Assistive Technology Training Software Guide

Transcription

1 Assistive Technology Training Software Guide 1

2 Contents 1. Getting Started 1.1 Starting a new project The Notetaker window layout 5 2. Importing to the Images Pane 2.1 Importing slides (from PowerPoint) Importing pages from PDF Importing images 8 3. Recording Audio Through Notetaker 3.1 Microphone Only mode Microphone and Speakers mode Speakers Only mode Specifying microphone / speaker source Making a recording Importing Audio Into Notetaker 4.1 Importing audio from your computer Importing audio from an external device Working with Audio in Notetaker 5.1 Introduction to audio chunks Changing size of audio chunks Playing back audio Playback options Adding in section breaks Splitting, selecting and merging chunks Audio Clean-Up and Voice Shift Populating the Text Pane 6.1 Entering text Typing text while audio is playing / recording 20 2

3 Contents 6.3 The Reference pane Extracting text from slides / PDF Using the speak tools Output text to the Audio pane Changing speech settings Annotating Audio 7.1 Introduction to the sidebar Colouring audio Colouring sections and text Changing the colour key Editing and creating a colour key Export from Notetaker 8.1 Exporting audio as an album Exporting audio and images as video Exporting text and images 28 A. Appendices A.1 Useful shortcuts 29 A.2 Useful Resources 30 3

4 1 Getting Started In this section we ll look at how to get a new project up and running in Notetaker, the layout of the project window and what the main Images, Text and Audio panes are for. 1.1 Starting a new project After launching Notetaker you ll be greeted by the New Project window. Here there are several options for beginning a new Notetaker project: Create a new, totally blank project. Once created, recording modes can be set manually and presentation slides can be imported into the project. Create a new project ready to simultaneously record audio from both your PC s microphone and anything coming out of your PC speakers. We ll look more at this mode in section 3.2. Create a new project ready to record only audio coming from your PC s speakers. We ll look more at this mode in section 3.3. Create a new project using existing audio. You will be prompted to select audio files from your computer or an attached device, e.g. audio from a dictaphone. We ll look more at this in section 4. Create a new project ready to record audio relating to a PowerPoint presentation. You ll be prompted to select a presentation from your computer. We ll look more at this in section 2. 4

5 1.2 The Notetaker window layout With a new project started, let s look at how the Notetaker program window is laid out. There are three main areas of the window: the ribbon, the main workspace area and the sidebar. the Ribbon the Workspace The Workspace is where you spend the majority of your time in Notetaker. The Workspace is divided up into different panes. These are the Images, Text and Audio panes. Sidebar Audio This is where audio will appear from a live recording or imported audio file. Audio will be automatically divided into a series of chunks which we ll cover in section 5.1. Text The text pane allows you to type in notes or paste in text relating to content in the audio pane. We ll cover this pane fully in section 6. Images The images pane is where you can insert slides from a presentation, pages from a PDF document or picture files from your PC. We ll cover this pane further in section 2. You can resize any of these panes by hovering the mouse between them, clicking and dragging left or right. 5

6 the Ribbon The Ribbon contains various tools including controls for recording and playback of audio, adding and removing sections as well as importing and exporting to/from Notetaker projects. These tools will be referred to throughout the rest of this guide. the Sidebar The Sidebar contains tools and formatting options for formatting the images, text and audio panes. The tools in the Sidebar are mainly used for colour coding and annotating content in the text and audio panes. 2 Importing to the Images Pane The images pane allows you to import information into your Notetaker project before or after recording audio. For example in a lecture situation you may wish to pre-load a presentation into Notetaker, allowing you to record audio as each slide is shown. 2.1 Importing slides (from PowerPoint) There are a couple of ways to insert slides from a presentation into your Notetaker project: A: Right click within the Images pane and choose Import Slides or PDF... B: Click on Import in the ribbon and choose Import Slides... 6

7 You ll then be presented with a dialog box in which to locate the presentation you wish to import. Navigate to your PowerPoint file and then click Open. You will see each slide inserted into its own section within the Notetaker project. 2.2 Importing pages from PDF Much like with slides from PowerPoints, you can import pages from PDF documents. Again you can import from PDF by right clicking within the Images pane and choosing Import Slides or PDF... Or by using the Import Slides... option from the ribbon. 7

8 Locate your PDF document in the Import Slides or PDF window and click Open. It may take a few seconds for the import to process. Each page from the PDF will be placed into it s own section within the Notetaker project. 2.3 Importing images As well as presentation slides and pages from PDFs you can also import images into your Notetaker project. You can do this by choosing Import Images... from the Import menu in the ribbon. 8

9 From the Import Images window, you can select one or more images to import into Notetaker. Tip: to import multiple images at once, hold down the CTRL key when selecting images. Each image will be placed into it s own section within the Images pane. 3 Recording Audio through Notetaker In this section we ll look at the different options for recording audio straight into Notetaker. There s three modes you can use for recording live audio: Microphone only Microphone and speakers Speakers only Which mode you want to choose will depend if you wish to record from the lecture or class you are in, record audio coming from your computer or record audio from both the lecture/class and from your computer at the same time. 9

10 You can specify which mode you want to record in from the Record menu in the ribbon. 3.1 Microphone Only mode Microphone only mode is useful if you wish to use Notetaker live in the lecture or class you are in. Audio will be only be recorded from your computer s in built microphone or any external microphone you have plugged in to your PC. Example: Say you are in a lecture where a PowerPoint is being shown. You can import the slides into Notetaker prior to the lecture beginning, record what is being said by the lecturer against each slide and also make notes and annotate the audio. 3.2 Microphone and Speakers mode This mode will record both audio from you PC s microphone and any kind of audio being played through you PC s speakers at the same time. Example: Say you are watching a video on your laptop. You can record both the audio from the video as well as any verbal notes you wish to add. You can then make notes and annotate the audio either live or later on. 3.3 Speakers Only mode This mode will only record audio from anything being played on your PC. Example: Say you are watching a lecture on YouTube. You can have the YouTube video playing in the background while you listen and make notes and annotate the audio in Notetaker. 10

11 3.4 Specifying microphone / speaker source If you have an external microphone attached to your PC, you may need to specify you want to use that mic rather than the PC s in-built microphone. To do this use the Record From sub-menu from the Record menu in the ribbon. Any available microphones will be listed here. Click on whichever one you wish to record from. 3.5 Making a recording To start recording audio all you have to do is press the Record button in the Ribbon! Alternatively you can use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + R. In the next section we ll take a look at how to use audio already recorded (e.g. from a dictaphone). In section 5 we ll look at how we work with audio we record or import into the Audio pane. 4 Importing Audio Into Notetaker If you don t wish to record audio directly into Notetaker, you can use already created audio files instead. This may include audio files you already have on your computer, or audio from an external device such as a dictaphone. 11

12 4.1 Importing audio from your computer To use existing audio stored on your computer, use the Import Audio... option from the Import menu in the ribbon. You ll be prompted to locate the audio files you wish to import. Tip: you can import multiple audio files at once by holding down the CTRL key when clicking on files. After clicking Open in the Import Audio window, you will see the audio being fed into your Notetaker project. If you have selected multiple audio files, each file will be put into it s own section. 12

13 4.2 Importing audio from an external device You may wish to import audio straight into Notetaker from another device, such as a dictaphone, USB memory stick or mobile phone. To do this, connect your device to the PC using the appropriate cable. A new tab will appear in Notetaker named Portable devices. From within this tab you can choose which files to import. Click on any files you wish to import to your project. Tip: hold down CTRL to select multiple files. Use the Import Into menu within the Ribbon to choose whether to copy the selected audio to an already open project or to a brand new project. You can use the playback controls within the Portable devices tab to preview audio files. 13

14 5 Working with Audio in Notetaker In this section we ll look at how audio appears in Notetaker, how to play back audio and how we can edit audio chunks. 5.1 Introduction to audio chunks As you may have already seen, when audio is recorded or imported it is automatically divided up into what Notetaker calls chunks. You will notice audio chunks often correspond to speech, whereby a passage of speech- a phrase or sentence for example - will be contained within a chunk. The benefit of this system is that certain chunks, containing key information, can be highlighted, annotated or singled-out for later reference. 5.2 Changing size of audio chunks By default, audio chunks in Notetaker can appear quite small. Increasing the size of chunks may make them slightly easier to work with. To change the size of how audio chunks appear we need to go into the main Notetaker menu - accessed from the top left of the screen. From the menu click on Settings... 14

15 In the Settings window, you can use the Chunk height slider to increase the size of audio chunks. There are also sliders to adjust the line spacing, section spacing and scale used in the Audio pane. The Preview section will give you an indication of how it will look back in the main program. 5.3 Playing back audio Audio can be played back using the controls in the ribbon. You can select where to begin playback from by positioning the cursor within the audio pane. Choose a playback point by clicking anywhere in the audio pane. The playback point will be indicated by the cursor. Hit the play button or press the space bar to begin playback. 5.4 Playback options Now lets look how to skip through audio, plus options for adjusting volume and speed of audio playback in Notetaker. Skimming Through Audio: You will notice either side of the Play button are forward and back buttons for quickly jumping playback ahead/back. You can also do this by pressing the right/left arrow keys on the keyboard. 15

16 Adjusting Audio Volume / Speed: To the right of the playback controls you will see a volume slider and above that the speed controls. Before or during playback, click the + or - buttons to increase/decrease the rate of audio. Good for listening to 30 minutes of audio if you only have 15 minutes to spare! 5.5 Adding in section breaks A key process in Notetaker is separating audio up into sections. This means you can divide long stretches of audio into more manageable segments. This can make key comments covered in the audio easier to locate and also allows you make specific notes and annotations against such segments. For example if in a lecture a tutor is running through a presentation, you may want to use different sections for each slide. Sections can be added either during live recording or after importing an audio file into Notetaker. Adding Section Breaks during recording: You can add in section breaks while you are recording directly into Notetaker. The best way to do this is to hit Enter or F12 on the keyboard. Enter will work so long as the focus is in the Audio pane (if your are typing in the text for example, use F12 instead) Alternatively you can right click where you want the break to be and choose Insert Section Break from the menu. 16

17 Adding Section Breaks after recording: After making a recording or importing audio, you can also add section breaks. First place the cursor where you want the break to appear and press Enter. Any audio after the cursor will be bumped into a new section. You can also add in section breaks by right clicking within the audio pane and choosing Insert Section Break from the menu. The Section controls within the ribbon can also be used to add in new sections. Choosing Insert Section Below or Insert Section Above will add a new blank section to the audio pane. Choosing Push Audio to Section Below will send any audio after the cursor to the next section. Use the Remove Section Break option to combine two sections. Place the cursor at the beginning of the second section and click Remove Section Break. Any audio in the second section will be added to the end of the first. 17

18 5.6 Splitting, selecting and merging chunks In Notetaker it is also possible to edit audio chunks - either splitting larger chunks up into separate sections or creating a single chunk from multiple smaller chunks. Split Chunk In order to split a chunk up, left click to place the cursor exactly where you d like the break to be. Then press Ctrl + T to split the chunk. You can also right click where you want a split to be and choose Split Chunk from the menu. Select & Merge Chunks To merge chunks we first need to select two or more chunks. To do this you can left-click and drag. Alternatively you may find it easier to use the keyboard - by holding down Shift and pressing the Right or Left arrow keys. To perform the merge, and join together any chunks you have selected, press Ctrl + M. Or you can right click over any of the selected chunks and choose Merge Chunks from the menu. 18

19 5.7 Audio Clean-Up and Voice Shift Two other tools that are available next to the playback controls are Audio Clean-Up and Voice Shift. The Audio Clean-Up tools will attempt to improve the quality of audio by removing pops, clicks and background noise. The options you tick from the Audio Clean-Up menu will dictate exactly what sounds are eliminated. The good thing about these controls is that they are nondestructive - i.e. your audio won t be permanently affected - simply untick options to restore audio to how it was. The Voice Shift options simply let you change the pitch of the audio, i.e. change whether voices sound high or low. Again, ticking one of these options will not permanently change the audio, rather just apply a filter. Ticking Normal from the Voice Shift menu will restore audio to how it sounded originally. 6 Populating the Text Pane A big part of Notetaker is adding notes alongside audio. To do this we use the text pane. 6.1 Entering text Entering text is very easy - click into the Text pane and start typing! You can also copy and paste text or images from other applications into the Text pane. 19

20 6.2 Entering text while audio is playing / recording You can also still enter text while audio is being recorded or being played back. Click into the Text pane as if to type a note. You can start the audio playing by pressing Ctrl + Space. As audio is playing you can type notes in the Text pane as normal. Pause audio by pressing Ctrl + Space again. To skip ahead in the audio, either when audio is playing or paused, press Ctrl + /. To move back through audio press Ctrl + \. You can also start/stop audio and skip forwards/backwards using the audio controls found in the ribbon. 6.3 The Reference pane The Reference pane provides another area for adding notes and works in exactly the same way as the text pane. The Reference pane is hidden by default. You can show/hide the Reference pane using the button in the view controls found in the bottom toolbar of the Notetaker window. 20

21 6.4 Extracting text from slides / PDF Notetaker has a tool for extracting text from any slides or PDF pages and inserting into the Text pane. A: First click somewhere within the text pane (e.g. next to the slide from which you wish to extract text from). B: Then click on Extract text:this slide in the sidebar. After a few seconds you ll see the text from the slide appear in the Text pane. You can use the Extract text:all slides option in the sidebar to copy text from all slides into the text pane all at once. 6.5 Using the Speak tools Notetaker has it s own text to speech function which can read out content from the Text pane. To start speech click somewhere in the Text pane then click the Speak button from the ribbon. You ll see words highlighted as they are read out. Speech will begin from wherever you place the cursor in the Text pane. If you select Speak All Text from the Speak drop-down menu, speech will begin from the very top of the Text pane. 21

22 6.6 Output text to the Audio pane Using the Send Speech To Audio Pane option from the Speak drop-down menu, you can save Notetaker s speech to the Audio pane. Audio created from Notetaker speech will be shaded to distinguish it from any other audio you may be using You can use the Send All Speech To Audio pane option to convert all text currently in the Notetaker project into audio chunks. 6.7 Changing speech settings You can alter settings of speech within Notetaker by selecting Speech Settings from the Speak drop-down menu. From within the Speech Properties window you can choose which voice you d like Notetaker to use and also set the voice speed. 7 Annotating Audio Perhaps the most important feature in Notetaker is the ability to colour audio in order to indicate key passages or topics for later reference. 7.1 Introduction to the sidebar The Sidebar is where all the controls for colouring audio, text and sections are housed. You can increase the width of the sidebar by clicking and dragging on the division between sidebar and the main workspace. 22

23 7.2 Colouring audio To begin with let s look at how to colour chunks in the audio pane. To start colouring audio, click so the cursor is on the chunk you wish to change. Alternatively use the left/right arrow keys to place the cursor at the start of a chunk. To colour more than one chunk at a time, click and drag to highlight multiple snippets of audio. Alternatively you can hold down shift and use the left/right arrow keys. To apply a colour to audio, click on one of the options under CHUNKS in the sidebar. You ll notice after each option in the sidebar is a number. This indicates that you can also press the corresponding number key on the keyboard to apply that colour. 7.3 Colouring sections and text As well as highlighting audio chunks, you can also add colour to text or entire sections within Notetaker. Colouring sections is much like colouring audio. Place the cursor in the audio pane in the section you d like to highlight - then click on a colour under SECTIONS in the sidebar or press the corresponding number key. 23

24 You may also want to colour content in the Text pane - perhaps to match up with key audio chunks. First select some content in the Text pane. Then click on an option in the COLOURS section of the sidebar. 7.4 Changing the colour key Notetaker has several different colour key sets available for you to choose from. To change the colour key use the dropdown menu in the Audio sidebar. You ll see if you change from Default to another category, colours and/or labels present in the Audio sidebar will change. 7.5 Editing and creating a colour key It is also possible to edit Notetaker s existing colour keys or create a brand new colour and label set using the button within the sidebar. 24

25 Clicking the On the left hand side under Templates you ll see the colour keys available. button will launch the Edit Colour key dialog box: Use the Add and Remove buttons for creating and deleting colours/ labels for the selected template. Click Edit to change the colours or labels of a template. Double clicking on a label will let you change the colour. Long clicking (or clicking then pressing F2) will let you edit the label name. Use the Add button to create a new template. Give the template a name and use the controls to the right to customise your own colour and label combos. 25

26 8 Export from Notetaker There are a few useful options for exporting content of a Notetaker project for later reference. 8.1 Exporting audio as an album Exporting audio as an album will create a collection of audio files from any content stored in the audio pane. You can find all the export options in the drop down menu in the ribbon. Clicking Audio as Album... will bring up a prompt window asking you to choose a location to export to. Choose a location then hit OK to begin the export process: When the progress bar is complete, use Windows Explorer to find your export location. You will see a new folder has been created containing individual audio files for each section of the Notetaker project. Choosing Album to itunes... from the export menu will automatically create these audio files in your itunes library. 26

27 If you highlight some audio in the audio pane - you will see Selected Audio... will be available in the Export menu. This lets you specify just a single piece of audio to export into a single file, rather than the entire contents of the audio pane. 8.2 Exporting audio and images as video Choosing Audio and Images as Video... will export contents from the Images and Audio panes into a MP4 video format. After choosing the Audio and Images as Video... option you will be asked to choose a video size. This dictates the resolution and therefore file size of the video. After selecting a file size, you will be asked to choose a location for the video. The export will then take a few moments to process. Once complete, locate the.mp4 file and when watching you will see the relevant image displayed in the video at the appropriate time with the audio. 27

28 8.3 Exporting text and images The Text and Images... option will export content from the images, reference and text panes into a Microsoft Word document. The first step is to choose which panes you wish to include. You will then be prompted to choose a save location. Head to the save location and find the.rtf file created from your Notetaker project. When opened in Word you ll see all the text and images from your project. You can also choose to include the timecodes relating to the project audio. 28

29 Appendices A.1 Useful shortcuts AUDIO PANE Play/Pause audio Space Skip back/forward one audio chunk Left/Right arrow Move up/down through audio lines and sections Up/Down arrow Go to start/end of audio section Home/End Insert section break Enter Remove section break Backspace Select audio chunk(s) Shift+Left/Right arrow Split audio chunk Ctrl+T Merge audio chunks Ctrl+M Apply colour to audio/section 1-->0 TEXT PANE Insert section break F12 Remove section break Ctrl+F12 Move up/down through sections PgUp/PgDn Play/Pause audio Ctrl+Space Skip audio forwards/backwards Ctrl+/, Ctrl+\ Turn text-to-speech on/off Ctrl+Shift+O GENERAL Start/Stop recording Ctrl+R Move pane in focus left/right Alt+Left/Right arrow Spell check F7 Find text Ctrl+F 29

30 A.2 Useful Resources Video Tutorials Using Sonnocent Audio Notetaker: 1. Capture (3:12) Using Sonnocent Audio Notetaker: 2. Annotate (2:44) Using Sonnocent Audio Notetaker: 3. Review (3:09) Using Sonnocent Audio Notetaker: 4. Engage (2:22) 30