Transana (Software)

Transana is an open-source software program available via its website, http://www.transana.org, that facilitates computer-based transcription and management of media files. Available for both Mac and PC platforms, it was developed primarily for use with video data, but it can also be used with audio data. Transana provides integrated organization of transcription, coding, presentation, and analysis of audio and video data. It was first developed by Chris Fassnacht and is now developed and maintained by David Woods and colleagues at the University of Wisconsin's Center for Education Research. Transana has gained wide popularity for its low cost, availability, user-friendliness, and its increasing power to facilitate transcription, coding, and organization of large corpora of qualitative audio and video data.

Transana allows the user to play media files and simultaneously transcribe or code without switching applications or browser windows. The program also includes keyboard shortcuts that mirror the functions of traditional pedal transcribers (i.e., pause, stop, rewind, fast-forward), includes automatic rollback from zero to 5 seconds after pausing, and has shortcuts for fine-grained transcription superscripts. Users can also select media playback speed (from 1/10 to two times the original speed) and can insert timecode stamps in a transcription, allowing for easy access to key points in the media file or transcript.

In addition, Transana functions as a database, linking a transcription file (exportable in Word rich-text format) to a media file. Timecode markers, keywords, or other codes can be used to call up portions of the file or catalog and group relevant portions of data. Transana also includes a hierarchical organizing system for organizing multiple layers of transcripts or codes for the same media clips.

Transana is available in single- or multiuser versions, the latter of which provides database access to multiple parties across institutions. This ability allows for continued and shared consideration of the data in its original media format without sole reliance on transcripts alone. Making such a consideration of non-verbal interactions easily available to multiple parties opens data up to dispute-verification during coding, analysis, or dissemination. Transana also includes a presentation feature in which media clips can be [Page 882]presented with overlain transcripts or codes. The ability to view video in tandem with codes and transcript keeps these analytic processes more visible and fluid and thus open to others' insights and opinions throughout entire process.

Transana Screen View. Transana's typical display including (clockwise from top left): Visualization window (shows audio waveform), video window, data window (shows database file organization), transcript window. Source: Copyright University of Wisconsin–Madison; used by permission.