InqScribe Tips: Format Transcripts as Tables

We often get inquiries from our users about how to format text as tables in InqScribe. Because InqScribe’s transcript window is “plain text,” it does not support tables. However, we can suggest these methods for converting InqScribe transcripts into table format.

Many of our users use the Tab key to delineate columns and the Return key to delineate rows. You can export your transcript as “Tab-delimited text” from within InqScribe and then open in a program that supports tables, such as Word or Excel.

Word

1. Export the transcript as Tab-delimited Text…

File > Export > Tab Delimited Text...

Click export

2. Open the exported text file. Select the text, and then copy and paste into a blank Word document.

Open the text file

Copy the text

Paste into Word

3. Choose Table>Convert>Convert text to table to convert the text to a table.

Table > Convert > Convert to Table

Click OK

Text formatted as a table

To further format your table (e.g., change the color of the cells or borders) choose Format>Borders and Shading…

You can also export your transcript as HTML, which creates an HTML-based table format. You can open the HTML file directly in Word and repeat the steps above to create a table with borders.

Excel

1. Open the exported text file. Select the text, and then copy and paste into a blank spreadsheet.

Copy the text

Paste into a blank spreadsheet

Text in Excel

Your tips and ideas

Do you have another way of formatting transcripts created in InqScribe? Need additional features? Let us know via our customer feedback pages.

TIP: How Can I Convert My “[00:01:23.29]” Timecodes to “00:01:23.29” (Remove Brackets)?

I have an existing InqScribe transcript that uses bracketed timecodes: [00:01:23.29]

I want to use unbracketed timecodes: 00:01:23.29

—

Here’s how you can do the conversion:

1. Open the existing transcript in InqScribe.

2. Select “Transcript->Transcript Settings…” from the menu bar.

3. Under the “Inserted Timecode Format:” select “00:01:23.29” from the popup menu.

4. Check the “Recognize Unbracketed Timecodes” checkbox.

5. Click “OK” to close the window.

6. Select “Transcript->Adjust Timecodes…” from the menu bar.

7. Leave the “Adjustment:” field blank, and click “Adjust.”  This will reformat all of your timecodes to the unbracketed format.

—

To change ALL of your future transcripts to use the unbracketed timecodes…

…On a Mac:

1. Select “InqScribe->Preferences…” from the menu bar.

2. Click on the “New Document” tab at the top of the “InqScribe Preferences” window.

3. Under the “Inserted Timecode Format:” select “00:01:23.29” from the popup menu.

4. Check the “Recognize Unbracketed Timecodes” checkbox.

…On Windows:

1. Select “Edit->Options…” from the menu bar.

2. Click on the “New Document” tab at the top of the “InqScribe Preferences” window.

3. Under the “Inserted Timecode Format:” select “00:01:23.29” from the popup menu.

4. Check the “Recognize Unbracketed Timecodes” checkbox.

By the way, there are a number of other formats that you can use as well.

TIP: How to Bold Timecodes in Microsoft Word

InqScribe currently does not support bold text.  However, you can use Microsoft Word’s “Find and Replace” feature to bold text.  Here’s how you can do that:

1. Export your transcript to Microsoft Word.  (You can just cut and paste.)

2. Select “Edit->Replace…”.

3. Click on the triangle next to the “Replace All” button to reveal the advanced options.

4. Check the “Use wildcards” option.

5. Under “Find what:” enter this:

[^#^#:^#^#:^#^#.^#^#]

NOTE this assumes that you’re using the default timecode format.  If you’re using another timecode format, just format the colons and periods accordingly.  Each “^#” matches a digit.  For example, if your timecode looks like “<00:00:00.00>” use “<^#^#:^#^#:^#^#.^#^#>”.

6. Click in the “Replace with:” field.

7. From the popup menu at the bottom of the window called “Format” select “Font…” and then click on “Bold”, then click “OK”.  The “Replace with:” field should say “Format: Font:Bold” underneath it.

8. Click on “Find Next” to make sure it works — does Word find the first timecode?  If so, then try clicking “Replace” to see if it bolds it.  If it does, then you can use “Replace All” to bold all of the timecodes.