Basic Fine-Tuning Designations
Articles > Designations
March 6, 2024 at 5:19:28 PM
Click the Create/Edit Designations button in the Workflow Ribbon to display the Designation Editor and Transcript Viewer.
Select the Designation List you want to edit and click on the > sign to expand the list to see the individual designations.
Click on the individual designation you want to clean up. The designation icons all have a specific meaning and are designed to give you useful information at a glance.
The two halves of the rectangle let you see if the start point, or the end point of the designation have been fine-tuned.
Red means it has not, gray means it has.
The arrow pointing down indicates that each designation will auto-advance to the next one when playing back in Presentation Mode. To make it stop and manually advance, double click the arrow to change the direction to the left.
The transcript highlighter color shows on the list.
A yellow bar across the top of your designation icon indicates there is a line of testimony that is at least 12 seconds long.
This could be a long pause between one line to the next in your designation list or a slow talker. If you look at the transcript, you will see exactly where it is with a yellow hourglass. See Advanced Fine-Tuning Designations below with tips on how to remove long pauses and words in the middle of sentences.
Next, go to your Designation Editor Pane, you will see an editing tool like this:
Buttons Explained (with Shortcut Keys):
Now let's tune! First, click the red arrow pointing right (it's below "Start"):
This is the beginning of your clip. Now hit the Eye button to preview where your video starts (You will get a 2-second preview, it starts where the clip starts).
Do you like it? No? Adjust the video to get it to start exactly where you want it. Use the Waveform by dragging the Yellow Bar or use the buttons. When you're happy with it, hit Save.
Repeat this action for the end of the designation. Click the red arrow pointing left (You’ll get a 2-second preview, it ends where the clip ends).
Now your start and stop points have been tuned.
The play button at the top of the Designation Editor can be used to preview the clip inside of the editor.
You can also change the 2-second preview or the size of the waveform by clicking on the gear.
Bonus - You can edit your scrolling text, so those pesky "Okays" don't have to be there. Check out our article on Editing Text in a Designation.
How do I make the deposition video clips start and stop where I need them to?
How do I remove long pauses or remove a word in the middle of a sentence?
Designation Lists are the page/line clips of the deposition testimony for the purpose of playback in court. You will need a synchronized transcript file (.mdb or an OnCue xml) and the raw deposition video to use this feature (see Adding Synchronized Transcripts). Once your lists are created you want to tune the start and stop points of every clip to get it ready for playback.
Step-by-step Instructions