A Plover feature enabling a standard keyboard to [stroke](#stroke) a [chord](#chord) by pressing one key at a time. This feature is reminiscent of Caps Lock or Sticky Keys. When enabled, the default arpeggiate begin/end toggle is `<space>`. Press `<space>` to begin arpeggiating, then press the keys which make up the chord, and, finally, press `<space>` to end arpeggiating and send the chord. The "Arpeggiate" checkbox must be toggled via `Configure > Machine` (with "Keyboard" selected from the drop-down) in order for this feature to work, as pictured below.
<imgalt="toggle arpeggiating checkbox to enable"src="https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/144999734254370816/712119290442023042/unknown.png"width="40%">
The term "arpeggiate" is analogous to individually playing each note of a musical chord. See [[Cheat Sheets|Learning-Stenography#cheat-sheets]] for pictures of how keyboard keys correspond to steno keys.
1. traditionally: a conflict-based theory uses one stroke for multiple translations. For example, a non-realtime stenographer could use the same stroke for "bare", "bear", and "bar", which is a conflict that the stenographer would have to manually resolve at a later time. Plover is a realtime-only system and does not support conflict-theories.
2. informal; a.k.a collision: when two dictionaries have the same stroke, the dictionary with the highest priority is favored. For this reason, it is important to understand your dictionary order.
Dragging is the term used to describe accidentally dragging another key into your stroke. E.g. if you try to write `-F` but then drag your finger to the left, you might hit `*F` instead.
A misstroke is like a "chord typo". It's when you mean to write one chord, but stroke another. Often, dictionaries have misstroke entries that are added when a stenographer frequently misstrokes an entry. For example, take the stroke `TKPWAOD` (meaning `GAOD`) which translates to `good`. Sometimes the stenographer may miss a key, so they could have a misstroke entry `TKPAOD` which would also translate to `good`. Then they are protected from these typos in regular writing. There are many misstroke entries in the default dictionary, and you must try to make sense of results when you look up words, instead of blindly accepting the shortest stroke.
Shadowing is when a key registers on the steno paper unintentionally, due to pressing lightly on a key by accident. The term "shadowing" comes from the light ink impression left on the steno paper - it looks like the shadow of a letter. While the use of writing to paper continues to decline, the act of shadowing can be a bigger problem with digital systems as the machine and/or transcription software registers it as off or on - no in-between. Shadowing can be reduced or eliminated by more careful writing and by adjusting key sensitivity.
When writing stenography, if you accidentally merge two strokes into one, it is called stacking. For example, you might try to write `is okay` with `S-/OBG` but end up with `SOBG → sock` because you stacked the strokes. To avoid stacking, the stenographer must be sure to release all keys in their chord before stroking the next. Sometimes machines are prone to stacking due to bad debouncing or sticking keys.
You might notice strokes in Plover's default dictionary that map to, for example, `"T-S": "{^s it}"`. These were entered to fix stacking issues on Mirabai's old steno machine, but aren't relevant for most users and can safely be overwritten.
In some [steno theories](#steno-theory), when writing a word that ends with a suffix (or starts with a prefix), one may include that suffix or prefix in the same stroke as another part of the word. So rather than writing "seeing" as `SAOE/-G`, one may write `SAOEG` in one stroke. Sometimes this will break steno order. For example, when `EPBD/-G` is turned into `EPBGD`. This is known as folding in or tucking.
Some commonly tucked one-key suffixes are `"-S": "{^s}"`, `"-D": "{^ed}"`, `"-G": "{^ing}"` and `"-R": "{^er}"`. A one-key prefix that's often folded in Plover's default theory as well is `"K-": "{con^}"` (where the N becomes M if the next sound is a P, B or M for historical reasons). Some multi-letter suffixes in that theory are `"-PLT": "{^ment}"`, `"-GS": "{^tion}"` and `"-BGS": "{^ction}"`.
When writing in stenography, your strokes map to translations. E.g. `KAT → cat`. However, if a stroke is not in your dictionary, the raw form will be outputted instead. This is called an untranslate. For example, if your dictionary doesn't have `KAT`, Plover will simply output `KAT`.
The opposite of a [brief](#brief) is writing out the word according to your theory. In Plover, this would refer to the fact that you are sounding a word out, rather than using its brief. E.g. writing out `O/PEUPB/KWROPB` instead of using the brief `P-PB` for the word "opinion".
Professional stenographers do not like being referred to as "typists" because it normalizes the complex system that stenography is. On a steno machine, you do not "type". Instead, they call it "writing". Some stenographers are more sensitive to this than others. Generally, you "type" on a keyboard, and "write" on a steno machine. Steno machines were traditionally called "stenotypes", but that usage has died out over time.
