Search, copy, and export a transcript

A finished transcript is good for three things: finding the moment somebody said something, getting the words out to somewhere else, and producing a file another tool can read.

Searching and copying are free, and so is the transcript export. The gated export is the Spreadsheet / Shot List.

Search within the open transcript

1. Open the Transcript tab (R).
2. Type into Search transcript. / focuses the box, and Cmd+F (Ctrl+F on Windows) does too, even from inside another field.
3. Walk the matches with Enter or the ‹ › buttons. Add Shift to go backwards.
4. Click a match to move the player to it. Esc clears the search.

The box shows the number of results and your position in them, and it lands on the best match rather than the first one in time.

This search forgives a word the recogniser split or misheard. When a hit is not literal it is marked approximate, and hovering it shows what the transcript actually says — so you can tell "found it" from "found something like it".

Two things it does not do: it does not search speaker names — use the speakers popover for those — and it does not reach outside this one transcript.

Search spoken words across the library

Library search reads transcript text alongside your titles and metadata, so you can find a line without knowing which project it is in.

The differences worth holding on to:

	Transcript search	Library search
Covers	This transcript	Titles, shot fields, video fields, transcripts
Matching	Forgiving, marks approximate hits	Literal substring, all terms must match
Scope	The open video	All items, or the folder / collection you are standing in
Tells you why	It highlights the words	Each result names what it matched — including Transcript

A library result that matched on transcript says so, which is what separates "you tagged this" from "somebody said it on camera".

Copy transcript text

Copy in the transcript toolbar copies everything currently visible — the view mode you are in, and your Display settings.

That makes the copy configurable in a useful way:

• Want prose with no speaker names or timestamps? Switch to Plain text first.
• Want a screenplay-style read? Copy from By speaker with speaker names on.
• Want it against the picture? Copy from By shot.

Corrected lines copy in their corrected form. Fix names, numbers and anything you intend to publish before copying rather than after.

Export a transcript or subtitles

1. Open the Export tab (X).
2. Set your destination folder.
3. Turn on Transcript & Subtitles. It appears once a completed transcript exists for the video.
4. Tick the formats you want. At least one, or the export cannot start.
5. Click Add to Queue, and keep working while it runs.

Five formats, and you choose any combination:

Format	What it is for
SRT	Subtitles for almost anything
WebVTT	Subtitles for the web
Plain text	A readable script
CSV	The transcript as a table
Fountain	Screenplay-formatted text

The CSV is the one worth knowing about: its columns are start, end, shot, speaker and text, so the file already knows which picture each line belongs to, and it pairs with the shot list spreadsheet.

Timestamps, speaker labels, grouping and line width are options on the export. Speaker names are written in once there is more than one speaker, and they are whatever you renamed them to.

Subtitles are not a script, and a script is not subtitles

Subtitle timing is built to be readable on screen against the picture. A plain text script is built to be read on its own. Exporting both is normal.

Review captions before you deliver them. Recognition errors that read as harmless in a transcript are conspicuous burnt into a video.

The per-shot transcript also prints in the PDF storyboard, in full.

Which output should I choose?

You want to	Use
Read or rewrite the words	Plain text, or Fountain for screenplay format
Put captions on a video	SRT, or WebVTT for the web
Analyse dialogue in a spreadsheet	CSV — it carries shot and speaker per line
Find a moment inside StoryFolder	Nothing. Search the transcript, or the library
Hand somebody the board with dialogue on it	PDF storyboard

What search cannot find

• Words that were never transcribed — a video with no completed transcript contributes nothing to either search.
• Words the recogniser got wrong. Searching for what was said will not find what was written. Correct the line, then search again.
• Anything visual that nobody wrote down. Neither search looks at the picture; see AI Autofill and library search for what does.
• Meaning. Library search matches text, not synonyms. Transcript search forgives spelling, not vocabulary.

Related pages

• Transcribe a video on your device
• Identify speakers
• Library search
• Scripts & subtitles · Export options overview
• Troubleshoot transcription

Next step

→ Troubleshoot transcription