TRANSANA and Chapter 5 Getting Started

(also incorporating Data preparation from Chapter 4)

In Chapter 4 the handling of multimedia is discussed in terms of direct and indirect

analysis, modes of transcription and transcription assistance. In Chapter 5 to help get

you started, we discuss productive things you can do in the early stages of setting up a

‘project’ in software. Experimenting with these processes where relevant in your chosen

software will help to become familiar with useful entities in the software. See all coloured

illustrations (from the book) of software tasks and functions, numbered in chapter order.

Sections included in the chapter:

Creating the software project - Transparency - Getting organized - Importing data – Cross referencing - Literature management - A framework of memos.

Sections included below:

1. Introduction to Transana

2. Getting started with Transana, installation, making a Transana project

3. How to transcribe using Transana– Transcription as an analytic act

Preparing Data for Working in Transana

by David K. Woods, Ph.D., Transana’s Lead Developer

1.1 Introduction to Transana

Transana is sophisticated qualitative analysis software for visual and auditory data, including

video files, audio files, and still images. Transana offers a wealth of features designed to

facilitate the process of making sense out of such data.

Transana has also added the capacity to analyze text-only data since the original publication of

this book. While this web documentation focuses primarily on the analysis of media and visual

data with Transana, please be aware as you read these pages that Transana also allows you to

work with text-only data - in ways that are very similar to the methods described for working

with media data.

When working with media-based (audio and video) data, a transcript can serve as an important

tool for navigating and segmenting data into meaningful sections. Different researchers

transcribe very differently, ranging from using the transcript as simple map that describes and

indexes the media data in a convenient, searchable form, through verbatim, descriptive or

analytic transcripts, to conversation analytic transcripts using Jeffersonian Notation, and beyond.

It is possible to work without a transcript in Transana, but having transcripts makes in-depth

analysis of multimedia data easier in a number of important ways.

For example, Transana allows for the selection, categorization and coding of portions of visual

and auditory data as part of the analytic process. Researchers can select small or large portions

of their long video or audio files or large image files, and they can identify analytic significance

in several different ways, depending on their theoretical orientation, analytic style, and

qualitative methodology.

The program provides a number of text-based and visual reports, maps, and graphs for making

sense of the coding and categorizing that researchers do. For example, the Keyword Map shows

coding across the time-line of a media file, and the Library Keyword Sequence Map applies this

same visual layout standardized across media files, allowing researchers to explore changes in

patterns of coding across files. The Search function allows researchers to explore relationships

between codes applied to segments of text data, media files and still images. The Collection

Report presents important visual and textual information about portions of the data that have

been grouped together by the researcher. In these reports, Transana keeps researchers as close to

their original data as possible; the original text, video, audio, and image files are usually only a

click or two away.

Transana facilitates the complex analysis of complex multimedia data in a variety of unique,

innovative ways. Transana allows the synchronization and simultaneous display of multiple

media files to facilitate understanding in data-rich environments, such as classrooms, which

cannot be adequately captured with a single video stream. Transana facilitates using multiple

simultaneous transcripts to allow researchers to look at several analytic layers within their data

simultaneously. Transana pioneered collaborative qualitative analysis, allowing multiple

collaborators to share the same data at the same time, seeing each other’s work in real time, even

over a distance and between Windows and OS X computers.

1.2 Download Transana

Transana is available through the Transana web site at http://www.transana.org . There is a free

Demonstration Version of Transana, and there are several different versions of Transana

available for purchase.

• The Standard version of Transana is designed for researchers with straight-forward

needs regarding the analysis of media data. This version is designed to meet the needs of

researchers new to working with video and audio data, and can be an excellent tool for

teaching qualitative analysis of media data. This version reflects Transana’s origin as

software for the analysis of media files only, and it forgoes some of Transana’s advanced

features that researchers with relatively straight-forward media data don’t require.

• The Professional version of Transana is designed for researchers with more complex

analytic needs. This version allows researchers to analyze multiple simultaneous media

files. It allows researchers to use multiple simultaneous transcripts to analyze their media

files in sophisticated ways. It allows researchers to add text-only and still image data to

the analytic process in order to enhance the analysis of their media-based data.

• The Multiuser version of Transana allows research teams to work together, sharing the

same data at the same time. It supports text, still image, and multimedia data, including

all of the advanced analytic features of the Professional version. This version facilitates

collaboration in the analytic process, enabling research teams to work together, even over

a distance.

• The Computer Lab version of Transana is designed for use in computer labs, where

confidential data should not be stored on the computer being used for the analysis. It

includes the same feature set as the Professional version.

Transana's free Demonstration Version is probably sufficient to experiment with Case C (Coca

Cola Commercials) data set that is discussed in Using Software in Qualitative Research.

However, the Demonstration Version limits the amount of data you can explore at one time,

preventing you from loading all of the data files available in the case. The analysis described in

these web pages is therefore limited to just five of the media files to accommodate people who

do not have institutional access to one of the paid versions of Transana.

The demonstration version of Transana is available at

http://www.transana.org/download/demo.htm You can purchase any of the paid versions of

Transana through the Transana Web Site by starting at the Purchase page at

http://www.transana.org/download/purchase.htm .

Whatever version of Transana you choose, you can download Transana for either Windows or

OS X, depending on the operating system on your computer. Please make a note of the location

on your computer where you save this downloaded file.

1.3 Obtain the Case C (Coca Cola Commercials) data set

You can download the appropriate data for Case C, the Coca Cola Commercials, [here].

It's probably easiest if you create a separate data directory for the data files, in your “My Video”

on Windows or your “Movies” folder on OS X, or somewhere in your “Documents” folder. It is

generally advisable to store all of the source media and image files for a single project in a sub-

directory of its own (or a set of nested directories for larger projects) rather than putting media

files from several projects together in the same directory. Because research video files can take

up a lot of hard drive space, you may find it necessary in the future to move or delete data files

from old projects as you bump up against the limits of the size of your hard disk. Maintaining

separate directories also makes tasks like backing up the media files, moving data files to another

location (such as an external or network drive), or sharing project data with colleagues easier.

1.4 Transana’s Analytic Philosophy Regarding Media Files

For discussion on the use of visual data and the technological connections with

methodology see Silver and Lewins Chapter 4 pages 96-98

There is a debate to be had about retaining video materials alongside the transcriptions. Project

design decisions whether or not to use video or audio data may concern volume of data, depth

and type of analysis and epistemological or ethical issues. Audio can provide crucial information

about inflection, which can be critical to correctly interpreting the meaning of words that were

spoken. It can sometimes be difficult to tell the speaker’s true meaning from a transcript but

much easier to tell by listening to the original media data. Video can provide information about

body language and posture which provide subtle, but sometimes essential, information about a

participant’s meaning, intent, or emotional state. Depending on your research questions and

analytic focus, you may not require that type of information during your analysis, but it’s also

quite possible that there will be some passages where hearing what was said and how it was said

will allow you to avoid a misinterpretation of your data that reading a transcript alone would

produce. Retaining the media data reduces the chance of such a misinterpretation of the data.

Transana, as much as possible, maintains a connection to the original media data, making it

possible to see (for video) and hear (for audio and video) the original media data from many

points in the program with as few clicks as possible. Granted, it used to be that such analysis

was difficult and time-consuming, but tools such as Transana make it easier than it’s ever been to

retain the full richness of media data. We strongly advocate retaining the media files as part of

the analytic process whenever possible. In fact, this was one of the driving forces behind

Transana’s original development.

1.5 Test the Data Format

Transana supports Rich Text Format and plain text files for text-only data. If you have data in

other formats, you should be able to use your word processor to convert the files to Rich Text

Format. If you have pdf documents, you will also need to find a program to convert them to

Rich Text Format to bring them into Transana.

There are many, many ways to create video and audio files. Transana supports a wide range of

popular video and audio formats. Unfortunately, not all media formats are compatible with all

computers or with Transana. Therefore, Transana includes a Media Conversion Tool that is often

useful if you have media files that are not compatible with Transana or with your computer.

(The Media Conversion Tool is disabled in the Demonstration version of Transana due to media

format licensing concerns.)

The Coca Cola media files in Case C are in MP4 format using “h264” video encoding and “aac”

audio encoding. This is a common video format that should work on both Windows and OS X

computers using the QuickTime Media Player. What this means is that if you are using the Case

C media files, they should work for you without any further preparation or media conversion.

You can stop reading this section if you don’t want to know about the details of media file

construction and conversion.

If you are using your own data, you may wish to test one of your media files by following the

instructions for adding data to Transana in the next chapter. There is a good chance it will just

work with Transana. However, it is also possible you could run into problems playing your files

within Transana if they are not in a format that is compatible both with Transana and with your

computer. For example, WMV and WMA files do not play on Macintosh computers without

installing a helper program. MPEG-2 video files require the installation of a piece of software

called a "codec" on both Windows and OS X computers. Neither of these issues has anything to

do with Transana. Flash Video, in FLV files, is popular on the Internet, but is not compatible

with the media players Transana uses on either Windows or OS X. Some researchers find that

High Definition video with large screen images such as 1920 by 1080 pixels doesn’t work very

well for the purposes on analysis, as the video is too large and too demanding of their computer’s

resources. If your video doesn’t play in Transana, or it doesn’t play smoothly, video conversion

allows you to change the media format, lower the resolution, and reduce the video bitrate, which

often solves the problem.

There are a number of ways of handling media compatibility issues, requiring varying degrees of

knowledge, technical sophistication, and expertise. Transana's Media Conversion Tool is often a

good option to try first, as it tries to make the conversion process as easy as possible. It won't

work in every situation, but it does a pretty good job with many of the common problems that

can arise, and it’s very easy to use.

To start the Media Conversion Tool, go to Transana's Tools menu and select Media Conversion.

Use the Browse Button to select the media file you'd like to convert. If the Media Conversion

Tool is able to understand the file, as indicated in the Information section of the form, change

any settings you’d like from their defaults, then press the Convert button to start convert the file.

As a general rule, we recommend a video size with a width of 800 or less, and a video bitrate of

2,500 kbps or less. (When in doubt, though, try the default values!)

Media conversion can require some patience, whether it is being done using Transana’s Media

Conversion tool or another program. It is not, however, as insurmountable a problem as people

sometimes think it will be. If you have long media files, your conversions will take time, but so

will other analytic tasks such as transcription and analysis. Transana’s Media Conversion tool

can convert multiple media files at once on computers with multiple CPU cores with minimal

conversion time penalty, meaning you can often convert several media files in essentially the

same amount of time as the longest file alone would take to convert.

If you have a number of media files to convert, try to develop the habit of starting a conversion

every time you’ll be out of your office for a sufficient block of time (when you teach, eat, attend

departmental meetings, or go home for the day, for example.) Often, you will find that you can

convert files faster than you can analyze them. Another trick is to set your laptop to work on

converting media files whilst analyzing already-converted files on a desktop computer.

2.1 Install Transana

Locate the Transana installer you downloaded in section 1.2 of the last chapter. Double-click

this installer file to start Transana's installation process, and follow the screen prompts. (We

won’t detail the steps here, as they differ depending on your operating system, they are spelled

out in the installer process, and they are pretty standard.)

NOTE: If you are on Windows, please make sure the free QuickTime Player, available at

http://www.apple.com, is installed on your computer. Transana requires the QuickTime player,

and will not start up correctly if the QuickTime Player is not properly installed.

2.2 Create a Project Database and Start Transana

The first step for doing any analysis of media files with Transana is to create a project database.

When you start Transana, you will see Transana’s introductory splash screen, followed

immediately by the "Select Database" dialog box. (If you’re on Window and don’t see this, re-

read section 2.1 about installing the QuickTime Player.)

If you want to work in a project you’ve worked on before, you can select that project's database

name from the drop-down list of existing projects. If you want to start a new project, type a new

database name in the dialog box. (If you are using Transana’s Demonstration version, you must

use the database named “Demonstration.”) Please note that the database name must be a single

string of characters. You can use letters, numbers, and the dash and underscore characters, but

you should avoid most non-letter symbols. Spaces are not allowed in the database name. Press

OK.

You should now see Transana's Main Screen for a new project.

Transana’s main display is made up of five sections.

At the top of the screen is the Menu. Some operations in Transana are triggered by selecting

items from these menus. As a general rule, these are operations that affect the whole program,

although the Document menu provides some exceptions to that rule.

In the upper right corner is the Media Window. This is where video is displayed, and where

audio and video playback can be controlled directly.

The window in the lower left portion of the screen is the Document Window, where text

documents and media transcripts are created, edited, and displayed. Transcripts can be linked to

media files so that a highlight in the transcript moves forward as the media file plays, and so that

a selection can be made in the transcript and the corresponding portion of the media file played.

The upper left portion of the screen is the Visualization Window, where different types of

information such as a waveform of the video’s audio track and a graph of coding for text and

media file can be displayed in a visual format.

In the lower right corner of the screen is the Data Window, where the researcher adds project

data and initiates a variety of analytic acts, including manipulating the analytic data and

generating reports about the data.

2.3 Set the Video Root Directory

Media files tend to be very large, compared to text and analytic information. When working

with Transana, you are much more likely to run into storage space issues for holding your media

files than you are for storing the Transana database of analytic information. This is particularly

true if you are working on a large project with hundreds, or potentially thousands, of video files.

When working in Transana, your audio, video, and still image files, are not brought into the

project database. (Text, on the other hand, is imported into the database.) Given the size of the

files involved, that would be wasteful of disk space and would slow down such processes as

loading video files considerably. Instead, Transana stores the data file names and paths so that

Transana can use the original data files as needed.

During the life of a project, there may be a need to move the data files due to disk space

limitations. You may also want so share your data with colleagues who may want to use a

different location for the media files. To make this process easier, Transana can separate file

names into a common directory path, known as the Media Library Directory, and the rest of the

file name (including path directory information off of the Media Library Directory, the file name,

and the file extension). When data is relocated, all you need to do is update the Media Library

Directory, rather than having to update the file location for every Episode, Media Clip, or

Snapshot in the database.

Therefore, the next step in starting a new project in Transana is to tell the program where to look

for the project media files. On Windows, go to Options > Program Settings. On OS X, go to

Transana > Preferences. Use the first Browse button to set the Media Library Directory to the

location where you saved the project data files. You should leave the default values for the

Waveform Directory and the Database Directory unchanged. Press OK.

2.4 Transana’s Organizational Structure

Transana’s Data Window is where researchers add data to the program. It is helpful as you begin

your first project to understand a bit about how data is organized in the Data Window. Data is

presented hierarchically in a tree structure in the Database Tree in the Data Window. This tree

starts with four root nodes, Libraries, Collections, Keywords, and Search.

The first branch in the Data Window’s Database Tree is the Libraries node. This node is where

all raw text and media data is added, presented, and manipulated. The first level in this branch of

the tree is called a Library in Transana. A Library is nothing more than an organizational place

to store a group of related text and media files. Each separate text file you bring into your

analysis is known as a Document in Transana. Each separate media file (or set of simultaneous

media files) you bring into your analysis is known as an Episode in Transana. Each Episode can

have one or more transcripts associated with it. So in Transana, we bring in raw data into

Libraries as text Documents and as media Episodes with Transcripts.

The second branch in the Database Tree is the Collections node. This node is where all analytic

information is collected, organized, and manipulated. Collections are groups of related analytic

data objects. Analytic data includes Quotes, which are smaller segments of text selected from

Documents; Clips, which are smaller segments of media and transcripts taken from the larger

Episode and Transcript combinations; and Snapshots, which are still images from image files or

captured from video files. Quotes, Clips, and Snapshots can be coded. So for analytic data, we

have Collections which contain Quotes, Clips, and Snapshots. These Quotes, Clips, and

Snapshots can be coded.

The Keywords node is the third node in the Database Tree. Keywords are what Transana uses

for coding, and the Keywords node is where researchers set up and modify their coding schemes.

Thus, Quotes, Clips, and Snapshots are coded in Transana using Keywords.

The final node in the Database Tree is the Search node. This is where results from Keyword

searches are stored temporarily while researchers explores and manipulates them. If the

researcher decides to, either the search specification can be saved for later reuse or the results of

the search can be saved as a new Collection of coded Quotes, Clips, and Snapshots in the

Collections node.

Finally, researchers can create Notes and attach those Notes to Library, Document, Episode,

Transcript, Collection, Quote, Clip, and Snapshot objects. This allows researchers to keep notes

and analytic memos about different aspects of their analysis in a flexible way.

More information about Transana's organizational structure can be found in in Transana's built-in

Tutorial (available from Transana’s Help menu) or online in the Transana Screen Cast called

“Transana's Analytic Model.”

2.5 Bringing Data into Transana

Using Software for Qualitative Research Box 2.3, page 44 reflects on research questions

relevant to the Coca Cola Case study. These might have an impact on how data are stored

in Transana. See Chapter 5, pages 115-120 for discussion and suggestions concerning

aspects of the early organization of data in the software project. Remember that

organization often has an impact on data interrogation later.

When using Transana, the researcher organizes raw media data into Libraries of Episodes with

Transcripts. The act of bringing data into Transana starts in the Data Window in the lower right

portion of the screen. This process is described in detail in the Tutorial, and a video

demonstration of how to bring data into Transana can be seen in the "Adding your First Media

File to Transana" ScreenCast on the Transana Web Site.

We want to create a first Library, which we will call "Video Files," to contain the 15 video files

that make up majority of the Coca Cola data set. Had there been more media files, we could

have chosen to create a more complex Library structure, perhaps creating a Library record for

each decade of ads or creating different Library records for different types of ads, had the data

set included radio and print ads in addition to television ads.

Sometimes it takes a bit of thought, or even some trial and error, to discover an “optimal” way to

organize the data for a particular data set. If you are collecting a large amount of educational

data from multiple classes at multiple schools, for example, you could organize your data by

school, subject, teacher, class, curriculum, or date. Each of these organizational systems has

strengths and weaknesses. Fortunately, it's very easy to reorganize your data if you decide you

want to at a later time.

To create a Library in Transana, start by right-clicking the main Libraries node in Transana's

Database Tree. (If you are using OS X on a Mac with a single-button mouse, pressing Ctrl while

clicking the mouse button emulates a right-click.) When you do this, you will see a popup menu

with only one item, “Add Library.” Select that item.

When you select the Add Library menu item, you will see the Add Library dialog box. Give your

Library a name by entering a value in the Library ID field. This is the only information that is

required, so press OK.

You will now see the Library record in the database tree.

The next step is to create an Episode for the first media file we wish to examine. To create an

Episode in Transana, right-click your "Video Files" Library record and choose the "Add

Episode" option from the popup menu.

You will see the Add Episode dialog box. Press the "Add File" button on the right side of the

screen and select the video file called "1960s Coca Cola commercial.mp4". Notice that if you

have left the Episode ID blank, Transana automatically suggests the first media file name as the

Episode ID. You are welcome to change this if you'd like, but you won't need to if you've given

your media files meaningful names. Press OK.

In Transana, you can't open a media file without at least an empty transcript. (You can analyze

media with an empty transcript, but you have to at least have one.) A Transcript is a document,

any document, which is connected with a media file. As you will see, Transana uses the term

Transcript very broadly, for many different types of documents with varying levels of detail and

varying analytic functions. The main thing all Transana Transcripts have in common is that they

serve as a guide or map to the media file. As such, they serve an important role in the coding

process by providing a mechanism to segment the media files into smaller chunks. This will all

become clear later.

Because a Transcript is essential in Transana, the program automatically prompts you to create at

least one Transcript for each Episode. Therefore, you will see the Add Transcript dialog box. The

first transcript we will create will be a "verbatim" transcript of the words spoken in this media

file. Type the word "Verbatim" in the Transcript ID field. Type your name in the Transcriber

field.

If we had an existing transcript for this media file in Rich Text Format, Transana's XML

Transcript Format, or in plain text format, we could import that transcript at this time. Since we

don’t have such a transcript, leave the “RTF/XML/TXT File to import” field empty. Press OK.

If this is your first time loading this media file in Transana, Transana will prompt you about

creating a wave file. If you see the prompt displayed below, click Yes. (For the moment, let’s

not worry about what this means!)

Transana will then load your media file, the blank transcript you just created, and a waveform

representing the media file's audio track into its main interface.

Before we talk about transcription or dig into analyzing this file, let's import the rest of the media

files for the Coca Cola case.

2.6 Batch Episode Creation

If you have a small number of media files coming in slowly as you proceed with your qualitative

study and analysis, you can follow the procedures described above to add files to Transana one at

a time. But sometimes it's more convenient to add multiple media files to Transana in a single

action. That's what Batch Episode Creation is for. Let's use Batch Episode Creation to add the

rest of the media files in the Coca Cola data set to Transana.

The first step in this process is to right-click the Library that will contain the Episodes for the

media files we want to import, in this case the “Video Files” Library. Select “Batch Episode

Creation” from the popup menu.

The Batch Episode Creation dialog box will be displayed. At this point, we can either press the

"Select Files" button to select files individually or we can press the "Select Directory" button to

bring in all of the media files from a directory.

If you are using the full version of Transana, press the "Select Directory" option and choose the

entire Coca Cola directory. But we have already created an Episode for the first file in the list,

"1960s Coca Cola commercial.mp4". Since we don't want to import that file again, we'll select

that file in the list and choose "Remove Selected File(s)", and then we'll press OK.

If you are using the Demonstration version of Transana, you are not permitted to import as many

files as are included in this data set. In that case, press “Select Files” and choose these files from

the list of files:

1985 New Coke Coca-Cola Commercial

1994 Diet Coke-Diet Coke Break

1995 Hardware Store Coca-Cola Commercial

2013 Gardener - Diet Coke Advert - Director's Cut

Once you are done selecting files, press OK.

A quick look at Transana's Data Window shows that Transana creates an Episode for each media

file selected in the Batch Episode Creation interface, using the media file's name as the Episode

ID. Transana has also created a blank Transcript for each media file, again using the media file's

name. If we had a document in an appropriate format in the same directory as the media file and

with the same file name (but a different file extension) as the media file, Transana's Batch

Episode Creation utility would import that document as an initial transcript.

In the current analysis, the automatic transcript names may not be names we want to keep.

Fortunately, it's easy to change the Transcript IDs if we want to. Just right-click the Transcript

and choose "Transcript Properties", or click on the Transcript ID in the Data Window so that it

becomes editable.

2.7 Background Materials - Bringing text-only documents into Transana

Chapter 5 of Using Software in Qualitative Research, considers in general terms the value of

incorporating background material (pages 111-112). More particularly the inclusion of

literature references can be useful and some of the discussion starting on page 127 reflects

on simple ways in which bibliographic material can be imported. Chapter 2 Box 2.5,

refers to the back ground materials of the Coca Cola study (page 51)

If you look through the Coca Cola data files you downloaded, you will notice there are two text

documents that do not have accompanying media files, "History of Coca-Cola.rtf" and

"Mission.rtf". It would certainly be nice to be able to bring these background materials into our

analysis.

First, right-click the main Libraries node in the Data Window's database tree and choose "Add

Library", creating a Library called “Background Materials”.

Second, right-click the “Background Materials” Library and select "Add Document".

Browse to the "History of Coca-Cola.rtf" file for the File to Import, and note that Transana sets

the Document ID to match the text file’s name. Press OK.

Take a moment and create a Mission Statement Document for the "Mission.rtf" file from the data

set as well. You should now see Transana with the 1960s Coca Cola Commercial video loaded

in the Media Window along with its Verbatim Transcript on a hidden tab in the Document

Window. The History of Coca-Cola document and the Mission Statement are also loaded in tabs

in the Document window. The Mission Statement Document’s tab is selected, so that Document

is visible. Since no coding has been applied yet, the Visualization Window appears blank.

2.8 Initial Analytic Memos and Research Journal

Silver and Lewins cover a range of ways of building creative spaces for analysis including

the early creation of memos, see Chapter 5 (pages 119-125).

As you bring your initial data files into Transana, you may want to add your first analytic memos

as well. Right-click (Ctrl-click on the Mac) the “Video Files” Library and choose “Add Library

Note” from the popup menu. Give your note the Note ID “Video Files Library Note” and press

the OK button.

Once you’ve created your Note, you will be taken to Transana’s Note Editor. It’s good to

develop the habit of automatically time stamping your work on your notes, so press Ctrl-T or the

“Insert Date / Time” button on the Note Toolbar. This will automatically insert the date and time

of your note. You do not need to explicitly save what you have written. Transana will take care

of that automatically for you when you close the Note Editor.

If you wish to summarize each media file or keep separate analytic memos for each media file,

you can create Episode Notes by right-clicking each Episode and choosing “Add Episode Note”.

You can add Document notes to the items in your Background Materials Library as well. In

Transana, you can attach Notes to Library, Document, Episode, Transcript, Collection, Quote,

Clip, and Snapshot records, allowing you to select the scope that is most appropriate for any

given thought, idea, comment, or other analytic memo.

In theory, Notes in Transana are specific to the data item they are attached to. For a Library, you

might describe what the data files have in common, different from those in other Libraries. For

Documents and Episodes, you might describe where the data was gathered or make notes about

analytic points you want to follow up on as you get further into analysis. If you create multiple

Transcripts for a given Episode, you might use Notes to explain the analytic role each Transcript

plays within your larger analysis.

You can also create larger-scale analytic notes which Transana calls Research Journals.

Technically, Research Journals are just text Documents that you create within Transana to use as

a writing tool during analysis. Unlike Notes, Research Journals are not attached to specific data

items in Transana’s database, and conceptually, they can be used for analytic thinking and

writing that transcends individual data items.

To use Research Journals, start by creating a Library called “Research Journals.” Next, right-

click that Library and select “Add Document,” giving your Research Journal a name that reflects

its analytic function. Take this opportunity to create Research Journals for each research

question you have, if that is appropriate to the analytic approach you are taking with your data.

2.9 Backing up and Moving Transana Projects

Backing up a database in Transana is relatively simple. Simply choose Tools > Export Database

and enter a file path and name. Transana will create a Transana database export file, giving it a

TRA file extension. This file contains all of your analytic data, including all of your documents,

your transcripts, your coding system, your analytic markup for still images, and your analytic

memos. This database export file, and can be loaded into another database on this computer or

into Transana on another computer as long as the Transana version number is compatible.

It is important to note that, unlike your source text files, your source media files and still images

are NOT imported into the Transana database, and thus, the Transana Database Export file does

NOT contain your raw media files or images. To fully back up your data, you need to copy the

Transana database export file as well as all of the video, audio, and still image files you refer to

in your Transana database.

The reason for this is simple. Video files are HUGE. Audio files are pretty big too. Even still

image files can be reasonably large, especially compared to the relatively small about of data

required to store the text and formatting of even a long text document or transcripts. It would be

a tremendous waste of computer disk space to create multiple copies of the gigabytes and even

terabytes worth of media files a large analysis in Transana can encompass. Because of the size

of media data files, moving between computers is more laborious when analyzing video than

when analyzing text.

There are a couple of common methods that people use with Transana when they want to work

on their analysis on several computers.

One option is to store the Transana database and all media data on a portable hard drive, which

can be transported easily between computers. This option works well for the individual

researcher working alone. There is some risk of the portable drive being damaged, lost, or

stolen, so frequent data backup to another drive is encouraged in this situation. Please note,

however, that cloud storage tools like DropBox, Box, and Copy are NOT compatible with

Transana’s database files. While such tools may work perfectly well with media files,

attempting to share Transana’s database files between computers using such tools can lead to

database corruption and data loss.

Another popular option is to use Transana’s multi-user version. With this version, researchers

can connect to their data from multiple locations, and multiple researchers can work on the data

set simultaneously. Each researcher is able to see the changes that other researchers make to the

database in real time on their screens. This is an excellent tool for collaborative analysis of data,

and works even over a distance when research team members are distributed. See About the

Multi-user Version of Transana on the Transana Web Site for more information about this

option.

Transcription with Transana - A First Analytic Pass

by David K. Woods, Ph.D., Transana's Lead Developer

3.1 Transcription as an Analytic Act

See chapter 7, page 175 of Using Software in Qualitative Research for more discussion on

this, in the section entitled “Coding visual data ‘indirectly’ via synchronised transcripts”.

As argued in section 1.4, a transcript is usually not a good substitute for an original media file in

qualitative analysis. That being said, transcripts serve a central role in the analysis of media files

in Transana. Transcripts don’t replace the media files in Transana’s model of analysis, but they

enhance the process in a number of very interesting ways.

(It is possible to work with media files in Transana without first transcribing your media files.

This approach is more efficient in cases where you will only go through your data one time,

coding on the fly and moving on. You can learn more about this approach to working with data

by watching the Transana ScreenCast called “Creating Clips without Transcripts.”)

One of the vital roles a transcript serves in the qualitative analysis of media files with Transana is

that the transcript serves as a kind of map or index to the contents of the media file. It can be

challenging to find a particular instance or interaction of analytic significance by scanning

through media files; it is much easier to find the desired location scanning through a transcript.

Since transcripts and media files are linked in Transana, once you’ve found what you’re looking

for in the transcript, you can easily play the corresponding portion of the media file.

A second important role that the transcript serves in analysis with Transana is that transcription

can be an analytic act. There are many types of transcripts that can be useful in conjunction with

media data, including:

• Field notes

• A minimal index

• Partial, annotated, or abbreviated transcript

• Verbatim transcript

• Translation

• Descriptive, gestural, or other notation

• Image-based visual transcript

• A transcript from a particular viewpoint, one that represents a view of the data through a

particular analytic lens

• Conversation, Discourse, or Interaction Analysis

• Phonetic transcript

Each of these textual representations can serve a different function in the analysis of media files.

We will describe just a few of these options in this document.

Transcription is an excellent way to explore your media data and to familiarize yourself with it.

Non-verbatim transcription is also an excellent way to embed notes in your data when dealing

with media-based data.

3.2 Verbatim Transcription

The textual data you create through transcription may be reproduced later in published

reports. You will save time if you give consideration as early as possible to some guidelines

for basic transcription. Some of those included in Using Software for Qualitative Research,

Chapter 4, pages 89-90 are worth considering here. Other decisions about transcripts

including whether you may need more than one for each video are summarized at Table

4.4. (page 94).

The first step in understanding media data in Transana is to prepare a transcript. As mentioned

earlier, a transcript in Transana serves as a kind of map for the media file, and serves a crucial

role in the analytic process of selecting segments of the media file to code and analyze. While

there are many types of transcripts that can be useful in the analysis of video and audio files, let’s

start with the most commonly created form of transcript, verbatim transcripts.

Let's start by looking at the “1985 New Coke Coca-Cola Commercial.” This file contains more verbal content than many of the other commercials in this data set, making verbatim transcription

a reasonable way to begin analysis of this file.

Expand the “Video Files” Library node in the data tree to show all of the Coca Cola

commercials. Then expand the "1985 New Coke Coca-Cola Commercial" Episode to show the

Episode's transcript. Double-click the transcript to load this Episode - Transcript pair into

Transana's main interface. (NOTE: To load a media file in Transana, double-click a transcript

associated with an Episode. The reason for this is that each Episode can have multiple Transcript

records and Transana needs to know which of an Episode's Transcripts you want to see when

opening an Episode.)

Push the "Play" button in the Media Window and watch the commercial. The visuals are pretty

simple, just two cans, a can of Pepsi and a can of New Coke. The announcer talks and the

announcer’s words scroll in the upper part of the screen. As the ad progresses, the New Coke can

slides forward into a position of prominence and the Pepsi can fades away. These are nice

images, but the real impact of this ad comes from the words being spoken. Let's create a

transcript that captures those words.

Putting the spoken words into a transcript makes them more accessible for analysis. While it

may seem trivial for so short a video sample in so small a data set, imagine you had a set of a

dozen (or a hundred) interviews lasting 30 to 60 minutes. The more media data you have to

work with, the more crucial a role the transcript plays in being able to find a particular passage in

a particular media file.

Since you just played the commercial, the video position is set to the end of the media file, and

we need to start transcribing at the beginning of the file. Reposition the video, either using the

slider in the Media Window or by clicking at the extreme left edge of the waveform diagram in

the Visualization Window. Either way, the Current indicator in the Visualization Window

should indicate a position of 0:00.0.

There are differences in the way Transana should behave when we are transcribing compared to

when we are analyzing media data that has already been transcribed. While these differences can

seem subtle at first, they are important for the program behaving in ways that are intuitive and

logical. Therefore, Transana operates in two different modes, analytic mode and edit mode. By

default, Transana opens in analytic mode, as you will spend more time doing analysis than you

will transcribing.

The first step to editing a transcript in Transana is to put the Document Window into Edit mode.

Press the Edit button in the transcript toolbar, which looks like this: . Transana is now ready

for you to edit the transcript.

You can control media playback from within the Document Window. This makes transcription

more efficient, as you don't need to remove your hands from the keyboard, and you can keep the

program focus in the transcript window at all times. Press Ctrl-S on Windows or Cmd-S on OS X

to start playing the video file you have loaded. When the announcer has spoken the first few

words, press Ctrl/Cmd-S a second time to pause video playback. Now type what you heard into

the Document Window. Your screen should look about like this:

When you press Ctrl/Cmd-S again to re-start video playback, you will notice that Transana

rewinds by 2 seconds when it starts media playback using Ctrl/Cmd-S. This brief automatic

rewind is generally considered to be helpful by transcribers in maintaining the continuity and

accuracy of their transcription. Press Ctrl/Cmd-S to listen to small segments of the media file

and to pause playback so you can type what you hear. Do this repeatedly until you have

transcribed the 30-second media file. After adding some paragraph formatting, my transcript

looks like this:

(For more information on transcript formatting within Transana, see the Transcript Formatting

ScreenCast.)

Other key combinations that are useful during transcription include:

Ctrl/Cmd-A Rewind 10 seconds and play

Ctrl/Cmd-S Pause / rewind 2 seconds and play

Ctrl/Cmd-D Pause / Play with no rewind

Ctrl/Cmd-F Fast-Forward 10 seconds and play

A more thorough demonstration of transcription can be seen in the Transcription with Transana

ScreenCast on the Transana Web Site.

3.3 Time Codes

Table 7.4 in Using Software in Qualitative Research (page 177) summarizes Phase Two of

the analytic preparation for the Coca Cola case study, listing some of the actions and

thinking processes that will prepare you for a systematic approach to handling visual data

and transcripts.

In Transana, we can link the transcript to the media file, which can be very helpful. This is

accomplished by inserting Time Codes in the transcript. A Time Code is a marker in a transcript

that links a particular location in the transcript with a specific spot in the corresponding media

file. Time Codes can either be inserted into a transcript during transcription or after the transcript

has been written. We are taking the second option here so we can illustrate the process more

easily, and because this is such a short transcript.

Let's insert time codes between sentences in this video file. Make sure your transcript is in edit

mode, not analytic mode, before getting started.

The first step in placing a time code is to position the video in the correct spot. Use the slider in

the Video Window, or click on the extreme left edge of the Visualization Window to move the

video position back to the beginning of the file. Press Ctrl/Cmd-D (or Ctrl/Cmd-S) to start the

video playing, and press Ctrl/Cmd-D or CtrlCmd-S again just as the announcer finishes the first

sentence. If your pause position isn't quite correct, press Ctrl/Cmd-S to automatically back up 2

seconds and try again. Sometimes, it takes several attempts to pause the video at just the right

spot, although this will become easier with practice.

Once the media file is positioned accurately, click in the Transcript Window and move the

transcript cursor to the point in the transcript that corresponds to where you paused the media

file, the point between the first and second sentences.

With the media positioned and the transcript cursor placed in the matching spot, press Ctrl/Cmd-

T to insert a time code, linking the spot where the media is paused with the position in the

transcript where the cursor is placed. Following the punctuation in the scrolling text of the ad, the

first time code should be at about 10.3 seconds into the media file.

Now repeat this three step process for each of the remaining sentences in the ad. Pause the video

just after the announcer ends a sentence, place the transcript cursor in the corresponding position,

and press Ctrl/Cmd-T. I placed time codes at 10.3 seconds, 17.7 seconds, 24.4 seconds (between

where the announcer finishes and where the singers come in), 25.3 seconds, and 27.2 seconds.

Your time code placement might vary a little, but shouldn’t be too different than this if you did it

right.

A more thorough demonstration of inserting Time Codes in Transana can be found in the Time

Codes in Transana ScreenCast on the Transana Web Site. If you are having trouble with inserting

time codes, I strongly encourage you to watch this ScreenCast.

The full importance of time codes will become clear later, when we discuss creating analytic

clips. For now, just focus on being able to insert time codes accurately.

3.4 Analytic Mode

Press the Edit Mode button to take your transcript OUT of Edit mode and into Analytic

mode. Use the slider in the Media Window to move the media file back to the beginning, or click

on the extreme left side of the Visualization Window.

Once again, press the Play button in the Media Window. If you did your time codes correctly,

you should see a blue highlight in the transcript that moves along with the media file,

highlighting each sentence as it is said. If the highlight does not always move at the correct

place, you may need to delete and replace some incorrect time codes. (If your time code

placement isn't initially perfect, don't be too concerned. Time Code placement sometimes takes a

little practice.)

Once the video stops playing, click your cursor anywhere in the transcript. You may notice that

the video automatically moves to match the location where you click. If you now right-click in

the Transcript, the Transana should play the segment of the media file that falls between the time

codes on either side of your transcript cursor.

To summarize the differences between edit mode and analytic mode:

• In Edit mode, you can change the transcript. In Analytic mode, you can't.

• In Edit mode, you do not see any highlighting as the video plays. (This would alter your

cursor position, which you don’t want to do while editing a transcript.) In Analytic

mode, the highlight moves between time codes in the transcript as the video plays.

• In Edit mode, clicking in the transcript does not change the media position. In Analytic

mode, it does.

• In both Edit and Analytic modes, right-clicking the transcript will cause Transana to play

starting at the time code preceding the transcript cursor position, and continuing to the

time code following the transcript cursor position.

3.5 A Word About Editing Transcripts

In section 5.8 of Using Software in Qualitative Research, Silver and Lewins warn about not

changing the text of text files being analyzed, particularly when working as part of a team. In

general, when working with text files, there is rarely a reason to change the text.

The same is not true with transcripts when working with media files. As a general rule, revision

and refinement of transcript associated with media files is a common, desirable, and expected

analytic activity. Repeated exposure to media files often leads to hearing and understanding new

details and subtleties in the data which should be reflected in the transcript. In Transana, feel

free to enter Edit mode and improve the transcript any time you want to.

(Later in analysis, after you’ve started creating Clips, you may want to look into the issue of

transcript change propagation, as described in the Transana Manual, available in the program’s

Help menu.)

3.6 Episode Notes

This section includes work on the appropriate placing and storage of memos. Such setting

up processes are discussed in Using Software in Qualitative Research Chapter 5, pages 121-

126 and covered in further depth, Chapter 10, pages 229 to 254.

Now that all of the data from the Case 3 Coca Cola Data Set is in Transana and we've learned to

do simple transcription and time coding, let's return to the 1960s Coca Cola commercial file we

started with.

If needed, expand the Video Files Library node in the data tree to show the 1960s Coca Cola

commercial Episode. Then expand the "1960s Coca Cola Commercial" Episode to show the

Verbatim transcript. Double-click the transcript to load the Episode - Transcript pair into

Transana's main interface.

Push the "Play" button in the video window in the upper right hand corner of the screen and

watch the this commercial. Listen to the jazzy music. Watch the young athletes engaging in a

variety of sports. Let the quick images of cool, refreshing Coca Cola wash over you.

Perhaps you have some initial impressions you would like to record in an analytic memo about

this media file before you begin transcribing it. Such thoughts might belong in the analytic

memos you have already created as part of this project (see section 2.8), but you might also want

to record some thoughts specifically about this media file. In that case, creating an Episode

Note, an analytic memo specifically linked to the media file, would be appropriate.

To create an Episode Note, right-click the "1960s Coca Cola Commercial" Episode and choose

"Add Episode Note" to create a note attached to this Episode object.

You will now see the Add Note dialog box. Give the note a name that will allow you to recall

what the note is about when you have created many such notes and press the OK button.

It's a good practice to get into to always time-stamp your notes. Press Ctrl-T in the note so

Transana will insert a date and time stamp (and will identify the note taker if you are using the

multi-user version of Transana.) Then record your initial impressions and other preliminary

analytic thoughts about this first video file.

When you are done, go ahead and close the Note.

3.7 Not all Transcripts are Created Equal

Think for a minute about how you might want to analyze a media file like this. The audio track is

mostly music, with words only in the last 10 seconds or so of the 60 second commercial. It’s

clear that creating a verbatim transcript isn’t going to be central to the analysis of this file.

Take a minute to create a quick verbatim transcript of the audio track for this commercial.

Include time codes at 52.5 seconds, where the announcer starts talking, and at 54.0 seconds,

between the announcer's two sentences.

After completing the transcript, I decided that my initial transcript name of "Verbatim" doesn't

really reflect the function of this transcript well. Therefore, I renamed the transcript "Audio" to

reflect that it can cover music as well as the spoken words. This can be done by right-clicking

the transcript and changing its name under Transcript Properties.

It is not a very exciting transcript, and it certainly does not allow access to so much that is

interesting about this commercial. No, what is interesting about this commercial, at least initially,

are the sports images, the product images, and their juxtaposition. That is not really reflected in

the commercial's spoken audio track. So let's create another transcript for this Episode, called

“Visual,” which we can use to explore the visual layer of the ad. To do this, right-click the

"1960s Coca Cola commercial" Episode and choose Add Transcript. Enter "Visual" as the

Transcript ID and press OK.

There are several ways we can approach the creation of the visual transcript. One option is to

type a text-based description of each visual portion of the ad.

Another option Transana offers is to create an image-based visual transcript. As they say, a

picture is worth a thousand words.

There are two special considerations in the creation of this transcript. First, we want to find a

good image that represents each segment of the video well. This requires being able to move

through the video file in very small increments. And second, we know that some of the

segments are extremely short, such that they have an almost subliminal effect. This means we

want to have extremely precise time codes and will need to be more accurate that is usually

necessary in inserting our time codes.

Once the Episode and Visual Transcript are loaded into Transana's main interface, press the Edit

Mode button to go into Edit mode for the Visual transcript.

In Transana, the Visualization Window allows very precise movement through the video file,

and for this particular transcript, we will move through the video literally frame by frame for

selecting our images and placing our time codes.

Click in the Visualization Window. Make sure the video is positioned at the beginning, so that

the Visualization Window's "Current" time indicator is at 0:00.0. If you are on Windows, hold

down the Ctrl key. If you are on OS X, hold down the Cmd keys. When you have the

Visualization Window selected and the correct modifier keys pressed, the Cursor Left and Cursor

Right keys allow you to move exactly one frame within a video file in Transana.

Move exactly 8 frames to the right from the beginning of the video file by holding down the

modifier keys and pressing Cursor Right 8 times. (The Current Time indicator will read 0:00.3

seconds. If the video doesn’t move, you probably don’t have the Visualization Window

selected.) You will see that the ad is fading from black into the first scene of the ad in this

frame. Press Ctrl-T to insert our first time code. (We are being frame-precise with all of our

timings in this transcript. We don't want our first segment to be "padded" with the black frames

at the beginning of the file.) Click back on the Visualization Window. (Inserting the time code

switched the program focus to the Document Window in anticipation of our typing something

following the insertion of the time code.)

Now, holding the Ctrl or Cmd key down, use cursor right and cursor left to find a frame of the

golfer that you think represents this shot in the ad well. When you've selected the image you

want, use the mouse to press the "Snapshot" button in the lower-right corner of the

Media Window. Press OK on the Media Conversion Tool screen so Transana can complete the

screen capture procedure and insert the first screen capture image into the transcript.

In the Document Window, move the cursor to the right of the captured image, then press Enter to

add a carriage return following the image.

Now click in the Visualization Window and use Ctrl or Cmd - Cursor Right to find the transition

between the opening golf scene and the baseball scene that follows. This transition occurs at

0:02.1 seconds into the media file. Press Ctrl or Cmd - T to add a Time Code at the first frame

that shows the baseball player.

Click back in the Visualization Window and move to the right until you find a good image for

the baseball player scene. Insert that image into the transcript by again capturing the frame from

the video as you did above. Then find the next transition, between baseball and auto racing, and

insert a time code. Continue this pattern of adding images and time-coding transition frames for

the rest of the video. I ended up with 81 time-code and image pairs in my image-based visual

transcript, although you may make slightly different analytic decisions than I did and may end up

with a slightly different number.

This process may seem rather tedious as you work your way through the 60 second ad. However,

careful work up front during transcript preparation will pay off later when we move on to

analyze this video. See the coding exercises in the Chapter 7 sections that follow.

3.8 Summary

There are, of course, many, many ways to create transcripts. This document has only tried to

describe the creation of two types, the verbatim transcript and the image-oriented visual

transcript. But most other types of transcripts can be created using the basic techniques discussed

here.

If you take field notes during recording, you should bring your field notes into Transana as a

transcript. Some researchers create brief "gisted" transcripts that provide enough descriptive

information that the transcript can serve the role of allowing researchers to find the segments

they are interested in within a video while taking less time to create than verbatim transcripts.

Some researchers use transcripts to embody understanding of a media file from a particular

viewpoint or using a particular analytic lens, such as looking at video from the differing

viewpoints of director, cinematographer, and editor in cinematic analysis. (See Halverson, Erica;

Bass, Michelle & Woods, David (2012). The Process of Creation: A Novel Methodology for

Analysing Multimodal Data. The Qualitative Report, 17, 22.) In Transana, the transcript is a very

flexible document that enables researchers to embody a view of their data through one or more

particular analytic lenses, thus gaining further insight into their media files. Transcription is a

very valuable tool in the process of analyzing media data.

The next steps might involve coding or creating clips see the coding exercises in the Chapter 7

sections that follow.