Work with a Deposition Transcript

In addition to tools to prepare for and run a deposition, Everlaw Depositions have a Transcript view with tools to work with a completed deposition transcript and synced video. Once a transcript is uploaded, you can:

• [For those with Everlaw AI enabled] Use Writing Assistant (generative AI) to support a transcript analysis that helps you pull out key insights
• Excerpt quotes to use as evidence to support Facts or to reference in other drafting and deposition prep
• For video transcripts, each highlight automatically creates a synced video clip that can be exported for use outside of Everlaw

This article describes how to work with an uploaded transcript.

For details on how to upload transcripts (including synced videos) and make sure that referenced exhibits link to the appropriate documents, see our Upload and Administer Deposition Transcripts article.

To learn how to use the Writing Assistant deposition analysis, see our Storybuilder and Writing Assistant article.

Requirements

To view a transcript, you need View permission for Storybuilder.

To highlight a transcript, you need Edit  or Full Access  permission for the Deposition.

To add highlights to the Evidence page (create Testimony), you also need Edit or Full Access permission for the Story.

Access the transcript

Once your transcript is uploaded, you are taken to the transcript view when you open the Deposition.

Transcripts are loaded as scrollable, selectable-text files with line numbering. Once the transcript file is rendered, you can read and analyze it to identify and pull out the most important parts. 

Exhibit linking

If you have marked documents as exhibits, Everlaw can automatically identify and link references to the exhibits in the transcript text. This lets you preview the referenced exhibit without leaving the transcript. 

Any linked text in the transcript appears as a hyperlink. 

Select the link to open a panel with the following options:

• Preview : Open a preview of the document in a separate Quick Review window
• Exhibit link : View and edit the document linked as this exhibit in the Evidence panel.
  If you change the linked exhibit, it only affects the particular instance of linked text you are viewing, not all instances of the same text in the transcript.
• Unlink : Unlink the text from the exhibit. Unlinking only affects the particular instance of linked text you are viewing. Other instances of the same text in the transcript will not be affected. 

Automatic linking is based on exact textual matches with the exhibit name (prefix plus identifier). By default, exhibits marked in Everlaw use "Exhibit" as their prefix.

If your transcript uses text other than "Exhibit" to reference exhibits, you can add new prefixes or aliases to trigger the linking functionality. To learn how to add new prefixes and/or aliases, see our Upload and Administer Deposition Transcripts article. 

Browse through all exhibit references

After a document is marked as an exhibit, the document details view contains a count of all the exhibit references linked in the transcript. This includes text automatically linked through the exhibit name and aliases and manually linked text. Use the arrows to navigate through all locations in the transcript that the exhibit is referenced.

View a synced video

After you upload a deposition video, you can view and play the video from the top right of the transcript view of a deposition. 

While synced, a blue highlight and a blue bar indicate the currently playing segment of the video. To jump to the corresponding timestamp in the video, select the transcript line on the left margin of the transcript.

While synced, the transcript will automatically scroll forward with the video. If you scroll to a different part of the transcript while the video is playing, the Sync with video button is enabled. Select it to jump back to the transcript line corresponding with the video and continue with auto-scrolling.

The controls for the video player allow you to:

• Play and pause the video
• Jump forward or backward in 1 second and 5 second increments
• Adjust the play speed
• Enter fullscreen
• Adjust the volume
• Expand the video player. Select the pop-out button on the top right of the video player or use the keyboard shortcut “v.”
• Use the three-dot menu to 
  • Enter picture-in-picture 
  • Download the video

Search, highlight, and create testimony

Hold down your cursor and drag it over text in the transcript to:

• Run searches
• Highlight important text (and, for transcripts with videos, automatically create synced video clips)
• Elevate the text as testimony to add it to your Evidence page. This makes it referenceable throughout your Story. 

Search the transcript

The transcript supports full text search, including words, phrases, regular expression (regex), fuzzy, proximity, and wildcard searches. To run a search:

1. Hold down and drag your cursor over text in the transcript.
2. Select the magnifying glass.
   
3. Navigate to the Search tab. The highlighted text is displayed there.

You can also search your transcript by entering your desired term into the search box in the Search tab, then pressing Enter on your keyboard.

Your term is added to the Search hit list in the right side panel. Each search highlight is assigned a random color. 

Here are some additional details about searching a transcript:

• Searches are user-specific and not viewable by anyone else on the Deposition
• Once you refresh the browser, or navigate away from the page, your searches are cleared.
• Select  the“X” button next to a search to remove it without moving away from the page

Search all transcripts

You can search across all deposition transcripts by going to the Depositions page of Storybuilder. In addition to word and phrase searches, the content search box also supports all the advanced search functionality described in our advanced contents searching article. 

Copy text with citation

To copy the selected text to your clipboard along with its citation, select the Copy text with citation button.

This copies the selected text, along with the deposition citation, to your clipboard. You can then paste this text elsewhere. 

The pasted text includes the transcript text in quotation marks (with line breaks at any start of a question or answer detected in the transcript), followed by the citation in parentheses.

Highlight the transcript

You can create a highlight from your text selection. Highlighting a transcript on Everlaw has multiple benefits:

• Add labels to your highlights (and use different highlight colors) to help you filter and organize the key moments. 
• Add any highlight that you want to reference outside the transcript to your Story. This adds it to the Evidence page as Testimony and allows you to link it to Facts and use it as evidence in Drafts and Depositions.
• For synced video transcripts, creating a highlight in the text automatically creates a video clip synced to the text of the highlight. When you export highlights, you can export these clips for use outside Everlaw.

To add a highlight:

1. Hold down your cursor and drag it over the text to select.
2. When you release the cursor, select the highlight button to highlight the text.
   
   Click the caret to choose a new color.

You can also click the highlighter icon in the toolbar directly, then click and drag to highlight.

Once you’ve highlighted text, a dialog box appears with options to annotate, edit, and label your highlight. 

Create and edit video clips

When you create a highlight in a transcript with a synced video, a corresponding playable and exportable video clip is also automatically created. To view the clip associated with a highlight, select the link in the Video clip section of the highlight popup. The clips are named according to their timestamp and length.

To export this clip, select the export button on the top right of your highlight’s dialog. See the Export section below for details on how to export multiple clips at once.

You can navigate and filter on transcript highlights in the highlights panel to the right of your transcript. If you have Autoplay clip on selection toggled on, jumping between highlights will also play the associated clip.
When you add a highlight to your Story, it includes the video clip. Throughout Storybuilder these clips are playable via the play icon, including on the timeline and in exhibit lists displaying testimony.

Labels

You can apply labels to your highlights in a transcript. As you apply labels, tabs appear above the highlight for easier skimming. If the highlight is Testimony (you select +add to Story), you can use labels to filter by testimony and documents on the Evidence page. 

Add to Story as Testimony

You can add highlighted text to your Story's Evidence page. When you do so, that text becomes its own piece of evidence, referred to as a Testimony object. Testimony is sorted on your Evidence page just like documents, and  can be linked to Facts and referenced in Drafts and Depositions. To add text as testimony in a Story:

1. Select and highlight the text you want to make into a testimony.
   
   This opens a dialog.
2. Select + Add to Story to add the text to your Story Timeline.
   
   To link it to a Fact at the same time you add it to the Story, select the arrow, then Add to Story and link to Facts.
   

3. [Optional] If you would like to add the testimony directly to a Draft or Deposition, select the add reference button.

   Note

   The References option is only available if the testimony has been added to the story.

   
   Then Select a Draft or Deposition from the list.
   

When you add a highlight to your Story, thereby creating testimony, you see an editable details panel. Here, you can add a Story date, and description and relevance to your testimony. These details are updated in the Evidence page and across any Depositions or Drafts that you add the piece of testimony to.

You can also add this testimony snippet to another Deposition or Draft from this panel. To do so:

1. If the details panel isn't open, select the highlight, then select Show story details to open the details of the testimony
2. Scroll to References and select the add button.
3. Choose the Deposition or Draft to add this testimony to. You can add testimony to any Deposition or Draft in that Story (including the source Deposition the testimony came from).
   To learn more about referencing testimony in your Draft, visit Deposition 1 of 4: Preparation. 

If you select Remove from Story, the highlight remains in your transcript, but the testimony is removed from your Evidence page and Depositions,Drafts, or Facts  it was linked to.

Edit highlight range 

You can edit the selected range of a highlight. If you have already added labels or elevated the highlight to be testimony in your Story, this is better than deleting it and creating a new one since it retains the work product. To do so:

1. Select the highlight and then select the pencil in the dialog box.
   You enter Edit Mode, in which you can select a new range to replace the previously selected one.
2. Select the new range by holding down your cursor and dragging. 
   [Optional] If you are working with a video, you can instead use the video to identify the beginning and end of the highlight.
   
    You can:
   • Manually enter starting and ending timestamps by entering values in the Start time  and End time fields
   • Use the Mark start and Mark end buttons to update the video clip’s timestamps as the video is playing. 
     If a clip’s timestamps are edited, a banner appears below the editing controls.
   • To restore the original timestamps, select Re-sync in the banner.
3. When you’re satisfied with your new selection, select Save in the blue banner.
   
   Your range is updated in the transcript, and throughout the Story if your highlight has been elevated to testimony.

Notes

 You can add a note to any highlight. To do so, select the highlight and then select the Add a new note input box. When you're done writing your note, select Save. Your note is applied to the document, published by you, and timestamped. A notes icon will appear as a tab above the highlight for easier skimming. 

Anyone with at least View permissions on the Deposition can view all notes (including author and date) and highlights. 

Navigate highlights and testimony

You can toggle between highlights in your transcript by using the Highlights panel. This lets you jump right to the parts that have been identified as important

The Highlights panel displays Story details like title and labels. Use the left and right paddles to jump through all highlights. You can also navigate between a single label category, or even a specific label within that category.

Select the drop-down to the right of the highlights header to filter.

There are three ways to filter: 

• Added to Story: To filter to limit your navigation to highlights promoted to testimony
• Has notes: To filter by highlights with notes
• Filter by labels: Select the label(s) to filter by. You can use multiple filters at once, if needed.

If multiple highlights start at the same location, the tabs above the highlights are condensed. In the image below, two highlights both start at the beginning of the same line, so you can’t see the labels above them. Instead, the count of labels is displayed. Select the label tabs to open up that specific highlight and see which labels are applied. 

Download a Transcript

This section covers how to download native transcripts, their sync files, native videos, and OCRed transcripts (PDF only). If you instead want to include annotations in your download, visit this article’s section on exporting annotated transcripts.

Required permission: Only users with document download permission can download transcripts.

To download a native transcript or native transcript + sync file, select the Download native transcript button in the transcript toolbar. This automatically downloads the file to your computer.

For this or all other download options:

1. Select the More download/export options button, next to the Download native transcript button in the toolbar.
   
2. In the DOWNLOAD section of the menu, select the file type that you would like to download. Depending on what files were previously uploaded, the following options may be available:
   1. Native transcript or Native transcript + sync file
   2. Native deposition video
   3. OCR’d transcript (PDF) (only valid if the transcript was uploaded as a PDF)
      
      The file downloads directly to your local computer. 

Export annotated transcripts

Once you have annotated the transcript with highlights, you can export these annotations. You can choose to export only annotations with specific labels, and decide whether or not to include your notes. For video depositions you can choose whether to include the clips synced to your highlighted annotations.

Required permission: Only users with document download permission can export transcripts.

To download an annotated transcript:

1. Select the More download/export options button, next to the Download native transcript buttonin the toolbar.
   
2. In the DOWNLOAD section of the menu, select Transcript with annotations
   
   This opens the Export annotations dialog.
   
3. In the Export to  field, choose the file type to download: PDF, Word, or CSV.
4. In the Format field, choose between:
   • Full transcript with annotations report (includes highlighted text)

   • Annotations report only

     Note

     If you are downloading a Word document any notes on your highlights are displayed as Word comments. To see overlapping highlights more clearly in Word, select their associated comment to focus on its highlight. 
     
     Whereas in PDFs, overlapping highlights blend highlight colors.

   • Full transcript only 
5. The Include field only appears if you are including annotations in the export. In this field, select which annotation types you want to include:
   • Full text snippet (includes the date, relevance, description, and any labels or Facts associated with the annotation).
   • Notes
   • Story details
6. In the Video clips field, select whether to include the clips synced to your highlighted annotations. These are exported as one or more MP4s, separate from the exported annotations. If you decide to include them, you decide whether to:
   • Include transcript captions: If selected, the exported clips have the synced transcript text added as captions
   • Combine clips in single MP4 file: If you select this option, all the clips are stitched together into one file. If you don't select it, each clip is exported as its own MP4 file.
7. Select Next to move onto the Filter highlights step.
8. Choose whether to filter your exported highlights by label and, if so, which labels. All label categories and labels within the categories are selected by default. Select the carets to display the list of labels, which you can select/deselect.
   You can also choose to filter by testimony in your export (all highlights added to Story) and unlabeled highlights.
   
9. When ready, select Export.