starting TRANSANA BASIC
You should run Transana while you read through this tutorial so that you can do the activities as they are described.
You will import and work with one or more audio or video files to learn to use Transana’s tools. These can be your actual research data, or just something you’ve imported to practice on.
Starting Transana Basic
This ScreenCast describes how to start Transana, how to create a new database, and how to do first-use configuration.
Windows
To start Transana, click the Windows Start icon on the Taskbar, scroll to and select the Transana Program Group, then click the Transana program item from the submenu.
Mac OS
To start Transana, open your Applications folder, click the Transana Program Group folder, and then click the Transana program icon.
The first time you start Transana, you will be prompted to select a language for Transana’s interface. Your data does not need to be in the same language as Transana’s interface.
If you already have a Transana database, select that from the list. If you don’t already have a database, you can make up a database name, type it in, and click OK.
Transana creates the appropriate database files for you automatically.
New Database Configuration
When you create a new database in Transana Basic, you should define the database’s Media Library Directory. A Media Library Directory is the location where Transana should look for the data files for your database. All media files analyzed in the same Transana database should share a common Media Library Directory or be stored in sub-directories within that directory.
NOTE: Transana Basic does not import your media files into its database, because media files are usually very large and loading them into the database would make Transana run slowly. Transcripts are comparatively small and are likely to be revised, so Transana stores transcript text in the project database.
Windows
To set the Media Library Directory, go to the Options menu and select Program Settings. From the General tab, select the Media Library Directory setting appropriate for your computer.
Mac OS
To set the Media Library Directory, go to the Transana program menu and select Preferences. From the General tab, set the Media Library Directory setting appropriate for your computer.