Hotkey Editing as a Power User, Skip in Chunks?

[vtatila]

Hi,

I'm a sight-impaired computer enthusiast and hobby musician from Finland. As I do transcription work here in the Uni, as well, Express Scribe has proven to be a great program all in all. I can keep the focus in my text editor and have my screen reader read that, yet controlling the playback is quite possible, too.

 

I've run into one problem with Express Scribe, the latest version, however. This work machine is in a domain and I'm using a power user profile to run it in an English XP Pro machine with latest fixes applied. THings work fine in general but I am unable to add or customize any hotkeys in the preferences, although the existing keys do work. A custom key layout would make recalling things easier and I could also opt not to use any f-keys used by my screen reader or text editor. I believe my screen reader also uses system wide Win32 keyboared hooks as does Express Scribe, I suppose, so I wonder if the two conflict. I'm having no issues on my home machine, though, in which I'm the admin -> security be damned, <smile>.

 

When I try to pick a command in the list box I notice that the whole box is empty. Can anyone replicate this? Do I really must run with admin rights or might this be a permission issue?

 

My second question concerns navigating in an audio file. PErsonally I don't like pitch shifting while rewinding much at all. I don't use time stretching either in transcribing although I do use very high speeds when listening to audio books or my speech synth.

 

To make it easier to jump back and forth in the file, I would llike the ability to skip the specified number of milliseconds in the file without playing any intermediate audio at all. To sound smooth, though, snapping to a zero crossing would be nice. Is this doable by adjusting the rewind settings? I still don't fully grasp them for some reason. Another nice option might be what's called scrubbing in progs like Sound Forge or Sonar. Basically fast playback with no acceleration or deceleration. Again, can this be emulated in Express Scribe? Yet another mode I've seen in another transcription package would be playing m ms of audio and rewinding back n ms where m > n. I think the feature might be called cpontinuous transcription or something along those lines.

 

Any help greatly appreciated.

 

--

With kind regards Veli-Pekka Tätilä

spam://www.student.oulu.fi/~vtatila

[krnotley]

Hi,

I'm a sight-impaired computer enthusiast and hobby musician from Finland. As I do transcription work here in the Uni, as well, Express Scribe has proven to be a great program all in all. I can keep the focus in my text editor and have my screen reader read that, yet controlling the playback is quite possible, too.

 

I've run into one problem with Express Scribe, the latest version, however. This work machine is in a domain and I'm using a power user profile to run it in an English XP Pro machine with latest fixes applied. THings work fine in general but I am unable to add or customize any hotkeys in the preferences, although the existing keys do work. A custom key layout would make recalling things easier and I could also opt not to use any f-keys used by my screen reader or text editor. I believe my screen reader also uses system wide Win32 keyboared hooks as does Express Scribe, I suppose, so I wonder if the two conflict. I'm having no issues on my home machine, though, in which I'm the admin -> security be damned, <smile>.

 

When I try to pick a command in the list box I notice that the whole box is empty. Can anyone replicate this? Do I really must run with admin rights or might this be a permission issue?

 

My second question concerns navigating in an audio file. PErsonally I don't like pitch shifting while rewinding much at all. I don't use time stretching either in transcribing although I do use very high speeds when listening to audio books or my speech synth.

 

To make it easier to jump back and forth in the file, I would llike the ability to skip the specified number of milliseconds in the file without playing any intermediate audio at all. To sound smooth, though, snapping to a zero crossing would be nice. Is this doable by adjusting the rewind settings? I still don't fully grasp them for some reason. Another nice option might be what's called scrubbing in progs like Sound Forge or Sonar. Basically fast playback with no acceleration or deceleration. Again, can this be emulated in Express Scribe? Yet another mode I've seen in another transcription package would be playing m ms of audio and rewinding back n ms where m > n. I think the feature might be called cpontinuous transcription or something along those lines.

 

Any help greatly appreciated.

 

--

With kind regards Veli-Pekka Tätilä

spam://www.student.oulu.fi/~vtatila

 

If I understand your question about skipping ahead without using fast forward, you can use the Hot Key Setup for that. Or, what I did was to reassign the rw/ff keys (F7 and F8) to "backstep 5s" and "step forward 5s" respectively, since I've been using the program so long, that's where my fingers go. I actually have several transcriber assistants, and have reassigned all their hot keys to cohere with ExpressScribe as much as possible.

 

Go into Control or go to Control from Settings. If you want to add your favorite key, choose that; if you want to change F7 and F8, choose "change." You should get a drop down menu, which allows you to select backstep 5s and step forward 5s, one for each hot key. It also turns out, if while playing the audio, you can hold down the backstep/forward step, it will continue to move backward or forward at high speed until you release the key, at which point it will stop. Not a true RW/FF, but sufficient.

 

I hope that answers your questions.

[vtatila]

If I understand your question about skipping ahead without using fast forward, you can use the Hot Key Setup for that. Or, what I did was to reassign the rw/ff keys (F7 and F8) to "backstep 5s" and "step forward 5s" respectively <snip>

 

Yeah, that sounds like what I'm looking for, thanks for the tip. But actually as you can read above this solution is not yet implementable in practice, as I cannot currently change the hotkeys at all. COuld some kind XP user make a temporary limited user acount and check if hotkey editing works there. I'm running as a power user which is almost like the Admin here yet the hotkey assignments fail spectacularly, see below.

 

[on changing hotkeys]

if you want to change F7 and F8, choose "change." You should get a drop down menu, which allows you to select backstep 5s and step forward 5s <snip>

This is the bit that does not work for me. I see the multi-column listview of actions and keys all right and can delete stuff from it. In adding or changing keys, this menu below the Change Key button you mentioned for actually picking out the actiont which is called a listbox in Windows speak, is totaly empty with no items in it. This is true even if I choose change for an existing action, even in that case the name of the action is not in the list box in the select command child dialog, oh well.

 

This is Express Scribe 4.11 XP SP2 Pro English in a corporate environment.

 

Umm if this is a GUI-issue, any chance of editing the settings file or registry key manually to make these changes? Is it human readable and or ini-like? where is it stored? I'm going to chek local settings and application data first, followed by the app's own folder and local user in registy as the last resort. I hope I don't have to go the reg edit path, I've always prefered ini-files for settings exchange and manual editing.

[vtatila]

Update:

 

Apparently the settings are in:

 

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\NCH Swift Sound\Scribe\settings.ini

 

In a format like:

[keys]

key0=113

command0=9

keycount=9

key9=9

key1=114

command1=10

key2=115

command2=3

key3=116

command3=0

key4=117

...

 

You cannot use ASCIi values for f keys so its not that. Neither do the values match scan codes. I did some creative Googling:

 

windows keys f12 121

 

And found out that they are values from some C enumeration. HEre are the docs:

 

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/s...eys(VS.71).aspx

 

It says:

 

The F1 key. 112

The F10 key. 121

 

So f1 is 112 and you then add the number of the function key minus 1 to that.

That only leaves the command values to be decrypted. One could assume they are in the order listed in the multi-column list view or 0-based indeces in the list box of commands which is empty for me. Still, as commands like 5 sec forward are not in the list view, I cannot check their indeces in the list box which is empty. Well I got half the way there on my own.

 

Maybe someone at Swift Sound could comment a little. I would like to beind the keys as follows:

f2 stop

f4 play

f5 5 sec back

f6 5 sec forwar

f9 copy time stamp

I don't need the fast, slow etc... playback nor the pitch shifting rewind and fast forward.

So I would rather not bind them at all to make hitting them by accident not possible.

I don't use f3, either as it is find next in my text editor.

 

Umm I could probably install the app on my home machine as an admin, make the settings and copy the ini file over. I might do that, if all else fails.

[krnotley]

Yeah, that sounds like what I'm looking for, thanks for the tip. But actually as you can read above this solution is not yet implementable in practice, as I cannot currently change the hotkeys at all. COuld some kind XP user make a temporary limited user acount and check if hotkey editing works there. I'm running as a power user which is almost like the Admin here yet the hotkey assignments fail spectacularly, see below.

 

 

This is the bit that does not work for me. I see the multi-column listview of actions and keys all right and can delete stuff from it. In adding or changing keys, this menu below the Change Key button you mentioned for actually picking out the actiont which is called a listbox in Windows speak, is totaly empty with no items in it. This is true even if I choose change for an existing action, even in that case the name of the action is not in the list box in the select command child dialog, oh well.

 

This is Express Scribe 4.11 XP SP2 Pro English in a corporate environment.

 

Umm if this is a GUI-issue, any chance of editing the settings file or registry key manually to make these changes? Is it human readable and or ini-like? where is it stored? I'm going to chek local settings and application data first, followed by the app's own folder and local user in registy as the last resort. I hope I don't have to go the reg edit path, I've always prefered ini-files for settings exchange and manual editing.

 

From your oringal message, I suspected there might be another issue, that was preventing you from changing the Hot Keys. It may also be an issue with the Scribe version itself... There were earlier posts about v4.11 complaining of exactly that problem, I either didn't have or wasn't aware of. I assumed you were talking about 4.12 which changed the assignments on F7 and F8 from backstep/fwd step, to RW/FF respectively. In addition to the assignment change, in v4.12, it causes a minimized ExpressScribe to maximize. My solution was to reassign F7 and F8 to backstep/fwd step, in the manner I described.

 

If you decide to download v4.12, you might want to save 4.11 just in case you like that better, and need to switch back. There have been quite a few new versions since February, in part to become Vista friendly.

 

Let me know how it goes! KRN

[vtatila]

Hi krn,

Just a quick rep:

 

Thanks for letting me know that the new version of Express Scribe 4.12 exists. IT solved the hotkey issue instantly now the list box of actions in the hotkey child dialog is populated as expected. oddly when I told v4.11 to check for updates, it claimed there were none, I think.

 

Another odd query:

As I'm a heavy keyboard user in Windows I've minimized the repeat delay and maximized the rate. I think Express Scribe could filter out key presses caused by this mechanism as far as its hotkeys go -> I think the repeated kbd messages have some bit set. Now, if you hold play for a long time, for example, you get a curious studdering effect because the playback is restarted all the time, I think. It sounds to me like a small loop in Sound FOrge whould or some of the results you get via resynthesis in NI Reaktor, audio geekily put. But hey this is only a cosmetic issue. just something that came to mind.

 

Another thing I had a hard time figuring out is how to import ordinary audio files in the app. the method is rather, errm, unusual and you may even delete source data if you are not careful. For less established or casual transcription, perhaps a mode that uses the common Win32 open and save as dialogs and a single file with no flagging it as done or not done could be implemented. Just a thought.

[krnotley]

Hi krn,

Just a quick rep:

 

Thanks for letting me know that the new version of Express Scribe 4.12 exists. IT solved the hotkey issue instantly now the list box of actions in the hotkey child dialog is populated as expected. oddly when I told v4.11 to check for updates, it claimed there were none, I think.

 

Another odd query:

As I'm a heavy keyboard user in Windows I've minimized the repeat delay and maximized the rate. I think Express Scribe could filter out key presses caused by this mechanism as far as its hotkeys go -> I think the repeated kbd messages have some bit set. Now, if you hold play for a long time, for example, you get a curious studdering effect because the playback is restarted all the time, I think. It sounds to me like a small loop in Sound FOrge whould or some of the results you get via resynthesis in NI Reaktor, audio geekily put. But hey this is only a cosmetic issue. just something that came to mind.

 

Another thing I had a hard time figuring out is how to import ordinary audio files in the app. the method is rather, errm, unusual and you may even delete source data if you are not careful. For less established or casual transcription, perhaps a mode that uses the common Win32 open and save as dialogs and a single file with no flagging it as done or not done could be implemented. Just a thought.

 

I'm glad the new version worked better. Your second question is waaaay too technical for me. I'm a transcriber--really a high-tech typist--with a little side-line in the techie area, but very low grade.

 

As for your last question, ES is designed to work with its dictation software, and much of it's workings are designed for high volume, fast turnaround transcription companies whose clients may use ExpressDictate, dispatch it by ftp to a server, which flags the transcription company, which then assigns it to a transcriptionist. These clients are often in the medical or legal field, or marketing consultancies, and they also have confidentiality issues. It's still plenty useful academic or journalistic users like you and me, but you have to take these other features into account, or you can get scrambled.

 

That said, I recommend downloading your original files and saving them to a folder. Then, you use "Load Dictation Files" to load from the folder into ES. When it loads, ES will convert a copy of your file into dictation file (dct) with a wav extension, and save it in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\NCH Swift Sound\Scribe\Current. So, what ES uses is an uncompressed version of your original, which can take up quite a bit of space on your HDD. You can completely delete it from ES--from the C:\...\Scribe\Current folder--by using ctrl delete within ES, which I do as soon as I'm satisfied I no longer need it. Since I have my original safely in its relevant folder, I can retrieve it and reload if necessary. --KRN