Save button/Auto-save for editing trasncripts?

[smiklin]

I recently tried using QualCoder to transcribe/clean up transcriptions, and I really like the feature and I think it's fantastic to have it incorporated. However, it does seem to be a bit risky.

When I am working on a transcription (So I'm in Manage Files -- View audio/video file), it seems that the only way to save progress is to close the window. But if I am working on something longer, this is inconvenient because I pretty much have to stop my work, close the window, open it again, and then find the section I was working on to restart.

Given that the coding part seems to save continuously, I had originally assumed that there is some auto-save at work here, and I was unpleasantly surprised when I lost some work.

If it isn't feasible to implement auto-save here:

1. Some sort of a "Save" button would make it clear the file does not auto-save.
2. A button would simplify the saving process and, I am sure, encourage users to save more frequently, protecting their work.

In addition to rare but unforeseen issues (e.g. some system-wide issue that forces a shutdown), the current framework is also vulnerable to user error. As is, if I am working on a transcript, and then go to view another document, this other document opens in the View window, and the changes on the transcript are gone. [Which is how I encountered the whole issue today: I went to check something written in another file without thinking, still used to the auto-save that is implemented in the coding framework, and lost a good chunk of work]

[ccbogel]

OK, thank you for the information. I was not aware of this specific issue before.
I have updated the latest code - QualCoder 4.0 to have an autosave, when text changes, the save occurs every 20 seconds, as well as when the window is closed. (worst case would be losing 20 seconds of work).
I would recommend, doing the transcribing, BEFORE any coding - in case codes are mis-aligned (which happens infrequently) due to the text changes.

Unforunately, I cannot make this View Av window to be modal as this affects the ability to move the smaller video window around. (modal means that you cannot perform other actions in the software.)

[smiklin]

Auto-save is great-- many thanks!

And yes, definitely transcribing before coding -- I used to work on transcriptions with a different software, but I really like the idea of loading everything together and being able to very easily go back to the audio when coding if I need to re-listen to something.