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While we recommend uploading raw audio and video files when possible, CoLoop can easily process transcripts in both .docx and .txt format as long as they are formatted correctly. CoLoop reads all the text within a transcript and must have the following to accurately process:
  • All text in a transcript must be attributable to a speaker.
  • All speakers must be labelled. CoLoop will assign Moderator and Participant roles.
  • Keep one interview per file.

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How to format a file to go into CoLoop

You may need to make subtle edits to your transcripts to work with CoLoop. Make sure:
  1. There is one interview per file.
  2. Speaker labels are unique before uploading. If you are adding in segment data via spreadsheet, make sure these names will match up exactly.

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Examples of transcripts CoLoop can read

Moderator:
Hi! There welcome to the interview.

Participant 1:
Hello -- thanks for having me!

Moderator: Hi! There welcome to the interview.

Participant 1: Hello -- thanks for having me!
Downloadable Example Here Downloadable Example Anonymised Names Here 
M: Hi! There welcome to the interview.
R: Hello -- thanks for having me!
Downloadable Example Here 
Moderator (00:00:11 - 00:00:30)
Hi! There welcome to the interview.

Amelia (00:00:31 - 00:00:55)
Hello -- thanks for having me!
Downloadable Example

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Formats we don’t support (yet!)

If your files look different than the examples, you should convert them to one of the formats above. Below are some useful tips for doing this efficiently. Using CTRL+F and Replace You can open DOCX transcripts in Word and use the find and replace feature to edit them quickly to match out formatting guides (details on this here) Working with Forsta Transcripts Most Forsta transcripts will work direcrtly in CoLoop. In some cases they may contain multiple timestamps in each line. We are working on adding support for these. In the meantime the tool below will convert transcripts locally to a CoLoop compatible format.
Working with Discuss IO Transcripts We are working on adding support for these. In the meantime the tool below will convert transcripts locally to a CoLoop compatible format.
Transcripts with bold-non-bold formatting Some transcript providers will highlight moderator text by marking it in bold. This is challenging to edit efficiently to match out format. We have created the tool below to convert these to a CoLoop compatible format.

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Using 3rd party transcripts from focus groups

If you have access to the original audio and it is in a language we support and under 10 speakers total you can also upload, transcribe and translate this directly in CoLoop
In some cases 3rd party transcripts of focus groups may not contain speaker level identification, only moderator and participants.
  • Here we recommend merging together participants into a generic speaker label
  • You can do this by running a find & replace on all instances of respondent
  • And replacing them with something generic like “Focus Group 2 Participants”
  • This approach will come with the drawback that theme counts will no longer be accurate
  • It will also only be possible to summarise responses from the concensus of the whole group

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Overriding the formatting rules

💡 You must make sure the labels exactly match the ones shown below.
If you’re still experiencing issues processing docx transcripts as a final resort you can also fully override the formatting guides and force CoLoop to recognise specific lines as participant or moderator labels. In order to do this follow the steps below:
  1. Prepend all participant names with CoLoop::P
  2. Prepend all moderator names with CoLoop::R
  3. Speaker labels must be on a new line preceding the text segment they apply to
Example 1 Below is an example of the original transcript and the edited transcript. When doing this you must make sure:
  1. The text matches up exactly, it is case sensitive so you must prepend speakers with CoLoop::P or CoLoop::R accordingly
  2. When doing your find and replace you look for a text string that does not appear in the middle of a text segment. Typically the easiest way to do this is to ensure you are finding examples of names which come after a newline
  3. Newline characters can be captured in MS Word by using the ^p wildcard (more details here)
Original Transcript 
Moderator
All right, well, let's go ahead and get started. So, my first question, amelia, I'll start with you on this one. Each of you is here because you said that this election, you voted for the very first time. And so I want to hear from each of you. Why did you decide to vote? Why participate in this election? So, Amelia, we'll start with you first.

Amelia
St sure. So, the last election, I was 19, so I was able to vote, but I didn't feel that I was educated enough on who to vote for to make a correct decision, and I didn't want to follow through with that. Now, this election, I'm a little bit older, and I think I have formed enough of an opinion to feel confident in my vote.

Moderator
Great. How about Dylan C. You say you voted for the first time in this election. Tell me a little bit about why you decided to participate this time.

Dylan C.
Yeah, so last election, I was 17, so I was not able to vote, and now I'm 21, so basically it was my first time being able to, and, yeah, kind of like the same thing Amelia said. I just felt like I was able to form enough of my own opinion to be able to voice it.
Final Transcript 
CoLoop::R Moderator
All right, well, let's go ahead and get started. So, my first question, amelia, I'll start with you on this one. Each of you is here because you said that this election, you voted for the very first time. And so I want to hear from each of you. Why did you decide to vote? Why participate in this election? So, Amelia, we'll start with you first.

CoLoop::P Amelia
St sure. So, the last election, I was 19, so I was able to vote, but I didn't feel that I was educated enough on who to vote for to make a correct decision, and I didn't want to follow through with that. Now, this election, I'm a little bit older, and I think I have formed enough of an opinion to feel confident in my vote.

CoLoop::R Moderator
Great. How about Dylan C. You say you voted for the first time in this election. Tell me a little bit about why you decided to participate this time.

CoLoop::P Dylan C.
Yeah, so last election, I was 17, so I was not able to vote, and now I'm 21, so basically it was my first time being able to, and, yeah, kind of like the same thing Amelia said. I just felt like I was able to form enough of my own opinion to be able to voice it.