Conclusion

This exploration provides a beginning point for working with tools that are not only readily available but low in cost for both time to learn and finances. Most any Pentium or PowerMac will run them. On a Pentium, you'll need InternetExplorer 5 which is freely available. The other tools are explained briefly in the appendix.

For your research, it is important to take these examples and practice with the RV in order to begin seeing what you will be able to do for your work. Using the first few XSLT examples, you can add your own tags and categories of inquiry to the RV, such as temporal periods of composition, families from which the hymns come (cf. Van Nooten and Holland, 1994), or other criteria. If you have notes you've written which list the verses, just revise one the included XSLT scripts to automatically add all the tags for you, then begin doing word searches based on the categories you've identified (if you have questions, send them to the lists recommended in the appendix—chances are, others are trying to do/have questions the same as you!).

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