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Import audio or video transcripts

This feature is available in NVivo Pro and Plus editions. Learn more

 

This topic explains how to prepare and import transcripts. It also provides the steps for exporting a transcript to a Word document or text file.

What do you want to do?

 

About importing audio or video transcripts

You can import a Word document, rich text document or plain text file containing a transcription of an audio or video source. Before importing, make sure that the document or text file is formatted in one of the ways described in Prepare a Word document for import or Prepare a text file for import.

If you have purchased a transcript via the integrated transcription service provided by TranscribeMe, your completed transcripts are automatically downloaded and imported into your project. Refer to Purchase an audio or video transcript for more information.

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Prepare a Word document for import

You can import Word or rich text documents (.doc, .docx, .rtf) that have been formatted in the following ways:

  • Paragraphs that start with valid timestamps:

  • Paragraphs without timestamps:

  • A table that contains a valid timestamp or timespan column:

NOTE For more information on timestamp and timespan formats—refer to Understand timestamps and timespans.

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Prepare a text file for import

You can import plain text files (.txt) that have been formatted in the following ways:

  • Tab delimited lines with a valid timestamp or timespan. Each line must contain at least one tab character—and have the same number of tab characters.

  • Comma delimited lines that include a valid timestamp or timespan. Each line must contain at least one comma.

NOTE For more information on timestamp and timespan formats—refer to Understand timestamps and timespans.

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Import a transcript

You can import an entire transcript or add entries to an existing transcript:

  1. Open the video or audio source that you want to import the transcript entries into.

  2. Make sure you are in edit mode.

  1. On the Media tab, in the Import group, click Transcript Rows.

The Import Transcript Entries dialog box opens.

  1. In the Import from box, click the Browse button. Locate and select the file containing the transcript entries, and then click Open.

  2. From the Create one transcript row for each list, select the format of the transcript you want to import—refer to Prepare a Word document for import or Prepare a text file for import.

  1. If you are importing a table that includes an ID column, select the File includes identifier column check box.

  1. If you are importing a table or a tab/comma delimited file:

  1. If the first row contains column headers, select the File includes header row check box.

  1. In the Transcript Field Mappings box, select which fields (columns) to import and where they should go in the new transcript.

  • You must map one field to Timespan

  • You must map one field to Content

  • You can map to an existing custom field in your project or enter the name of a new field. This new field will be added to all existing audio or video transcripts.

  • Use the Fill Down box to populate any blank cells in the transcript with the contents of the preceding cell—for example, if the name of the speaker is only entered when the speaker changes, then use this option to fill in the blank speaker cells.

  1. Click OK.

NOTE NVivo tries to detect the file encoding used in the file. If you cannot import the data correctly, try using a different file encoding.

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Understand timestamps and timespans

If you are importing tables or tab/comma delimited text files you must include valid timestamps or timespans:

  • A 'timestamp' indicates a point in time (second, minute, hour). For example, two minutes (00:02:00) into an interview, Jane said, "I don't agree with the issues".  You can enter timestamps as hh:mm:ss or hhmmss (where hh = hours, mm = minutes, and  ss = seconds)

  • A 'timespan' is the duration of time for a transcript entry. For example, Jane spoke about the new issues from the two minute point to the ten minute point ( 00:02:00.0-00:10:00.0). You can use a hyphen (-) or a forward slash (/) to indicate a timespan.

NVivo recognizes and converts short-hand timestamps—for example:

Shorthand

Meaning

 NVivo converts to*

75

75 seconds

00:01:15.00

1:6

1 minute and 6 seconds

00:01:06.00

9203

92 minutes and 3 seconds

01:32:03.00

85:2

85 minutes and 2 seconds

01:25:02.00

14532

1 hour, 45 minutes and 32 seconds

01:45:32.00

2:5:3

2 hours, 5 minutes and 3 seconds

02:05:03.00

* NVivo measures time up to a 10th of a second.

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Export transcripts

You can export a transcript from NVivo to a Word document or text file:

  1. Click in the transcript you want to export.

  2. On the Data tab, in the Export group, click Items.

The Export Options dialog box opens.

  1. From the Export options, select Transcript.
  2. (Optional) Under Save As, select the Browse button to change the name, location or format of the exported file.
  3. Select the properties and other options that you want to include in the exported file—for more information refer to Export Options.
  4. To display the exported transcript after exporting, select the Open on Export check box.
  5. Click OK.

NOTE To export the transcripts for multiple audio or video sources, select the sources in list view and choose to export. In the export options, you can change the file type and folder location but you cannot change the default name of the exported files.

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