How to enter and edit annotations

All annotations are entered either into the Inline Edit box or into the Edit Annotation box, which are accessed via the Timeline, Interlinear, Grid, Text and Subtitle Viewers. ELAN supports the following options:

Entering annotations (into the Inline Edit box)

An Inline Edit box from a selection

  1. Select the time span in which you want to place the annotation.
  2. Access the Inline Edit box by doing one of the following:
    1. Either double-click in the Timeline Viewer on the selection at about the height of the tier where you want to enter the annotation.
    2. Or click on Edit menu, then click on New annotation here (active tier only).
    3. Or use the key equivalent ALT+N (active tier only).

    In all cases, the Inline Edit box appears, e.g.:

    Figure 2.74. Inline Edit box

    Inline Edit box


  3. Do one of the following:
    1. Press the keys CTRL+ENTER (without entering an annotation) to create an empty annotation.
    2. Enter an annotation and then press the keys CTRL+ENTER to save the selection.

      It is possible to enter text that contains line breaks. The text entry box automatically displays a scrollbar if necessary.

      The Inline Edit box is automatically preconfigured for the default character set of the tier. If you want to use a different character set, do the following:

      1. Right-click in the Inline Edit box. A pull-down menu appears that displays the available character sets.

        Figure 2.75. Select character set

        Select character set


      2. Click on the appropriate character set. From now on, the characters are entered in the selected set.

        Note

        If you are using a third-party keyboarding solution like Keyman, make sure to select the default system language as input language for the tier to be edited (e.g. Dutch if your system language is set to Dutch).

      3. To switch back to the default character set, repeat the steps above and select the default set from the pull-down menu.

        Note

        Only selections on time-alignable tiers can be saved in this way. To save a selection on a referring tier, see Making and saving a selection on a referring tier.

  4. Save the annotation by doing one of the following:
    1. Use the shortcut keys CTRL+ENTER, you can change this shortcut to ENTER in Preferences, see Editing preferences
    2. Or right-click in the Inline Edit box and click on Commit Changes in the pull-down menu.

To exit the Inline Edit box without saving, do one of the following:

  1. Use the shortcut key ESC.
  2. Or right-click in the Inline Edit box and click on Cancel Changes in the pull-down menu.

Note

When annotations are created, they can be aligned with the video frames by setting it as a preference (see Editing preferences)

An Inline Edit box from begin and end time

An alternative method to get an Inline Edit box is:

  1. Click a time that should become the begintime of the annotation.
  2. Press SHIFT+ENTER.
  3. Click a time that should become the endtime of the annotation.
  4. Again press SHIFT+ENTER.

An Inline Edit box appears on the selected tier. You can now enter an annotation and save it in the way explained above.

An Inline Edit box for a active annotation

To open the inline edit box for a active annotation, either double-click in the Timeline Viewer on the active annotation or use the shortcut key Shift+E.

Entering annotations (into the Edit Annotation box)

The Edit Annotation box differs from the Inline Edit box in that it has a bigger, resizeable, display and supports line wrapping. It is therefore better for entering longer texts.

To enter an annotation into the Edit Annotation box, do the following:

  1. Either make a selection in the Timeline Viewer (see Making a selection on an independent tier), or click on an existing annotation in the Timeline or Interlinear Viewer.
  2. Access the Inline Edit box (see Entering annotations (into the Inline Edit box)).
  3. Do one of the following:
    1. Either use the shortcut keys SHIFT+ENTER.
    2. Or right-click in the Inline Edit box. A pull-down menu appears. Click on Detach Editor.
  4. The Edit Annotation box appears:

    Figure 2.76. Edit annotation

    Edit annotation


    The Edit Annotation box is automatically preconfigured for the default character set of the tier (see Changing tier attributes). If you want to use a different character set, do the following:

    1. Click on Select Language. A pull-down menu appears that displays the available character sets, e.g.:

      Figure 2.77. Select language

      Select language


    2. Click on the appropriate character set. From now on, the characters are entered in the selected set. (For an overview of the input methods for the character sets see Entering annotations in different character sets).
    3. To switch back to the default character set, repeat the steps above and select the default set from the pull-down menu.
  5. Edit the annotation.
  6. Save the annotation by doing one of the following:
    1. Use the shortcut keys CTRL+ENTER.
    2. In the Edit Annotation box, click on Editor and then click on Commit Changes in the pull-down menu.

To exit the Edit Annotation box without saving, do one of the following:

  1. Use the shortcut key ESC.
  2. In the Edit Annotation box, click on Edit and then click on Cancel Changes in the pull-down menu.

To return to the Inline Edit box, do one of the following:

  1. Use the shortcut keys SHIFT+ENTER.
  2. In the Edit Annotation box, click on Attach Editor in the pull-down menu.

Entering annotations from a Controlled Vocabulary

If the tier type of the selected tier has a controlled vocabulary both the Inline Edit box and the Edit Annotation box show a list of the CV entries from which an entry can be selected. To commit to a selected entry, use Enter or Ctrl+Enter. Double clicking an entry has the same effect.

The use of just a list works well when the number of entries is limited. For larger CVs another method of selecting the correct entry can be used. If you are either in the Inline Edit box or Edit Annotation box you can find and select a CV entry by reducing the selection list as you type the first characters of an entry. To enable this method, do the following:

  1. Right-click in the Inline Edit box or Edit Annotation box.
  2. In the pull-down menu select Toggle Suggest Panel....
  3. The box now changes to two parts: a text field on the top and a list on the bottom.
  4. Start typing the first few characters of the entry you want to select in the text field.
  5. As you type, the list is updated to only containing those entries that start with the characters you typed so far.
  6. Using the arrow up and down keys or just by clicking an entry you can select an entry.
  7. Enter or Ctrl+Enter or double clicking an entry commits the selected entry and changes the annotation to the value of the selected entry.

Figure 2.78. The suggest panel

The suggest panel


There are some options you can set for the suggest panel, which can help in searching the CV entries. These options can be set in Preferences (See Editing preferences )

Entering annotations before/after other annotations

Annotations on some tiers can be subdivided into smaller units. In this way, you can for example break up a sentence into different words (or words into morphemes, etc.), as in the following illustration:

Figure 2.79. Subdividing annotation

Subdividing annotation


To divide an annotation into smaller units, do the following:

  1. In the Timeline or Interlinear Viewer, click on the annotation that you want to subdivide. It appears in a dark blue frame.
  2. Do one of the following:
    1. Right-click on the selected annotation. A pull-down menu appears. Click on either New Annotation before or on New Annotation after to subdivide the annotation.
    2. Or click on Edit menu. Then click on either New Annotation before or on New Annotation after to subdivide the annotation.

    If you click on New annotation before, the original annotation is divided and the new annotation is inserted to its left (as in the illustration below). If you click on New annotation after, it is inserted to its right.

Figure 2.80. New annotation after

New annotation after


Note

This option is only available for those tiers that are assigned to the stereotypes Time Subdivision and Symbolic Subdivision (see Basic Information: Annotations, tiers and tier types).

An annotation is always subdivided into two units. If you need further subdivisions, repeat the steps above.

Creating depending annotations for a active annotation

To create depending annotations for a current active annotation, select Annotation > Create depending annotations. This will create dependant annotations for the current active annotations on all its child tiers.

Creating annotations on dependent tiers

  1. In the main menu, select Tier > Create Annotations on Dependent Tiers.... A dialog appears with a list of independent(parent) tiers.
  2. Select all the parent tiers of the dependent tiers, on which the annotations are to be created.
  3. Click on Next, will bring up this dialog box:

    Figure 2.81. Create annotations on dependent tiers

    Create annotations on dependent tiers


  4. Select all the dependent tiers on which the annotation are to be created.
  5. Select Empty Annotations on a dependent tier to create empty dependent annotations of the parent annotations or select Annotation With Value of Parent to create dependent annotations with the value on the parent annotations.
  6. Check Overwrite the annotation values to overwrite the values of the dependent annotations(if any) with the values of the parent annotation.
  7. Finally click on Finish to create annotations.

Creating annotations from gaps

Gaps between annotations on a tier can be transformed into annotations on the same tier or on a new tier. To do so, click Tier > Create Annotations from Gaps.... In the dialog window, select the (independent) tier for which you wish to transform the gaps into annotations. Then select whether you wish to put the new annotation on the same tier or on a new tier and specify a tier name in the latter case. Also specify the contents of the new annotations: either a specific value, the duration of a gap or no contents.

It is possible to select multiple tiers when creating annotations from gaps. Selecting multiple tiers can be done by holding the CTRL key while clicking other tiers than the one already selected. The SHIFT key can be used in a similar way to select the range of tiers from the one that is selected to the one that is clicked. The gaps created from multiple tiers are periods where each of the selected tiers has no annotation.

Creating regular annotations

When there is a time interval you wish to divide in a number of adjacent annotations with the same duration you can do that by clicking on Tier > Create Regular annotations. In the dialog window (see Figure 2.82, “Regular Annotations”) select the tiers that must receive the new annotations. Then do one of the following:

  1. Enter Start time and Duration (End time is calculated automatically).
  2. Enter Start time and End time (Duration is calculated automatically).

Finally, enter a Annotation size and click Apply.

Figure 2.82. Regular Annotations

Regular Annotations


The total duration of the new annotations does not exceed the interval between start and end time. So if start time is 1.000 seconds and, end time is 4.000 seconds (interval of 3 seconds) and the annotation size is 2.000 seconds, than only one new annotations is created because two would make a duration of 4 seconds which exceeds the interval defined by the start and end time.

Note

If there is an overlap between the new annotations and one or more existing annotations, these existing annotations will be removed.

Duplicating annotation values

If two annotations are adjacent and have the same length (for instance after creating regular annotations, see Creating regular annotations) and if the second annotation is empty, you can copy the value of the first annotation to the second. This is done by selecting the first annotation and pressing CTRL+SHIFT+D. Now the second annotation is selected and you can repeat the process to get a string of adjacent annotations with the same value.

An additional result of CTRL+SHIFT+D is that if there are annotations on another tier that have the same begin and end time as the annotations you are working on, and the second of those annotations is empty, then the value of the first annotation on that tier is also copied to the second annotation on that tier.

Snap Annotations

ELAN offers the possibility to create the so-called snap-annotations. If two annotations are adjacent you can snap them by specifying the maximum close-value in ms. You can set the value to snap annotations in the edit preferences (see Editing preferences).

Automatic labelling and numbering

Sometimes you don't want annotations to contain transcriptions of the media you are working on, but you rather want to label and number them for later processing. In ELAN this is accomplished by clicking Tier > Label And Number Annotations.... In the dialog as shown in Figure 2.83, “Label and Numbering annotations” you can select one or more tiers to provide labels and numbering.

Figure 2.83. Label and Numbering annotations

Label and Numbering annotations


The formatting options of the label and numbering include:

  • Include label part: the text to act as label (or prefix) for each annotation.
  • Insert delimiter: a delimiter between the label in front and the number.
  • Include number part:
    • Integer: the number of each annotation is an integer and the increment value is also an integer.
    • Decimal: the number of each annotation is a decimal and the increment value can also be a decimal.
  • Prepend leading zeros: leading zeros for easy sorting in post-processing (e.g. 001, 002, 003 etc).
  • Start value: the value the numbering must start with.
  • Increment: the value with which the number in the next annotation is incremented.

The result of the options is shown below the options in a blue box. This result is updated as you change the options.

Modifying the content of annotations

To modify an annotation, do one of the following:

  1. In the Timeline or Interlinear Viewer:
    1. Click on the annotation that you want to modify. It appears in a dark blue frame.
    2. Do one of the following:
      1. Right-click on the selected annotation. A pull-down menu appears. Click on Modify annotation value.
      2. Or click on Annotation > Modify annotation value.
      3. Or use the key equivalent ALT+M.

      The Inline Edit box appears (see Entering annotations (into the Inline Edit box)).

  2. In the Grid Viewer:
    1. Double-click on the annotation that you want to modify.

    The Inline Edit box appears (see Entering annotations (into the Inline Edit box)).

Modifying the boundaries of annotations

The boundaries or alignment of annotations can be changed at any time, as described in the Changing the boundaries of an existing selection and annotation section.

Moving annotations to another tier

It can occur that you put an annotation on the wrong tier. If the start and end time of the annotation unit are correct, you can move the complete annotation to a different tier by pressing and holding ALT and clicking and dragging the annotation with the mouse. This feature currently only works with time based annotations.

Dependent or child annotations will only be moved along with the parent annotation unit if it is clear from the tier names to which tier they should be moved. (from tx@A to tx@B for example). If this is not clear, the dependent annotations might be lost. A safer way to move annotations is to use the copy and paste annotation groups. See Copy and paste annotation groups

Changing the case of Annotations

To change the case of letters of all annotation on a tier, click Tier > Change Case of Annotations.... Then select the tier(s) you wish to change, choose the case the annotations should be converted to and click OK. When changing the text to Upper-case it is possible to change only the first character (initial capital). Similarly when changing to Lower-case, it is possible to specify that each annotation should begin with a capital.

Deleting annotation values

To delete the value of annotation, do the following:

  1. In the Timeline or Interlinear Viewer, click on the annotation from which you want to delete the value. It appears in a dark blue frame.
  2. To delete it, do one of the following:
    1. Right-click on the selected annotation. A pull-down menu appears. Click on Remove Annotation Value.
    2. Or click on Edit menu. Then click on Remove Annotation Value.
    3. Or use the key equivalent ALT+Delete.

    The annotation value is deleted without further warning.

Deleting annotations

To delete one annotation, do the following:

  1. In the Timeline or Interlinear Viewer, click on the annotation that you want to delete. It appears in a dark blue frame.
  2. To delete it, do one of the following:
    1. Right-click on the selected annotation. A pull-down menu appears. Click on Delete annotation.
    2. Or click on Annotation in the main menu. Then click on Delete annotation.
    3. Or use the key equivalent ALT+D.

ELAN also gives the possibility to delete multiple annotations: click on Annotation > Delete in the main menu. Now click one of the five menu items:

  • Annotations on the Active Tier in the Selected Time interval...
  • Annotations on the Active Tier, Left of the Crosshair...
  • Annotations on the Active Tier, Right of the Crosshair...
  • Annotations on All Tiers, Left of the Crosshair...
  • Annotations on All Tiers, Right of the Crosshair...

To delete a number of specific annotations on more than one tier, select those annotations by holding ALT while clicking them. The annotations get a purple border. Then right click in the Timeline Viewer and select Delete Selected Annotations.

Note

Annotations are deleted without further warning.

If you delete an annotation on a parent tier, the corresponding annotations on all its child tiers will be automatically deleted as well. Please make sure that you do not accidentally delete a child annotation. An annotation on a child tier can be deleted without consequences for the annotation on its parent tier.

Deleting annotations and annotation values on multiple tiers

To delete annotations or annotation values on multiple tiers, select Tier > Remove Annotations or Values.... This will bring you this dialog:

Figure 2.84. Delete annotations or annotations values

Delete annotations or annotations values


Select the tiers on which the annotations are to deleted. First select whether to delete Annotations or Annotation Values on the selected tiers and then select All Annotations to delete all the annotations/ values, Empty Annotations for removing annotation units with no values in them or select Annotations where value is... to delete only annotations/ values where annotation value matches the given value and finally click on OK.

Split Annotations

Annotations that are on a tier without a parent tier (top level tier) and that have no or only depending annotations on symbolically associated tiers can be split in two ways:

  • To split a annotation exactly in the center, select a annotation and click on Annotation > Split Annotation.

    This will split your annotation exactly in the center and both the annotations will have the same values.

  • To split a annotation at a specific point, select a annotation and right click on the point where you want to split the annotation and select Split Annotation.

    This will split the annotation at the point where the right click is made.

You can also split an annotation (in one of the ways described above) which has only time aligned depending annotations (symbolically associated). In this case the annotation will be split together with its depending annotations.

Merging annotations

It is possible to merge two annotations on an independent tier into one annotation. To do so, select the first annotation of the two you want to merge. Then either right click in the Timeline Viewer or click Annotation in the ELAN main menu and select Merge with Next Annotation. The resulting annotation starts where the first had started and it ends where the second had ended. Note that the annotations on dependent tiers are also involved in the merging process. The result is that the last annotation on a dependent tier that is part of the first annotation on the independent tier is stretched so that it ends where the second annotation on the independent tier begins. Figure 2.85, “Merge annotations” illustrates this.

Figure 2.85. Merge annotations

Merge annotations


It is also possible to merge with the annotation before the selected annotation. It works in the same way as "Merge with next annotation. To do so select Merge with Annotation Before instead of "Merge with next annotation" in the above mentioned options.

Entering annotations in different character sets

ELAN supports different character sets, making use of the following input methods:

  1. GATE Unicode Kit (GUK)

    Characters can be entered by using a different keyboard mapping. This method is implemented using the GATE Unicode Kit developed at Sheffield University, Department of Computer Science.

    If you select a character set that is based on GUK, a visual representation of a keyboard appears on the screen, which informs you about the implemented keyboard mapping. The following illustrations show the mappings of “ipa-96 (SAMPA)” and “Arabic (WINDOWS)”:

    Figure 2.86. ipa-96 keyboard map

    ipa-96 keyboard map


    Figure 2.87. Arabic keyboard map

    Arabic keyboard map


    To enter a character, do one the following:

    1. Either press the corresponding key on your keyboard.
    2. Or click on the corresponding key of the keyboard displayed on your screen.

    The visual representation has the layout of the standard UK keyboard. If you do not have a UK keyboard, there may be mismatches between the characters and their visual representation.

    For example, the IPA character “ə;” is matched to the key “@”, i.e., in order to get “ə”, you have to type “@”. On a standard UK keyboard, the key “@” is located to the left of the key “enter” (see the illustration above). On other keyboards, however, “@” may be located on a different key. In such cases, if you press the key to the left of “enter”, you will not get the character “ə”. To get “ə”, you have to search for the location of “@” on your keyboard, and then press that key. (Note that these mismatches only arise if you use the physical keyboard, but not if you use the visual representation on the screen.)

    The character set “ipa-96 (SAMPA)” can be used to enter IPA characters. However, the current version of ELAN only supports SAMPA, but not X-SAMPA. As a consequence, some of the characters that you require may not be available yet (see http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/sampa for further information).

  2. Roman Typographic Root (RTR)

    IPA characters can be entered using the RTR input method. This method is based on the following principle: whenever you type a character, all typographically similar characters are displayed in a lookup list, as shown in the following illustration:

    Figure 2.88. Roman typographic root

    Roman typographic root


    To select a character from the lookup list, do the following:

    1. Use the UP and DOWN arrow keys to navigate to the desired character.
    2. Press ENTER or SPACE to confirm the selection.

    Note

    Do not use the mouse within the lookup window. If you do, the window will disappear.

    The input of IPA characters is restricted to the official IPA-96 character set. Withdrawn or superseded characters are not supported.

    The RTR-mapping is generally obvious, but please pay attention to the following features:

    • Use lower case letters only.
    • IPA characters can map to non-letter symbols, e.g.:

      Figure 2.89. Non-letter symbols

      Non-letter symbols


    • Diacritics are entered with the help of the following keys:

      Table 2.4. Diacritics

      key position of diacritic in relation to character
      (quotation mark) above
      (apostrophe) in the upper right
      : (colon) to the right
      ` (grave accent) in the lower right
      ^ (circumflex accent) under
      (tilde) on


      For example:

      Figure 2.90. Diacritics

      Diacritics


      Note

      On Windows 2000, if you use an international keyboard, you have to type SPACE after typing the quotation mark (“) or one of the accents (‘, `, ^).

      It is possible to stack diacritics, but there may be problems displaying them.

  3. Chinese characters

    Chinese characters, both traditional and simplified, are entered using the Pinyin method. Characters are selected by starting to type Roman characters. Candidates are shown in a lookup window while the user types along. The desired character is selected with the UP and DOWN arrow keys, e.g.:

    Figure 2.91. Chinese characters

    Chinese characters


    Use the following procedure:

    • Enter the pinyin word with the keyboard. For each pinyin word, a list of Han symbols is shown in a popup window.
    • Navigate to a Han symbol with the UP and DOWN arrow keys.
    • Page through the list with the PAGE UP and PAGE DOWN keys.
    • Select a Han symbol with the SPACE or the ENTER key.

    Note

    Do not use the mouse within the lookup window. If you do, the window will disappear.

    On Windows 98, you cannot display both Chinese and IPA characters.

  4. Keyboard tools

    If the options above don’t fulfil your needs (e.g. the character set is not supported or you don’t want to use the on-screen display for a large amount of annotations) you might want to look for a third-party solution. Such a tool provides a mean to remap your keyboard to the desired input character set. For details, we refer to the following programs:

    Keyman (Windows), http://www.tavultesoft.com/

    Figure 2.92. Keyman

    Keyman


    Ukelele (Mac), http://scripts.sil.org/ukelele

    Figure 2.93. Ukelele

    Ukelele


Note

If you are using a third-party keyboarding solution like Keyman, make sure to select the default system language as input language for the tier to be edited (e.g. Dutch if your system language is set to Dutch).

Associating an annotation with a Data Category

In ELAN it is possible to associate an individual annotation with a data category of the ISO Data Category Repository (DCR). To do so first select an annotation. Then click Annotation in the main menu of ELAN and select Modify Annotation Data Category (alternatively press ALT+SHIFT+M). In the next window (Figure 2.94, “Local Data Category Selection: Annotation”), select a data category from the list and click on Apply to associate the selected data category to the annotation.

Figure 2.94. Local Data Category Selection: Annotation

Local Data Category Selection: Annotation


More information about the ISO DCR and how to use it can be found in Data categories.