For me, the balance of work put into video transcription software compared to their value in outputs has meant that after trying other apps, for a short while, I have drifted back to working with MS Word templates and video files. DOTE has three features that have convinced me to let go of my Word files. One, it checks your transcripts for errors while you are creating them (think spell-check in word processing). Two, it outputs subtitled video files for you from your transcripts (usually a fiddly additional piece of work). Three, it can automatically output different formats of transcripts (think citation software but for transcripts). There are all sorts of other carefully thought through features from the DOTE team. They are a team that built software to solve the problems that they themselves had encountered with other transcription software. -- Eric Laurier, Researcher, University of Edinburgh

I was happy to see DOTE has the features that I expected and/or hoped to find. For example: an intuitive transcription section, the use of sync-codes, and a straightforward and easy way of searching through the transcript by means of among others regular expressions. Although I have just started exploring the DOTE program and there is a lot for me to still discover, I already feel like this is the program I would want to use for transcribing in the future. It is intuitive, modern and seems to have all the functions one might wish for as a conversation analyst. -- Annerose Willemsen, Researcher, Linköping University

I have carried out research on naturally occurring social interaction for nearly two decades, and I have gained experience in and taught students conversation-analytic (based on Jefferson) and multimodal (based on Mondada) transcription. Although I have used various software dedicated to transcription and linguistic annotation, I have always fallen back to using a combination of audio-video-playback and text-editing software. In the last year, I have had the opportunity to test DOTE, and I am convinced that it is best suited for my transcription needs. I find the software intuitive to use, very easy to customise and yet versatile for the many complex aspects of presenting interactional data in a transcript (including, e.g. gloss, translation and description of participants' embodied conduct). I look forward to the moment when DOTE is available more widely and I can recommend it to my colleagues and to our students. In addition to a dozen or so researchers in our unit, I would estimate some 20–30 degree students to be interested in using the software for transcription. -- Mirka Rauniomaa, Senior researcher, Oulu University

I started using DOTE only a few weeks ago and am amazed by the range of different functions that I am still discovering. There certainly is a steep learning curve, but I can already say that as DOTE is evolving, I will likely make it my main transcription tool. Having a computer science background, I am delighted to see that DOTE brings some of the technical developments such as auto-completion into transcription, making the process more smooth and less error prone. I have only tapped into using the regular expression function, but I can already see that DOTE has the potential to revolutionise the way we work with collections, allowing to easily retrieve similar cases and unifying qualitative and quantitative aspects of transcription work in a more natural and smooth way. I absolutely love how DOTE is bringing state-of-the-art coding tools into transcription, finally bringing social science transcription methods to the 21st century. -- Hannah Pelikan, PhD Student, Linköping University

As a student, DOTE has allowed me to optimize my transcription process in the same way that programming is supported by similar word processing tools. DOTE has also saved me a lot of trouble from sitting and switching between a video player and a Word document until it's all collected in one clear interface. In the countless hours I have spent transcribing during my studies, I have missed a tool like DOTE. Because of DOTE, my transcription process has both become far more efficient, but has also become a more positive experience. -- Lucas Paulsen, Masters Student, Aalborg University