Here's an overview of the procedure:

1. You choose a book from the list of books for which formatting is in progress.

2. You tell me which book you've chosen and whether or not you have access to a hard copy of the book. If you don't have one, tell me your postal mailing address and I will happily mail you a photocopy (yours to keep).

3. I send you the book (via e-mail) as a Microsoft Word file. (If you would prefer some other format, please let me know.)

4. You proofread the book. The file you receive from me was prepared by a volunteer transcriber. Some files are very neatly formatted and may appear ready to print; others are plain, unformatted text. Regardless of the cosmetic appearance of the file, your task is the same: to make sure the content is as error-free as possible. You make corrections in the copy of the file that you receive from me. (If you are using Microsoft Word, I'd appreciate your turning on the "Track Changes" feature so that your changes will be noticable. You can turn on this feature by choosing "Track Changes" from the "Tools" menu.)

   Things to pay attention to:

   1. Spelling (American English), punctuation, grammar, capitalization, etc. For guidelines on spelling, see the ATI style sheet.
   2. Footnotes should be moved to the end as endnotes, numbered 1,2,3...
   3. Pali words: if you feel comfortable doing so, please check the spelling of Pali words. Please use the Velthuis method to represent Pali diacritics, instead of using a Pali font. If you don't feel comfortable proofreading Pali, that's perfectly fine; just let me know.
   4. Ideally, the document would be compared word-for-word against the original hard copy. But, in this all-volunteer project, this is probably too much to ask. Instead, a spot-check is helpful: does the transcription contain all the chapters? Does each chapter contain the correct number of paragraphs? Do the book and the transcription have the same number of footnotes? And so on.
   5. If there is anything in the text that is confusing, unclear, or grossly archaic to you, please make a note of it. It may be useful for me to add an "editors footnote" at that spot.
   6. Formatting and layout: You do not have to worry about fine-tuning the "look" of the document. Feel free to format it in whatever way makes it easiest for you to proofread. I'll take care of things like margins, indents, line spacing, word spacing, etc., when I do the final formatting.

5. You send me (via e-mail) your corrected version of that Microsoft Word (or other format) file. In a separate document (or in your e-mail), you can add any comments for me (for example, whether you have checked the spelling of Pali words).

6. That's it!

Of course, if you have any questions along the way, please don't hesitate to contact me.