Transcriptionsoftware f4

The F4 key controls the program's most important functions: starting, pausing and briefly rewinding the recording. This will also work when you use other programs while f4 is opened (this allows you to transcribe in a word processor or other applications). The F3 and F5 keys rewind and fast forward the recording. While rewinding or fast forwarding, you can still hear the recording, so you'll always know where you are! Controlling F4 is even easier with one of our USB foot pedals (foot pedals science, science II, office and Infinity IN-USB; the "f4pro" version also supports Olympus RS-28 and some Philips and Grundig foot pedals). When using a foot pedal to control replay, your fingers can concentrate on typing – this accelerates transcription speed by up to 30%!

You can modify replay speed via a continuously adjustable slide controller – without changing the sound pitch! When transcribing, slowing down the replay speed; speeding up the replay speed can come in handy when proof-reading a transcript. Replay speed can be adjusted while transcribing, simply by pushing the ALT key + left/right arrows.
Upon pausing the recording, it automatically rewinds for a short interval. This feature is essential for a steady transcription workflow: When you resume replay, you will hear the last few words of the recording. The interval can be adjusted via a slidable controller; the default rewind interval is 2 seconds.

The waveform visualizes the current recording section in detail. If the recording exceeds 5 minutes, or if the program window is too small, a second waveform is added below, displaying the whole file. The present position is indicated by a vertical line and displays the recording's present time.  Elapsed recording time is displayed in orange. You can click on the waveform at any time to jump to the respective part of the transcript. The waveform can be displayed either above or below the transcript text, or in the options menu on the left. Simply drag the wave form (hold left mouse button) where you want it!

Nearly the whole program window is dedicated to displaying your transcript. As usual in f4, time stamps can be inserted automatically into your transcript as you transcribe, and the program is of course still easily controlled via the F4 key or foot pedals. While transcribing, f4's numerous options are neatly tucked into the options menu on the side. The new optional full screen mode allows you to fully concentrate on working on your transcription.
The text is displayed enlarged in order to enhance readability. However, the transcript is of course saved in font size 12pt (or in the font size you have set). You can zoom in/out via CTRL + plus or minus key or via holding down the CTRL key while using the mouse wheel. Highlight a passage with the mouse, then right click, and a text formatting menu will pop up. Of course you can also work with two computer screens, e.g. displaying video on one screen while displaying the transcript window on the other screen.

Time stamps are an important means of orientation in a trancript. With one click on the link, you directly jump to the corresponding passage of the recording. Time stamps are automatically inserted at the end of each paragraph, and they can be inserted manually via the F8 key. f4's time stamps also work as clickable links in qualitative data analysis software such as MAXQDA10 and Atlas.ti. There, clicking on a time stamp triggers replay of the corresponding section of the recording file. Upon saving the transcript in f4, you can choose whether it will be saved with or without time stamps. In "f4pro" you can specify an offset value, resulting time stamps to start at a value other than zero. This can come in handy for movie transcripts or split files.

At first launching f4, the options menu is not displayed – in order to make more room for the transcription text. Clicking on the tab on the left side of the program window will open the options menu. Here, you can modify and access all  program features: Replay options, backup settings, time stamp settings, offset settings, text elements, turn-taking tokens, keyboard shortcuts, language settings and search & replace functions. The options can be re-arranged via drag & drop (by moving an option's header). You can move frequently used options (e.g. the text elements) to the top of the program window. When you close the options tab on the side, those options will still be accessible. 

Alternating turn-taking
With this function, tokens for each speaker are automatically inserted, according to alternating turn-taking in the recording. If you need to insert a paragraph without a speaker token, simply hold the ALT key while hitting ENTER.

Text elements
You can create your own text elements. They are inserted via customizable keyboard shortcuts. We have already preset some text elements which are based on common transcription notations (Bohnsack; Kuckartz/Dresing; GAT; conversation analysis/Schegloff/Jefferson)

Search & replace
The shortcut CTRL+F activates and deactivates the search function. You can search for keywords and replace them automatically (this helps when anonymizing data). Also, search results can be highlighted automatically in the transcript text. Transcripts can be printed including those colored highlights.

f4 makes sure that your data is saved – when typing in f4, the program regularly creates backups of your work. So even if something goes wrong, your work is not completely (or largely) lost. You can customize the backup interval and the backup file location in the options menu. The default backup interval is 10 minutes, and the data will be saved in a specific folder. Regularly delete obsolete backups in the backup folder to save space on your hard drive. If you do not have access to this folder (due to missing administration rights), please do change the backup file location prior to working in f4.

f4plus is geared towards non-commercial use (e.g. students, universities). f4plus has no replay limitations in terms of recording length. The program can recognize and convert time stamps from other programs (e.g. Transana). In f4plus, you can also customize the time stamp format. Users of f4plus can contact our customer support via e-mail: support(at)audiotranskription.de

f4 is geared towards commercial use and includes all additional functions of f4plus. Furthermore, f4pro supports more foot pedals, such as the Olympus RS-28, Philips LFH 2310 and Grundig 540 USB. f4pro replays DSS files (if the DSS player standard or pro is installed - which needs to be purchased seperately). With f4pro's offset function, the starting time of time stamps can be adjusted (e.g. time stamps will not start at '0', but at 5 minutes 13 seconds). All users of f4pro can contact our customer support via e-mail support(at)audiotranskription.de