Create transcripts

You can create a new transcript in NVivo by:

  • Playing and transcribing the media in 'transcribe' mode. You can play, pause, forward or rewind as you transcribe—when you press stop, NVivo creates a new transcript row and timestamp.

A good alternative is to use NVivo Transcription to create transcripts for you NVivo Transcription.

Play and transcribe the media in 'transcribe mode'

You can transcribe an audio or video file as you listen to it. As you transcribe, you can create new transcript rows—for example, when the speaker changes.

  1. Open the video or audio file.
  2. Make sure you are in edit mode.
  3. Click The add button below the transcript to insert a transcript row.

    Keyboard shortcut Press ⌘+SHIFT+I.

  4. Adjust the Speed slider to your preferred speed.

    Play back options for media files

  5. Play the media and enter the content in the transcript row. You can pause, rewind, and skip back while transcribing.
  6. Pause the player when you have completed transcribing the content for the row.
  7. Press ⌘+/ to use the current playhead position as the transcript row End Time.
  8. Continue inserting new rows and playing/pausing until you have transcribed the required content.

NOTE

  • NVivo provides keyboard shortcuts for the Play/Pause (F8), Skip Back (F7) and Skip Forward (F9) commands. Keyboard shortcuts
  • You can set a skip interval for playback—when you pause and then play, the media will rewind back a few seconds before playing. This can make it easier to keep up with the media as you transcribe. Set NVivo preferences
  • When you create a new row, the Start Time and End Time are automatically assigned based on the playhead position or selection in the timeline. You can change these values if you need to.
  • You can also experiment with the dictation feature (Edit > Start Dictation) provided with macOS.

Add a transcript row for selected timespan

  1. Make sure you are in edit mode.
  2. Click and drag on the timeline to select the timespan. You can also select a portion of the timeline as you play the media.
  3. Click The add button below the transcript to insert a transcript row.

    Keyboard shortcut Press ⌘+SHIFT+I.

  4. Click below the transcript to assign the selected timespan to the new row.

Change the timestamp values in a transcript row

You can change the timestamp values in a transcript row—for example, if they do not correspond correctly to the media in the timeline. You can edit the values directly in the Start Time or End Time columns. For more precise timestamps, do the following:

 

Menu command Shortcut
Apply a new Start Time based on the playhead position Analyze > Media > Apply Start Time (⌘+\
Apply a new End Time based on the playhead position Analyze > Media > Apply End Time ⌘+/
Apply new start and end times based on a selection of media in the timeline Analyze > Media > Assign Timespan to Rows ⌘+SHIFT+=   You can also click below the transcript