At a glance
- Listen while reviewing speaker labels, names, and unclear passages.
- Use timestamps to check a quote against the original recording.
- Export the format your next tool needs: SRT, VTT, or JSON.
Give the recording a little context.
An interview starts becoming useful before you transcribe it. Give the file a recognizable name, note who is speaking, and keep the purpose of the conversation close by. Small details save a surprising amount of searching later.
Choose the spoken language if you know it. Speaker labels are detected automatically; review them against the recording when following the exchange matters. Those choices give your review a clearer starting point.
Review with your ears as well as your eyes.
A transcript is a draft of a recording. Proper names, specialist vocabulary, laughter, and interruptions deserve a second listen. Use the timestamps to return to those moments instead of fixing them from memory: while the original recording is kept (1 day after upload), a timestamp plays it from that point; after that, timestamps are only text.
Speaker labels are navigation aids. Check that each label matches the person you hear, especially when people interrupt one another or speak from different distances.
Readable text is useful. Text you can trace back to its source is more useful.
Keep the transcript and the edit separate.
First, make the transcript faithful enough for its purpose. Then create a separate working draft for the story, summary, or article. That preserves a reference when your edited version starts to move away from the order of the conversation.
When quoting someone, check the surrounding passage as well as the sentence you want. The words before and after it often carry the meaning.
Export for the next step.
Use Copy text when the next step is writing. Export SRT or VTT when the next step is subtitles for video, and JSON when another tool reads the transcript. Keep the original recording alongside either version so a reviewer can get back to the source.
Download your result before it expires. A simple project folder with the source, the reviewed transcript, and the working draft is often enough to keep the process understandable.