CTE Tutorial

This post contains a walkthrough for creating a simple critical edition in the Classical Text Editor (CTE).  For my example, I’ve chosen a text that I’m reading at the moment, Demosthenes’ Philippic I.  I’ve reproduced much of the information for the first three sections of Dilts’ edition [1].  His edition includes the Greek text, and apparatus criticus, and an apparatus of later sources.  All of the steps of this tutorial should be doable with the demo version of the CTE, with the exception that the demo version does not produce non-watermarked output.  

You may go through the tutorial with your own text, or you may use the same portion of Demosthenes that I did.  If you choose to use Demosthenes, you may make use of the following:
– The main text (an RTF file). 
– The final PDF (from which you may take the variant readings). 

I’ve also uploaded my final CTE file.  I wouldn’t open it unless you get stuck.  It’s easy to get confused in the CTE if you have multiple files open.

If you discover any of the links have broken, please let me know at once!

I’m not a CTE expert by any means, and I can’t say that I’ll be able to answer your questions, particularly if they don’t relate to the steps below.  That said, feel free to leave comments, questions, corrections, or suggestions below.  I’ll do my best to answer.

If you’d be interested in seeing tutorials for other sorts of editions (like an a text with parallel translation), do let me know.   

Creating the file and preparing the main text

Upon launching the CTE, one is greeted with the following blank page:

The first step is to create a new file (File –> New).

At this point, one should decide the number of apparatus and notes’ files needed.  By default, the CTE creates one critical apparatus and one “notes” section.  This is satisfactory for this particular text, but it’s conceivable one would want to add more (for instance, if you needed a critical apparatus, source apparatus, and explanatory footnotes).  Be careful to note that when the CTE says “apparatus” is generally means “critical apparatus” (i.e. apparatus of variant readings).  Though we might speak more loosely of an “apparatus of sources,” in CTE parlance this is called a “Notes.”  The dialog for specifying the number of Apparatus and Notes windows is found at Format –> Number of Notes/Apparatus…

At this point, we should also clearly tell the CTE that our apparatus is an apparatus of variant readings:
– Bring up the apparatus window (Ctrl+A or Windows –> Apparatus)
– Click on Format –> Apparatus Settings
 

At this point, we may enter the main text into our “Text Window.”  For this example, I copied in the text from Perseus and then changed it to match Dilts’ text.  Next, we may introduce the section divisions into the text.  The CTE provides a number of ways of doing this; by far the easiest is simple paragraph numbers.  To enable features like automatic referencing by section and line number, we need to tell the CTE where are sections begin.  To do this, one highlights the number (note, only highlight the number, not the following punctuation) and then clicks Insert –> Chapter Identifier:
  

After this, the number should now be highlighted yellow, which indicates that the CTE recognizes it as the start of a new section. Go ahead and repeat this step for each section.  

Creating the Sigla
At this point, you should have input the main body of the text and marked the sections.  We may now input the sigla into the CTE.  Note that for simple output, this is not strictly necessary.  You may simply type out your sigla manually when inputting textual variants.  Using the CTE facilities for sigla, however, does offer several advantages.  For instance, it makes it very easy to change a siglum if you need to do so later.  It also makes it easy to modify the formatting automatically, for instance, if one always wants to have bolded sigla, or italicized sigla, in the apparatus.  Finally, the CTE also allows creating mss groups, a feature I won’t explore here.  

Sigla are managed from the sigla window, which one accesses at Format –> Sigla…
 

The “New Button” allows one to create a new siglum.  The CTE keeps track of mss by number.  We don’t have any ms groups, so for our purposes, each siglum gets a unique numerical identifier (in the above picture, the “1”) and a visible identifier that will appear in the apparatus (in the above picture, S). After inputting the two identifiers, make sure to click Apply.  Note that italics, bold, etc. are all permitted for sigla.  I start at 1 and simply increment the ms number by 1 as I add mss, but what matters most is that each siglum as a unique number.  After adding all of the sigla, they should be visible at the left side of the dialog.  

Inputting variant readings
At this point, we have everything we need to begin inputting variant readings into the critical apparatus.  To do this, one highlights the affected text in the Text window, and then selects References –> Apparatus Reference (Or press F5). Note that if the variant only affects a single word, you can simply place the cursor after that word. For one of our readings, for instance, one ms reads καὶ αὐτὸς instead of simply αὐτὸς.  To input this, we place our cursor after αὐτὸς:
 
Clicking References –> Apparatus Reference (or pressing F5) brings up the apparatus window:

In the scheme I’ve chosen, we then input the reading of the other ms(s).
 
We may then use the Sigla dialog to input add the sigla to our apparatus to specify that this reading belongs to A.  To do this, click Insert –> Siglum…

A box then comes up with a list of sigla:
 
Double clicking the proper siglum then adds it to the entry (it should appear in yellow).  
 

If one has multiple variants at a single location, the default way to do this is to separate entries by a colon (see, for instance, the variant for τοι εἰ above).  If the reading affects multiple words, make sure to highlight the entire phrase.  For instance, A transposes the phrase ὑμεῖς ἐπράξατε τῆς πόλεως into τῆς πόλεως ὑμεῖς ἐπράξατε.  To input this variant, we highlight the phrase and then type out the entire phrase in our entry as it appears in A:
 

Adding Notes
Adding notes works much the same way as adding variant readings.  However, you need to decide first what sort of referencing system you wish to use for the notes.  The default choice uses line numbers (the same system used for variant readings).  Another popular system is footnotes.  As far as I’m aware, you can’t switch between the two systems on the fly.  If you decide later to change your mind, you’ll need to go back through the text and re-add the references.  

To choose your setting, open the Notes window (Windows –> Notes, or press Ctrl+N).  Then select, Format –> Notes Settings.
 

“Text Reference”  is the default, which uses line numbers (either section line numbers or page line numbesr).  “Footnote numbers”  will instead introduce running footnotes into the text (like this file).

After one has decided what system to use, you may then input notes almost exactly like critical apparatus entries.  Select the relevant location in the main text (either a range, or a location), and then click References –> Notes Entry, or use Shift+F5.  This will then bring up the Notes window and allow you to input the relevant information. Repeat for as many notes as you have.
 

Varia
At this point, you should have your notes and apparatus entries added to the text.  You’re now able to run print-preview (File –> Print Preview, or Ctrl+J) and see your text (perhaps heavily watermarked if you’re using the demo version).  The main work is now done, and all that remains are formatting tweaks.  

Line Numbers
By default, the CTE prints line numbers for both the sections and the page.  I find two sets of line numbers confusing and displeasing to the eye.  To change this, one goes to Format –> Document and then go to the Margins tab.   
 

As you can see, the default puts “Page line numbers” in the inner margin and “Chapter Line numbers” in the outer margin.  I’d recommend choosing one and making the other “None.”  Note you can also use this dialog to change the frequency of line numbers.  

Changing the separator in Chapter+Line references
By default, the CTE uses a comma as its separator in references.  Thus, if a variant shows up on the 3rd line of the 2nd section, this shows up in the apparatus as 2, 3 (As I understand it, this is the typical European practice).  Americans much prefer to use a period here, so that it’s printed as 2.3.   To change this, go to Format –> Document and then navigate to the Notes tab.  

 
Changing the character in the field “Between Chapter and Line” from a comma to a period will produce 2.3 instead of 2, 3.  

That’s all for now. As mentioned above, if you have any suggestions, comments, or questions, please let me know in the comments!

ἐν αὐτῷ,
ΜΑΘΠ 

[1] Dilts, M.R., Demosthenis Orationes, vol. 1 (Oxford 2002)