Status: Current
Last updated: 2026-05-11 20:18 EDT
A comprehensive reference card for every keyboard shortcut, command, and
setting in the TalkBank CHAT extension. Print this page or keep it open in a
tab while working.
For installation, see Installation . For a guided tour, see
Your First CHAT File .
All shortcuts below use macOS key names. On Windows and Linux, substitute
Ctrl for Cmd.
Shortcut macOS Action
Cmd+Shift+GCmd+Shift+GShow Dependency Graph Cmd+Shift+EnterCmd+Shift+EnterPlay Media at Cursor Cmd+Shift+/Cmd+Shift+/Play Media Continuously Cmd+Shift+WCmd+Shift+WShow Waveform View F8F8Rewind Media (configurable seconds) Shift+F5Shift+F5Toggle Segment Loop Alt+DownAlt+DownWalker: Next Utterance Alt+UpAlt+UpWalker: Previous Utterance Cmd+Shift+1Cmd+Shift+1Insert CA Special Character (compose mode) Cmd+Shift+2Cmd+Shift+2Insert CHAT Special Character (compose mode)
These shortcuts are only active when transcription mode has been started via
the Command Palette.
Shortcut macOS Action
F4F4Stamp Timestamp Bullet and advance to new line
These shortcuts are only active after starting Coder Mode.
Shortcut macOS Action
Cmd+EnterCmd+EnterCoder: Next Utterance (advance to next uncoded) Cmd+Shift+CCmd+Shift+CCoder: Insert Code without advancing
These shortcuts are only active after starting Review Mode. Number keys work
only when the editor is not focused (i.e., focus is in the review panel).
Shortcut macOS Action
Alt+]Alt+]Review: Next Flagged utterance Alt+[Alt+[Review: Previous Flagged utterance 11Review: Rate Good 22Review: Rate Early 33Review: Rate Late 44Review: Rate Wrong 55Review: Skip
These are built-in VS Code shortcuts that the extension enhances with
CHAT-specific intelligence:
Shortcut Action
Cmd+.Quick Fix (automatic corrections for 21 error codes) F2Rename Speaker Code (across all declarations and occurrences) F12 / Cmd+ClickGo to Definition (speaker to @Participants, tier to main word) Shift+F12Find All References (every occurrence of a speaker code) Shift+Alt+FFormat Document (canonical CHAT style) Cmd+TWorkspace Symbol Search (across all open CHAT files) Cmd+Shift+ODocument Symbols (outline view by speaker and utterance) Shift+Ctrl+RightSmart Selection: Expand (word, utterance, tier block, transcript) Shift+Ctrl+LeftSmart Selection: Shrink
Open the Command Palette with Cmd+Shift+P and type “TalkBank” to see all
commands. Commands are listed below organized by category.
Command Description
TalkBank: Play Media at Cursor Play the audio/video segment at the cursor position TalkBank: Play Media Continuously Play from cursor to end, tracking current utterance TalkBank: Stop Media Playback Stop any active media playback TalkBank: Rewind Media (2 s) Rewind by the configured number of seconds TalkBank: Toggle Segment Loop Loop the current segment on/off TalkBank: Show Waveform View Open waveform visualization of linked media TalkBank: Show Elicitation Picture Display associated elicitation image (Cookie Theft, etc.)
Command Description
TalkBank: Show Dependency Graph Render %gra dependency tree as a color-coded graph TalkBank: Walker: Next Utterance Step to the next utterance and play its segment TalkBank: Walker: Previous Utterance Step to the previous utterance and play its segment TalkBank: Filter by Speaker… Show only selected speakers in a side-by-side panel TalkBank: Find in Tier… Search within a specific CHAT tier, optionally by speaker
Command Description
TalkBank: Run CLAN Analysis… Choose from 33 CLAN commands and view results in a styled panel TalkBank: Run CLAN Analysis on Directory… Run any CLAN command across all .cha files in a folder TalkBank: Run KidEval… Compare child language measures against normative databases TalkBank: Run Eval… General assessment normative comparison TalkBank: Run Eval-D (Dementia)… Dementia evaluation with DementiaBank databases
Command Description
TalkBank: Edit Participants… Edit @ID headers in an interactive table TalkBank: Insert CA Special Character… Enter compose mode for Conversation Analysis symbols TalkBank: Insert CHAT Special Character… Enter compose mode for CHAT/IPA symbols TalkBank: Cancel Special Character Input Cancel active compose mode
Command Description
TalkBank: Start Transcription Mode Begin transcribing with media playback TalkBank: Stamp Timestamp Bullet Insert timing bullet at current playback position, advance to new line TalkBank: Stop Transcription Mode End transcription mode TalkBank: Configure Transcription Keybindings… Open keybinding editor for transcription keys (F4, F5, F8)
Command Description
TalkBank: Start Coder Mode… Load a .cut codes file and begin coding utterances TalkBank: Stop Coder Mode End coder mode TalkBank: Coder: Next Utterance Advance to the next uncoded utterance TalkBank: Coder: Insert Code… Select and insert a code from the loaded codes file
Command Description
TalkBank: Start Review Mode Begin reviewing flagged utterances TalkBank: Stop Review Mode End review mode TalkBank: Review: Next Flagged Jump to the next flagged utterance TalkBank: Review: Previous Flagged Jump to the previous flagged utterance TalkBank: Review: Rate Good Rate the current utterance as Good TalkBank: Review: Rate Early Rate the current utterance as Early (boundary too early) TalkBank: Review: Rate Late Rate the current utterance as Late (boundary too late) TalkBank: Review: Rate Wrong Rate the current utterance as Wrong TalkBank: Review: Skip Skip the current utterance without rating
Command Description
TalkBank: Validate File Run validation on the current file TalkBank: Validate Directory Run validation on a directory tree TalkBank: Refresh Validation Re-run validation for the Validation Explorer TalkBank: Clear Cache Clear cached validation results for the current file TalkBank: Clear All Validation Cache Clear the entire validation cache TalkBank: View Cache Statistics Show cache size and hit/miss statistics
Command Description
TalkBank: Open in CLAN Open the current file in the CLAN macOS application at the cursor position
All settings are under the talkbank.* namespace. Open VS Code Settings
(Cmd+,) and search for “talkbank” to see them all.
Setting Default Range / Options Description
talkbank.transcription.defaultSpeaker"CHI"Any valid speaker code Default speaker code inserted on new utterance lines during transcription mode talkbank.transcription.rewindSeconds20.5 – 30 Seconds to rewind when using the Rewind Media command (F8) talkbank.walker.autoPlaytruetrue / falseAutomatically play the media segment when stepping with the walker (Alt+Down/Alt+Up) talkbank.walker.loopCount10 – 50 Times to loop each segment during walker playback (0 = loop indefinitely until next step) talkbank.walker.pauseSeconds00 – 10 Seconds to pause between segments during continuous playback or walker stepping talkbank.walker.walkLength00 – 100 Utterances to play during continuous walker mode (0 = play all remaining segments) talkbank.media.defaultSpeed10025, 50, 75, 100, 125, 150, 175, 200 Default playback speed as a percentage (100 = normal, 50 = half, 200 = double) talkbank.bullets.display"dim""dim", "hidden", "normal"How timing bullets are displayed: dim (35% opacity), hidden (invisible), or normal (full visibility) talkbank.lsp.binaryPath(auto-detect) Absolute file path Override path to the chatter-lsp binary. Leave empty to auto-detect from PATH or target/ directory talkbank.inlayHints.enabledtruetrue / falseShow inline annotations for alignment mismatches (e.g., [alignment: 3 main <-> 2 mor]) talkbank.validation.severity"all""all", "errorsOnly", "errorsAndWarnings"Filter which diagnostics are displayed: all, errors only, or errors and warnings
These commands are available via TalkBank: Run CLAN Analysis… in the
Command Palette or the right-click context menu. Commands marked with an
asterisk (*) prompt for additional input before running.
Command Description
freqWord frequency counts freqposWord frequency by part of speech mluMean length of utterance (in morphemes) mltMean length of turn wdlenWord length distribution wdsizeWord size (character count) distribution maxwdLongest words
Command Description
kwal *Keyword and line search combo *Boolean combination search cooccurCo-occurrence analysis distDistribution analysis uniqUnique word list
Command Description
dssDevelopmental Sentence Score ipsynIndex of Productive Syntax kidevalChild language normative comparison evalGeneral assessment normative comparison sugarSyntactic Utterances and Grammatical Analysis Revised vocdVocabulary diversity (D statistic)
Command Description
codesCode frequency analysis chainsChain analysis keymap *Key remapping analysis rely *Inter-rater reliability
Command Description
flucalcFluency calculation phonfreqPhoneme frequency
Command Description
chipChild imitation and practice modrepModel and repetition analysis
Command Description
mortable *Morphology table trnfixTranscript repair
Command Description
gemlistGem (activity) listing timedurTimed duration analysis script *Script execution complexitySyntactic complexity corelexCore lexicon analysis
Type any of the listed prefixes and press Tab to expand. Each snippet has
multiple equivalent prefixes — use whichever feels most natural.
Prefixes Expands To
@UTF8, header, newfileComplete new CHAT file template (@UTF8, @Begin, @Languages, @Participants, two @ID lines, an initial *CHI: line, @End) @Participants, participant@Participants: header with two-speaker placeholder@ID, id@ID: header with 10 pipe-delimited fields*, utteranceMain tier line with speaker placeholder and trailing . %mor%mor: dependent tier%gra%gra: dependent tier@Comment, comment@Comment: header@Bg, @Eg, gemGem block (@Bg / @Eg pair around the cursor)