From Open Siddur Project Development Wiki

Small variations

Small variations are smaller than one segment in length. Where a word has the same spelling, but differs in pointing or punctuation, this form of variant is appropriate.

Small variations are encoded using the tei:choice element and its children, j:option, within a segment in the text repository.

Example

The following shows an example of a minor variant text in the pointing of the kaddish:

<tei:seg>
  <tei:choice>
    <j:option>
      <tei:w>יִתְגַּדַּל</tei:w>
      <tei:w>וְיִתְקַדַּשׁ</tei:w>
    </j:option>
    <j:option>
      <tei:w>יִתְגַּדֵּל</tei:w>
      <tei:w>וְיִתְקַדֵּשׁ</tei:w>
    </j:option>
    <tei:w>שְׁמֵהּ</tei:w>
    <tei:w>רַבָּא</tei:w>
  </tei:choice>
</tei:seg>

When the variant text requires an instruction for the user, it should never be handled as a "small variant." Such a variant must always be at least one whole segment long, because it will likely need to be an independently addressable unit.

Texts with large variations in content

A "large" variation is at least one segment in length. When texts have large variations, the encoder must make a choice: