Archive Service - Guidelines

Guidelines for Option 1: Microsoft Excel

 

OVERVIEW:

 

1. We will send you a few audio files by email, along with an excel template. The excel template also has some sample dummy rows filled out, so as to give you an idea what is expected.

2. You have to hear the audio files and make a note of ONLY the important topics covered by Srila Maharaja in that class.

3. These points will then be entered into Excel and emailed back to us.

4. When you start out the first time, please send us the file once after you have filled out details for 1-2 lectures (audio files), to ensure that we are on the same page. Then, after receiving inputs, you can continue to complete the allocated lectures.

 

 

HOW TO FILL OUT THE EXCEL SHEET - GENERAL:

 

• The Excel sheet sent to you has 12 columns. Below the title of each column, is a brief description of how it is to be filled out. Please refer the attached Excel template and 'Columns' section below for details.

• Please note that one lecture has to be filled out in ONE ROW ONLY. Please do not use multiple rows for one lecture. Please refer Sample rows in the Excel template to see how it appears. Below, you will find how to input on different rows within the same cell, for Column F.

  • Windows: Press Alt+Enter to go to the next line within the same cell 

  • Mac: Press down Control+Option+Command together and then press Enter key to go to the next line within the same cell.

  • Wrap Text: If you are unable to see part of the text while typing, you might try the following: Select entire column by clicking on column name on top (gray strip with ‘A’, ‘B’, etc written on it), right click, select ‘Format Cells’, select Alignment, check the box next to ‘Wrap text’ at the bottom of the window. There should be a ‘tick mark’ in this box. Then you will be able to see the entire text you are typing. 

• For ease of reading, please out a dash at the beginning of each cell in Column F. For this, you will have to put an apostrophe (‘) at the beginning of the cell, otherwise Excel will treat it as a formula. Please refer Sample rows in the Excel template to see how it appears.

• Please try to use the style sheet of words used in the books of Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja and Srila Bhaktivedanta Narayana Gosvami Maharaja. For instance: ‘Caitanya’ and not ‘Chaitanya’. ‘Krsna’ and not ‘Krishna’. If you are able to follow this, it will be helpful.

• Do not use diacritics. For instance: Krsna will not be written as Kṛṣṇa in this sheet. This is for ease of searching the file later and for the benefit of devotees who are unaware about the usage of diacritics.

• Please include ALL files allocated to you in the excel sheet, even if they are empty, corrupted, irrelevant, etc. Please include comments about such files in the ‘Topics Spoken’ column. This will help us clean up the database of unnecessary files.

 

 

COLUMNS:

 

 

COLUMN A: Original File Name

 

• This is the name of original audio file, as it is received from VCV Team

 

COLUMN B: Date

 

• This is taken from original file or folder name, which is mostly in yymmdd format. This column is in yyyymmdd format. Please maintain format as it gets easier to sort later.

• Many times, especially in the 2016 and 2017 lectures, audio files are named like - 170302 – hence the date would be 2017/03/02.

• If only Month and year OR only year is available, please mention accordingly.

 

COLUMN C: Place

 

• You would mostly receive lectures from one city in one lot. Please write the name of the city here.

• Leave the field blank if information is not available.

 

COLUMN D: Topic

 

• Only the main topics Srila Maharaja has spoken on, should be written here. Mostly these would be 1 or 2 except in rare cases.

• For instance:

  • Kamada Ekadasi & Jiva Gosvami Socaka OR

  • Srimad Bhagvatam 10.2.3

 

COLUMN E: Suggested Name

 

• The Format of the lecture Title is Date-topic-title in yyyy.mm.dd_Topic_Title Format for enhanced readability.

• Title can be any most important point that Srila Maharaja stressed on during the lecture. It can also a line he said in the katha as it is.

• E.g.:

  • 2017.03.02_Kamada Ekadasi and Jiva Goswami Socaka 1_Importance of Guru seva OR

  • 2017.04.12_Srimad Bhagvatama 10.2.3_No progress without Seva

 

COLUMN F: Topics spoken on – brief summary:

 

• This column is most important and helpful to easily refer to a lecture where Srila Maharaja spoke on a particular topic.

• Please try to cover all important topics which Srila Maharaja has touched upon in the lecture.

• Details are not to be mentioned. However, this should not be at the cost of missing out on some topic Srila Maharaja has spoken about. Typically a 30 minute lecture covers 8-15 points. Less if Maharaja is specifically elaborating a lot on a particular anecdote. But it does have 10-12 on an average. If you are unsure whether to include a particular detail, rather include it than lose out on the information. 

• For instance: If Srila Maharaja is speaking about the story where ‘Lord Jagannatha and Balaram fought for the King of Puri in battle’ for 15 minutes, touching upon all the details of the story, the entry in excel will be – ‘Story about Jagannatha and Balarama fighting for King of Puri’. Then in the same lecture if Srila Maharaja goes on to speak about the glories of Bhagavan in connection to the above story, the next point will be written as – ‘4 qualities of Krsna’, ‘Krsna always save His devotee’ and so on. 

• Please try to make the point understandable for a reader who hasn’t heard the lecture. Do not write points such as ‘Sravanam, kirtanam’, or ‘Jagai and Madhai’. Each point should  give an idea of the context Srila Maharaja is speaking on. So ‘Sravanam, kirtanam are the foundation of spiritual life’ or ‘Jagai-Madhai became acaryas by power of sankirtan’ is a more appropriate way to phrase each point.

 

 

COLUMN G: Lecture Language

 

• Please mention whether the lecture file includes

  1. Hindi Only (H): Entire lecture is in Hindi.

  2. English only (E): Entire lecture is in English.

  3. Hindi and English (HE): Srila Maharaja speaks in Hindi, and AFTERWARDS devotee translates in ENGLISH. 

  4. Hindi with English Voiceover (HEV): Srila Maharaja speaks in Hindi (in the background), and SIMULTANEOUSLY, devotee translates in ENGLISH.

  5. Srila Maharaja speaking in Hindi & English (SMHE): Srila Maharaja sometimes speaks in Hindi as well as English, with no one translating. If in a particular audio, Srila Maharaja is speaking in Hindi and English, accompanied by English Translation as well, then please mention – SMHE, ET

  6. English Translation (ET) – If a lecture has only English translation, and Srila Maharaja isn’t speaking at all, please use this option.

  7. Other language (O)

 

COLUMN H: Needs Editing?

 

• If the lecture has some audio issues like too much background noise, or long pauses, or some part of the speech needs to be edited, please mention in this column with comments on what the issue is.

• If one class is a continuity of another, which has also been allocated to you, or is abruptly breaking or starting, please mention here.

 

COLUMN I: Filled By

 

• Please write your name here.

 

COLUMN J: Translator

 

• Please write the name of the translator here. If you are unsure, you can leave it blank. You may write initials of the popularly known translators such as SGD for Sundargopal Das (Australia), MPP for Madhavapriya Prabhu, ND for Narottama Dasa, DM for Damodara Maharaja. For others please mention the names. For Hindi lectures also, sometimes Madhavapriya Prabhu has elaborated in Hindi. Please mention MPP in this column in this case also.

 

COLUMN K: Tithi Lecture

 

• On special tithis, Srila Maharaja speaks (typically) at the beginning of the lecture about that tithi. For instance: Janmastami, appearance days of Vaisnavas, etc.

• Please mention Y if it is a tithi lecture, which means if part or whole of the lecture is dedicated to speaking on a tithi.

• This column is only applicable in audios where Srila Maharaja is speaking about the tithi (and not a translator)

 

COLUMN L: Tithi duration

 

• In cases where it is a Tithi lecture (marked ‘Y’ in column K above), please mention the minutes of the audio at which Srila Maharaja starts and stops speaking about the tithi. So for instance, if on Janmastami tithi, Srila Maharaja spoke from 2 min till 30 minutes on Janmastami and then began speaking on a regular topic, please write 2 min to 30 min here.

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