For reasons that are still unclear, video produced on a Macintosh is different than video produced on a Windows computer, even when the individual encoding settings are identical. At least at this time, that means that Transana is unable to automatically extract the audio layer of the video in a way it can use to create the Waveform graphic.

The following instructions will guide you through the process of using iMovie to extract the audio layer of your video manually for use with Transana. Although this procedure is awkward and can be time consuming for large video collections, it allows Transana for Macintosh OS/X to work with ANY video that Quicktime and iMovie work with. That includes Quicktime *.mov format, as well as many other formats that are not supported on the Transana for Windows.

Please note that this is NOT a cross-platform solution. If you will be sharing your video with colleagues who will be using Windows-based computers, you will need to trans-code your video on a Windows computer for them to be able to work with it in Transana for Windows.

To prepare your Macintosh-produced video for use with Transana for Macintosh OS/X, please take the following steps. (These instructions are based on OS/X 10.3.8, and iMovie 3.0.3. Your milage may vary.)

1. Load iMovie.
   
   
2. Choose File > New Project , then give your project a new name. It's probably easiest if you name your iMovie project the same as your video file name. Click Save.
   
   
3. Import your video file into iMovie. You can drag it from a Finder window and drop it on the bottom part of the iMovie screen, where you see the text "Drag clips here to build your project". (There are probably additional ways to import your movie. See the iMovie documentation for more information.) The process can take some time, depending on the speed of your computer and the size and settings of your video file.
   
   
   
   
4. Choose File > Export . (iMovie 4 may refer to this as "Share" instead of "Export".)
   
   
5. For the Export: setting, select To QuickTime. For the Formats: setting, select Expert Settings... . Press Export.
   
   
   
   
6. For Save As:, type in the name that exactly matches your video file name. If your video is named MyMovie.mov, you would type in MyMovie.
   
   



7. If the icon to the right of the filename is a triangle pointing down, click it so that you are given more options for the location where the file should be saved. Navigate to /YOUR HOME FOLDER/Transana 2/waveforms. (YOUR HOME FOLDER should be replaced with your user name on your Mac.)
   
   
8. Under Export: , select Sound to Wave , then press the Options... button.
   
   
9. For Compressor:, select None. For Rate:, select 8.000 kHz. For Size:, select 8 bit, and for Use:, select Mono. Click OK. (iMovie 4 may have more options here.)
   
   
   
   
10. Now press the Save button. The Export may take some time, again depending on the speed of your computer and the size of your video file.
    
    
11. You can now quit iMovie and load Transana.
    
    
12. When you load your video in Transana, you will not be prompted about creating the waveform, as that is what you have just finished doing! If it hasn't worked, most likely you either gave the wrong filename to the *.wav file or you saved it to the wrong location.