4.7.3. Editing multiple files
Document Actions
Normally ELAN allows to edit only a single file at a time. There are situations in which it is convenient to edit multiple files at once. The menu item gives a number of options to do just this. When selecting either of them, you are warned that you should have copies of the files you are going to work on in case you want to restore the files (there is no Undo for multiple file edits).
When you choose this option , you see the following dialog.
Options :
Select folder containing media files : click button to select the folder containing media files.
check this option process sub-folders as well, recursive to include all the media files in the recursive sub-folders of the selected folder.
To apply a template (only if required) for the new transcription files, check this option Use a template for the new transcription files and click on button to select the template file.
Next option allows you to select a location for the new transcription files.
To put the transcription files in the same folder as the media files, select in the same folder as the media files.
To put them in a different folder, select in other folder and click the button to select the destination folder.
You could always have more than one media file in a transcription. In order to group the media files for a transcription, check this option Combine videos based on. In order to define how the media should be grouped, select one of the following:
different suffix : to combine the media file with a different suffix and has the same file name.
different prefix : to combine the media file different preffix value and has the same file name.
To specify a separator in the filename to identify the suffix or preffix, check this option Specify custom affix separator character ('-' and '_' are built in).
Click on Start to create the transcriptions based on the options set.
The option shows, after clicking in the warning dialog mentioned above, the Multi File Editor. The first thing to do here is to load a domain by clicking . Loading a domain is the same as for the option. To be able to load a domain you must of course have created one beforehand(see Section 4.7.1). After loading a domain, the data is shown in the table. In this table you can edit tiers on the Tiers tab and linguistic types on the Linguistic Types tab.
To edit a name, annotator or participant of a tier, double click the corresponding table cell or select it and start typing. To change the linguistic type of a tier, select one from the drop down menu. You can add a tier by clicking and remove one by clicking .
![[Note]](images/note.png) | Note |
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If there are hierarchy inconsistencies (e.g. if a tier in one file does have a parent while a tier with the same name in another file does not) removing tiers is not possible. The button is therefore greyed out. |
On the Linguistic Types tab, the name of a linguistic type can be changed by
double clicking the corresponding table cell in the Type Name
column.
Changes made in the Tiers and Types tabs are applied to all the files in the domain after clicking the Save changes to domain files button.
When you choose , you first need to specify a new domain or select an existing domain. This option helps you to "clean" the annotation files (*.eaf) of possible tabs or whitespace characters which are often overlooked by the user but are still saved in the file. To select, create or delete a domain see Section 4.7.1.
In the next dialog, you can specify what characters to delete, new line characters, tab characters and/or whitespace characters, and in what position these characters have to be. Click to start the scrubbing process. The progress of the scrubbing is shown in the progress bar.
The option for multiple files is the same function as annotations from overlaps in the current open file (see Section 5.11.1 ), but applied to a selection of files. The first step allows to select a custom set of files in a file browser or to load a set of files that have been stored as a domain. For loading or creating new domain see Section 4.7.1 The list of tiers is the sum of all tier names encountered in the selected files. The options in the next steps are the same, clicking the Finish button in the last step the new tier is created and populated with annotations in all files of the domain.
The option for multiple files is the same function as annotations from subtraction in the current open file (see Section 5.12 ), but applied to a selection of files. The first step allows to select a custom set of files in a file browser or to load a set of files that have been stored as a domain. For loading or creating new domain see Section 4.7.1 The list of tiers is the sum of all tier names encountered in the selected files. The options in the next steps are the same, clicking the Finish button in the last step the new tier is created and populated with annotations in all files of the domain.
This function is similar to annotation statistics for the current file (see Section 5.15.2). The main difference after selecting the files in the domain is that it is possible to select which tiers to include in the calculations. The tables in the tabs do not have the column showing the total annotation duration as a percentage of the media duration but most do have a column for the number of files a certain value (tier or type name etc.) has been encountered in. After changes in the selection of files or in the selection of tiers the Update Statistics button needs to be clicked before the new calculations are started.
Release of ELAN 4.3.0
