All annotations are entered either into the box or into the box, which are accessed via the Timeline, Interlinear, Grid, Text and Subtitle Viewers. ELAN supports the following options:
entering annotations (section Section 2.9.1 and Section 2.9.2);
entering annotations before/after other annotations (Section 2.9.4);
modifying the content of annotations (Section 2.9.12);
deleting annotations (Section 2.9.17);
entering annotations in different character sets (Section 2.9.21).
Select the time span in which you want to place the annotation.
Access the box by doing one of the following:
Either double-click in the Timeline Viewer on the selection at about the height of the tier where you want to enter the annotation.
Or click on menu, then click on (active tier only).
Or use the key equivalent ALT+N (active tier only).
In all cases, the box appears, e.g.:
Do one of the following:
Press the keys CTRL+ENTER (without entering an annotation) to create an empty annotation.
Enter an annotation and then press the keys CTRL+ENTER to save the selection.
It is possible to enter text that contains line breaks. The text entry box automatically displays a scrollbar if necessary.
The box is automatically preconfigured for the default character set of the tier. If you want to use a different character set, do the following:
Right-click in the box. A pull-down menu appears that displays the available character sets.
Click on the appropriate character set. From now on, the characters are entered in the selected set.
![[Note]](images/note.png)
Note If you are using a third-party keyboarding solution like Keyman, make sure to select the default system language as input language for the tier to be edited (e.g. Dutch if your system language is set to Dutch).
To switch back to the default character set, repeat the steps above and select the default set from the pull-down menu.
Note Only selections on time-alignable tiers can be saved in this way. To save a selection on a referring tier, see Section 2.8.5.
Save the annotation by doing one of the following:
Use the shortcut keys CTRL+ENTER, you can change this shortcut to in Preferences, see Section 1.3
Or right-click in the box and click on in the pull-down menu.
To exit the box without saving, do one of the following:
Use the shortcut key ESC.
Or right-click in the box and click on in the pull-down menu.
| Note |
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When annotations are created, they can be aligned with the video frames by setting it as a preference (see Section 1.3) |
An alternative method to get an box is:
Click a time that should become the begintime of the annotation.
Press SHIFT+ENTER.
Click a time that should become the endtime of the annotation.
Again press SHIFT+ENTER.
An box appears on the selected tier. You can now enter an annotation and save it in the way explained above.
It is possible to create one or more annotations by manually entering the begin and end time for the new annotation(s).
Choose or use the shortcut key CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+N
A dialog window appears as shown below:
Enter the begin time in the first textfield and the end time in the second field
Optionally enter an annotation value in the third text field. If more than one tier are selected, the value will be applied to all new annotations.
In the table in the lower part of the window, select the target tier or tiers.
Click to create the annotation(s)
