Remember Crosswrite, that proof-of-concept I did for web-based audio transcription? Well, I’ve fleshed it out a bit.
You can now upload files (either through the buttons on the left or via FTP) and it automatically saves your transcripts to text files (no database required) every second.
I don’t have a live demo of the app (since I don’t really want people uploading their MP3s to my server), but the code is on Github as usual. If you run into problems with it or have feature requests, either add an issue on Github or email me.
I’ve spent some time transcribing audio in the past (both Mormon Artist interviews and family history recordings) and it’s nice having keyboard shortcuts to control audio playback. There are some nice desktop apps that do this for you, but last night I realized that with the HTML5 audio element and some Javascript magic, it’d be super easy to code up a web app to do it instead. And it was. It’s called Crosswrite, and you can try it out on the demo page.
Notes
It works pretty well in Chrome and Safari, but it doesn’t work in Firefox. This is just a demo, not a full-blown app. All things considered, however, it only took ten or fifteen minutes to write, and the hardest part by far was deciding what keyboard shortcuts should do what. (I’m still not entirely happy with my choices.)
