Working with Otter Transcripts

Going Beyond Transcription

Otter.ai creates a transcript of anything it hears and records the audio at the same time. What you do with Otter recordings is entirely up to you. I have been using Otter for a few years now, and here's what I do with it, and why:

Record Long Meetings

I often attend ridiculously long meetings - like two hours! - and find myself losing focus. I use Otter to create an audio recording and transcript that I can refer to later. It's easy to find specific words and phrases in Otter: if something I want isn't in the keywords list at the top of the meeting notes, I just press Ctrl-F and use my browser to search on something. (There's also a search bar at the top of the page.)

For these really long meetings, I usually just refer to the transcript and audio online. If I need to take notes for these meetings, I can copy important text from the online interface and paste it into Microsoft Word as needed - or I can use the Comments and Text Notes features in Otter.ai during or after the meeting.

Create Transcripts of Shorter Meetings

Sometimes I just need a printout of meeting notes to refer to quickly, without needing to fire up my iPhone or go online. In those cases I just download the transcript and clean it up a little in Microsoft Word to create my meeting notes. Read on to learn how.

How to Download a Transcript

  1. Click your transcript title to open it.
  2. Click the three dots in the top-left corner.
  3. Click Export Text
    Otter export options
  4. In the Export Text dialog box, make sure that DOCX is selected.
  5. Click Continue.
    Otter file export options
  6. Choose where to save your transcript (and rename the file if you wish).
  7. Click Save.

Tips for Editing the Transcript

  • Open the file in Microsoft Word, or upload it to Google Docs and work on it there. If you use Kurzweil 3000 to read your textbooks, you can even upload it to that system and edit it there.
  • Delete everything that does not directly relate to the subject of the lecture.  You want to leave only the most important points in your document. 
  • Choose a note taking strategy to help organize the text that remains. Outline notes, Column notes, and Cornell Notes are all good options when you're working with text in a document. Mindomo has a useful Cornell Notes template that I often suggest students use with Otter.ai.