ELAN supports the following options for playing a document:
During playback, the red crosshair moves through the Waveform, Timeline, Interlinear, Annotation Density, Text and Grid Viewers, indicating the point in time that is being replayed. If you stop the playback, the crosshair will stop at this point in time. The playback will resume from this point and will continue until the end of the document, or until the playback is paused again.
Make use of either one of the following three options to start/pause the playback:
If two or more ELAN documents are open at the same time, the sound may not work properly. Should this happen, close all documents except for one.
It is possible to play only a selected part of the document. Do the following:
The selected part is played immediately. To listen to the selection again, repeat step 2.
If the crosshair is positioned somewhere within the selection (i.e., if it had been manually moved forward or backward, see Jumping step by step through a document), playback will start from that position and stop at the end of the selection. Otherwise, the whole selection will be played.
If you want to loop over the selection, be sure to check the Loop Mode box (next to the Selection Mode checkbox).
When playing a selection it is possible to extend the playback interval with a context up to a few seconds before and after the selection. This can e.g. be useful to get an idea about the preparation and the finishing of a gesture.
To change the playback rate, use the Rate slider to the right of the video window. The following options are available:
Once you have selected a playback rate, the document will be played at the selected rate. If you want it to be played at a different rate, you have to manually change the playback rate, repeating the steps above.
On slower machines, the slow motion playback may not work properly.
In the Options > Rate and volume toggle… menu, a pre-set value can be specified for the playback rate and volume which can be activated through a keyboard shortcut: