Transcription Editor
The transcription editor lets you review and edit a finished transcript while you listen to the audio. You can fix words and speaker names, add comments, highlights, bookmarks and clips, and download the transcript in the format you need. This article explains each part of the editor and how to fix common problems.
Some plans limit how much of a long file you can see in the editor. You can always download the full transcript.
In this article
- Accessing the Editor
- Navigating the Editor
- Using The Editor
- File Details
- Editor Settings
- Mobile Syncing
- AI Templates and AI Chat
- Troubleshooting
Accessing the Editor
- Click any file with a completed transcript to open it in the editor.
- The file opens on the AI Templates tab. Click the Transcript tab to view and edit the transcript.
Navigating the Editor
The editor has three menus:
-
Quickbar: The toolbar above the transcript, with most editing buttons: playback, comment, highlight, undo and redo, download, save status, search, and More (…).
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Right-click menu: Right-click the transcript to play from that point, save or download a clip, add a bookmark, comment, highlight, strikethrough, or offset timestamps, and to undo, redo, copy, cut, delete, or find and replace.
- Right panel: Icons on the right side open File Details, Bookmarks, Comments, Saved clips, and Settings.
Using The Editor
Playback Controls
Located: Playback can be adjusted on your audio preview, quickbar menu, and within the transcript.
Shortcuts:
- Play/ pause SHIFT + SPACE
- skip forward CTRL + .
- skip backward CTRL + ,
On the audio/video preview, you have your playback controls. You can play audio, skip back or forward, adjust the volume and playback speed, turn on and off closed captions, and enter full-screen video mode.
If you need to jump around in the transcript while reviewing, you can click the timestamp next to any speaker name, and the audio will jump to that point and begin playing.
Comments
Located: Can be added from the quickbar or right-click context menu. Can be viewed and edited from the right panel menu.
You can collaborate with your team or make personal notes by commenting on a portion of your transcript.
- Highlight the text you want to comment on and click Add comment. The Comments panel opens on the right.
- Type your comment and click Save.
To manage a comment, click More (…) next to it and choose Mark as resolved, Share section, Edit, Reply, or Delete.
Speaker Names
Speaker names are assigned to each speaker in your file. Click any speaker label in your transcript to open the speaker label menu. You can edit existing speakers, add new speakers, and change which speaker is assigned to a paragraph.
You can also edit speakers under File Details in the right panel menu.
While we don't guarantee speaker labeling, the transcription editor makes it fairly easy to correct most issues with speaker labels.
Changing the Speaker label mid-paragraph
If you need to change the speaker label mid-paragraph, click your mouse where you would like the new speaker label to begin. Then double-tap on the enter/return key to generate a new speaker label. You can then change, edit, or create a new speaker name.
Please note that tapping the enter key once only starts a new paragraph for the current speaker. You must tap enter/return twice to assign a different speaker.
You can also use backspace at the start of the paragraph to merge the paragraph with the paragraph above.
Duplicate Speaker Names
There may be duplicated speaker names in certain situations, and they might be attributed to the same speaker. The speaker colors may vary as well. If our editor detects the duplication, a merging function will surface to combine similar speakers into a uniform representation.
Below the speaker names in the File Details right panel menu, you will see a Merge Speakers button. Simply click this button to merge similar names, and the color will unify along with them. If there is more than one duplication recognized, one click will fix them all.
Technical Issues
We strive to always include names provided, but there may be times when our team cannot do so. If the transcriptionist can't tell which person each name should go with or otherwise has trouble identifying them, they will use speaker numbers instead of names i.e., Speaker 1, Speaker 2, etc. Likewise, if there are similar voices that can't be distinguished, speakers may be identified in this way.
Speaker labels can also be off when a file is split into segments so several transcriptionists can work on it at once. This happens with Rush orders and when Shorten Turnaround is on (files 30 minutes or longer). Premium Transcription includes a second review that fixes speaker labels across splits.
Clips
Located: Can be added from the quickbar or right-click context menu. Can be viewed and edited from the right panel menu.
You can save and share a clip of a transcript easily.
- Highlight the text you want in the clip.
- Right-click and select Save clip, or click Clip (scissors) on the quickbar.
- Open Saved clips (scissors) in the right panel to download, share, or delete the clip.
Download Clip
Click Download to download your clip. You can then choose to download the video, the transcript, or both. Your transcript can be downloaded in txt, docx or pdf format.
Share Clip
Click Copy link to copy a link to the clip. Anyone you send it to sees only the clip and its section of the transcript, not the full file. For details, see Shareable Clips.
Delete Clip
Click Delete to remove the clip from your clip library.
Highlights
Located: Can be added from the quickbar or right-click context menu. Can be viewed and edited from the right panel menu.
Shortcut: CTRL + SHIFT + H
Select text and click Highlight, then choose one of six colors. To change the color, click Highlight again. To remove it, choose None.
Undo / Redo
Located: Can be accessed from the quickbar or right-click context menu.
Shortcuts:
- Redo CTRL + Y
- Undo CTRL + Z
You can undo and redo changes as long as you're in the same session. Once you leave the editor or open it in a new window/browser, your changes from the previous session cannot be undone.
Timestamps
Timestamps are displayed at the top of each paragraph within the editor. You can click on a timestamp to play the audio from that time.
Timestamps are automatically included for AI transcription. For human-generated transcripts, the timestamps add-on must be included at checkout to be able to download your transcript with timestamps.
When you download, check Include paragraph timestamps, Include inline timestamps, both, or neither.
Paragraph timestamps in your downloaded transcript are automatically hyperlinked to that paragraph in the editor. To remove the hyperlinks in Microsoft Word select the entire document by pressing Ctrl+A (Windows) or Command+A (Mac), then press Ctrl+Shift+F9 (Windows) or Command+Shift+F9 (Mac) to remove all field codes, which includes the hyperlinks.
Offset Timestamps
Timestamps start at 00:00:00 by default. To match a running timecode, right-click the transcript, select Offset timestamps, enter the start time (hours, minutes, seconds), and click Apply. For example, if your timecode starts at 24 minutes, enter 00:24:00. The offset applies to the whole transcript; you can’t edit individual timestamps.
What if I need to move the timestamps backward?
While we offer this for our caption files, we're unable to apply a negative offset for timestamps in a transcript (moving the start time backward instead of forward).
What if the timecodes in my file jump and aren't continuous?
Burned-in Timecode Sync only works when the on-screen timecode runs continuously, with no cuts or jumps. If your timecode jumps, the timestamps can’t be matched automatically. Use Offset timestamps to set the start time, and contact support if you need help.. See Transcription Add-On Services.
Download
Located: Can be accessed from the quickbar or right-click context menu.
- Click Download on the quickbar.
- Choose an output format:
- In-line: Speaker names and timestamps in the text. Speaker names can be any length.
- Columns: Speaker names and timestamps in a column beside the text. Speaker name length is limited.
- Avid Script Sync, Captions, or Edit Decision List.
- Choose a file type, such as Microsoft Word (.docx).
- Under Additional export options, choose whether to include speaker names and paragraph or inline timestamps, and whether to export highlighted sections only.
- Click Export.
To download your original audio or video, open File Details in the right panel and click Download media.
If you need additional formatting and editing outside of the settings we offer, you can edit the format and layout of your transcript after downloading your files using a word processing program like Microsoft Word or Google Docs.
Save
Located: Can be viewed on the quickbar menu.
Shortcut: CTRL + S
Your edits save automatically, and the quickbar shows Saved. If you lose your connection, it changes to Offline and your changes aren’t saved until you reconnect. Offline also appears in Read-only mode. Click Saved to see when the transcript was last saved, or to save manually.
Search and Replace
Located: Can be accessed from the quickbar or right-click context menu.
Shortcut: CTRL + F
You can use the search and replace feature to find specific words in your transcript. You can also replace the words one at a time or all at once by entering a word into the replace box under your search word and then select Replace or Replace all.
Use the left and right arrows to jump to the next or previous instance of your search word. Check Case sensitive to match capitalization.
Copy / Cut / Delete
Located: Can be accessed from the quickbar or right-click context menu.
Shortcuts:
- Copy CTRL + C
- Cut CTRL + X
- Delete Del
To include or leave out the speaker name and timestamp when you copy, change the setting under More (…) on the quickbar or Settings in the right panel.
Highlight text and right-click, then select cut or delete to remove the highlighted section. Cut text can be pasted to a different section of the transcript.
Bookmarks
Located: Can be accessed from the quickbar or right-click context menu.
Bookmarks allow you to quickly jump to important sections of your transcript. You can also share them for easy collaboration. To add a bookmark, right-click on the transcript where you want to start your bookmark and then click on Bookmark from the right-click context menu.
Once you've added a bookmark, it will be listed under Bookmarks in the right panel menu.
From the Bookmarks panel, click Play to play from a bookmark. Click More (…) to choose Share section or Remove Bookmark.
Strikethrough
Located: Can be accessed from the right-click context menu.
Shortcut: CTRL + J
Highlight text and right-click, then select Strikethrough to add a line through the selected text.
File Details
File details can be accessed from the side panel menu. Here you can access insightful information about your transcript.
Currently Viewing shows which file you currently have in the editor. From here you can change to the AI captions editor if you ordered captions or to the human copy of the file if you ordered human-generated files. You can also upgrade to human-verified transcription.
Speakers: Edit speaker names and merge duplicates. See Speaker Names above.
Main File Details lists information about your file such as the length, owner, and path.
If your transcript is from a meeting Notetaker attended, the Meeting Details and Guest List will also be included under the File Details section.
You can download your original video or audio file or share your transcript by clicking on the Download Media or Share buttons at the bottom.
Editor Settings
Located: Adjust settings under the settings tab in the right panel menu or the ellipses on the quickbar menu.
Under editor settings, you can adjust your preferences for using the editor, and customize your experience.
- Show low confidence words will add grey highlights to any words that our ASR has flagged as possibly being inaccurately transcribed.
- Show read-along tracking will add purple highlights to the word being played so that you can follow the transcript with the audio.
- Include the speaker name and timestamp when copy and pasting: Adds the speaker name and timestamp to the start of copied text.
- Play from clicked word allows you to click anywhere in your transcript to play the audio from that word.
- Offset timestamps will open a pop-up to change the start time of your timestamps
Mobile Syncing
You can access your transcripts from the Rev mobile app. Changes you make in the transcription editor will automatically save and sync across devices.
AI Templates and AI Chat
Use AI Templates to generate summaries, action items, chapters and more from a transcript, and AI Chat to ask questions about it. See AI Prompts, Templates and AI Chat.
Troubleshooting
First, clear your cache and cookies, then refresh your browser to see if that helps. This usually resolves most issues.
If that doesn't resolve the issue, try switching to another browser. We recommend Chrome, or Firefox if you're already using Chrome and are having trouble.
Most of the time, one of these solutions will fix the problem and you will be able to continue working.
Read-Only access
Each file can only be opened in a single instance at a time. If the file you're trying to open is already open in another instance, you'll receive a read-only access error. Ensure that you do not have the file open in the editor in another browser, tab, or on a different device.
Sometimes your browser cache might detect that the file is still open; clearing your browser cache from the basic troubleshooting steps above should resolve that issue.
I only received part of my file
Some plans limit how much of a long file the editor shows. You can still download the full transcript. To see the whole file in the editor, upgrade to Pro or Enterprise/Unlimited.
If you ordered human services with multiple files, you will receive each file as it is completed.
Transcription editor won't load
While we want to ensure the editor works for everyone, we're aware there may be times when it may not be the most ideal option for working on a transcript. Some examples of why are the file's size/length or a user's computer memory, both of which can impact the editor's performance and render it unusable. When this happens, you'll receive a message that the transcript couldn't be loaded in the editor.
If the editor can’t load a file, download the transcript as .docx or .txt from My files and edit it in a word processor.