I am an ARTS STUDENT. I should not have to draw tables.

[highlyeccentric]

So I set out to create a manuscript description, happy in the knowledge that no easy-to-use description of Cotton Nero A.i has already been made.
What I want in a MS description:
* items clearly laid out, with modern English descriptions where appropriate
* first lines of homilies in Old English
* texts identified by their common title as well as their MS title
* clear quire divisions within the list
* references to editions
* the ability to scan the description either quire-by-quire OR by content type

Which means a table. Vertical axis numbering items and listing foliation. Horizontal axis listing content type (Insitiutes, laws, homilies, other). So one can scan down the 'homily' column if one so desires, or one can isolate the fifth quire, or whatever. FABULOUS.

BLOODY DIFFICULT TO CREATE IN MS WORD.
An exel table would be fine. Lovely. But difficult to print out and bind into a thesis.
So we have lots of individual one-page tables, which have to be prevented from binding themselves together and aligning cell widths (the Homilies column, for example, having been squashed up when there are no homilies on the page, so as to make space for Institutes).

And then I discover that you can't footnote a table.

This, people, explains why no one has made a user-friendly Manuscript Description of Cotton Nero A.i.
But I will not be defeated! When I am done, the Reader will be able to flick through my table with ease!
Sigh. The Reader will be me, and whatever unfortunate souls mark the thing. Oh, the futility.

Comments

[highlyeccentric.livejournal.com]

And when I find one... i shall marry them, and force them to do my bidding forever!

Seriously, computer nerds strike me as the best husband material. Certainly, half of the other young(ish) female Anglo-Saxonists around here seem to think so. Awesome has a software engineer, who conveniently bails her out of computer problems and streamlines her powerpoint presentations. Classmate X, of last year, has a helpdesky-type-man, who acts similarly.

So I need to find me a computer nerd. And prevent the Wife from marrying me off to a carpenter.

[kayloulee.livejournal.com]

You would end up like Francesca's mum, a professor who married a builder, in Saving Francesca - depressed and working at UTS. Not good.

Granted she does get un-depressed, mostly, by the end of the book, but still.

(feel free to lambast me for being online when I should be working on my document analysis thing)

[highlyeccentric.livejournal.com]

Francesca's mum is WHY kate wants me to marry a builder.

[kayloulee.livejournal.com]

THAT IS ILLOGICAL. And anyway, where would you find a builder to marry? It's not like they go to, eg, Viking conferences.

Francesca's dad was pretty cool though, apart from the whole "depression? My wife? Nuh-uh!" thing.

[highlyeccentric.livejournal.com]

do yer fecking homework, girlie.

or bring your laptop down and join us at my Thesis Table.

[goblinpaladin.livejournal.com]

If that was a subtle attempt to defend my honour, I thank you.

If not, why wasn't it?

[kayloulee.livejournal.com]

Cos you have none, duh.

Actually I just couldn't think of any other examples.

If you want to think of it as an honour-defending thing, feel free, though.

[goblinpaladin.livejournal.com]

I would resent that, but it is so true!

[kayloulee.livejournal.com]

Hey, you're a Slytherin, basically.

[blackbuttoneyes.livejournal.com]

Heehee! Plus they make good money ;) Not that material needs and computer assistance are all that matter...but damn it sweetens the pot!

Don't worry, I got me an unemployed writer, so I'm not all about the moneys. Usually =D

[highlyeccentric.livejournal.com]

ahem, yes. certain lucky people I know have husbands/ permanent partners supporting them and their fledgling academic careers... not something i can see happening in my future :(

[blackbuttoneyes.livejournal.com]

Yeah....that sounds nice. Also not happening anytime soon for me. Ah well! My unemployed writer man is also the one who introduced me to Firefly, so it's pros and cons! =)

[goblinpaladin.livejournal.com]

Wait, did I miss something? You're looking for a computer nerd again? What did I do?