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.