Teeline is a shorthand method of writing mainly used in the UK by journalists.
Teeline has a symbol for each letter of the alphabet. Numbers are written as normal and circled in teeline.
Special symbols also exist to simplify the amount of lines required for letter, phrase or full word teeline representation
Indicators are special symbols that reduce the required lines to represent a letter eg. indicator for letter A is one line whereas the full teeline symbol has two lines
Blends are special symbols that combine two or more letters into a single symbol to increase writing speed
Prefixes are special symbols shown well above the line at the start of a word to denote a word prefix eg a raised c for prefix con
Suffixes are special symbols shown well above the line at the end of a word to denote a word suffix eg a raised n for suffix tion
Abbreviations are special symbols representing whole words eg t for it
Basic Use
This web page takes any words you enter and displays the corresponding Teeline shorthand.
Simply enter your text and press the Show Teeline button to see the teeline representation at the bottom of the screen.
The entered text is compressed into a phonetic representation which is then displayed as teeline symbols.
All the Teeline letters and words will be displayed with their original text above them
Compression will
replace double letters with single letters
remove vowels in words
remove unnecessary letters etc
Some examples are
'word' becomes 'wrd'
'this' becomes 'ths'
'food' becomes 'fd' etc.
Compression can be toggled on or off in Display Options
To see examples of full sentences then choose -- select a sentence -- and it will be displayed using whichever display options have been previously chosen.
Press the Clear button to enter some new text.
Press the Alphabet button to see the full Teeline Alphabet.
Press the Special Symbols button to see advanced teeline representations such as indicators, prefixes, suffixes,
and blends
Press the Abbreviated Words button to see words that get abbreviated to a teeline symbol
Advanced Use
Once the teeline symbols are displayed at the bottom of the screen, notice that there are some additional advanced buttons just above the teeline symbols
The Display Options button opens up a series of checkboxes which, if clicked on, will alter the teeline symbols displayed accordingly.
Join Letters Join/Unjoin teeline symbols for each word
Use Compression Compress/Do not Compress Words to a more phonetic version of the word
Black/Gray Display/Do not Display teeline symbols in alternate black and grey symbols to help distinguish symbols more easily
Show Labels Show/Hide Word Labels above the displayed teeline
Use indicators Show/Hide indicators - special teeline symbols in this color
Use Prefixes Show/Hide Prefixes - special teeline symbols in this color
Use Suffixes Show/Hide Suffixes - special teeline symbols in this color
Use Blends Show/Hide Blends - special teeline symbols in this color
Use Abbreviations Show/Hide Word Abbreviations - special teeline symbols in this color
Note. When a checkbox is turned on of off then the teeline symbols are refreshed with that option represented in the displayed teeline.
Once any display option is turned on the associated symbols will be shown in the SAME color as the checkbox label
For example if you click the red label Use Indicators then any teeline symbols
that are now shown as indicators will appear as RED symbols and also RED characters in the compressed text.
Zoom IN and OUT will increase/decrease the size of the teeline symbols displayed.
Why did I build this web based tool for Teeline
I originally built an Android and Mac app called Teeline Mate several years ago to help me learn Teeline ( https://youtu.be/fEdea9KYeZI or search Youtube for "Teeline Mate Video")
It was not able to be used on Apple iPads and iPhones so I decided to take the plunge and rebuild the functionality in a web tool.
I hope this tool will help people better understand teeline.
Please note that this tool represents my understanding of standard teeline. Expert Teeline writers have their own custom abbreviations and blends so not all Teeline rendered in this app will necessarily match teeline examples in books and tutorials out there on the web.
About
This web site is hosted on github pages
source code is available here