User:Randomstaplers/CFR Style Guide

Progress

Because CFR is hard to navigate, the progress indicators have slightly different meanings here.

Please insert a progress template if you add any navigation pages, to indicate whether there are any Wikisource works whatsoever.

[No progress template] - No index page or transclusions. Navigate to the Commons file link to add an index page, add some text, and transclude what you can.

This only applies at the top-most page. Any progress should result in a different progress template.

0%: No works whatsoever, just navigation.

This also applies to CFR text that is not scan backed.

25%: Very few works, stalled progress
50%: Some significant works, or currently being worked on
75%: Fully proofread, not yet validated.
100%: Fully validated.

Don't forget: categories

Create categories to make progress easier, once a substantial amount of work has been done. Include navigation pages.

Historical... or not?

Anything dated before 1990 should be placed in the "Historical" section.
Aim for CFR books dated between 1990 and 1995 (inclusive), as these are relatively new, but haven't been archived by the GPO.

The reason for this is because finding CFR titles for a specific year on Google Books is already enough of a pain...

Avoid prioritizing archives of anything 1996 and newer, unless there's some notable new regulation (like Part 84 in 42 CFR)

From here, follow "Title 30 style."

Missing pages

Besides going to the library, you can try the Library of Congress.

Serif fonts?

This was originally a subsection, but this issue drove me crazy enough--I feel it has to be said.

The amount of times executive documents switch from serif to sans-serif is almost enough to give you an aneurysm. Especially since no other work on Wikisource does this... it's all serif or sans-serif, and you can change it to your liking.

(Not here. If it happens to be your first work *cough*, get ready to be super confused.)

Here's the deal on serifs:

For accessibility reasons, avoid serifs, except in the title, sales pages, and places where serifs show up unexpectedly? Basically, places where you don't need transclusions to connect.
Serif page numbers in the noinclude? Sure? For roman numerals, at least. Not sure I'd want to draw attention to the inconsistency on a regular page.
Where, in the noinclude, it'd be super annoying otherwise? See the regular pages on Index:Niosh tb guidelines.pdf.

Basically: If in doubt, don't use serifs.

A quick primer on transclusion

In summary, Wikisource uses 'page:' space and 'index:' space to allow other editors to transcribe/proofreading books with assistance from the MediaWiki software, without have to copy-paste from the editor's own OCR software.

To start the transcription of a CFR book, upload it first to Wikimedia Commons. Go back to Wikisource, then search 'Index:whatever.file' and create an index. Follow the Wikisource documentation on creating an index: Help:Page numbers. Alternatively, you could view this example: Index:30 CFR 1993.pdf, and press 'preview pagelist.'

Pages of the TOC to include in the index

Personally, I don't include the part of the TOS that has all the finding aids and chapter numbers in the index, because they matter less here, and it's more material for the layperson to scroll through.

... unless it's an old CFR with no other TOC. Then include it, because the other "TOC" just lists parts, which is not useful.

Tiny, Indecipherable Fractions

Use [?] if you really can't read it.

I guessed on a couple fractions in Part 30, Subsection 7, so I really hope you aren't relying on this for legal advice...

Title 3 style

What a mess. Nothing is organized where you'd expect it to be.
I've done my best to organize it all, but no promises you aren't going to be reduplicating work.
So, if you do find something, you should try to include as many navigation links as possible.

Title 1 style

Edits directly on Wikisource mainspace.
No § symbol!

'Title Filler' Style (8, 15, 29, 31, 32, 40, 49)

Mostly composed of links to other sites

Title 30 style

Title 30 is mostly focused on speed rather than formatting accuracy. Because there's way too much stuff for me to go through... by myself...

(Incidentally, it also makes mobile navigation a little easier. So that's a plus, I guess.)

Since Wikisource's templates are mostly designed for regular without sections, they will break if you try to use them. However, Without sections, the CFR becomes a pain to navigate and read for the general public. Here's how to get around that without avoiding transclusion altogether:

Follow the Mediawiki Labelled Section Transclusion Extension documentation, instead of the Wikisource documentation.

For each page, add labels where one CFR Part transitions to another. Like this:
Transcription of page 11:

Part 1, law law law
<section begin="p2" />
Part 2, law law law
<section end="p2" />
Miscellaneous blah blah blah
(end of page)

Note: if you do this, you cannot preview the page, as the proofread extension will override your work. Because of this, I recommend labeling your sections at the end.

Alternatively, you could add:

Part 1, law law law
## p2 ##
{{break}} (don't forget this, otherwise sections will be broken when transcluded)
Part 2, law law law
(end of page)

and it would be like:

Part 1, law law law
<section begin="p2" />
Part 2, law law law
<section end="p2" />
(end of page)

'Part 2' continues on the next page, but you must add a closing tag for each page of each section. By doing this, you can use the Mediawiki transclusion template. In main space, it goes something like this:

Assume Part 1 begins on page 10, and ends in the middle of Page 11, kind of like the transcription above. To transclude, use these templates:

(header)
{{#lst:Page:CFR.pdf/10}}
{{#lstx:Page:CFR.pdf/11|p2}}

This will exclude 'Part 2' from the 'Part 1' page in main space.

Transcription of sections and subsections

Note that by doing this, the 'Source' link up top will be broken, and you'll be directed, instead, to the CFR book's index.

With regards to transcribing sections in 'Page:' space, here's a quick guide:

Heading 2 should be used for subchapters.
Heading 3 should be used for Parts, including the Parts "Sec." contents just before the text of the Part begins.
Heading 4 should be used for be used for subsections
DO NOT use headings or create sections for the pages at the beginning of the CFR book, or the main table of contents at the start. Just stylize it like any other book on Wikisource.

One more thing: if you want to exclude the subchapter title text when transcluding, use the following template:

{{#lsth:Page:CFR.pdf/10|SUBCHAPTER B—GIANT SUBCHAPTER TITLE}}

Transcription of the first table of contents, without sections

Option 1: Use Template:Pright.
Option 2 (a lot nicer): Use Template:Dotted TOC line, with placeholder Template:spaces inside parameter 'entrytext='.

You may also need some Template:breaks for correct line spacing

Page numbers

Add them in the header or footer with Template:Rh.

Double columns?

No.

Bulleted lists

I haven't thought of guidance for this yet. Though I probably should, given the many ways to create a bulleted list in MediaWiki...

Finally...

If the page begins with a new section, and you are not using headers, don't forget to use ~~Template:line break~~ Template:NOP.

Title 30, Old CFR Style

You can tell you have an old CFR book, because the page numbers will have the word page in it.
Here, the sections aren't aren't as much of an issue. Because the subsections that would normally use Heading 4... aren't sections. Therefore, there's no navigation argument.
Thus, there really isn't much of an issue just following the Wikisource instructions for proofing and transcluding a regular book. What would normally be heading 3 or heading 2 can just be a centered piece of text.

The main code should still not be in serif. Use CSS to serif the transclusion.

You'll also notice that there are way more parts in the older CFRs, as opposed to one giant part filled with subparts. That seems to help too.

Comparison of Part 11 and Part 84 page size

1959 Part 11: 13-23. 11 pages. SCBAs only.
1974 Part 11: 5-59. 55 pages.
1993 Part 11: 47-111. 65 pages.
2003 Part 84: 491-555. 65 pages.

Tip if you encounter a bug

Try putting label ## p(number)end ## at the beginning, before the text, end the section there, and see if that helps.

Main space

The header

If it's the first section, the 'previous' parameter should link to the chapter navigation page, etc, etc.

Odd decisions made by accident

All caps on the current section
- Granted, it is lower case in the TOC...
No caps on links

The notes

Besides getting your sourcing right...
If you got a whole bunch of chapters scanned, place Template:commons link in the chapter navigation, and in all subpages. Place it at the end of the 'notes' parameter in the header. Here's an example header:

{{header
 | title    = [[../../|Code of Federal Regulations]]
 | author   = |override_author=the United States Government
 | section  = [[../|Chapter I]], Chapter I—Mine Safety and Health Administration, Department of Labor
 | previous = [[../|Chapter I]]
 | next     = [[../Part 5|Part 5. Fees for testing, evaluation, and approval of mining products]]
 | notes    = From the U.S. Government Printing Office on [https://books.google.com/books/edition/The_Code_of_Federal_Regulations_of_the_U/hP86AAAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0 Google Books], revised as of July&nbsp;1, 1993. {{Commons link|30 CFR 1993.pdf}}
}}

Historical pages

Use just the year for historical navigation, e.g. Code of Federal Regulations/Title 30/1959/Chapter I
In the header for the year page, going backward should lead back to Title 30 and should be labelled as such.
In the header for the chapter subpage, the label for the links should be the year.
In the header for the part subpage, the label for back should go back to the chapter subpage, at least for chapter I. The forward and backward links in the header should otherwise be used to navigate the chapters.

Other helpful templates

Categorization

If you're starting a new Title, make a new category, 'Category:Code of Federal Regulations, Title ##', and add the following:

{{plain sister}}
[[Category:Code of Federal Regulations]]

Don't forget to categorize your 'Index:' page too, as 'Code of Federal Regulations, Title ##'!

Wikidata

TBD

I'm currently using 'TBD' whenever I don't feel like adding a bunch of links on a given day.