Create Anchors

Rationale

Sometimes we want to link to things that do not have xml:ids or a parent element on which we could add a meaningful xml:id. In these cases, we can add anchors to the target file.
Some of the use cases for anchors include:
Marking the beginning and end of a lemma you want to collate.
Marking the beginning and end of a passage you want to annotate.
Marking the beginning and end of a passage in your modernized text or semi-diplomatic transcription you want to cite from your critical paratext.
Generally, you create anchors in your own edition for use in your edition. Because there is nothing canonical about them, they have limited value outside the context of your edition (although anyone could link to them if they knew the URL).

Practice: Make an Anchor

LEMDO has two keyboard shortcuts to create <anchor> elements. One creates two anchors while the other creates only one. Both automatically generate an @xml:id value on the <anchor> element.
If you want to place two anchors around a span of text:
Highlight the text that you wish to place <anchor> elements on either side of.
Hit Ctrl+Shift+A (on a Windows or Linux) or Cmd+Shift+A (on a Mac).
If you wish to add one pointer:
Place your cursor in the spot that you want to add an <anchor> element.
Hit Ctrl+Shift+Space (on a Windows or Linux) or Cmd+Shift+Space (on a Mac).
Select Add a single anchor from the dropdown list.
You may also choose to use the first keyboard shortcut and remove one of the anchors.

Anchor IDs

The xml:id will be automatically generated for you when you add the <anchor> element using one of our keyboard shortcuts. The xml:id of an anchor always ends with this pattern: _anc_1, _anc_2, and so on. The first time you add an anchor to an XML file, the processor will not assign a number to the anchor; the value of the @xml:id will end with "_anc_". You need to manually add the number 1 (or numbers 1 and 2 if you have inserted two anchors). Thereafter, our shortcuts will automatically number the anchors for you, using the next available sequential number(s).
Note that the anchors do not have to be in numerical order through your file. They have to be unique in your file, but it does not matter to the processor if the first anchor in the document is number 397. In other words, you can go back and add new anchors to your document at any time in your editorial process. Note also that you may point to the same anchor from multiple different places; there is no need to add two anchors immediately beside each other.

Tips

Do not place anchors between lines or paragraphs. I.e., do not place an anchor between the closing tag of one <p> element and the opening tag of the next <p> element, or between the closing tag of one <l> element and the opening tag of the next <l> element.

Further Reading

Prosopography

Janelle Jenstad

Janelle Jenstad is a Professor of English at the University of Victoria, Director of The Map of Early Modern London, and Director of Linked Early Modern Drama Online. With Jennifer Roberts-Smith and Mark Kaethler, she co-edited Shakespeare’s Language in Digital Media: Old Words, New Tools (Routledge). She has edited John Stow’s A Survey of London (1598 text) for MoEML and is currently editing The Merchant of Venice (with Stephen Wittek) and Heywood’s 2 If You Know Not Me You Know Nobody for DRE. Her articles have appeared in Digital Humanities Quarterly, Elizabethan Theatre, Early Modern Literary Studies, Shakespeare Bulletin, Renaissance and Reformation, and The Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies. She contributed chapters to Approaches to Teaching Othello (MLA); Teaching Early Modern Literature from the Archives (MLA); Institutional Culture in Early Modern England (Brill); Shakespeare, Language, and the Stage (Arden); Performing Maternity in Early Modern England (Ashgate); New Directions in the Geohumanities (Routledge); Early Modern Studies and the Digital Turn (Iter); Placing Names: Enriching and Integrating Gazetteers (Indiana); Making Things and Drawing Boundaries (Minnesota); Rethinking Shakespeare Source Study: Audiences, Authors, and Digital Technologies (Routledge); and Civic Performance: Pageantry and Entertainments in Early Modern London (Routledge). For more details, see janellejenstad.com.

Joey Takeda

Joey Takeda is LEMDO’s Consulting Programmer and Designer, a role he assumed in 2020 after three years as the Lead Developer on LEMDO.

Mahayla Galliford

Project manager, 2025-present; research assistant, 2021-present. Mahayla Galliford (she/her) graduated with a BA (Hons with distinction) from the University of Victoria in 2024. Mahayla’s undergraduate research explored early modern stage directions and civic water pageantry. Mahayla continues her studies through UVic’s English MA program and her SSHRC-funded thesis project focuses on editing and encoding girls’ manuscripts, specifically Lady Rachel Fane’s dramatic entertainments, in collaboration with LEMDO.

Martin Holmes

Martin Holmes has worked as a developer in the UVic’s Humanities Computing and Media Centre for over two decades, and has been involved with dozens of Digital Humanities projects. He has served on the TEI Technical Council and as Managing Editor of the Journal of the TEI. He took over from Joey Takeda as lead developer on LEMDO in 2020. He is a collaborator on the SSHRC Partnership Grant led by Janelle Jenstad.

Navarra Houldin

Training and Documentation Lead 2025–present. LEMDO project manager 2022–2025. Textual remediator 2021–present. Navarra Houldin (they/them) completed their BA with a major in history and minor in Spanish at the University of Victoria in 2022. Their primary research was on gender and sexuality in early modern Europe and Latin America. They are continuing their education through an MA program in Gender and Social Justice Studies at the University of Alberta where they will specialize in Digital Humanities.

Rylyn Christensen

Rylyn Christensen is an English major at the University of Victoria.

Tracey El Hajj

Junior Programmer 2019–2020. Research Associate 2020–2021. Tracey received her PhD from the Department of English at the University of Victoria in the field of Science and Technology Studies. Her research focuses on the algorhythmics of networked communications. She was a 2019–2020 President’s Fellow in Research-Enriched Teaching at UVic, where she taught an advanced course on Artificial Intelligence and Everyday Life. Tracey was also a member of the Map of Early Modern London team, between 2018 and 2021. Between 2020 and 2021, she was a fellow in residence at the Praxis Studio for Comparative Media Studies, where she investigated the relationships between artificial intelligence, creativity, health, and justice. As of July 2021, Tracey has moved into the alt-ac world for a term position, while also teaching in the English Department at the University of Victoria.

Orgography

LEMDO Team (LEMD1)

The LEMDO Team is based at the University of Victoria and normally comprises the project director, the lead developer, project manager, junior developers(s), remediators, encoders, and remediating editors.

Metadata

Authority title Create Anchors
Type of text Documentation
Publisher University of Victoria on the Linked Early Modern Drama Online Platform
Series Linked Early Modern Drama Online
Source
TEI Customization created by Martin Holmes, Joey Takeda, and Janelle Jenstad; documentation written by members of the LEMDO Team
Editorial declaration n/a
Edition Released with Linked Early Modern Drama Online 1.0
Encoding description Encoded in TEI P5 according to the LEMDO Customization and Encoding Guidelines
Document status prgGenerated
Funder(s) Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
License/availability
This file is licensed under a CC BY-NC_ND 4.0 license, which means that it is freely downloadable without permission under the following conditions: (1) credit must be given to the author and LEMDO in any subsequent use of the files and/or data; (2) the content cannot be adapted or repurposed (except in quotations for the purposes of academic review and citation); and (3) commercial uses are not permitted without the knowledge and consent of the editor and LEMDO. This license allows for pedagogical use of the documentation in the classroom.