Transcription Service Blog by Transcription Institute

Some recepients of the transcripts we product require single spaces, while some require double.

To ensure you do it right, in MS Word go into Tools, Options, hit the Spelling & Grammar tab, then click on Settings and there under Require is "Spaces required between sentences:", your choices are 1, 2 or don't check.

We found an autotext program that is awesome. And we know you can do a lot of this in the AutoCorrect of Word, however this program goes beyond the capabilities of just substitution. The program is Phrase Express and you can get it at Autotext - Clipboard Utility - Snippets Organizer. It is free for personal use. We find this program so invaluable. One of the nice things is the ability to set up phrases on the fly. You type it, highlight it, hit ALT+CTRL+C and the new phrase box pops up. You just click on what keys or characters you want, whether you want it as rich formatted text or plain text and hit enter. Then every time you hit those keys or characters your phrase will automatically pop up.

Some companies who order transcription services want the en dash while others want the double dash. The easy way to take care of that is this in Microsoft Word: Format, AutoFormat, Options and then on the AutoFormat tab you tic the box "Hyphens (--) with (–)"

Now for it to work as you type, you also need to go to the AutoFormat As You Type tab also and tic the same box.

Boxes tic'd means en dash (–), boxes not tic'd means double dash (--). Also when you do en dashes this way, they don't change, as you're typing, from double dash to en dash until after you type the next word and then hit the space bar, then it changes.

Conducting an interview, coming up with good questions and establishing a report, is a challenging process. Transcribing that interview can also be difficult, and requires precise listening skills, patience, and careful editing. An hour-long interview can easily take 4 to 6 hours to transcribe, depending on how fast you type. Make sure you allow enough time to transcribe interviews accurately, and maintain the tone and quality of the original audio.

If you are transcribing an interview that someone else conducted, it's important to familiarize yourself with the subject's style and the context of the interview. Listen to at least a good portion of the interview first, before any typing, to prepare yourself.

When typing up the interview, to add clarity, you can add some clues to the tone of the interview in brackets, (e.g. [laughs], [points at bandmate]). Add these in either the first draft, or in the second edit when re-listening to the tape.

Words are harsher in print, so editing of filler and adding context afterwards can help present your subject in the correct light. Read over the final copy and make sure that your interview subject doesn't end up sounding more extreme or less articulate than they are in real life.

From my experience transcribing documentary interviews, I've found that you want to also we the specifications of the person that's hired you. A lot of times they want things exactly as they were said, including all the "ums" and "ahs."

If you're lucky enough to be using a digital file to transcribe from, there's plenty of software you can use to slow the file down so that you can type it up in real time (depending on how fast you type), which makes it easier.