Deciphering Army Records

I am now nearly at the end of a long project writing about a New Zealand Army soldier's war years. When I began I knew very little about World War 1. After several weeks of research and writing, I feel I have a much greater understanding. Malcolm Campbell was a Lance Corporal with the New Zealand Rifle Brigade. My task of writing his story was made much easier because of the existence on line and in the library of a book called The Official History of the New Zealand Rifle Brigade by Lieut.-Col. W. S. Austin. I was able to place Malcolm in each field of battle using dates and entries in his military record which I purchased from the New Zealand Archives.
This may sound straight forward, but if you have ever looked through a military record, you'll know that they are filled with abbreviations and jargon, making them very difficult for a non-military person to decipher. Then there's the handwriting! The army kept meticulous records and I can well imagine the writer's cramp that an officer would have got after a few hundred entries, causing his handwriting to be less than ideal.
Having started out thinking the task was hopeless, however, I ended up making sense of 99% of the information. Here's some examples of abbreviations used; rem = remained, adm = admitted, proc = proceeded, Btn = battalion and rej = rejoined.
Let me know if you'd like a hand with yours at NZ Family Heritage.