Upload and Administer Deposition Transcripts

When you receive a deposition transcript, including a synced video recording, you can upload it into the Deposition. This lets you excerpt quotes and video clips to use as evidence to support Facts, in your drafting and preparation for additional depositions, and to export for use outside of Everlaw.

This article is for those responsible for uploading transcripts.

To learn more about how to work with an uploaded transcript, see our Work with a Deposition Transcript article

Requirements  and formatting details

Required permission: To upload a transcript and edit prefix settings, you must have Edit permissions on the Deposition.

Format requirements: Transcripts must have line numbers on the left margins of the document. 

• Everlaw supports the following transcript formats:
  • PDFs
  • TXT
  • DVT
  • PTX transcript files. 
• If necessary, Everlaw automatically OCRs transcript files on upload. 
• The maximum size for a transcript file is 200MB.
• To upload synced videos: You  need to upload a sync file that cross references transcript line numbers with video timestamps. Everlaw supports two sync file formats:
  • DVT files, which include transcript text and so are uploaded and treated as a transcript
  • MDB files, which are uploaded as a separate sync file

You can upload a transcript to a Deposition you’ve already created.

One transcript file per Deposition: Each Deposition can only have one transcript uploaded to it. For multi-day depositions, with a different transcript file per day, you must create a separate Deposition for each day and upload the corresponding transcript to each. We recommend naming each day's Deposition to indicate the day/volume it comes from (e.g. Gates Dep Vol 1. and Gates Dep Vol 2.) or including the date in the citation prefix. Then, use the cover page / set starting page feature to make sure the citation page numbering is correct.

Upload a transcript

To upload a transcript:

1. Open the Deposition, then select Transcript in the top right of the screen.
2. Browse or drag and drop to select your transcript file.
3. Enter the Testimony citation. This is the citation that is used whenever you reference excerpted testimony.
4. [Optional] If you are uploading a video file with the transcript, select Add transcript video files. 
5. Select Upload. If you uploaded a video, a progress bar on the top right of the transcript view of your deposition will indicate that your files are transferring.
   You must keep this page open while the video files transfer. Once the progress bar on the top right is replaced by a “processing” indicator, you can leave the page and will receive a message once the upload is complete.

You can also upload a transcript when creating a Deposition. You are prompted to add it at the second step of creating a deposition. After you add it, select Create.

Upload a synced video to an existing transcript

You can also upload a deposition video to existing depositions that already have a transcript. To do so:

1. Open the Deposition.
2. Select Upload transcript video on the top right of the transcript view.
   
   This opens the Upload transcript video dialog.
3. Drag in your video file(s) and sync file into their respective fields.
   
4. Select Upload. This starts the process of uploading and syncing the video.

In deposition settings, you can also replace an existing depositions video, but replacing transcript video will alter the timestamps associated with all highlights. Likewise, replacing a transcript will remove existing highlights.

Troubleshoot uploading a transcript 

If you experience an error when uploading a transcript, it might be because of the following:

• Parsing: The transcript viewer handles documents with a certain format and it must “parse” (read and interpret) the text to separate it into line numbers, which are displayed but not selectable, and text content, which is selectable. If you experience a parsing error, the transcript is not uploaded, or some lines are not highlightable. 
  When this occurs, you can either replace your file with a different one or try the same file again. When you upload a video deposition along with a transcript that has parsing issues, video processing fails. 
• Max size limit: You may have tried to upload a transcript larger than 200 MB. You must replace your file with a smaller transcript file for upload.
• Formatting error: Your document is a supported file type, and has parsable text, but is not recognized as a supported transcript format. Your document is uploaded successfully, but some, most, or all of the text is unselectable and greyed out. 
  Scanned PDFs, 4-page manuscripts, or transcripts with unusual numbering schemes are not optimal for the transcript uploader. These files are uploaded and readable if they’re an Everlaw-supported file type, but  likely have formatting errors. You cannot link exhibits or create testimony.

Adjust a transcript's starting page

It is possible to renumber the starting page and number of cover pages in Depositions. This is helpful when multiple days of testimony are spread out over multiple Depositions or if the transcript contains cover pages that do not contain actual testimony. 

Renumbering pages of a Deposition transcript carries over to the transcript viewer page navigation and transcript citations.

To edit a transcript’s page numbers:

1. Open the Deposition and make sure you're in the Transcript tab.
2. In the transcript toolbar, select the renumber transcript pages button.
   
   This opens the Renumber transcript pages dialog.
3. If the transcript has one or more cover pages, enter the number of pages in the Number of cover pages field.
   
4. Cover pages aside, if page 1 of the transcript does not align to page 1 of the testimony (e.g. pages 1 - 4 were in a separate Deposition and this transcript starts off at page 5 of the testimony), enter the consecutively ordered page number in the Starting page label of transcript content field.
   
5. Confirm your selected page numbering in the Preview image. In this image, cover pages are represented with roman numerals (e.g. i, ii, iii) and pages containing testimony are represented with standard Arabic numerals (e.g. 1, 2, 3).
   
6. Select Save.

Link exhibits in the transcripts

When references to exhibits in the transcript text match the way your exhibits are marked within the Everlaw Deposition, the exhibit documents automatically link so you can preview them from Storybuilder's Quick Review window. 

You can also manually link any text in the transcript to a document (exhibit).

This means that when you use Storybuilder for your depositions, you can access exhibits and transcripts in one place. 

There is a lot of flexibility built into how exhibits get linked in a transcript. The next few sections explain the different ways to do it:

• Add a new prefix: By default, Everlaw automatically links text with "Exhibit" preceding a number (or alphanumeric entry). If your evidence is systematically referenced within the transcript using a word/prefix other than "Exhibit," you can add a new prefix to trigger links. For example, this is useful if references to "Plaintiff Exhibit 1" and "Defendant Exhibit 1" should link to two separate documents. If you add "Plaintiff Exhibit" and "Defendant Exhibit" as separate prefixes, Everlaw will recognize them and allow you to link them to their appropriate documents.
• Aliases: If there is unique text that should link to documents that are otherwise referred to as exhibits, you can identify it as an alias for that exhibit.
  For example, if the phrase “phone logs” is used to refer to an exhibit (that is also referenced as an exhibit), you can assign “phone logs” as an alias of that exhibit.
• Manually: If exhibits are referred to systematically, you can manually link the text to specific documents as you read through the transcript

Required permissions: Anyone with Edit permission on a Deposition can update exhibit linking. We recommend that whoever is responsible for initially uploading transcripts uses these tools to get exhibits properly linked, but it can also be helpful for those reviewing transcripts to understand how they can link transcript text to exhibits.  

Prerequisite: Documents must be added to the Deposition's Evidence tab before they can be linked to text in testimony. 

Assign documents to suggested exhibits

Wherever Everlaw finds a prefix within the transcript text, it will suggest an exhibit link. By default, it will suggest references to the word "Exhibit". See the Add a new prefix section to learn how to add a prefix for suggested exhibits.

To link to exhibits based on Everlaw’s suggestions:

1. Select the link button in the transcript toolbar.
   
   This opens a dialog that allows you to browse through all instances of text that match the pattern above.
2. In the Link to document field, choose a document to link to that suggested edit.
3. Select Link all. This links the document to all matching references in the transcript. Everlaw then automatically moves you to the next suggested unlinked exhibit.

When you select the link, you have a few 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.

Add a new prefix

You can add a new prefix from either the Manage prefixes dialog or as you edit a document's exhibit number. Once you add a prefix, Everlaw can detect it in the transcript text for you to link to exhibits.

To add a prefix from the Manage prefixes menu:

1. Go to EXHIBIT LINKS > Manage prefixes.
   
2. Select + New prefix. This opens a field to enter the prefix.
   
3. In the Enter prefix name field, enter the prefix, then select Create.
4. When you're done, select Save. 

Now, this text in the transcript will be available to link to exhibits.

You can also add new prefixes when editing a document's exhibit number. To do so:

1. Select the document in the Exhibit tab to open its details.
   
2. In the EXHIBIT section, select Edit 
3. In the Prefix field, type in the new prefix. Select the + to add it as a new prefix.
   
4. In the Exhibit number field, enter the exhibit number (can include letters).
5. Select Save.

Now:

• References to this exhibit number in the transcript will auto-link to a preview of the exhibit.
  
• This prefix is added to the list of prefixes for the transcript
• Any additional locations in the transcript that the prefix is mentioned will be available to link to additional exhibits
  

Automatic linking based on aliases

If exhibits are referred to in the transcript by something other than their names, you can automatically link these alternative references using the alias tool. For example, if Exhibit 1 is also referenced with the phrase “phone logs”, you can assign “phone logs” as an alias of that exhibit. 

Aliases can be created and managed from the alias management pop-up. 

To create a new alias for an exhibit:

1. Go to EXHIBIT LINKS > Manage aliases. 
2. Select + New alias. A new row appears on the table.
3. Select the exhibit (document) you wish to create aliases for. Keep in mind that the exhibit must be assigned to a document in the deposition before it appears here as an available option. 
   
4. After you select the exhibit, input the aliases in the Alias column, with one unique alias per line. Aliases can be any alphanumeric text string; if an alias contains invalid symbols, like dashes or dots, Everlaw will convert them to spaces.  
   
   • A given alias can only be assigned to one exhibit
   • Aliases that are part of other aliases are allowed. In such cases the more inclusive alias takes precedence. For example,  imagine that you have alias “logs” assigned to Exhibit 1 and alias “computer logs” assigned to Exhibit 2. All instances of “computer logs” in the transcript will be linked to Exhibit 2, while all standalone instances of “logs” will be linked to Exhibit 1.
5. Select Create.
6. [Optional] Select an additional exhibit to create an alias for.
7. Select Save.
   When making changes on the alias pop-up, keep in mind that you must both (1) save the individual changes to the rows and (2) save the overall changes for any modifications to take effect. 

Manual linking and unlinking

In addition to automatic linking, you can also manually link and unlink specific transcript text. To do so:

1. Hold down and drag your cursor over the text you want to link to an exhibit.
2. Release your mouse and a popup appears. Select the link button.
   
3. Select into the Enter document name or exhibit number field. A dropdown with possible documents to link appears.
4. Select the exhibit you'd like to link.

Manual actions only affect the given instance of text; other instances of the same text in the transcript are not affected. To link this document everywhere that this text appears in the transcript, select the Create alias from selected text checkbox. Then, a new alias is created and all instances of the selected text in the transcript are linked to the exhibit. 

Mass unlinking and reassignment of links

There are three actions that can result in either a mass unlinking of text or reassignment of links:

• Unassign an exhibit: If you have assigned a document an exhibit number, then edit the exhibit number to remove it, this is equivalent to unassigning the exhibit. The document is no longer marked as the exhibit and all instances of the exhibit name in the transcript are no longer linked. 
• Delete a prefix: When a prefix is deleted, all aliases associated with that prefix are also deleted. Marked exhibits that use that prefix will fall back to the default “Exhibit” prefix, except in cases where that would result in conflicting marked exhibits.For example, imagine you have three marked exhibits: “Exhibit 1”, “Gov Exhibit 1”, and “Gov Exhibit 2”. If you delete the prefix “Gov Exhibit”:
  • “Gov Exhibit 2 becomes “Exhibit 2” in the document details panel.
  • Instances of “Exhibit 2” become linked to the document that got reassigned to "Exhibit 2"
  • Instances of “Gov Exhibit 2” in the transcript are unlinked
  • “Gov Exhibit 1” is unassigned from having an exhibit number, because it would become “Exhibit 1,” which is in conflict with the existing “Exhibit 1” and that is not allowed.
• Delete or editing aliases: If an alias is deleted, all corresponding text in the transcript will become unlinked. If an alias is edited, all text corresponding to the edited alias will become linked.   

Edit Testimony citation

The Testimony citation is determined when the transcript is first uploaded. If there is an error in the initial citation, or it needs to be updated for any reason, you can do so:

1. In the transcript, select More options (three-dots) > Edit citation.
   
2. In the Testimony citation field, type in the new citation.
   
3. Select Save. This updates the citation in all Testimony.

Replace Transcript File

Required permissions: Edit permissions on the Deposition

You might need to replace a transcript file, for example because the first transcript you received may not be the final transcript, or perhaps you uploaded the wrong file. You can replace your file within the transcript viewer. 

To replace the transcript:

1. Select the Settings button in the toolbar.
2. Select Replace transcript file. This opens the dialog to replace the transcript
3. Browse or drag and drop to select your new file. The same file type requirements apply to replacement as they do to new transcripts uploaded.
4. When you’ve selected a file, select Replace.

You may experience a parsing or size limit error upon replacement. If this is the case, try a new file, or click Cancel to keep your existing file. 

If your new transcript has a formatting error (text is parsable but not supported as a transcript format), then the file will be uploaded, replacing the old file. Text that is unselectable will be in grey.