CasualConc
 
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© 2008-2009 Yasu Imao

CasualTranscriber

CasualTranscriber is a utility program to assist transcription of audio/video text.  It can handle most of the file types QuickTime can handle.

This program hasn't been fully tested.  If you use this and find any bugs/weirdness, please let me know.



System Requirement: Any Mac with Mac OS X Leopard

The current version of CasualTranscriber is 0.9.6.



This page shows you the basic functions of CasualTranscriber.  For more advanced features and Preferences settings, check these pages.


Contents

  1. 1 How to start
  2. 2 Controller
    1. 2.1 Player
    2. 2.2 Speed Adjustment
    3. 2.3 Skip (Rewind/Forward)
  3. 3 Time Control
    1. 3.1 Insert
    2. 3.2 Select
    3. 3.3 Select All
    4. 3.4 Unselect
  4. 4 Movie Information
    1. 4.1 Duration
    2. 4.2 Time Scale
  5. 5 Editor
    1. 5.1 Format
    2. 5.2 Find Panel
    3. 5.3 Create Hyper Link


How to start

  1. When you start CasualTranscriber, a welcome window opens.  You can create a new file or open an existing file.  This window only shows up when you start CasualTranscriber, but you can access these from Menu -> Files.

    The default file format of a new file is Rich Text Format (.rtf).  You can change this in Preferences.  Supported file format is RIch Text Format (.rtf), MS Word (.doc), and Plain Text (.txt).  RTF and MSWord format only supports text data.



  2. To open a movie/sound file (or associate it to a document), go to Menu -> File -> Open Movie (Command  + Shift + O).  The selected file appears in the Movie View on the upper left.


  3. You can also open a movie/sound file on the web by select Open URL as long as you know the path and it is publicly accessible.

  4. When you open a file, the path to the file will be inserted at the beginning of the editor. 


    When CasualTranscriber opens the file with the path at the beginning, it automatically opens the associated movie/sound file.  If you want to attach a different movie/sound file, simply delete the entire line.

  5. If the original file has chapters, CasualTranscriber asks you if you want to import them.


    If you click Yes, chapters will be imported to the editor.



  6. If you have any Rich Text/MS Word/Plain Text file you already started transcription with or from other project, you can open it from Menu -> File -> Open File (Command + O).
    You can open up to 10 recent files from Open Recent.

     
  7. You can control the movie/audio just like you use QuickTime Player.

  8. Or you can use CasualTranscriber controller buttons (see below).

  9. Transcribe text and save it from Menu -> File -> Save Text (Command + S).  If you want to save the file as a different file, choose Save As... (Command + Shift + S).


    When you save the transcript (Save or Save As...), you can select a file format (Rich Text, MS Word, or Plain Text).


    If you choose Plain Text, you can select encodings.




  10. You can always start a new document from Menu -> File -> New (Command + N).


  11. Now you can start transcribing the movie/sound clip!


Controller

Player

You can use the controller of the QuickTime player on the window, slightly larger buttons are also available.  The timer is an approximation as there is no direct way to get the time from the clip to display.  There is up to 0.1 second error.



Those are as you can see basic buttons.  Shortcut is assigned to each button.

Shortcuts

 Go to Beginning 
Command + [ 
Previous Chapter
Step Backward Command + Shift + ,
Play
Command + K
Pause Command + L
Step Forward
Command + Shift + .
Next Chapter
  
Go to End 
Command + ]

Current Time is also shown with the control buttons.


Speed Adjustment

You can adjust speed of the movie/audio.  Simply move the slider with your mouse.  You can reset the slider to 1.0 by clicking Reset button.


Speed can by adjusted from the Menu -> Movie and with shortcuts.


Shortcuts

Decrease Speed
Command + Control + -
Increase Speed
Command + Control + =


Skip (Rewind/Forward)

You can easily rewind/forward the movie/audio by the number of second that appears on the button.
You can change the assigned time (in seconds) in Preferences.


Short cuts are also assigned to these buttons.

Shortcuts (numbers in parentheses are defaults in seconds)

Rewind Forward
Button 1 (1)
Command + 1
Button 1 (1) Command + 6
Button 2 (3)   Command + 2
 Button 2 (3) Command + 7
Button 3 (5) Command + 3
 Button 3 (5) Command + 8
Button 4 (10) Command + 4
 Button 4 (10) Command + 9
Button 5 (15) Command + 5
 Button 5 (15) Command + 0



Time Control



Insert

You can easily add time stamps to the text.  To add a single time stamp, simply click Insert button.  The time stamp is clickable.  If you click it, the player's current position moves to the time.


If a section (between two time points) is selected on the controller, the beginning time and end time will be inserted to the text.





If the text is selected and then click Time Stamp while a section is selected, the time stamps will be inserted before and after the selected text.


Select

If you select a time stamp on the editor and click Select button, you can easily move to the selected time point on the movie/sound.


If two time stamps are selected and click Select button, the section between two time stamps will be selected.



As long as two time stamps are at the beginning and at the end of the selected text, this works (you can leave text in between two time stamps).
In a sense, Select is the opposite function of Insert.



Shortcuts
Insert Command + Shift + Y
Select
Command + Shift + U


Select All

You can the entire clip by clicking Select All button.


Unselect

You can unselect a selected part of the clip by clicking Unselect button.



Movie Information


Duration

Duration is the length of the clip.

Time Scale

This sets the smallest time segment (600 is 1/600 of a second).  600 is default simply because it can be divided by common frame rates (24/30).  If you want to change the appearance of time stamps, you might want to change this.  But if you make this too small, time stamps will be less accurate (if you use Insert).  If you know your movie clip is encoded at a specific time frame, you might want to use it.



Editor

Editor part is very simple and similar to what you can find in any Cocoa-based text editors such as TextEdit.

Format



You can also set some attributes from Menu.



You can also use Context Menu.


Find Panel

You can use a OS X standard Find Panel by Menu -> Edit -> Find -> Find (Command + F).


A familiar Find Panel appears and you can use the same functions you are used to (if you use Apple applications).


Create Hyper Link

If you ever want to add a hyper link to your transcription, you can do it by Menu -> Format -> Create Hyper Link.  If you select text before doing this, the link will be added to the text.  If not, a link with the URL will be inserted.