Instructions and Notes

Instructions and notes are out-of-line content that link directly to segments of the text. Instructions link to the text or point in the text where the instruction applies. Notes link to the text on which they comment.

=Instructions=

Instructions are generally stored inside tei:note[@type='instruct'] tags in the tei:text/tei:body section of an instruction support file.

To apply an instruction to a range of text, a tei:link[@type='instruct'] (or a tei:linkGrp[@type='instruct']/tei:link) is used. The first URI listed is the instruction, the second URI is the text to which it points. If the text cannot be represented by a single @xml:id, the TEI range XPointer can be used. If a single range cannot represent it, a set of intermediate pointers can be used.

The instruction may point into any selection or view, but will only be processed if the target range of the instruction link is in a selection or view that is processed. To ensure that the instruction will be processed, independent which view is chosen by the rendering application, a separate j:view[@type='instruct'] can be used to provide independent targets for the instruction. These targets may be produced using tei:ab (anonymous block) elements, so as not to add additional semantic information.

Instructions must indicate their primary language with @xml:lang.

Instructions may be placed under conditional control, using the linking method described in conditionals. Alternately, if an instruction is intended to be placed at the same point in the text, but has different content because of a difference in custom, the tei:choice/j:option method of conditionals may be used.

=Notes=

Notes are similar to instructions, with the exception that commentary notes must be under conditional control. Suggested conditionals include but are not limited to the note's primary language, field (historical, grammatical), source, and author.