VideoText workflow guide
Which tag when audio is unclear? GoTranscript uses [inaudible 00:00:00] and [unintelligible 00:00:00] — not interchangeable — plus [crosstalk] for overlapping speech. Full rules with examples.
Choose Rev, GoTranscript, TranscribeMe, Scribie, or a custom client specification. Each guideline has distinct rules for verbatim level, speaker label format, timestamp intervals, inaudible notation, and maximum paragraph length.
Clean verbatim removes fillers, false starts, and repetitions for readability. Full verbatim preserves all spoken content. Applying the wrong level is the most common single reason transcripts fail marketplace QA — it cannot be fixed without re-reading the source audio.
A single speaker must have exactly one label format from the first occurrence to the last. Mixed formats (JOHN SMITH / John / J. Smith) require a find-and-replace pass across the full document before any other formatting work.
Rev-style: timestamps every 2 minutes or at each speaker change. GoTranscript: job-dependent — bold [00:00:00] either every 2 minutes or at every speaker change, with no timestamping on the qualification test. TranscribeMe: per-speaker-turn timestamps. Paragraph limits range from 8 lines (Rev) to roughly 500 symbols (GoTranscript).
Verify inaudible notation consistency (all [inaudible] or all [INAUDIBLE], never mixed), check bracket format for crosstalk sections, confirm verbatim level is consistent throughout, and validate that paragraph length does not exceed the client's maximum.
Speech that cannot be heard at all. Place it at the exact point in the text where the audio fails rather than at the end of the sentence, so the editor can find the moment in the recording.
Speech that is audible but cannot be understood. Choosing this over [inaudible] tells the editor the recording itself was fine and the delivery was not — which is information they act on differently.
Two or more speakers talking over each other. No timestamp on this one. Place it inline or on its own line at the point where the overlap happens.
[silence] marks a gap of roughly 4 to 10 seconds. Anything longer takes [pause 00:00:00], bold and on its own line, with the time at which the pause begins.
Reduce revision risk before submitting marketplace jobs. A pre-delivery formatting check catches the label inconsistency, timestamp format error, or verbatim level mismatch that triggers a QA rejection and unpaid revision.
Create a consistent formatting baseline across a team of transcriptionists working on the same client account — so reviewers spend time on content accuracy, not fixing label formats.
Turn raw AI-generated transcripts into readable interview documents: speaker structure, consistent punctuation, accurate paragraph breaks, and timestamps that let readers verify context in the source recording.
A plausible word typed in where the audio could not be heard. This is worse than any tag: an editor checking the file cannot tell that it is wrong, so it passes review and reaches the client as an error.
[inaudible 3:45] rather than [inaudible 00:03:45]. The full hours, minutes and seconds are required on every time-stamped tag, on short files as much as long ones.
Every unclear moment marked [inaudible], including audible-but-unclear speech and passages where speakers overlap. It collapses three distinctions the guidelines deliberately keep apart.
[unclear], [mumbles], [??] and similar improvisations. The guidelines list the tags that exist, and anything outside the list is treated as an error rather than a judgement call.
Square brackets, lowercase, present tense, two words at most: [background noise], [laughs], [laughter], [foreign language]. The constraint is on the notation, not just the vocabulary.
Only the time-stamped marks: [inaudible 00:00:00], [unintelligible 00:00:00] and [pause 00:00:00]. [crosstalk], [silence] and [laughs] take no time and should not be given one.
Bold applies to speaker labels, timestamps and time-stamped tags. A tag that loses its bold on export has lost a graded rule, even though the text still reads correctly.
[inaudible 00:00:00] — speech cannot be heard (noise, poor recording). [unintelligible 00:00:00] — speech is heard but not understood (accent, manner). Both require full HH:MM:SS and must be bold.
Use [crosstalk] when speakers talk over each other. Place it inline or on its own line where the overlap occurs. Do not use [inaudible] for simultaneous speech — editors treat these as different tags.
No. GoTranscript requires [inaudible 00:00:00] with the full hours:minutes:seconds timestamp at the point of unclear audio. Short forms like [inaudible 3:45] are incorrect.
[silence] for 4–10 second pauses, [pause 00:00:00] bold on a separate line for pauses over 10 seconds, [background noise], [laughs], [laughter], and [foreign language] when applicable. Notes are lowercase, present tense, max two words.
Never guess. Use [inaudible 00:00:00] or [unintelligible 00:00:00] at the exact position. Inventing custom tags or leaving blanks causes QA failures.
