MEDIA VISUALIZATIONS AND FILTERS

When working with media data, the Waveform Visualization can be very helpful during transcription and analysis. However, this is only one of the visualization options Transana offers for Episodes. The Visualization Window can also display information about the coding you have applied to your Episodes through creating and coding Clips and linking Snapshots to Episodes.

Load an Episode that you have added Keywords to by double-clicking on its Transcript.

Go to the Options menu and select the Media Visualization Style option, then pick the Keyword Visualization from the sub-menu. The Visualization Window will switch from the Waveform Visualization to the Keyword Visualization.

This visualization shows coding across the time line of the Episode. As you mouse over the bars in the visualization, a popup tells you the name of the Keyword represented and the length of the Clip or Snapshot coded with that Keyword. (Mac users may need to select the Visualization Window to be able to see the mouse-over text.)

If the Visualization Window it too small, you may wish to go to Options > Media Size and select a smaller size for the Media Window relative to the size of the original media file.

You can customize the appearance of the visualization extensively. Press the Filter button in the lower left corner of the Visualization Window.

This dialog allows you to select what Keywords are displayed in the Keyword Visualization, from what Clips and Snapshots, in what order, and displayed in what colors. The Options tab allows you to alter the height and spacing of the bars as well. Note that the Visualization Filter for a Document will have different tabs and options than the Visualization Filter for an Episode.

Click on the Keywords tab in the filter dialog. Let’s modify how Keywords will be displayed in the visualization.

First, let’s sort the Keyword list. You can select an item in the list by clicking on a Keyword and you can move it relative to other items using the up and down arrows on the right side of the dialog.

Second, let’s select colors for our Keywords. You can select an item in the list by clicking on a Keyword and you can assign that Keyword a color by then clicking on a color box at the bottom of the dialog. If you click on a Keyword’s color box, or select White for a Keyword’s color, that Keyword will be dropped from the visualization display.

Make whatever adjustments to the Visualization Filter parameters you think make sense. Then press OK. Transana will update the visualization to reflect the requested changes.

You can save a Filter configuration you have put together using the Save icon in the filter dialog’s toolbar. If you name your filter configuration “default” then it will be automatically loaded in the future; otherwise you will need to load it next time you want to use it.

Transana also offers a Hybrid Visualization for media files, which combines both the Waveform Diagram and the Keyword Visualization.

Advanced Topic: See ‘filter dialog’ in the Transana Manual for more information about the options available from the Filter Dialog.

The Filter Dialogs and Filter Configurations ScreenCast demonstrates how Filter Configurations allow you to save Filter Dialog settings, essentially allowing you to preserve a particular analytic view of your data from anywhere where Transana uses Filter Dialogs. (6:16, Transana 3.00 shown.)