Plover Speaker ID

A Plover plugin for managing speaker identification and question-and-answer designations. Define your speaker IDs inline and use them right away.

Speaker Numbers

Speaker numbers are somewhat arbitrary, and you can have as many items defined in your dictionary as you need. The predefined speaker IDs range from 1 to 4 for regular speakers, and 300 upwards for some special roles.

These are by no means the only speaker IDs available. Feel free to redefine the speaker names, or add more to fit your use case.

Writing Designations

To actually write designations, you can define outlines to translate to special operators in your personal dictionaries.

Note: The outlines used below are merely examples from my own usage; feel free to use outlines that match your own theory or personal dictionary.

Question and Answer

Questions can be defined with the :question meta, and answers with :answer:

"STKPWHR": "{:question}"
"-FRPBLGTS": "{:answer}"

Both of these start a new line with either Q. or A.. To start a paragraph double-spaced, use the :question_dsp/:Q or :answer_dsp/:A metas.

Speaker Identification (Court Reporting)

To start a paragraph of colloquy, use the :colloquy meta, and provide a speaker number:

"STPHAO": "{:colloquy:1}"
"SKWRAO": "{:colloquy:2}"

It starts a new line with the speaker's name in all upper case followed by a colon, for example MR. SNOO:. To start double-spaced, use :colloquy_dsp/:coll.

For bylines, use the :byline meta, and provide a speaker number:

"STPHAO/STKPWHR": "{:byline:1}"
"SKWRAO/STKPWHR": "{:byline:2}"

This outputs a byline of the form BY <speaker>:, followed by a Q. on the next line. To start double-spaced, use :byline_dsp/:by.

California-style bylines have the initial Q. on the same line as the speaker name. To use this style, prefix the meta names with ca_: :ca_byline, :ca_byline_dsp/:ca_by.

Speaker Identification (Captioning)

To start a paragraph by a certain speaker, use the :cap_speaker meta, and provide the speaker number:

"STPHAO": "{:cap_speaker:1}"
"SKWRAO": "{:cap_speaker:2}"

This starts a new line with two arrows >>, then the speaker's name, then a colon. To start double-spaced, use :cap_speaker_dsp/:capspkr.

To start a paragraph without a named speaker, use :caption and don't provide a number. For double spacing, use :caption_dsp/:cap.

"EUFPLT": "{:caption}"

Inline Speaker Names

To write a speaker's name inline, use the :spkr_inline meta with a speaker number:

"EUFPLT": "{:spkr_inline:3}"

Speaker Management

Before editing speaker names, you'll need to define some dictionary entries.

First, define an entry in your personal dictionary using :speaker_id_set/:spkrid_set for setting the name for that specific speaker number. I like to use SKPREUD ("skpr-id") followed by the speaker's outline:

"SKPREUD/STPHAO": "{:spkrid_set:1}"
"SKPREUD/SKWRAO": "{:spkrid_set:2}"

And also have a single outline for ending a speaker definition, using :speaker_id_end/:spkrid_end. I like to use SKPREUDZ ("skpr-idz").

"SKPREUDZ": "{:spkrid_end}"

To define a speaker name, write your outline for setting the name. You should get a prompt that mentions the speaker ID and current name:

+------------------------+
|                        |
| S KP  R   EU        D  |
| S K W RAO              | [Speaker 2 (Ms. Skwrao) =>]
|                        |

Then, write the new name:

|                        |
|    P H               Z | Ms.
|   K  H A      PB       | Chan
|                        |

Lastly, write the outline to end. This deletes the prompt and the name, and now the name is ready to use.

|                        |
| S KP  R   EU        DZ |
|                        |
+------------------------+