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The Best of Sherlock Holmes |
Edited by Randall Stock
The eBSJ contains more than 18,000 pages of text. When you combine that massive quantity of material with the imperfections of some scanning software, it's to be expected that there are some limitations with any document archive. None of these should prevent you from buying the eBSJ v2, and in fact, it includes many improvements over the first release of the BSJ on CD-ROM.
I only mention them because this information may help you save some time and avoid frustrations. I've listed workarounds that may be helpful. Please contact me if you find other errata or limitations, so we can inform others who use the eBSJ.
Problems pasting text into a word processor for 1946-2000 BSJ
When pasting text from the 1946–2000 files, you usually need to use the option in your word processor that lets you "Keep text only" or else use a "Paste Special" command and choose "Unformatted Text." The standard paste command may make the pasted text color white and thus invisible on a white background. In Microsoft Word, you can simply paste the text, and if no pasted text is visible, click the "paste icon" that appears and choose "Keep Text Only." Most of the text for 2001–2011 will paste normally. See also my tips on Copying Text from an eBSJ Issue.
Text errors when pasting into a word processor
The eBSJ PDF files contain text that consists of two parts: the "image" that you see on-screen and the underlying computer text associated with that image. You can read and print the "image" text. You can search for and copy/paste the underlying "hidden" computer text. However, as with all scanned documents (not just the eBSJ), the Optical Character Recognition (OCR) used to scan and create the "hidden" text can have errors. Since the searchable text is hidden beneath the page image, these errors won't be visible to you. The errors can cause misspellings and sometimes even missing words. There are more errors in the older eBSJ issues, which used a font that is harder to process. If you paste the text into a word processor, you may be able to use its spell-checker to correct many of the errors.
Searching does not locate some text
As noted above, the "hidden" searchable text is not perfect and can differ from what you see on screen. For more matches, search for shorter terms.
Text not readable on-screen / missing pages
No known missing content pages.
Some issues from the mid-90s included advertisements on the inside front cover, and some of those are not reproduced in the eBSJ v2.
Please contact me if you find any missing pages.
Problems pasting text into a word processor
When pasting text, you need to use the option in your word processor that lets you "Keep text only" or else use a "Paste Special" command and choose "Unformatted Text." The standard paste command may make the pasted text color white and thus invisible on a white background. In Microsoft Word, you can simply paste the text, and if no pasted text is visible, click the "paste icon" that appears and choose "Keep Text Only." See also my tips on Copying Text from an eBSJ Issue.
Text errors when pasting into a word processor
The BSJ on CD-ROM PDF files contain text that consists of two parts: the "image" that you see on-screen and the underlying computer text associated with that image. You can read and print the "image" text. You can search for and copy/paste the underlying "hidden" computer text. However, as with all scanned documents (not just the BSJ CD), the Optical Character Recognition (OCR) used to scan and create the "hidden" text can have errors. Since the searchable text is hidden beneath the page image, these errors won't be visible to you. The errors can cause misspellings and sometimes even missing words. There are more errors in the older BSJ issues, which used a font that is harder to process. If you paste the text into a word processor, you may be able to use its spell-checker to correct many of the errors.
Text not selectable / Cannot be copied
Due to OCR limitations, most of the issues from April 1952 - July 1958 (files #19-46) are lacking the underlying computer text and thus there is nothing to select or copy. Also, be sure you have chosen the "Text Select Tool" before trying to select text.
Searching does not locate some text
As noted above, the "hidden" searchable text is not perfect and can differ from what you see on screen. For more matches, search for shorter terms.
Text not readable on-screen / missing pages:
Some issues from the mid-90s included advertisements on the inside front cover, but these are not reproduced in the BSJ CD files.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Les Moskowitz for helping to identify errata and providing suggestions for workarounds.
Vers. 2.0ax-RN Original work
Copyright ©2012
Randall Stock. All Rights Reserved.