Today is day twenty-five of the video blogging challenge, and today I want to show you a quick way to export audio from a video file so you can transcribe the audio into a blog post.
There’s a video to watch and text if you prefer to read.
Watch the Video:
Day 25 – Video Blogging Challenge from Bonnie Gean
How to Export an Audio from a Video File
For years, I’ve used Camtasia to create videos for clients and my online business. It wasn’t until I bought Dragon Naturally Speaking that I started to transcribe my audios into blog posts.
Here’s how I do it:
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Open Camtasia and choose File >> Produce Special >> Export Audio, which triggers a box to open up. Type the file name for the exported audio on the “File Name” line, choose a directory to save the file and click the “Save” button to close the popup box.
Once you’ve exported the audio file, you will need to open up a copy of Dragon Naturally Speaking to begin transcribing your audio into text.
How to Transcribe Your Audio to Text
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Inside Dragon Naturally Speaking, choose Tools >> Transcribe Recording, which opens the Transcribe box. Click the “Next” button to continue. Click on the “Browse to locate file” button to perform the next step.
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The popup box opens again to allow you to select the audio file you previously saved to your hard drive. Locate the file on your hard drive and highlight it. Click the “Open” button to bring the audio back into Dragon Naturally Speaking.
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Click the “Transcribe” button to start the transcription process. Dragon will transcribe your audio to text using the DragonPad built into the software.
Setbacks When Transcribing with Dragon Naturally Speaking
You’ll find out that the software is going to transcribe all the text into one large paragraph, without punctuation of any kind. But, I found that it’s still easier to transcribe my audio to text using the software than manually typing the content into MS Word.
You can easily separate the paragraphs and add punctuation after Dragon Naturally Speaking has finished the transcription process. I prefer editing the final blob of text rather than listening to my video file, typing a line or two from memory, and then returning back to the video to repeat the process.
NOTE: The transcribe features is only available using the Premium, Professional or Legal editions of Dragon Naturally Speaking on your PC or MacSpeech Scribe on your Mac.
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Once Dragon Naturally Speaking has finished transcribing your audio file, highlight the text, right-click your mouse and choose “Copy” to add the text to the clipboard.
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Open MS Word and place your mouse cursor on the page. Use the CTRL + V keys on the keyboard to paste the copied text from the clipboard into the Word document.
Now you’re ready to separate the paragraphs and add the missing punctuation. Once you’re finished editing the text, it’s ready to add to your blog.
Grab a copy of Dragon Naturally Speaking from Amazon and try the software. I believe you’ll fall in love with it as I have; not only for transcribing purposes, but it’s also a great way to write a book by speaking the content rather than typing it.
What is the method you use to convert an audio into a text file? Leave a comment below and let me know.
Thanks for reading,
– Bonnie
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Doing a transcription is more difficult than you would think, thanks for the instructions to make it a bit easier. I personally like to have them because it is good for a site’s SEO, if you are trying to push a video, it helps to have the text so that Google can understand it. It is usually something I like to pass on to a grunt though I can’t spend all my time transcribing.
I still have a copy of Dragon still in its box. I should put it on eBay and buy the v13 so I can do this. Very useful Bonnie, thanks.
Have you got the latest version of DNS yet, Mel? Where have you been lady? I miss seeing your blog posts on the Article Writing Challenge! Are you doing okay or is your health giving you problems? Please keep in touch!
I considered getting Dragon Naturally Speaking a couple of years ago when I was really struggling with bad wrists. The only thing that put me off at the time was the negative reviews about accuracy. Maybe that accuracy has improved now. If it has, it’s something I’ll have to consider again, and then I can use this tutorial.
I can tell you that versions higher than 12 with Dragon Naturally Speaking are much more accurate than the versions before it. I think you would like the latest version of DNS, Alexandria. You might want to give it a try.
I’ve not used Dragon for a few years (got a copy somewhere – think it’s still on the old desk top!) I had the same issue then as I do with YouTube auto-generated transcripts now – it simply doesn’t understand my accent lol Took ages training it, I got annoyed in the end as it was quicker to type with my two-fingered typing haha
One to keep in mind though – I’m sure it’s much improved!
Hi Jan,
Oh my, I have tons of software that I’ve purchased, which is still sitting in my download folder that I have not tried to use yet. I fear that I bought too many products in my lifetime to ever get to them all.
I keep telling myself not to buy anymore, but I can’t seem to stick to my personal promise. Especially when I see something that I think would make a great product review. LOL
However, Dragon Naturally Speaking is one of those products that never seems to go to waste for me. I hope to use it this year to ‘speak my book’ so I can finally add to the Kindle library!
If you trained DNS to your voice, I am certain you would enjoy using it, Jan. I can’t imagine working without it and believe that once you train the software, you would enjoy it too!
– Bonnie
This is my kind of tool because I love anything that makes my life and work easier. When I first got my Samsung Galaxy 3 Smartphone I was delighted to discover that I could dictate my text messages. I was astounded to discover how accurately that little phone typed what I was saying.
You say you are using version 12. Is that the Basic ($50) or Home ($100) edition? Im not sure I understand the differences without having used it yet.
Basic won’t transcribe from an audio, Mary. You need a premium, professional or legal edition to do what I show in this video.
This is the version I used to create the step by step video instructions:
Dragon NaturallySpeaking Premium 12, English
Cool if you own both software programmes. Can you do a similar job in YouTube?
You can’t transcribe from YouTube using Dragon Naturally Speaking as you need an audio file on your hard drive.
You can transcribe inside of YouTube. To do this, go to your Video Manager, and click Edit on the video you want to transcribe. On the next screen choose “Subtitles and CC” and select the drop down box marked “Select video language” to choose English from the drop down box.
Go through each part of the timeline to correct the text spoken on the video. Once you’re done making changes, click the Publish button to save your subtitles.
After you publish the subtitles, a CC is listed inside the Video Manager (next to the video) to show you the subtitles are present.
I like that YouTube shows which videos have captioning, giving you a glance at how many you have left to change. If you need me to create a video to show you, just let me know!
Thanks Bonnie – will give it a go.
If you have trouble, my video for tomorrow is going to show how to create captions inside of Camtasia, and then the following video (in two days) will show how to add those captions to a YouTube video!
If you have any problems adding captions, my day #28 video is going to show how to do it!
Until now, I had not heard of this method. Thank you for sharing!
You’re welcome, Mary.
Do you think you would ever use the software to transcribe audio into blog posts?
How accurate you do find Dragon to be? I had a copy years ago and maybe it’s my accent getting in the way but I had to make a lot of corrections so I’m hesitant.
By the way, I LOVE your video. Very nice on the intro and out-tro as well.
I have Dragon Naturally Speaking, version 12, which is very accurate. I’m tempted to get version 13 because I heard it’s even better! To get the software to learn how you talk, you must train it.
In version 12, under the HELP tab, you can increase the accuracy of DNS by personalizing your vocabulary, adjusting your acoustics (microphone) and allowing the software to scan your documents and email. All of these improve the accuracy of how well DNS transcribes your audio and dictation in the future.
Great tutorial, Bonnie. I’ve heard very good things about Dragon Naturally Speaking. Maybe one day, I’ll give it a try. 🙂
I think you’ll like the program! I know I do!
I know I type fast and I didn’t think Dragon Naturally Speaking could save me time, but I was wrong.
So many people who don’t want to write a book could dictate one with Dragon Naturally Speaking and have no more excuse why they aren’t a published author. 🙂
Wow, that’s a great idea! I love Dragon but I don’t get too much time to use it since Taylor is usually in the same room as me while I’m working and I’ll be talking and he’ll try to correct me and it’ll pick his voice up too. LOL
I mostly use it when I’m working while he’s working on something outside.
Another good thing about the Premium, Professional and Legal versions is the fact that you can speak into a voice recorder and use DNS to transcribe the speech to text too!
I haven’t tried this yet because I don’t know if the recorder Ricky got me for Christmas is DNS compatible, but I would like to eventually try it out just to see if it works!
Oh my! This is just what I need! I have so many interviews in my audio files that I have dreaded the hours needed for transcription. Seriously, I’m about ready to weep for joy… I’m going to get this software right away… this will save me hundreds of hours, literally 🙂
Thank you so much. I stumbled upon your site through UBC and I can’t tell you how grateful I am.
In your case, Susan, interview files will need to be “parroted” for Dragon Naturally Speaking (DNS) to be able to dictate the entire interview. The reason this extra step is necessary is because DNS is is trained to recognize your voice and not the voice of the person you’re interviewing.
To bypass this setback, you will need to put on your headphones, key up the microphone and dictate the entire interview into the software. When you speak the interview in your own voice, DNS will accurately dictate the words because it’s trained to your voice.
Unfortunately, there is no other way to transcribe your audio interviews unless the party you’re interviewing also has a copy of DNS and can dictate his/her answers at the same time you’re doing the live interview on your end. Otherwise, the parroting method I described above would work.
Thanks, Bonnie – that makes sense!
Hi Susan,
I’m glad you liked the video. If there is anything else you need to know about video or transcribing – please let me know!
Thanks for visiting, Susan. I apologize that it has taken me so long to answer back, but I had a truck accident on October 13th and was hospitalized for a couple of days.
I’m just getting back into the swing of things. 🙂
– Bonnie