XML Brings Tears
Google Images StressDuring the fall semester, I have been introduced to a variety of coding programs I have never known about or used and it has been a process to adjust. Starting from scanning all the images present from my week of research in the Egyptian Gazette, to currently working with XML/TEI programs to edit the text files of our Egyptian Gazette image files, to adding, ranging from tagging to adjusting grammar errors. It has been a tedious experience, especially with editing the text files on ABBYY Finereader 12 initially, fixing the errors of every word per page. The program found several errors for each page, so the process to edit was time consuming. However, after moving forward to the XML program, I can say I prefer XML/TEI programming over the ABBYY Finereader 12. This is because I am to look more into the text and learn more information, versus fixing grammar mistakes. With XML, reading the Egyptian Gazette is much easier because the program organizes the text with taggings such as <div>, <head>, <placeName>, <p>, and a variety of other tagging methods I have not even used yet. All in all, this exposure to online sources, such as using Github, XML, ABBYY, and probably more has been the most stressful experience in time management this semester. Pray for my survival. RIP.
Daisy Vazquez
Student
The author, a student at Florida State University, was enrolled in the digital microhistory lab in fall 2016.