Exploring Your Discovery with dtSearch’s Core Search Functions

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By Tisha Davis, Derek Ametam and Joe Wanzala 

This is the fifth installment in our series on dtSearch. In the previous posts, we covered how to set up and configure an index. In this installment, we’ll begin exploring  how to actually search your discovery data and make the most of dtSearch’s powerful search capabilities.  You can find the previous installments here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4.

dtSearch is built to help users rapidly and accurately find relevant information within massive datasets. It provides a versatile, layered set of search tools that can be used individually or combined for greater power and flexibility. Key components include Search requests, advanced Search features, Search within a Search (i.e. iterative or nested searching), Browse Words, and the User Thesaurus.

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Transcribing and Translating with Subtitle Edit

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By Nelson Garcia

Introduction

This guide provides a step-by-step overview of how to use Subtitle Edit (SE) for transcription and translation tasks. While Subtitle Edit is primarily a subtitle creation and editing tool, its integration with speech recognition engines such as Whisper makes it a useful solution for generating transcripts and translating subtitles. This document is designed for paralegals, investigators, and translators who need practical instructions for working with audio and video files.

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Lab Notes: Transcription with Vibe and Buzz

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By Nelson Garcia

Vibe and Buzz are free audio/video transcription programs. 

Vibe

Vibe is an on-device transcription program that will take an audio file or a video file and convert whatever is spoken in that file into text that you can format in a bunch of different ways.  It is simple to use, and it runs on Mac, Windows, and Linux. It is open source in both the software and the engine that it is using. It uses Open AI Whisper engine to do the transcription. 

Useful features include:

  • It can function offline
  • It will transcribe into over 90 different languages.
  • It has diarization (speaker recognition) and can edit\change speakers.
  • It can be saved in various formats including .txt, .srt., .docx, and .pdf.
  • It can summarize transcripts with llama or Claude (additional steps required)
  • Optimized for GPU (Graphics Processing Unit).
  • It will NOT translate from English to another language, but it can translate into English from over 90 languages.
  • Note: Like other transcription software\programs, it doesn’t handle crosstalk very well.
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2025 Update: dtSearch Desktop Demonstration video (originally published in 2014)

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By Alex Roberts

Note: Here is a quickstart video that demonstrates how to set up a new dtSearch index and search it. Index set up is also described in the dtSearch Guide parts III and IV. Searching an index will be detailed in future posts.

Here is a brief 12-minute video that demonstrates how to set up a new dtSearch index and how to run searches within an index.

Licenses for dtSearch are available for CJA panel attorneys with current, active cases at no cost.  If you are interested in obtaining a license, please fill out a dtSearch request form, at: http://nlsblog.org/2014/03/25/dtsearch-desktop/.  

Note: like most litigation software programs, this program was developed for Windows-based operating systems and does not work with Macintosh operating systems.

dtSearch Guide – Part IV: Updating an Index

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By Tisha Davis, Derek Ametam and Joe Wanzala 

This is part of a series of posts focusing on dtSearch software. In this installment we cover how to update an index.

When you receive more productions, you can choose between two approaches. One option is to update the existing index but adding the new productions into the existing index. The other option is to create a new, separate index.

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