TranscribeMe's ~Tiara~
About Tiara
Tiara is a Chrome extension designed to increase your work speed and textual accuracy. It only takes a moment to press the scan hotkey (Default: Ctrl+End) or Scan button in the Tiara menu before you submit your work, giving you a quick overview of the most common errors that can slip by (and even some of the obscure ones). Increased speed equals more earnings for you, and increased accuracy equates to better work ratings, fewer rejections, less time spent error checking, less stress, and (hopefully) more promotions!
Tiara's power resides in its useful hotkeys and smart scanning engine. With one button press, you receive an instant Style Guide scan, spellcheck, consistency check, and customizable word review. This should catch most errors in your transcription other than plain mishears. We do still recommend doing a Grammarly/Word check for possible grammar and style errors.
You won't need to run your own spellcheck or remember to check for British or US spellings anymore because Tiara automatically detects what type of dictionary to spell-check with from the guidelines on the page. You won't need to worry about mixing up your style guides because Tiara automatically knows the difference between CV, FV, Medical, and certain special style guides, such as with TME, and will warn you if you're using the wrong one.
You need to use the Tiara for TranscribeMe link; you won't be able to search for it in Chrome's store.
Q: Where can I use Tiara?
Tiara will only work with the TranscribeMe online transcription website. You may also have Tiara scan any text you like using the offline scan.
Q: Will Tiara ever integrate automatically into other transcription websites?
Nope. Tiara is a TranscribeMe exclusive feature!
Q: Does Tiara send or receive data or compromise my security or privacy?
Nope. Tiara only works with TranscribeMe websites and does not send or receive data. It is an entirely offline extension that uses no network data except to update the extension through the Chrome Web Store.
Q: What kind of spellchecks does Tiara support?
US spelling by default, but for British, Kiwi, Irish, Australian, and Scottish files, it switches to a British English dictionary.
Q: Does the comma desplicer really save that much time?
Yes, if you remember to use it. With the comma desplicer, you don't even need to position your cursor very well; it can be anywhere between the comma and the next letter. The idea is to just press one button and be done with your comma desplicing and re-spelling. The default hotkey of Ctrl+Shift+Space allows your hand to rest naturally on the keyboard while your other hand navigates the text with the arrow keys or mouse.
Tiara Settings
Although limited, there are two ways to edit settings for Tiara: the settings in the Extensions page and Keyboard Shortcuts.
Extension Settings
To enable Tiara to work in incognito mode, enable it in the Details page for the extension.
Keyboard Shortcuts
To manage your Tiara hotkeys, go to Extensions ( chrome://extensions/) then click on the three horizontal lines at the top left of the screen to access Keyboard Shortcuts (chrome://extensions/shortcuts). From there, you can customize Tiara's hotkeys per your preferences.
Tiara for Sessions
Tiara is ridiculously useful for QAs proofreading an entire session. You can run a function by right-clicking anywhere within the session's text to access the Tiara menu:
Click the Tiara extension icon at the top of the screen for even more features:
Among Tiara's session-specific features are:
- Super QA Scan includes sanity-saving functionality such as timestamp checking and full-document consistency checks.
- Rejected Chunks are indicated with a red outline and a red "Yes" at the top of the screen.
- Comma Desplicer Currently this hotkey can be used to quickly splice or desplice a comma splice (and automatically fix your capitalization), or fix a spelling error under the cursor. Comma splices and spelling errors are possibly the most numerous mistakes a proofreader will encounter, and they're just so fiddly to repair as well. Once you get used to this hotkey, you won't even have to pause the audio or move your hands from your keyboard or mouse to fix these errors, saving loads of time.
- Session Analyzer that integrates itself into every QA session, allowing them to instantly gauge how difficult and how much time a session may take just from a textual analysis.
- Timestamp Highlighter will highlight a timestamp when you reach that point in the audio, easily alerting you to timestamps that may be misplaced!
- Special Buttons that automate tedious tasks. These include the Space Normalizer and Line Doubler/Singler for those who prefer their sessions with either double or single line breaks.
- Chunk Position Fixer hotkey pulls out-of-position chunks up to one another. This is a long-standing bug with the QA editor, and this functionality may save you the hassle of placing the cursor, hit Enter twice, backspace, etc. (or asking an admin to fix your file for you).
- Chunk Change Comparer shows the changes made since the last load of the page. Note that this feature, for security reasons, WON'T show changes made from the file's pickup until completion if you leave the page then come back. It will only show the changes since you last had the tab/session open.
Session Analysis
The session analyzer is vital for quickly letting you decide whether you have enough time to complete a given session. Here's what you can glean from its analysis.
- Words per minute: Words per minute can be indicative of lots of crosstalk or fast speech. Higher WPM can mean that a session will take longer than normal. 110 is low, 150 is average, and 190+ is high.
- Speakers per minute: Speakers per minute measures how many speaker changes occur on average every minute throughout the file. A higher number indicates that more time may be needed to insert timestamps and figure out crosstalk. 1 is low, 3 is average, and 10+ is high. A file with 20+ speakers per minute may be very challenging.
- Vocab per minute: How many new words are introduced into the transcript every minute. It can indicate either lots of jargon/proper names or multiple speakers.
- Inaudibles per minute: How many [inaudible]s, on average, are present in the transcript per minute. A high number may indicate a poor transcription, meaning more time will be needed for corrections. 0 is low, 1 is average, and 4+ is high.
The Comma Desplicer: The Miracle Worker
The default hotkey of Ctrl+Shift+Space can:
- Desplice / splice comma
- Undo / create guess tag
- Correct spelling error
- Add a comma or period + capital letter
Typo Fixer
- There is an additional option for a Typo Fixer. The Comma Desplicer will fix typos if inside a word marked by spellcheck, otherwise it will create a guess tag. The Typo Fixer only fixes typos.
- You may set the Typo Fixer's hotkey in the Extensions > Keyboard Shortcuts page in Chrome.
Timestamp Features
- Tiara automatically highlights timestamps when you get to the stamp's corresponding point in the audio
- Customizable Set audio to here hotkey (or menu selection) allows you to jump to a certain spot in the audio based on the timestamp closest to wherever your cursor is positioned.
Offline Scan
- As this is an offline scan, you must fill out the style in the Rule/language box on the page. The default style is Clean Verbatim US.
- The Offline Scan and the Super QA Scan are not identical. You may not have the same results with the Offline Scan as you would an online Super QA Scan.
Super QA Scan (Sessions Only)
The Super QA Scan is a QA's lifesaver. It's usually best to run the scan after you've already done a first pass of the file, otherwise there may be too many errors to wade through (in a 2-step session). The scan will catch mistakes such as incorrect timestamps or speaker IDs, misspelled words, incorrect punctuation or capitalization, inconsistencies, TM-specific style errors, and more!
Timestamps & Speaker IDs
- Timestamps out of chronological order
- Speakers introduced in the wrong order
- Too much time detected between speaker labels
- Very little time between the same speaker's label twice in a row, indicating a likely mislabeling
Mechanics
- Typos/misspelled words
- Spellings that are disallowed by the TranscribeMe style guide, e.g., alright, ok, etcetera.
- Warning when uncommon words that are probably typos are detected. (Yea → Yeah / Manger → Manager / Fir → For / Ive → I've / Should of → Should've, etc.)
- Invalid or strange characters in the text
Spacing
- Chunk beginning or ending with a space
- Extra unnecessary spaces between words
- Missing spaces between punctuation
- Erroneous spaces before punctuation
- Double dashes--without a space after (unless it's on a new line after a speaker interruption)
- Putting a space after double dashes-- when it is on a new line after a speaker interruption.
Capitalization
- Capitalizing the word after double dashes-- unless it's a proper name.
- Missing capitalization after terminal punctuation
- Missing capitalization after a timestamp
- Capital letter after semicolon or colon except for proper names
- Inconsistent capitalization between terms
- Uncapitalized letter I
Punctuation
- Missing terminal punctuation of sentences
- Strange punctuation such as .. or ?. or ., except when using etc., etc., etc.
- Erroneous single dash when another type was probably intended
- Repeated words with no comma between except for certain prepositions
- Full quotes missing a space after the closing quote
- Unclosed quotes
- Odd number of quotation marks
- Strange or missing quote punctuation
TM Style
Tags
- Invalid tags
- Unclosed brackets
- Putting certain tags in the wrong place
- Putting a period after [silence] except in an IVR file
- Mixing a [silence] in with other text when it should be on its own line
- Missing spaces before or after tags
Clean Verbatim
- A warning when it detects a likely filler or crutch phrase, e.g. you know
- Using uh or um in a Clean Verbatim transcript
Numbers & Symbols
- Writing percent instead of % after a numeric non-range
- Using a hyphen in place of the word to. Example: Someone says "40 to 50," but you wrote 40-50
- Not using numerals for large numbers
- Not writing out numbers below 10 when there are no numbers greater than 10 in the same sentence.
Special Styles
Tiara is also programmed to catch special style errors such as in:
- Medical
- Certain TME styles
- Full Verbatim
Word Report
The word report displays the word count of your text and tries to estimate the difficulty of typing each of those words. It combines the counts and difficulties into a cumulative score. It can help you decide on words that you should add to your text expander/snippets which can help you type much, much faster. If you've already got a healthy bunch of snippets, it will be less useful.
Tip: The best words for snippets are ones that are common and awkward to type. Awkward words are ones that rely on one hand, pinky and ring fingers, double tapping the same letter in succession, or all of the above. Very awkward words that are not common (e.g., stewardesses) aren't useful as snippets. Words containing fewer than 4 characters are also not the greatest candidates for snippets because you simply don't gain much from them, and they can interfere with typing or making corrections. Make sure you've got snippets for the words 'because' and 'people.' They're both on the awkward side and extremely common in transcriptions!
Word Watcher
Carefully read the feedback you receive(d) from Reviews. If you notice you keep getting a certain word wrong, add it to your word watch list and you'll never miss it again!
Tip: Remember, the point isn't to create lots of extra work for yourself. The point is to create a small bit of extra work which addresses your weak points. Try not to pick common words like its/it's.
Guess Review
Quickly see all your Guess tags in a session to see if you figured out some of them while completing the file.
Command Input Box
In the Tiara results page for Super QA or Offline scans, there is a small text box on the top right of the page. This box is used to insert commands. There is currently only one command implemented.
- hidestyle: To use the hidestyle command, type hidestyle followed by a style. This command will hide applicable style issues. There is currently only one style implemented, medical.
Tiara for Transcription
Tiara also works on the Transcription tab!
Comma Desplicer
The customizable hotkey (Default: Ctrl+Shift+Space) works on both the Sessions and Transcription tabs:
- Desplice / splice comma
- Undo / create guess tag
- Correct spelling error
- Add a comma or period + capital letter
Super Job Scan
The Super Job Scan runs the same checks as the Super QA Scan, with the exception of timestamp and speaker ID suggestions. This check will also ensure that you don't start your chunk with a capital letter (unless it's a proper noun) and don't end in punctuation!
FAQs
Q: Why does Tiara say this is an error when it isn't?
Tiara points you to possible errors, but it's up to you to make the final decision. Sometimes it just wants you to glance at something. A glance only takes a moment, but there's a high chance that you may find an error.
Tip: Many formatting rules don't apply when you're dealing with a proper name such as a company's name, but Tiara will still raise a flag for it.
Q: Why are there so many warnings about inconsistent capitalization?
Proper names will often trigger this warning. "New York" will naturally produce a warning when you used the word "new" 15 paragraphs ago. You can generally spend less time on this warning, and after a bit, you'll get used to spotting these false positives and be sailing past in no time. For instance, when you see the warnings "The" "New" "Research" "Fund" next to each other, and you recall someone mentioning The New York Research Fund, you'll know these are just false positives and not worry about checking them.
Q: The error Tiara is showing me isn't highlighted correctly / doesn't fully make sense.
There are hidden HTML codes buried in the text of web pages that can sometimes confuse the scanner. So long as your original text looks fine, you don't have to worry and can just treat the error as a false positive.
Q: Tiara didn't take me back to the correct error.
Because of hidden HTML codes and also browser limitations, Tiara can't always automatically find the correct text. Try copying part of the section in the Tiara results and use Ctrl+F (Find) to scan the document.
Q: Tiara won't splice or desplice a specific area of text.
Sometimes the transcription pages will split text in a way that is difficult for Tiara to read. It should work again in another spot. This is usually caused by accidentally inserting a timestamp in the middle of a paragraph. Deleting the blank between the words you're trying to (de)splice may fix it.