Editing Transcripts

SpeedScriber provides a wide range of tools to quickly make corrections to the original transcript.

Selecting words

Most editing operations affect the currently selected words in the transcript.

To select a single word, do one of the following:

• Click on the word.
• Use the navigation controls or keyboard shortcuts to move to the desired word.

To select multiple words, do one of the following:

• Click on the first word and drag to the last word. This works in both directions.
• Use keyboard shortcuts to extend the selection.

 

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Speakers list

The left panel contains a list of the speakers in the current file.

Each speaker has the following:

• A speaker name.
• A count of the number of times that speaker appears in the transcript.
• A background color.

To edit a speaker name:

• Select the speaker name and make a change, then press Return or Enter.

The edited speaker name will automatically update wherever it appears in the transcript.

To change the speaker color:

• Click the color square and choose a new color from the palette.

The edited speaker color will automatically update wherever it appears in the transcript.

 

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Changing which speaker is assigned to a speaker range

To change the speaker on a speaker range, do one of the following:

• Click the speaker name.
• Press Option-Return (this targets the speaker range containing the currently selected word).

A popup menu will be displayed with the existing speaker names and some additional choices at the top:

• New Speaker
• Previous Speaker (Speaker Name)
• Next Speaker (Speaker Name)

Choosing an existing speaker will update the count of speaker ranges in the speakers list.

Choosing the New Speaker menu will add a new speaker to the speakers list and highlight the name so you can simply type the correct speaker name.

Pressing Escape will hide the popup menu and not make any changes to the selected speaker range.

 

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Speaker range controls

When the media file is not playing, SpeedScriber displays the speaker range controls to the left of the currently selected word. 

The speaker range controls will only be displayed if a single word is selected. In addition, each button is only displayed if its action is possible for the selected word. For instance, if the selected word is in the last speaker range, then the bottom button will not be shown.

 

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Changing the start of a speaker range

If SpeedScriber has not correctly identified the first word of a speaker range, then it can easily be changed.

To make the current speaker range start on the selected word, do one of the following:

• Click the top button in the speaker range controls.
• Press Command-Up

To make the next speaker range start on the selected word, do one of the following:

• Click the bottom button in the speaker range controls.
• Press Command-Down

 

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Adding a new speaker range

To add a new speaker range, starting on the selected word, do one of the following:

• Click the middle + button in the speaker range controls.
• Press Command-Return/Enter.

A new speaker range will be added and the popup menu will be displayed for choosing a speaker. Choose an existing speaker or add a new speaker.

 

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Adding a new speaker range for transcripts with two speakers

If your file only contains two speakers (e.g. an interview) then there is a handy shortcut for adding speaker ranges and setting the speaker automatically:

• Hold down the Option key and click on the Add Speaker Range button.
• Press Command-Option-Return/Enter.

A new speaker range will be added on the selected word and the speaker will be set to the previous speaker.

For example, If the speaker ranges are currently:

Speaker 1
Speaker 2
Speaker 1
Speaker 2 (contains selected word)

and a word is selected in the last Speaker 2 range, then doing one of the above actions will add a new Speaker 1 range on the end, since that is the previous speaker.

Speaker 1
Speaker 2
Speaker 1
Speaker 2
Speaker 1

 

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Deleting a speaker range

To delete a speaker range:

• Click the speaker name above the range you wish to delete and choose Previous Speaker (Speaker Name) 

The current speaker range will be merged with the previous speaker range.

 

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Clearing all speaker ranges

To clear all the speaker ranges in the transcript:

• Choose Edit > Clear Speaker Ranges and accept the confirmation message.

This will result in a single speaker range assigned to Speaker 1.

 

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Editing controls

The editing controls above the scrub bar, provide comprehensive options for making edits to the original transcript.

All these buttons apply the action to the selected word(s). If an editing action is not possible on the selected word(s) then the button will be disabled. Since all these buttons have keyboard shortcuts, you can hide the editing controls if desired.

To show or hide the editing controls:

• Choose View > Hide/Show Editing Controls

 

Button	Keyboard Shortcut	Description
	Return/Enter	Edit selected word(s)
	Shift-Down	Make selected word(s) lowercase
	Shift-Up	Make first character of selected word(s) uppercase
	Shift-Option-Up	Make all characters of selected word(s) uppercase
	Command-J	Join words
	Option-Delete	Delete punctuation
	Command-Delete	Delete word(s)
	;	Add semicolon
	:	Add colon
	?	Add question mark
	!	Add exclamation mark
	,	Add comma
	.	Add Period
	Option-;	Add ellipsis
	-	Add dash (single word selected) or join words with hyphen (multiple words selected)
	'	Wrap in single quotes
	"	Wrap in double quotes
	( or )	Wrap in parentheses
	[ or ]	Wrap in square brackets
	Shift-Return/Enter Shift-Delete	Add paragraph break Delete paragraph break

 

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Replacing one or more words

Selected words can be replaced by doing the following:

1. Start typing the new word(s). This will enter editing mode and replace the selected words.
2. Press Return/Enter to save the changes.

 

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Custom words

This feature gives the ability to recall one or more saved words into the transcript with a single click.

 

The Custom Words panel shares the same area as the Search and Media panels. View the Custom Words panel in Transcript mode by selecting the Words button in the lower toolbar.

File vs Account Levels

Custom words are saved to the File and/or Account levels. Custom words on a file are unique to that file and will not be visible when editing any other file. You may want to save custom words that are visible on any file and this can be done by saving the words to the Account level.

Use the File and Account buttons at the bottom of the panel, to determine which level of custom words are currently visible. If the same word exists in both levels it will only be shown once.

Hovering the mouse cursor over a custom word will display a tooltip that indicates if that custom word exists at the File and/or Account level.

 

Adding custom words

Click the + (plus) button in the lower left of the panel to display a menu and choose one of the following options:

• Add to File — adds the currently selected words in the transcript to File level.
• Add to Account — adds the currently selected words in the transcript to Account level.
• Add New Words — displays a new panel to manually type in custom words and save them to the File and/or Account levels.

 

Using custom words

Simply click on the custom word to use it in the transcript.

• When not in editing mode, the currently selected word(s) will be replaced by the clicked custom word and playback will continue if necessary.
• In editing mode the currently selected word(s) will be inserted at the current cursor location.

 

Editing custom words

Clicking the Edit button in the lower right of the panel, changes the way that the panel operates. The background color changes and a – (minus) button is shown.

In Edit mode, clicking a custom word does not add it to the transcript but simply selects it. Command-clicking can be used to select multiple custom words. Selected custom words are shown with a white background.

 

Deleting custom words

To delete one or more custom words in edit mode, do one of the following:

• Clicking the – (minus) button in the lower left of the panel.
• Press Delete.

A confirmation message will be shown when deleting custom words and those words will be deleted from the currently visible File or Account levels.

 

Copying custom words between levels

You may wish to make a custom word at the File level, available for use in any file you're working on, so in edit mode, it is possible to copy selected custom words by dragging the words to the File or Account buttons at the bottom of the panel. A confirmation message will be shown that the custom word(s) have been copied.

 

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Editing words at the character level

Selected words can be edited at the character level by entering editing mode. In editing mode, the text is displayed in blue and the text cursor can be moved anywhere within the boundary of the originally selected word(s).

To enter editing mode, do one of the following:

• Click the Edit Selected Word(s) button.
• Press Return/Enter.
• Press Delete. This will delete the last letter of the selected word(s) and stay in editing mode for further changes.
• Press Forward Delete / Function-Delete on a laptop keyboard. This will delete the first letter of the selected word(s) and stay in editing mode for further changes.
• Press a non-punctuation key which will enter editing mode and overwrite the selected word(s).

To exit editing mode, do one of the following:

• Click the Edit Selected Word(s) button.
• Press Return/Enter. This will exit editing mode and automatically resume playback.
• Click the Play button. This will exit editing mode and start playback from the first selected word.
• Press Control-Space. This will exit editing mode, go back one second to the nearest word and start playback.
• Click on a word outside the original selection.

To cancel editing mode:

• Press Escape. Any changes made since entering editing mode will be discarded.

 

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Marking favorite sections of a transcript

SpeedScriber allows you to mark up favorite sections in the same way you'd use a highlighter pen on a printed transcript.

To toggle the favorite highlighting on the selected words, do one of the following:

• Click the Favorite (star) button underneath the transcript.
• Press Option-F

Favorite sections will be printed or exported to PDF with the yellow highlight, and are exported to Final Cut Pro X as favorite ranges.

 

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Marking a transcript as verified

When you have finished making all the corrections to a transcript, it can be useful to mark the transcript as being verified by changing its status.

• In the Files list, change the status on the desired file from Transcribed to Verified.

It is possible to change the status of the current file and return to the Files list by doing one of the following:

• Option-Click on the Files button in transcript mode.
• Press Option-Command-1