Author Archives: Nelson Garcia

Lingvanex Translator

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By Nelson Garcia and Claudia Kokot 

If you need a straightforward option for translating documents, Lingvanex Translator is one tool to consider.  For as little as $99 per year for a license, you will have unlimited text translation into 109 languages.  Lingvanex Translator offers two desktop versions for Windows or macOS:  the Desktop Cloud Version, which uses an internet connection for translations, and the Desktop Offline Version, which relies on locally downloaded language data. According to Lingvanex, nothing is stored on the cloud. Translation history is kept locally on the device no matter which version you decide to go with.

If you’re deciding between the offline and online desktop versions, the online one offers more features overall. It also supports offline use for certain languages. You can check this in the app under Settings → Offline (see figure 3 below). Any language listed there can be downloaded after you purchase a subscription and be used without an internet connection.

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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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Lab Notes: TrialPad

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By Nelson Garcia 

If you are looking for Mac-friendly courtroom presentation software, TrialPad is an option. Although NLST does not support Macs, we understand that some panel members rely on them and thus have created this overview.

TrialPad is an iPad application developed by Lit Software. It has no relation to Trial Director. It is meant to help present evidence in court, and includes the ability to mark exhibits, zoom live, and organize and search exhibits and files. It does not require internet or wi-fi, and supports multiple formats. You can find more information, including cost, here: https://www.litsoftware.com/

Note: While TrialPad works well with large document collections, you might need to use a flash drive or external drive to store documents that exceed the capacity of the device’s internal storage capacity.

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PDF Gear

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By Nelson Garcia 

If you do not have Adobe Acrobat, PDFgear is an alternative free PDF reader and editor.  It works with Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android and web browsers. It will let you edit, convert, annotate, organize, and sign PDF documents.

Here are some of the things you can do with PDFgear:

Edit: text, images, links, and fields—similar to editing in Word
Annotate and mark: highlight, underline, strikethrough, add sticky notes, comments, stamps, and shapes
Password protect: you can add a password to a PDF
Convert: you can convert PDFs to and from formats like Word, Excel, etc.
OCR: you can extract selected text
Manage forms: you can fill out forms, make new forms, and add electronic signatures
Organize pages: you can merge, split, compress, crop, rotate, and rearrange pages

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