If multiple users are editing a transcript at the same time, when each user attempts to save their changes, there may be conflicts in the changes done by each user. Echo360 deals with this by presenting a list of the changed cues and asking the user to select WHICH is the one to keep in the newly saved version. This is done when the user clicks Save as New Version.

Essentially what happens is that multiple users open the latest/currently applied version of the transcript and begin editing. When the first users saves their changes, those changes are applied and a new version is created.  When the NEXT user saves, there are conflicts because there are cues in the first user's saved version that no longer match the ones in YOUR version, whether YOU made those changes or not.

YOUR changes are in the list on the right, and the other user's changes are on the left. The area above the listed cues also shows how many conflicts there are (remaining). As you select which cue to keep, that number decrements. Once at zero, the Merge Changes button becomes active.

Logically, only cues that are different between the two versions have conflicts and require intervention to determine which is the one to keep.

Use the checkboxes to the left of each cue to determine which version of that cue to keep. 

Use the checkboxes at the top to select ALL of the cues by either you or the other user. 

If the individual cues do not HAVE checkboxes, see the section at the bottom of this page for why this might be, and what to do in this situation.

Once the changes are merged, a new version is created and saved. OTHER users who may be editing the original or previous version will be faced with conflicts between your newest saved version and theirs. Subsequent editing should be done from the newest saved version, to reduce conflicts. See the Best Practice section below for help and tips.

Best Practice for multiple concurrent editors

If you know that you are going to be editing transcripts in parallel with one or more other users, best practice would be to split the work across segments of the video. For example, if you and one other user are editing an hour-long transcript, agree that one of you takes the first 30 minutes and the other takes the second 30 minutes. 

In this case, when the first user selects to save, they do not see a conflicts page, because their edits are the only ones Echo360 is aware of.

When the second user selects to save, they WILL see a conflicts page and there might be a large number of conflicts. DON'T PANIC! If each user worked only the sections of the video/audio transcript file they agreed to, the second user can accept their changes for the half they worked on, then select the OTHER user's changes for the other half. Each conflicting cue's time stamps are shown, making this method easier.

After both users have saved, WE STRONGLY RECOMMEND that if there are further edits to make, that BOTH USERS ensure they are working with the NEWEST (most recently saved) version and continue editing their section of the cues.

I Cannot Select Individual Cues

You may run into a situation where you go to save your edits in the Transcript Editor and are faced with a slightly different "merge editing conflicts" window. It provides a different error message, but the ONE thing you will notice is that the individual cues don't have checkboxes. This is shown in the below figure.

This is a fairly rare occurrence but CAN happen if another user uploaded a transcript file while you were editing, AND the uploaded one has a SIGNIFICANTLY different number of cues. The person uploading may have removed some while offline-editing the file, or perhaps they uploaded the wrong VTT file for this media. In either case, there are too many conflicts to allow for merging AND the number of cues do not line up.

To address this situation, you can view the differences and determine whose version is correct. It should be reasonably clear which is the one to keep, especially if the wrong transcript file was uploaded to cause this. Once you determine which one to keep, use the checkbox at the top - to retain either YOUR version and ALL of it's changes, or the uploaded one by the other user.

IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO NOTE: If you select to keep the uploaded changes, you will LOSE all of your changes. We recommend instead that you KEEP all of YOUR changes and applying them. This creates a new version of the transcript file. The uploaded version is still available (as the previous numbered version) AND you can switch to it if needed using the Version drop-down list.