Deselecting the inline text edit box commits changes:

If this option is not checked (default) changes made to an inline edit box are discarded if you leave the edit box without explicitly committing the changes. This happens for instance if you click outside the current edit box.

If this option is checked changes are committed if you leave the current inline edit box.

Enter key commits changes in the inline edit box:

If this option is not checked (default) pressing ENTER will insert a line break (a.k.a. newline) in an inline edit box. To commit the changes you should hit CTRL+ENTER.

If this option is checked ENTER will not insert a line break. It commits the changes as if you pressed CTRL+ENTER.

Clear Selection after creating or editing an annotation

This option makes ELAN clear the selection after creating or editing an annotation

Clear Selection on single mouse click

With this option checked (default), a selection that has been made in the timeline will be cleared when you click outside of that selection.

Create new annotations on the dependent tiers when a new annotation is created

If this option is selected, annotations on dependent tiers are created automatically when a annotation on a independent(parent) tier is created. By default , this option is not selected.

Creates annotations aligned with video frames

When annotations are created, they can be aligned with the video frames by selecting this option.

Snap Annotations

If this option is checked, you can specify the maximum value to snap annotations in (ms).

Always center the active annotation

This option if checked, always put the active annotation in the center of the viewer in annotation mode.

When copying an annotation, copy:

When you want to copy an annotation as text to an external document , you can either choose to copy the annotation + begintime + endtime, or the annotation only. The default is 'copy the annotation + begintime + endtime'. This will copy the annotation, Tier name, begin and end time.

When copying an annotation use the time format of 'Copy Current Time'

This option refers to the first option in the Media preferences category.

Default language for multilingual content:

Set the preferred default language used in multilingual content, such as controlled vocabularies. When using multiple CVs, the language set here will be the CVs default language. Multilingual content is based on ISOcat data categories (DCR). CMDI metadata is displayed in the set language, if this is available from the ISOcat category.

Specify the width of the edit box (in pixels)

In the text field a minimal width for the edit box can be specified. Useful when the default width cuts off too much of the entry values.

Show CV entry description in the inline edit box

When checked, the CV entries will be shown as a two-column table with the description of each entry in the second column.

Specify the percentage of the width of the first column (the CV entry value column)

In combination with the above option, this determines how much of the width of the box will be reserved for the CV entry values.

Look for CV entries that contain instead of start with the search string

When checked, this option will suggest entries from the CV that contain the given search string. When unchecked, only entries that start with the search string are suggested.

Also look in the descriptions of the CV entries

With this option checked, descriptions of the CV entries that contain the search string are also displayed in the suggest panel.

Ignore case

If this option is checked, case will be ignored when matching the search string entered in the CV suggest panel.

After changes in an ECV, don't update the annotation value but update the reference to a CV entry

When ELAN opens an .eaf file with links to an external CV, it checks by default if the value of each annotation that has a reference to an entry in an external CV, still corresponds to the value of that entry. If the value of the entry was changed, the annotation value is updated accordingly. If the entry is no longer there, the reference is removed.

By selecting this option, the annotation value will always remain unchanged. Instead, the CV will be searched for an entry with a value equal to that of the annotation and the reference will be updated to that entry or removed if there is no such entry.

Suggest child annotation CV entries based on the parent annotation value

By default, this option is unselected. You need to enable this if you want to automatically filter the CV entries for the annotations on the child tier (having symbolic association with the parent tier) based on the parent annotation value. The child tier needs to have the tier type associated with a controlled vocabulary and symbolic association stereotype. Filtering here means that the words in the parent annotation value are matched agaist the CV entries for the child. The automatically suggested entries depend on the below options. The suggestions are based on the options selected in the above Suggest Panel: Look for CV entries that contain instead of start with the search string, Also look in the descriptions of CV entries and Ignore case.

When copying the current media time, use the format

A time format can be selected, determining how the media time will be copied to the pasteboard, e.g. hh:mm:ss.ms for the hours:minutes:seconds.milliseconds format.

Media navigation:

Video display:

Media location:

The document's Changed flag is set when the media location has changed

With this checked, you will notice when a media file has changed its location.

Media clipping with script:

Controls:

Automatically play media:

Check the metadata keys you want to display in the Metadata tab in the main window by default. (See also the section called “The Metadata Viewer”.)

Use screen menu bar

if checked ELAN will use the screen menu bar in Mac OS. Note that this option enforces the Mac Look and Feel.

Use Mac Look and Feel

if selected ELAN will use the Mac OS Look and Feel. If the option Use screen menu bar is checked, ELAN will use the Mac Look and Feel, regardless of the selected option here.

Cross Platform Java Look and Feel

if selected ELAN will use a cross-platform Look and Feel, which is less similar to native macOS applications. When this option is selected two more option become available:

Use Mac File Dialog

if checked ELAN will use a dialog which is similar to the native Mac OS file dialog. Otherwise a platform independent (i.e. Java) file dialog.

Media Framework

select either

Extraction of audio samples from video for audio visualization (waveform, spectrogram)

If no wavefile is linked, a listed framework might be able to produce the audio samples from a video.

Use Windows Look and Feel

if checked ELAN will use the Windows look and feel. If unchecked, an independent look and feel will be used (default).

Cross Platform Java Look and Feel

if selected ELAN will use a cross-platform Look and Feel, which is less similar to native Windows applications. When this option is selected two more option become available:

Media Framework

select either:

Extraction of audio samples from video for audio visualization (waveform, spectrogram)

If no wavefile is linked, a listed framework might be able to produce the audio samples from a video.

Select a Look and Feel

Media Framework

select either:

Extraction of audio samples from video for audio visualization (waveform, spectrogram)

If no wavefile is linked, a listed framework might be able to produce the audio samples from a video.

Automatic check for updates

Selecting this option will enable the automatic checking for new updates, which will run once a month and will inform you of available updates.

Save transcriptions as old EAF 2.7 format

Checking this option will make that your projects are saved in the older 2.7 version of eaf and ensures compatibility with older versions of ELAN. Multi-lingual CVs will not be saved with your project!

Lock EAF files when opening them (creates .lock files, possibly hidden)

Locking an eaf file will prevent someone else from opening and editing the same file at the same time (in case the file is in a shared location) or prevent yourself from opening the same file twice. There are two important limitations to keep in mind:

In case of a crash of ELAN, .lock files might have to be deleted manually before the eaf file can be opened again. The .lock file is in the same directory as the eaf file and might not be visible by default in a file explorer.

Preferences location

It is possible to specify an alternative directory where preferences (.pfsx) files should be stored. Click Browse... and select the preferred directory for ELAN preferences files. By default a preferences file is stored in the same directory as the eaf file.

Location for other (non-Audio/Video) linked files

It is possible to specify a default directory where ELAN can look for missing linked files other than primary media files (e.g. metadata, timeseries files). Click Browse... and select the preferred directory, click the X to remove this preference.

Tier Set

Number of recent items

select the number of recently edited items ELAN should remember.

Change the UI font size

allows you to set the font size of menus, labels, buttons etc. The slider allows to specify a value between 100% and 200%. This can e.g. be useful on high resolution displays if the font seems too small. This option requires a relaunch of ELAN.

Default font for tiers, annotations and CV entries

it is possible to specify a preferred font, and its size, for tiers, annotations and CV entries, to be used if no other font is specified (e.g. for specific tiers). Initially ELAN either uses the Arial Unicode MS or the (Java) system's standard font. This option is especially useful if the initial font does not provide glyphs for the language or writing system you are working with. This option requires a relaunch of ELAN.

Tooltips

if checked ELAN will show tool tips with information about the data or about the functionality of ELAN, depending on the position of the mouse cursor.

Menu Options

if the Show annotation count box is checked, the number of annotations per tier will be shown in the menus and tier lists in the viewers.

Painting strategy for custom timeline-based viewers and components

this option lets you choose to set unbuffered or buffered painting of components. Imac retina displays can only handle unbuffered (direct) painting, for instance.

Viewers

Timeline:

Tier order in dropdown menus

Subtitles

Select Viewers

If the video is placed in the center, then it is possible to select which viewers should be shown in the left and right pane of the video. Select either Left to the video or Right to the video for each viewer. The order of the viewer in the table also determines their sort order in the tab pane. To sort the viewers use the buttons Move Up and Move Down to rearrange their sort order.

Automatic Backup

On / Off: with these checkboxes automatic backup can be switched on or off, application wide.

Number of backup files

This can be set to a value from 1 to 5. This sets the size of the pool of backup files the program iterates over. The extension of the files will be *.eaf.001 (... *.eaf.005). Together with the backup interval setting this determines how long it will take before a backup file is overwritten by a new version.

Backup Interval>

Sets how often each open file will be backed up, the choice ranges from every minute to every 30 minutes.

Backup Files Location