A GET YOU GOING GUIDE To Your copy here Audio Notetaker 4.0 April 2015 1 Learning Support
Getting Started with Audio Notetaker Audio Notetaker is highly recommended for those of you who use a Digital Voice Recorder to record lectures/seminars or tutorials and find writing notes difficult. You may end up with many hours of recordings which can become difficult to manage and keep track of, resulting in frustration and confusion. Using Audio Notetaker can help; it can help you organise your audio notes and pick out key points, useful when writing assignments or at revision time. To start Audio Notetaker there should be an icon like this on the desktop: If the icon is not there: 1) Go to Start 2) Programs 3) Find Sonocent Audio Notetaker 4) Click on Audio Notetaker Once Audio Notetaker is open it will look like this: This is Audio NoteTaker s home tab. From here it is quick and easy to setup your project with a number of project shortcuts. 2
To create a new document click on Blank Project from the Home tab. Importing Audio You can import audio into Audio Notetaker in three ways: 1) You could import audio from a Dictaphone. 2) From an external recording device. 3) From files on your computer. 4) Recording from the output of your speakers. To import audio from a Dictaphone or other external recording device: 1) Click on the Green Tab in the top left hand corner. 2) Click on Manage 3) Then select View Portable Devices Quick Tip Make sure your Dictaphone is connected to the computer 4) A new tab will then open in Audio Notetaker. 3
This column shows your devices 5) Select your device and the audio files should appear on the right hand side 6) Right click the file you wish to import and select whether you want to import it into your existing document or a new document 4
To import audio from a File already on your computer: 1) In Audio Notetaker s toolbar click on this icon: 2) Now click on Import Audio. You are then presented with a new window, find your audio and click open. Quick Tip Audio Notetaker will accept the following file formats: WAV, WMA and MP3 Once your audio has been imported it should look similar to this: The audio is shown as blue bars; each bar is a length of audio and the space in-between is a break or a pause. 5
Recording Audio with a Microphone As well as using existing audio files you can create one yourself in real-time. Be sure to have a microphone connected to the computer. 1) Click on the drop down arrow next to the record button and make sure Mic Only is selected. 2) Now press the Record Button and begin dictating into the microphone. You will see the audio bars being created on the screen as you dictate. Recording the Output from your Speakers Audio Notetaker v3 allows you to record audio from your speakers. For instance, you could record the audio from a YouTube clip or an important documentary; this will allow you to listen back to the recording at your own speed and enable you to take your time whilst taking notes. 1) Click on the drop down arrow next to the record button and make sure Speakers Only is selected. 2) Now, play the audio as you would so you can hear it through your speakers. 3) Click the Record Button. 4) Audio Notetaker will now record the audio output; you will see the audio bars being created on the screen. 6
Playing Back Audio To play back audio just click on the Play symbol on the toolbar. Play Pause/Stop Quick Tip Once the play button is clicked on, it changes to the pause button You can play back audio from any part of the recording. You have a cursor, just like you do in Word when typing. Click anywhere over the audio bars where you would like to start the audio from then click play. Audio Speed and Volume To speed the audio up or down click on the plus or minus symbol to increase or decrease the audio s speed. To adjust the volume of the recording, simply move the slider to the left or right to decrease or increase the sound. Increase/Decrease speed Increase/Decrease Volume 7
The extra buttons next to the speed controls are very handy, here is what they do: When clicked, the audio pauses after every bar (chunk). This enables you to catch up on your notes so the audio doesn t get ahead of you. Click on the drop down and pick the type of noise you want to drown out. Editing Audio Trim Silence If you have a recording with a lot of silence which you would like to remove you can simply trim the silence. To do this: 1) Highlight the audio bars you wish to trim the silence from 2) Click on Trim Silence on the right hand side. Add Section Breaks So now you have your audio imported you can organise it. As you will notice when you first import the audio, it is all in one big chunk. 8
To organize it you may want to split the audio up into smaller chunks. For example each chunk may be a different topic the tutor was talking about. To do this place the cursor where you want to split the audio and press Enter on the keyboard. The audio bars will now look similar to this; it is clear that there are now two audio parts. You can highlight a section by clicking in one of the chunks of audio and selecting a colour from the toolbar on the right. Quick Tip You could use the shortcut keys 6-9 to highlight a section, instead of clicking. Deleting Audio When you record a lecture you may end up recording a few bits which are not necessary and that you could do without! As you listen to the recording again you might find a bit you would like to remove. To remove audio: 1) Click and drag the cursor to highlight the bars you want to delete 2) Right click and select Delete, or press the Delete key. 9
3) The audio will now be removed Highlighting Audio Audio Notetaker lets you highlight the audio bars just like the way you can do with handwritten notes. To do this: 1) Select the blue audio bars you would like to highlight by clicking and dragging the cursor over them 2) Select a colour from the toolbar on the right Quick Tip You could use the shortcut keys 1-5 to highlight a section, instead of clicking. 3) The audio bars should now be highlighted in that specific colour 10
Adding Information to Audio NoteTaker You can add details about your Audio Notetaker file such as the date and the name of the speaker. To do this: 1) Click on the details of your Audio Notetaker file in the top right corner. Click here 2) Now you can name your Audio Notes, give it a topic, add a speaker and date. 3) When you are finished, click on the tick. 11
Adding Notes To add notes, ensure that the text pane is open. Click the picture of the paper at the bottom of the application to open the text pane To add in notes: 1) Click your cursor in one of the columns where you want to add some notes. 2) Start typing as you would in Microsoft Word. 3) You can change the formatting of your text using the toolbar on the right hand side. Quick Tip Use this toolbar to change, the font, colour and size of your text 12
Adding Images As well as adding in text you can also add in graphics (images or pictures) to your audio notes. To do this: 1) Click on the show image pane button on the toolbar Click here 2) This will now split your screen into 3 instead of 2 3) Now click and drag an image you wish to add into the new column 13
Adding References Audio Notetaker v4 has another column you can open; this is the reference window. The reference window is another place for text and is treated in the same way as the text column; in the reference column you could add the lecturer s notes and write your own notes in the text column. 1) Click on this icon in the toolbar to open the reference window: Click here 2) You will now have 4 split windows within Audio Notetaker. Importing a PowerPoint Audio Notetaker allows you to import a whole PowerPoint slideshow so you can add audio and notes next to each slide. You may want to import a slide from your lecture and add notes and make voice recordings for each slide. 1) Open a new document within Audio Notetaker. 2) Now click on the import button on the toolbar and click Import Slides. 3) Now browse to the powerpoint you want to import and click Open. 14
Audio NoteTaker imports each slide into the image pane on its own section. This allows you to add notes and add audio recordings next to each slide. Exporting your Audio Notes You can export your Audio Notes so they can be played back on other devices. To Export your audio notes: 1) Click on the Export options button in the toolbar: 2) Then select Audio as Album 15
Selecting Audio as Album allows you to export the notes so they can be played back on other devices such as smart phones. Quick Tip Instead of exporting as Audio as Album.., select Album to itunes.. to export it straight to itunes If you select Text and Images this exports the texts and images in the notes to a Microsoft Word Document. 16
The Screen Capture Tool The screen capture tool allows you to take a screenshot of something on your screen (e.g. a web page) and it places the image into Audio Notetaker s image window. 1) Select the Screen Capture Tool from the toolbar menu, this located next to the record button. 2) With the new window that appears, move it over the area you wish to screen capture, re-size the window by dragging the corners. Screen Capture window 3) Click the camera icon in the top left of the capture window to take the screen shot. Click to take screenshot The screenshot should now be placed in the image pane within Audio NoteTaker. 17
Text to Speech Tool Audio NoteTaker can read back aloud text in the reference and text pane. 1) Simply place your cursor where you would like the speech to start from. 2) Click on the Speak icon. 3) Each word gets highlighted whilst it is read aloud. 4) Click on the speak icon again to stop the playback. Speech to Text Tool Audio NoteTaker now works with Dragon Naturally Speaking, allowing you to dictate into the text pane. 1) Click on the Scribe tab. 2) Click on Open/Configure Speech Recognition 3) Now locate your Dragon profile or create a new one. 4) Once the profile is setup and open, you can now dictate into the text pane. 18