Annotate

What is annotating?

Annotating involves adding a keyword to an entry in the biography.  These keywords will make up the Index.

 

What are markers?

Markers are a way of tagging a particular point in a clip or photograph and attaching descriptive keywords to that point.  They are useful in identifying spots where you might want to remove part of a clip (e.g., delete from beginning to Marker A), and they also allow you to play only parts of a clip at a time (e.g., begin playing from Marker B).  In a photo, a marker could tag an individual’s face, allowing you to label each person separately.  You must select a marker in order to annotate an entry.

 

How do I add markers?

For video/audio: Once the clip is open, you can play it and add markers as it is playing.  Click on the button with the arrow to play.  You may rewind or fast forward by dragging the downward-pointing arrow ▼ horizontally.  To add a marker, click on the button with the asterisk (*).  You will see that the marker now appears in a table underneath the image screen.  Clicking on the marker in this table will make the video or audio jump to the point indicated by the marker.

For photos: Add a marker by clicking on a spot in the photograph.

 

Deleting markers or annotations

Click on a row in the table.  You will see that the asterisk button now has a red line through it.  Click this button to delete the selected row.  If there are multiple annotations for the same marker, this action will only delete the row you have selected, and the marker will still be in place.  If this row is the only annotation for this marker, deleting the annotation will also delete the marker.

 

What is a Keyword Category?

The preset categories are dates, people, places, subjects. Categories group keywords and describe the how keyword will be sorted in the index, e.g., last name, first name, or month/day/year.  For a place, you must provide a city, state, and country.  People must have a first and last name, and dates must contain month, day, and year.

 

Why are there words showing up under the keyword box?

Totem offers you a list of all the terms you have previously entered within the Keyword Category you have selected.  This is to help you be consistent with annotations.  For example, entering “Manhattan” for one entry and “New York City” for another is not ideal, as the function of keywords is to group together entries on the same topic, and using different words prevents these from being grouped together.  By allowing you to see the terms you have already used, Totem allows you to repeat the same terms when appropriate.

 

Can I create my own Keyword Categories or change the ones that are already there? 

Click on the “Edit Keywords” button.  There are four preset types of  Keyword Categories: dates, people, places and subjects. You can create new categories or change the names of the existing ones.  For example, this might be helpful if you wanted to have additional categories of dates (birthdays, holidays etc.) or of people (friends, family, etc.).

 

Can I edit keywords?

Click on the “Edit Keywords” button.  Keywords are terms that you have typed in while annotating entries.  If you edit or delete a keyword, the term will be changed or deleted everywhere that you used it.  For example, if you have used the term “Marcia” as a keyword for three clips, and you change it to “Marsha,” all three clips will now have the term “Marsha.”  You can use this to check for consistency among keywords.  For example, if you find that you have used “Manhattan” in some places and “New York City” in other places, you can use this screen to change all instances of “New York City” to “Manhattan.”

 

Playing the clip

Press the ► button to play.  You can fast forward or rewind by dragging the downward-facing arrow ▼.

 

Saving changes

To save changes, just close the window.