334617953 Volunteers page misleading about using spreadsheets ()

[FreeREGcomputer]

Issue reported by **** at 2025-08-08 21:25:53 UTC
Time: 2025-08-08T21:18:19+00:00
Session ID: 431711a1aa95eb75368790b2ac91bf32
Problem Page URL: /volunteer
Previous Page URL: https://beta.freebmd2.org.uk/help/about_changing
Reported Issue:
I wonder whether the words "We will send you images to transcribe, links to specialist software needed (or you can use a pre-formatted spreadsheet) and guidance on how to transcribe." are appropriate for FreeBMD. I realise this section may have been lifted from FreeCEN or FreeREG where spreadsheet use may be easier. The requirements of the FreeBMD file format https://www.freebmd.org.uk/Format.shtml include file headers and footers, and restriction of characters used to ISO 8859-1 mean that it may be very hard in practice to use spreadsheets. My syndicate gave up on spreadsheet use for transcribing around 20 years ago.

[richardofsussex]

The link to the /volunteer page has now been removed from the /help/about_changing page, so I don't think this issue still applies.