The Otter transcription service uses AI (artificial intelligence) to transcribe speech to text, and the results are not always completely accurate. If you plan to share a transcript after a Zoom session has concluded, or if you add closed captions to a recorded video, you may want to edit the transcribed text before sharing. You can also create custom vocabulary words and train Otter to better understand your voice during the live transcription. This is all possible on the Otter.ai website.
In this help article, we will cover the following topics:
Editing Transcript Text
After an Otter-enabled Zoom meeting ends, the system will process for a short time, and then you can use Otter's synchronized playback feature to review and edit the transcript. Editing will allow you to provide more accurate transcripts to your audience, but it also helps to train the AI to more accurately transcribe your words and identify speaker names in future transcripts.
To edit a transcript:
- Log in to your account on Otter.ai
- Click on the My Conversations tab from the navigation column.
- Click to select and open a conversation.
- Click the Edit button in the top right corner to enter editing mode.
- Press the play button at the bottom of the screen, and click within the transcript to hear the corresponding audio.
- As you review the transcript, you can delete, change or add words as needed.
- When you are finished, click the Done button in the top-right corner of the screen to save changes.
Next Steps
Now that you have finished editing your transcript, you can Add Vocabulary in Otter to include industry specific terminology and also Name Speakers to help your audience distinguish between them.
Once finished, it's time to move on to Sharing Transcripts.
You can teach Otter new vocabulary to increase accuracy. This is especially useful for medical terminology, industry jargon, acronyms and unique name spellings. We recommend adding vocabulary terms prior to transcription sessions, to allow the Otter AI to utilize those terms when processing.
Add to your Personal Vocabulary list:
- Sign in to your account on Otter.ai.
- Click your name in the top left corner of the screen and choose Account settings.
- Click the Manage Vocabulary tab.
- To add a term to your 'Personal Vocabulary,' select from the options under that section. Click Other vocabulary to add a specific term, or click Names of people to add a person's name. You can add multiple words or names at once by separating them with a comma.
- Press Add to save the added word(s) to your vocabulary list.
Note: 'Team Vocabulary' applies to all licensed Otter users at UCSF, and the process for managing this list is not yet defined. Therefore, we recommend only adding terms to your 'Personal Vocabulary' list at this time. If you have any questions, please contact us!
Otter will identify different speakers during a session and name them sequentially as "Speaker 1," "Speaker 2," and so on. If you would like to assign actual names to the speakers, you can do so after the session. Once you tag a speaker with a name, Otter's AI will attempt to automatically tag that speaker accurately in future transcripts.
- Sign in to your account on Otter.ai.
- Click on My Conversations from the navigation bar.
- Click to select and open a conversation.
- Click on a Speaker (#) icon within the transcript to add a speaker name.
- Choose the name you would like to assign. If necessary, add a new name by typing it at the bottom of the pop-up window.
- Click the Tag button to apply the speaker name.
- Repeat for each unique speaker.
Changes are applied as you tag speakers. It may take a minute to process, but now Otter will attempt to rename all instances of that speaker to the chosen name!
Next: Sharing Transcripts