Adding comments to .eaf files

This section will describe how to add comments to an annotation project. ELAN supports annotation and display of time-based resources such as audio and video with a referencing and note exchanging system. Persistent references to time slices and tiers are possible by making and exchanging comments referring to these. Different strategies for exchanging notes based on these links are available, allowing for collaboration among users. Among these are the DWAN server system ( https://tla.mpi.nl/tla-news/dasish-web-annotator/ http://dasish.eu, sharing of comment collections in files stored on shared directories (for instance using a cloud directory sharing service), or by exchanging single or multiple comments with their metadata via ordinary email messages. Downloading an eaf file from the IMDI-browser will also provide the user with the comments file.

A screencast is available on Vimeo explain the comments function: https://vimeo.com/126680719

Each eaf has a specific id and all comments regarding that eaf will be shown to you, when you are logged on to the server.

Figure 1.123. Comments-tab in ELAN

Comments-tab in ELAN

The Comments tab is divided in two panels; the left-hand side shows all comments associated with the .eaf file you are working on, the right-hand panel is used to enter your comments. Furthermore, there are six buttons which have different functions:

Comments setup and settings

To take full advantage of the comments-system, you will need to adjust some settings and register for an account. To register, follow these steps:

  • From a browser, go to https://corpus1.mpi.nl/ds/webannotator-basic/registerNonShibbolethPrincipal.html. Fill out the form there and click Submit.
  • In ELAN, go to the Comments tab and click Other... and select Settings from the drop-down menu. In the new dialog, enter the following details:

    Service URL: https://corpus1.mpi.nl/ds/webannotator-basic/

    Server login name: the login name you registered.

Figure 1.124. Comments settings dialog

Comments settings dialog


You can also fill out the other values (under 'Default comment field values') as you like. You can set your initials, and set a Thread ID. The Thread ID can be used to identify individual "conversations", if you want to use the comment system in that way. To do that, choose some meaningful short name for each separate conversation. Note that you can edit all these fields in each of your comments at any time. When done, click Apply to apply the changes.

Back in the main screen of ELAN, click Log In... to log in to the server. You will be prompted to enter your password. After logging in, the list of comments associated with the .eaf file you are working on will be displayed in the left-hand column.

Figure 1.125. User password dialog

User password dialog

Directories settings and update check settings

Apart from setting up an account for usage with the comments system, you also need to setup which folders the system will use when it performs a search, where your comment files and eaf-files are stored, and what folder to use as a shared folder. To do so, click Other... and select Settings from the drop-down menu. Next, set the folder options under 'Comments settings'.

Figure 1.126. Directory settings

Directory settings

  • Location of shared directory

    This can be a local folder, in which you can save your eaf and comment files. You can also point this to a Dropbox folder. This way, you can share the files via a cloud network.

  • Use shared directory for this transcription

    When a shared folder is set, you can check this option so your current comment file will be saved to this folder. The eaf file itself will be saved to a location of choice, not in this shared directory.

  • Search Comments in

    To search for comments, a folder needs to be set that holds the comments-files. Once set, the search will be recursive, so sub-folders containing comment-files will also be searched.

  • Search EAF files in

    The EAF files can be stored in a separate location from the comments files. When you search for comments and want to open the EAF file associated with that, the system needs to know where the EAF file is located. So it is advised to point this to the location where you normally store your EAF files.

Under 'Stored Comments', you can also set the update check time. This ranges from 2 minutes to over 50 minutes. The system will check the server every X minutes, to see if there are any changes made or added in the project you are working on. If a change was made, a warning will display with information regarding the change. It will also prompt you for an action.

Figure 1.127. Conflicting comments dialog

Conflicting comments dialog

  • Postpone will postpone the prompt to take action for now.
  • Keep local comment as new will keep the external comment and also save your local comment in place as a new comment.
  • Keep local version (and export it) will keep the local version and export it to the server.
  • Replace local version will replace the local version you have with the external comment.

Adding, deleting & changing comments

Adding comments can be done either when you are logged in, but also when you are not logged into the server. When not logged in, the comments will be saved locally and will only be synced with the server once you log in.

To add a comment, create a selection on the timeline that you wish to comment on (1.). Make sure you select the tier you want to refer to by double-clicking it, so it becomes highlighted in red.

Next, type in the comment in the right-hand field of the comments-tab (2), and finally click Add Comment to add the comment to the left-hand field of the comments-tab (3). Your comment will appear in the list of comments on the left (4). A visual indicator of the position of the current comment will also be added to the Timeline viewer (5).

Figure 1.128. Adding comments

Adding comments

Deleting a comment is only possible for the comments that you have added, comments added by other users cannot be deleted. They have a yellow background, indicating it is a comment from another user.

Figure 1.129. A comment added by another user.

A comment added by another user.

To delete a comment that you added previously, select it in the left-hand screen and click Delete Comment(s). To delete multiple comments at once, press and hold Ctrl(Windows)/Cmd(Osx) and click the comments to delete. When done, click Delete Comment(s).

Changing a comment is done in a similar way to deleting a comment. First, select the comment you want to change from the list of comments (only comments made by you can be altered). Next, click inside the text-edit field on the right and alter your comment. The comment will change to a red color, indicating that it is not yet saved on the server. Finally, click Change Comment to save the changes you made.

Figure 1.130. Changing a comment.

Changing a comment.

Note

There are keyboard shortcuts available for adding or changing a comment:

  • When adding a new comment, press and hold Ctrl(Windows)/Cmd(Osx) and press enter to add a comment.
  • When changing a comment press and hold Ctrl(Windows)/Cmd(Osx) and press enter to change the comment.

Viewing comments & display options

While you can only edit your own comments, you can always view all comments. Clicking any comment in the left dialog once will display the comment on the right. Double-clicking the comment will highlight the selection on the timeline viewer where the comment refers to. If a tier is linked to the comment, it will be activated as well.

The left-hand side of the comments-tab displays various columns regarding a comment. These provide certain information regarding the comment and the Time line. The available columns are: Start Time, End Time, Tier, Initials, Comment, Thread, Sender, Recipient, Creation Date & Modification Date. To display or hide any of these columns, right-click anywhere in the comments overview display and check or uncheck a column. You can also sort the order of the columns and resize them.

Figure 1.131. The comments display overview

The comments display overview

You can also alter the sort order of the comments, by clicking the header of the column you want the comments to be sorted by. You can sort by Start Time ascending, for instance, but also by Comment, alphabetically. The columns will remain hidden or displayed until you alter these settings again.

Filter comments

The Filter... button allows you to filter out comments displayed on the screen. This can be helpful when multiple users have submitted comments and you only want to see comments made by a certain user, or by a certain thread name for instance. To filter the comments, click the Filter... button. A dialog appears, in which you can type in a regular expression you wish to use as a filter.

Figure 1.132. Changing a comment.

Changing a comment.

Once you apply your filter, you will see the results in the main screen. Note that the background will turn blue, indicating that a filter is active. The Filter... button font will also be blue as an indicator that a filter is active. To remove your filter, simply click the Filter... again and remove the regular expression you entered, then click apply. The filter will then be removed.

Other functions

The button Other... incorporates multiple functions. You can access these by just clicking on the button, the options will appear below it.

Figure 1.133. Other functions

Other functions

The functions available are:

  1. To Mail...

    This allows you to send a mail containing the selected comment in XML format to another user. (you must have a native mail application installed for this to work).

  2. To Clipboard

    This sends the current comment-info in XML-format to the clipboard so you can paste it in another application, or re-use it later in ELAN.

  3. From Clipboard

    This allows you to paste data from the clipboard into the comments field. This needs to be in XML-format to work. If you have received an e-mail containing comment-data, you can copy that data to the clipboard and use this function to add the comment to the list.

  4. Search...

    This function allows you to search for a comment in the list of current comments. This is done by entering a regular expression, and can be set to search all columns or a single column.

Clipboard and e-mail comment function

Copying data to the clipboard or sending it via e-mail will be done in XML format. When you click the To Mail... option, your local e-mail application will open and create a new message. It will also fill out the recipient address that is associated with the comment you selected. The recipient can be filled out in the settings, see Comments setup and settings. The data in the e-mail will look like this:

Figure 1.134. E-mail a comment

E-mail a comment

When you receive an e-mail, just select all the xml-data and copy that to the clipboard. Next, in ELAN choose From Clipboard and the comment will be added to the list of comments.

In a similar fashion, you can also copy data to and from the clipboard. This can be helpful if you use a web-based e-mail client or for if you want to copy multiple comments to a text-document, for instance.