In order to make an annotation, you first have to select a time interval. ELAN supports the following options:
making and saving a selection on an independent tier (the section called “Making a selection on an independent tier”);
making and saving a selection on an independent tier while playing (the section called “Using the selection controls”);
making and saving a selection on a referring tier (the section called “Making and saving a selection on a referring tier”);
deselecting a selection (the section called “Deselecting a selection”);
changing the time alignment of an existing selection (the section called “Changing the boundaries of an existing selection and annotation”);
activating and deactivating the Bulldozer mode (the section called “Activating and deactivating the Bulldozer mode or Shift mode”).
There are several ways to make a selection. If you wish to only use the mouse, do the following:
Go either to the Waveform or the Timeline Viewer.
Go with the mouse to the beginning of the time interval you want to select.
Click the mouse button, keep it clicked and drag it to the endpoint of the time interval you want to select.
The video image will be continuously updated. The selected part is highlighted
in light blue color. You can use the shortcut SHIFT+A to put the
selection in the center of the Timeline Viewer.
The selection can be extended beyond the size of the current window. The display in all Viewers will automatically move along.
You can change the beginning and endpoints of the selection. Choose one of the following options:
Either use the mouse: press the SHIFT key, keep it pressed and click with the mouse to the left/right of the selected part. The selection will be extended to include this point.
Or enable the Selection Mode by selecting the checkbox. When selection mode is enabled, you can use the media controls to edit the selected part. When moving the crosshair in Selection Mode, the current selection is narrowed or broadened, depending on the direction the crosshair is moved to. For a complete overview of the use of the media controls, see the section called “The Media Player options”.
If there is not already a selection, there is another way to make a selection. First put the cross hair at a position where you want the beginning or the end of the selection to be. Then press the SHIFT key and keep it pressed while clicking with the mouse at the position where you want the other end of the selection to be. A selection between the cross hair and the click position is created.
The selection controls allow you to navigate through or to change the active selection. For their use, see again the section called “The Media Player options”.
Assume that you have made a selection and that you want to add a time interval of 1 second to the begin of it. In that case you should perform the following actions:
Move the crosshair to the begin of the active selection
Enable Selection Mode
Go back one second by clicking the corresponding button from the media controls.
Turn off the selection mode and enter an annotation for the selection.
It is possible to start a new selection immediately after a previous selection has ended, i.e., the endpoint of one selection will be taken as the starting point for the next selection. Do the following:
Make a selection on an independent tier (see the section called “Making a selection on an independent tier”).
Double-click on the selection.
Optionally enter the content of the annotation unit. Press the keys CTRL+ENTER. The selection is saved.
Press the keys ALT+SHIFT+C (or ALT+C) or click on the clear selection icon to deselect the selection (see the section called “Deselecting a selection” for deselecting a selection).
Enable the selection mode. Then, play the video or sound file until the playback stops. The new selection extends from the endpoint of the previous selection until the point when the playback was stopped.
Repeat steps 2 and 3 to save the new selection.
Repeat steps 3 to 5 to add another selection.
A referring tier inherits all its time alignments from its parent tier. To make and save a selection on a referring tier, do the following:
Select and save a time interval on the corresponding parent tier (see the section called “Making a selection on an independent tier” and the section called “How to enter annotations”).
Double-click somewhere within the time interval of the parent annotation at about the height of the referring tier. The
box appears.Do one of the following:
Enter an annotation (see the section called “How to enter annotations”), and then press the keys CTRL+ENTER to save the selection.
Press the keys CTRL+ENTER (without entering an annotation) to save the selection.
To deselect a selection, do one of the following:
Use the Deselection icon from the selection controls:
Use the shortcut key ALT+SHIFT+C or ALT+C.
Use the shortcut key CTRL+SHIFT+Z. This shortcut also cancels selecting mode (see the section called “Making a selection on an independent tier”).
Whenever you select another time interval, the old selection is automatically deselected, unless you enabled Selection Mode.
In the timeline viewer, go through these steps:
Click on an annotation unit to select it.
Select the region where you want the modified annotation to be placed.
Right click on the original annotation and select CTRL+ENTER
or pressNow the length of the annotation becomes that of the selection from the second step.
If you press ALT, the active annotation is indicated in green and becomes adjustable with the mouse:
drag in the middle of the annotation and drop it somewhere else to move it
drag and drop the borders to change the boundaries of the annotation unit
Only the time-alignment of annotations on the following types of tiers can be modified: annotations on independent tiers, and annotations on referring tiers that fall under the Time Subdivision stereotype (but note that in the latter case, the alignment cannot be extended beyond the boundaries of its parent annotation, see the section called “Basic Information: Annotations, tiers and linguistic types”).
To modify the time alignment of annotations on all other tiers, change the time alignment on the corresponding parent tier (following the steps above). The time alignment on all referring tiers is automatically updated. The annotations on the referring tier that are no longer within the borders of the annotation on the parent tier are discarded. If you want to shift the annotations on a referring tier in the same way as the annotation on the parent, use the methods described in the section called “Shifting annotations”.
If two annotations are adjacent you can snap them by specifying the maximum close-value in ms.
Annotations can be shifted to the left or the right by a number of milliseconds. See the section called “Shifting annotations”.
Use the shortcut key CTRL+j and CTRL+u to change the left boundary of a selection to the left and to the right, respectively. To change the right boundary use the shortcut key CTRL+SHIFT+j and CTRL+SHIFT+u.
To shift a specific annotation, go through these steps in the timeline viewer:
Click on an annotation unit to select it.
Right click the annotation and select CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER.
or pressEnter a number of ms/ss.ms/mm:ss.ms/hh:mm:ss.ms (between -510 ms and 1080 ms) by which the annotation should shifted. If the number is greater that zero, the annotation is shifted to the right. If it is less that zero, is shifted to the left.
Click on
.The number of milliseconds you can enter is limited by the end of the annotation to the left and the begin of the annotation to the right, or by the begin or end of the timescale.
It is also possible to shift more than one annotations at once. To do so, first decide which annotations you would like to shift:
The annotations within a selection. In this case, select the annotations to shift.
The annotations to the left or to the right of a point on the timeline. In this case, place the crosshair on that point.
Then click
in the main menu and select . This submenu has the following options:: same as described above.
.
.
.
.
.
All these options result in a window as in Figure 5.49, “Shift annotations”. Enter a number of millisecond and click . All annotations referred to in the menu option are now shifted by the number of millisecond you entered.
A final option is to shift all annotations on all tiers. To do so, click
.ELAN supports three editing modes: Overwrite mode, Bulldozer mode and Shift mode. These modes are somehow comparable to the Overwrite and Insert modes that are supported by many text editor programs such as, e.g., Microsoft Word.
Normal (i.e. overwrite) mode: if you extend a selection into a time interval that is already occupied by an annotation, that annotation is (partly or wholly) overwritten.
Bulldozer mode: if you extend a selection into a time interval that is already occupied by an annotation, that annotation is moved to the right/left. Think about it as a bulldozer which pulls all annotations together, discarding the spaces in between.
Shift Mode: like Bulldozer Mode, but the spaces between annotations are preserved too. This resembles most to the insert mode of text editors (see also the section called “Synchronizing video files”).
The following conventions apply for the Bulldozer mode:
Annotations are moved to the right if you extend your selection from left to right. They are moved to the left if you extend your selection from right to left.
If a moved annotation extends into the time-interval of yet another annotation, that other annotation is moved accordingly. If it extends into empty space, no other annotations are affected.
Moving annotations may thus affect the whole document, and may thereby destroy previous time alignments. Please make sure that the Bulldozer Mode is not accidentally switched on.
The Overwrite mode is the default mode. To switch to another mode, do the following:
Click on
.Click on
, or . A checkmark appears next to it. To switch back to the Overwrite mode, repeat steps 1 and 2 above. The checkmark disappears.