1.

Begin by clicking "My Collations" in the navigation bar. This is only visible to users who are logged in. This will take you to a page that lists all of your collations. If you do not yet have any collations, then there will only be a "+ New Collation" button.

2.

Click on the "+ New Collation" button and complete the form to create a new collation. Think of a "collation" as a book-level container of collation data. Upon submission of the form, the new collation will appear on the left. Click on the gear icon to change the collation name, download the TEI version, import it into the open-cbgm, or to delete the entire thing.

3.

Next we click on the newly created collation. Think of this as "zooming into" the collation. Any existing sections will be displayed. We will create a new "section," which can normally be thought of as a book chapter. The generic name was chosen for those who collate by divisions other than chapters. Name the section and give it a number for the purpose of sorting.

4.

Click on the newly created section to see all of its verses or "collation units." As this new collation does not yet have any verses, we will click "+ New Verse" to create a new verse. This requires: an ID, normally a reference; the label that will identify the basetext; the text of the basetext; and a number for ensuring the verses appear in the order preferred by the user. To upload a collation instead, see how to upload a collation file.

5.

Click on the newly created verse to see its collation data displayed as a digital critical apparatus. Since this verse was just created, it does not have any collation data beyond an indexed basetext.

6.

At the top of the apparatus screen, on the right of the reference, there is a notebook symbol which will open a note. This note corresponds to the verse. It autosaves (green means that current text has been saved), can be moved, closed, and reopened safely without losing your notes.

7.

To continue creating a collation from scratch, we need to create and define a variation unit. This is done by click on the green "+" button under the "Variation Units" heading. Refer to the indices under the basetext words and enter the "from" and "to" index that corresponds to the range of words involved in the variation unit you wish to define. Upon submission, you will see that there is a new button for the variation unit and also that the variation unit is underlined in the basetext section.

8.

To see the readings for the variation unit, click on either the indicated section in the basetext, or the variation unit button. The readings table for that variation unit is displayed below and you will see that the first reading is created automatically by Apatosaurus. When creating readings, one will always need to represent the reading in the basetext. Note that witnesses for the reading in the basetext must still be entered by the user.

9.

There is little reason to have an "a" reading without a "b" reading. Add a new reading by clicking "+ New Reading." This will load a form. The "Note" field is optional. Enter the reading name. "b" is a good choice unless you are entering a subreading, then something like "a1" would also be reasonable. Next we need the text of the reading unless, of course, the reading is an omission or lacunose. Finally, add the witnesses to this reading. Note that witnesses are not added as plain text. This is because witnesses are objects in the database. Apatosaurus provides very Greek witness found in INTF's K-Liste and users can add their own witnesses. The advantages to handling witnesses this way will become clear during analysis.

10.

There are three tools in the rightmost part of each reading row. The first button with the pencil icon is for editing the reading. Anything about a reading can be edited and updated. The notebook symbol opens a draggable note just like the verse note except it is related to the specific reading instead of an entire verse. The note button will be green if a note for the verse exists. Finally, the button with the clock symbol displays a reading's history of changes. The user can select any previous version of a reading to restore.

11.

The final portion of the apparatus is the local stemma. Here the user may relate one reading with another. This is the foundational step for preparing to use the CBGM on a collation.

12.

It may be a little tedious to construct a collation by hand, because it is. Yet, this is a viable option for those who need to collate only a few manuscripts. The result is an intuitive digital critical apparatus that can used and imported into the CBGM.