Documentation

Transana comes with a tutorial and a help system. These should be enough to get you up and running with the program. You can also look at the Frequently Asked Questions page. This page also has links to articles that explain some issues in more detail.

Guided Tour

The Transana Guided Tour is an excellent place to start. It's designed to give you a very brief overview of the analytic processes that Transana supports.

ScreenCasts

ScreenCasts are short Flash movies designed to help you learn the basics of working with Transana. I'd recommend viewing the available ScreenCasts, then going through the Transana Tutorial (available in the program's Help menu) for more detail.

Here's a list of links to existing ScreenCasts. This list is likely to expand over the next few months.

Introduction to Transana - How to start Transana, the Transana main screen.

Adding your First Video - How to add your video to Transana for analysis.

Transcription with Transana - How to transcribe video with Transana.

Inserting Time Codes - How to insert Time Codes with Transana, linking the transcript and the video.

Creating Clips - Different kinds of Clips, and how to creating them in Transana. Also includes creating Keywords and Collections.

Articles on this site

Video and Audio Formats About some of the different available formats.

Preparing Video for Transana Read more about optimal video formats, and how to get your video read for Transana.

How to Capture Video Read this description of capturing video using Vegas Video on Windows to learn about the steps in the process, even if you will be using different software.

Using Transana in languages other than English

Using Transana in a Computer Lab Procedures for using Transana in this situation.

About the Multi-User Version This article explains the difference between the single- and the multi-user version.

Multi-User Setup Guide, version 2.20 This set of pages provides an in-depth explanation of how to get Transana-MU, version 2.20 and later up and running.

Data Migration Learn how to move your data safely from one version to a new one.

Documentation Created by Transana Users

Transana Keyboard Shortcuts and Transcript Notation by Rich Henne (and subsequently modified by David Woods as Transana has changed.) This is a quick-reference guide in PDF format.

Analyzing Orphaned Transcripts in Transana by Nicolas Sheon. This article describes how to add text-only documents to Transana, how to easily create fake or real audio files for those documents, and how to "auto-timecode" a transcript.

Students studying online help systems at the University of North Texas in Spring, 2005 were given Transana as a class project. Three teams produced Online Help systems for Transana. (Thanks to Lynne Cooke for making this part of her course.) While these systems are not endorsed by the Transana development team, they have their merits. Here's what the teams produced:

Transana 2.04 Online Help by Lana Gibbons, Bob Want, and David Williams
Transana 2.04 Online Help by Marlea Trevino, Lakita Robinson, and Brant Deranger
Transana 2.04 Online Help by Jordan Ball, Kate Pilkington, and Monica Want

Non-English Language Documentation

Miia Collanus, of the University of Helsinkini, has posted a Finnish-language user guide on her web page.

Instructivo para quien quiera iniciarse en el uso del TRANSANA- en español

Articles

Mavrou, Katerina, Douglas, Graeme & Lewis, Ann (2007). The use of Transana as a video analysis tool in researching computer-based collaborative learning in inclusive classrooms in Cyprus. International Journal of Research & Method in Education, 30 (2), 163-178. Retrieved January 28, 2008, from http://www.informaworld.com/10.1080/17437270701383305

Nathan, M. J., Eilam, B. & Kim, Suyeon (2007). To disagree, we must also agree: How intersubjectivity structures and perpetuates discourse in a mathematics classroom. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 16 (4), 525-565.

Schwab, Götz (2006). Transana - ein Tranksriptions- und Analyseprogramm zur Verarbeitung von Videodaten am Computer. Gesprächsforschung - Online-Zeitschrift zur verbalen Interaktion 7, 70 - 78.

Spiers, J. A. (2004). Tech tips: Using video management/ analysis technology in qualitative research. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 3(1). Article 5.

(Please e-mail me with links to other articles you find that mention Transana!)

Software Links

Word Macros for manipulating transcripts created in Transana This page describes (and provides) a set of Word Macros that some people find helpful for manipulating transcripts created in Transana.

The Transformer To quote their web site, " The Transformer can read and write the file formats of different annotation programs. This function allows you to use and analyze your data in different programs." The Transformer supports Transana, Clan, Elan, Praat, Transcriber, and other formats.

Do you know of other online documentation Transana users have posted? If so, e-mail the link to the developers.