Using VOICE-Online

4 Output styles

This section contains information on the different output styles which VOICE Online offers for viewing search results. It explains the standard output styles and the options for modifying output styles.

4.1 Standard output styles

Search results can be rendered in three different styles: VOICE style, plain style, and KWIC style. The styles can be selected in the drop-down menu next to the word style at the bottom of the content area.

Selecting output styles

The style which is selected at the time of submitting a search is automatically used to display the search results. If the style is changed after a search has been submitted (i.e. when search results are already displayed), the search results currently displayed will automatically be re-loaded into the new output style.

4.2 Modifying output styles

In addition to the three standard styles, it is possible to customize the display of search results by switching off particular tags or 'hiding' certain pieces of information.

4.2.1 Flexible display of mark-up and tags

Whenever VOICE style is selected, it is possible to customize the display of search results by switching off particular tags or groups of tags or by hiding pieces of information such as the utterance identifier and speaker number. The tags and features can be switched off (and on again) by clicking on the coloured symbols which are displayed in the menu bar at the bottom of the application area whenever VOICE style is selected.

Menu bar for switching off/on mark-up features

The features which can be switched off/on are (from left to right as they appear in the menu bar):

utterance identifier (e.g. EDcon496:198)
speaker ID (e.g. S1:)
overlap tags (e.g. <1> </1>)
pauses (e.g. (2))
contextual notes (e.g. {parallel conversation starts})
speaking modes (e.g. <fast> </fast>, <@> </@>)
speaker noises (e.g. <coughs>, @@)
tag for spelling out (<spel> </spel>)
tag for non-English speech (e.g. <LNfre> </LNfre>)
other-continuation (=)
tag for unintelligible speech (<un> </un>)
tag for onomatopoeic noises (<ono> </ono>)
tag for pronunciation variation and coinages (<pvc> </pvc>)
information about gaps and non-recorded parts

A short descriptor of the feature that is switched off/on also appears when the cursor of the mouse hovers over the symbol in the menu bar.

4.2.2 Modifying output styles: a note of caution

Please be aware that switching off certain tags or features ‘distorts’ the original transcript to some extent and intentionally hides information that is actually given in the corpus/transcript. This needs to be borne in mind for analysis and should also be indicated if utterances with reduced mark-up are used as examples in publications or studies. Switching off certain features may also lead to seemingly(!) empty utterances if the content of an utterance only consists of the feature which is switched off (e.g. laughter, a speaker noise).