The point is not to criticize volunteers who may have run into delays with their scanning projects, but simply to let everyone know where we stand with a given article or other material. The Kansas Collection materials are often used for research and educational purposes, and viewers depend on us to have transcribed the work exactly. Volunteers should not substitute more modern spelling, capitalization, or punctuation, or change phrases or geographical references which now appear incorrect. Sometimes, given the limitations of HTML, it is not possible to preserve the exact formatting of a section. In that case, all the editor can do is get as close as possible.
Most editors prefer to make a quick pass-through first to correct obvious errors.
Next, with the original publication in hand, the editor starts doing a direct comparison of the publication with the electronic text, correcting errors as he or she goes along. These make things easier for the HTML editor, who will not have to go back looking for italic text and other formatting. At some point, editors should run a spellcheck using their word processor's spell checker. Still others prefer to run a spellcheck at the very end of the process. 6.3 Word processing techniques Word processors can really speed things along.