JacobBoerema.nl: Transcript feature overview

Program Interface

The program remembers whether it was maximized or not, the relative size and position of the windows. The next time you start the program these settings are restored. The size of the image and editor windows can be changed by moving the separator in the desired direction with the mouse.
You can work in Transcript on a per project basis. A project contains all settings of importance like edit and image file and the current working positions in those files etc. You can switch between projects by choosing another project from the list besides the menu. Extremely useful for everyone who works occasionally or often on different transcriptions at the same time. It is also possible to start Transcript with a specific project using the commandline option -p<projectname> (e.g. -pMyTranscriptions). There is a project management dialog where you can rename or delete projects and where you can make a desktop shortcut to start the program with a specific project. Only available in the registered version.
For every project you can choose to register the time you have worked on that transcription. The time registration can also be temporarily paused. Transcript automatically pauses the time (when running) when you switch to another program and resumes when you come back to Transcript. There's also an option to unpause a manually paused timer as soon as you start typing. The time spent is shown on the project toolbar beside the menu.
Both the image window and the editor window can be maximized so that you can't see the other part. When you maximize the image window though you can still type text in the editor even though it is not visible.
Option to hide all toolbars including menu to maximize the working area. Turn toolbars on/off by using Ctrl+Shift+F11 (ESC also works for turning them on again). Menu: View, Show toolbars.
Show image and editor Windows beside eachother instead of below eachother, switch between both settings with Ctrl+Shift+F12. Only available in the registered version. Menu: View, Windows side by side.
Image highlighter/ruler which can be turned on/off from menu View, Show highlighter. Only available in the Pro version.
You can move and resize the highlighted portion with the mouse. Using rightclick you will get a highlighter menu where you can set the default position for the highlighter when loading a new picture and you can also change the Zoom and Brightness of the highlighter.
The highlighter Zoom can also be changed with Ctrl+Scrollwheel up/down above the highlighter and the highlighter Brightness can also be changed with Ctrl+Shift+Scrollwheel up/down above the highlighter.
You can change the language the program uses. At the moment English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian and Czech translations are available. Volunteers are needed to translate all strings used in Transcript in other languages and possibly also the help file. If you're interested in translating please contact me and I will send you the latest translation information and to make sure you're not doing work that's already being done by someone else. Any translator who translates the program strings will get a free registration code for the full version of Transcript.
Hints that are used to give extra information about toolbar buttons and dialog options can be disabled. You can also set the duration the hints will be visible.
When a scanner is connected to you computer Transcript can directly use it to scan an image into the program. After doing that you will first be asked to save the image.
Transcript can as an option visually show the progress of the amount of images you have done in the toolbar. The imagefile selection box will have a green background for the part that has been done based on which imagefile you are currently transcribing (default off, see general tab of Options dialog).

Image manipulation

The image can be zoomed in or out. The default zoom step is 10% but this value can be changed in options.
The image can be rotated left, right or upside down. Optionally you can also specify to alternate between rotating left and right.
You can also view the image in greyscale instead of color and you can invert the colors. The brightness can also be changed.
It is possible to sharpen the image. Shortcut key: Ctrl+Alt+S.
AutoContrast: apply automatic contrast to images to improve their colors (see menu Image).
From within the text editor window you can move the image up, down, left, right, one screen up or down, and to the top or bottom of the image. You can also go to the top of the left or right page on to the left or right page on the current position. Page is not meant literally here but to show that when an image contains two pages besides each other that you can easily switch between them.
You can go to the next (F6) or previous (F5) image in the current image folder from within the editor.
Optionally you can let Transcript automatically move the image a changeable amount of pixels every time you press <Enter> and/or when the text at the right margin wraps to the next line.
Another option is that the program can remember the current image settings when going to another image. If set it will use the same zoom, brightness, rotation etcetera as the previous image.
Supported image formats: JP(E)G, BMP, GIF, PNG, TIF, PSP, PCD, PSD, PDD, PPM, PGM, PBM and when you have the 32 bits version of Ghostscript installed also PDF.
Optionally it is possible that all image settings will be applied to all images you are viewing. Which means for example that all images wil be shown in the same zoom setting, greyscale, rotation, etc.
When you go to the next image you can optionally let the program insert the image filename and/or an automatically increasing counter in a format of your choosing. You can also insert this manually by using Ctrl+Alt+F. Only available in the registered version.
It's possible to select a part of the image and copy that part either to the clipboard or into the editor. To select first press the selection toolbar button on the right side of the image toolbar (the mouse changes to a cross when above the image) and select the part you want. You can copy the selection to the clipboard with Ctrl+C (or used the rightclick menu) and you can copy the selection directly into the editor by using the rightclick menu of either the image or the editor. Only available for registered users.
Copy image selection into a separate window which makes it easier to compare the way letters or words are written. Only available for registered users.
You can now use Shift+F5/F6 to jump to the top of the left or right "page" of the image, assuming that it's an image of two pages. Using Shift+Ctrl+F5/F6 you can go to the left or right side of the image without going to the top.
Some settings can be quickly changed using the rightclick mousemenu when you are above the image.
Automatic rotation of jpeg images according to exif orientation (if present in image).

Editor features

The common text editing functions are all available: changing font, bold, italic, underline, strike through, super and subscript, text and background color, bullets, numbering styles, paragraph alignment.
There are also various paragraph and tab settings which can be adjusted to your needs.
The text in the editor window can be zoomed in or out using the drop down in the text toolbar or using <Ctrl>+mouse wheel up/down which works the same as in Microsoft Office. You can set in options whether this zoom should be remembered or not.
The text can be automatically saved. You can set after how many minutes you want this to happen. Optionally a backup copy will be made.
Search and replace text capability.
For me one of the most productive extra's is the autoreplacement feature. There is a dialog (Ctrl+Alt+C) where you can define words or abbreviations which should automatically be replaced with other words or (parts of) sentences. This is very useful when you encounter many repeating sentences in you transcriptions. Just define an abbreviation and Transcript will automatically replace it with the full sentence! Only available in the registered version.
Just like in Ms-Word there are some useful autocorrection options like correct TWo capitals in a word, or sEcond character a capital instead of first, or to prohibit more than one consecutive space. Only available in the registered version.
There is dialog to insert special characters/symbols. Only available for registered users.
The last ten opened rtf textfiles are saved in a history list so you can easily open them again when needed.
A ruler can be shown where you can change margins and set and change tabs. Only available in the registered version.
You can assign "quicktexts to Alt-0 to 9. These are pieces of text you often use which you can insert very fast by assigning them to one of these keys. Assigning test to a key can be done by selecting text and then pressing Alt+Shift+(a number between 0 and 9), or using the rightclick menu of the editor.
An advanced option can be used to automatically assign the same name to a text file as the name as the image file. This assumes that you want one text file per image file. You can optionally select a different directory for the text files. By default it's the same directory as the images.
Measurement units can be either centimeters or inches.
If Microsoft Office or Word is available then Transcript can use its installed import and export filters to import and export text files in other formats. You should be aware though that the standard Windows RichEdit dll which is used by Transcript can not use all formatting. This means that some documents will not be correctly imported. This is especially the case when using tables (only one line per table cell is possible) or columns and hyperlinks (only literal hyperlinks are possible).
The editor window can be made smaller on the left and right side by move the slider to the desired position. Especially on large screens the text lines may be very long if you maximize the program. This solution tries to remedy that. Another solution you can use is to increase the zoom of the text editor.
You can now set a text file as readonly, making it impossible to change the text. The background color of the text will be changed to make it clear that it is readonly.