter, each file name must end with (1), (2), (3), etc.

Transcribing the text

Once you have all the images named, you must find a way to create a Word or text file containing the content of the letter. This can be done by:

• reading the images and typing as you read
• dictating the text of the letter or
• submitting the images to some kind of software that can use OCR to extract the text.

Once the transcription / OCR is complete save the text in a Word document or a text (txt) file and perform any edits to ensure accuracy and readability.

Adding to the web site

Enter data and text

Start by creating a new “letter” post. After logging in, you are taken to the web site dashboard. On the left hand side of your screen is the admin menu. Look for the “Letters” menu, hover over it and click “Add new letter”. Complete entering data on the screen as follows:

Title

Enter a description of the letter starting with the date it was written. Indicate to whom the letter was written and who wrote the letter.

Date letter was written

Use the date picker to enter the date. If you don’t know the date enter a date between 1914 and 1919 inclusive. (We will try and figure out a way to leave this field blank but at this time a date in the required format is required.)

Related soldier

Select the related soldier. In order to do this the related soldier post must already have been created. Only one linked soldier can be added. Note that, when you create this link, the corresponding link back to this letter post will be created in the soldier post.

Remarks

Include any information relative to the letter.

Images attached?

For some letters, we may have only the transcription. In this case, check this field. The system will not require you to add any images.

Transcription

Copy and paste the test into the transcription field. Many websites and online tools have their own hidden formats used to make text look a certain way.  Many word processors also contain hidden formatting. The hidden formatting of websites and of word processors are different and often don’t work well together. The result of copy and pasting from a word processor to a website may be text that looks weird or break the style of the website. In this case, copy the text in the normal way and then paste it using following key combinations:

• • Mac: Cmd + Shift + V
  • Windows: Ctrl + Shift + V

Make any additional edits to improve formatting and readability.

Upload images

Follow the instructions in the Adding images topic. It is particularly important that you assign the category “letter image” to each image. You will not be able to add any images to the “letter images” gallery until they have each been assigned to this category.

Publish

IMPORTANT: Press the Publish button before leaving this screen. If you fail to do so, you will lose everything you have input. You only have to complete the required fields (marked with a red *) before you press Publish. When you come back to this post, the Publish button will be labeled Update.