Renditional defaults

Encoding Instructions (new P5 version)

Where a text repeatedly uses the same rendition for a given element, the encoder can save time by setting a default for the renditional information, instead of having to encode it for every instance of the element.

Default renditions are specified in the tagsDecl section of the teiHeader. The tagsDecl starts with a series of rendition elements which contain a rendition ladder as their content. Each of these rendition elements should be identified with an xml:id attribute.

The second part of the tagsDecl is a series of tagUsage elements. Each tagUsage element associates a document element (e.g. name) with a single rendition element. The gi attribute of the tagUsage element declares the element whose rendition is being defaulted, and the render attribute of tagUsage points to the xml:id of the rendition element that describes the default rendition.

Individual elements which do not conform to these defaults can override them using their own individual rend attribute. Any renditional information on a particular element will override the renditional information specified in the default.

Designing a set of renditional defaults which addresses the needs of the particular document is an important part of document analysis.

Note: The tagUsage element is also used to record other information about the use of tags in the document, and in the completed transcription there should be one tagUsage element for every element type. However, this additional information will be added automatically. The encoder only needs to enter a tagUsage element for any element which requires a renditional default.

See entries 115 and 116 for a list of renditional keywords.

Example 1. The following set of defaults would specify that all <name> and
          <emph> elements in the document are in italics, and all <mcr>
          elements are in small caps: <rendition xml:id="rend.italics">
          <rendition xml:id="rend.smcp"> <tagUsage gi="name"
          render="rend.italics"> <tagUsage gi="emph" render="rend.italics">
          <tagUsage gi="mcr" render="rend.smcp">