> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.dovetail.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Transcribe a video > Import a video or audio file into Dovetail, get a transcript back, find the parts you need, and share a quote, a clip, or the full text. This guide covers importing a recording into Dovetail, transcribing it, and getting quotes or clips out of the result. It starts from having no account. The steps are the same for any video or audio file, whatever is on it. *** ## Common uses * **Journalism.** Transcribe interview recordings so you can quote people accurately and find a line you half remember. * **Podcasts.** Produce episode transcripts for show notes, accessibility, and searching back through old episodes. * **Case studies and marketing.** Transcribe customer calls you plan to write up, and cut clips from them for a landing page or a social post. * **Talks, webinars, and internal meetings.** Keep a searchable record of what was said for people who did not attend. * **User research.** Analyze interviews and usability sessions in depth. [Experience research](/help/experience-research) covers that case in more detail. *** ## Step 1: Create your account Go to [dovetail.com/signup](https://dovetail.com/signup/) and create a workspace. A workspace is your organization’s space in Dovetail, and everything you import lives inside it. If your organization already uses Dovetail, ask a colleague to invite you instead. See [Manage users](/help/user-roles). *** ## Step 2: Create a project A project is a folder for one body of work: a podcast season, the interviews behind an article, a set of case study calls. Dovetail does not create a project for you. Select `+ New`, then `Project`, and give it a name. Name the project after the body of work rather than the recording, since you will usually add more files to it later. The Free plan includes one project, which is enough to follow this guide. See [Projects](/help/projects) for what else a project holds. *** ## Step 3: Add your recording Open your project, select `Import` or `+` in the top right, and choose the file from your computer. You can select several files at once, and each becomes a separate item in the project. If the recording does not exist yet, you can record inside Dovetail instead. Open the project’s **Data** tab, select `Create (+)`, choose **Take notes**, and click the microphone. Dovetail transcribes as you speak. See [Transcribe and translate](/help/projects/transcribe-and-translate). Recordings that start as scheduled calls on Zoom, Google Meet, or Microsoft Teams can be imported without uploading anything. Connect [Google Calendar](/integrations/google-calendar) or [Outlook Calendar](/integrations/microsoft-outlook-calendar) and your meeting tool, then set a rule such as sending every meeting whose title contains *Interview* to a particular project. This only applies to recordings that begin as calendar events, so it suits a recurring interview series rather than a file you already have. See [Continuous discovery](/help/continuous-discovery) for the setup. *** ## Step 4: Let Dovetail transcribe it Transcription starts automatically once the file finishes importing. Dovetail detects the spoken language and can transcribe 82 languages. It also identifies separate speakers, so an interview or a panel is broken up by speaker. Set the transcription language before you import rather than after. Changing it later regenerates the transcript, which deletes any highlights made from the old one. Open the project, click `•••` in the top right, and select **Automation**. See [Set transcription language for a project](/help/projects/transcribe-and-translate#set-transcription-language-for-a-project). Once the transcript is ready you can rename the speakers, merge or split sections, and correct mistakes. Two related features need the [Enterprise plan](https://dovetail.com/pricing/) and are not part of the Free plan: [custom vocabulary](/help/projects/transcribe-and-translate#set-up-custom-vocabulary-for-transcription), which teaches Dovetail names and jargon it keeps mishearing, and [translation](/help/projects/transcribe-and-translate#translate-a-transcript) into one of 75 languages. *** ## Step 5: Work with the transcript Dovetail summarizes each recording as it imports, so you can see what it covered without opening it. See [Data summaries](/help/projects/data-summaries). It also suggests highlights, which are passages it considers significant. You accept the ones you want, and you can highlight anything else yourself by selecting the text. Every highlight stays linked to its timestamp, so the video plays from that point. See [Highlights](/help/projects/highlights). To search the content rather than read it, open [Chat](/help/chat) and ask a question in plain language, such as “what did she say about her first job” or “where do they disagree”. Answers cite the transcript, so you can open the source and check it. Chat answers across every recording in a project, not only the one you are looking at. The more you import, the more it has to compare. *** ## Step 6: Share it | You want | Do this | | :----------------------------------------- | :------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | The full transcript as a file | Download it as a VTT file. See [Download project data](/help/projects/download-project-data#download-a-transcript). | | A single clip | Open the highlight, click `•••`, and select `Download` for an MP4. | | Several clips as one video | Build a [highlight reel](/help/projects/highlight-reels) in a doc, then download the reel. | | A written piece with the clips in it | Write a [doc](/help/docs/getting-started-with-docs) and add the highlights. Readers can play each clip without leaving the page. | | To show someone without a Dovetail account | Turn on a [web link](/help/web-links). | Preparing a video for download takes time. Dovetail shows progress in the bottom right and emails you when the file is ready. *** ## Common mistakes * Importing before the transcription language is set means regenerating the transcript, which deletes the highlights made from it. * A separate project for every recording prevents Chat from comparing them. * Speakers left as “Speaker 1” make later searches and quotes harder to place. * A transcript exported and edited elsewhere loses the link between each quote and its point in the recording. *** ## Where to go next Languages, speaker names, custom vocabulary, and translation. Marking the moments that matter and keeping them linked to the video. Set up once so recorded calls arrive transcribed and highlighted. Analyze a set of interviews in depth when the transcript is the start.