Transcripts
These guides cover the full workspace included in the Pro trial. Compare Free, Starter and Pro for ongoing access; Assist and iPad Companion require Pro.
Once a hearing starts, the daily transcript becomes the document you live in. Lexware gives the matter's transcripts a home of their own — the Transcripts section in the sidebar — where each day is browsable, searchable to the line, and markable the way you'd mark a hard copy.
Bringing a transcript in
Choose Import transcript… and select a daily transcript PDF already in the brief, or upload a new file. A loose transcript arriving in the Intray can be suggested for filing as a transcript based on its name. Lexware reads the day, numbered lines and witness markers, then shows an import summary and any warnings.
Re-importing the same day replaces its parsed transcript. An unchanged PDF read with the same transcript parser keeps your highlights. If the file or parser version has changed, re-import is refused while the day has highlights, because their positions could move. Export the highlights report before removing those marks or deleting the day, then import the corrected version. Deleting a day also deletes its transcript highlights.
The importer recognises the layouts the main Australian providers produce — Epiq daily transcripts, Auscript / Queensland Courts, and VIQ / Federal Court. A transcript in another layout, or a scanned image-only one, is declined with a note saying why, rather than imported badly.
By day and by witness
Each day sits in its own panel, and a Witnesses outline runs alongside — who was called, when each examination began, and where a witness withdrew — so "take me to the start of the cross" is one click, not a scroll through four hundred pages.
If the hearing date is missing or wrong, click the date beside the day number, or Add date. Your correction is kept on re-import; clear it to return to the date read from the transcript. This changes the hearing date, not the day number or page references.
Searching to the line
Search the imported lines with plain words or an "exact phrase". Aa matches case, Pattern enables regular expressions, and Extended adds surrounding words to each result. Narrow the search to a day or witness from the side rail, then clear the scope to search the whole transcript again. Each result carries its day and page–line reference and jumps back to the passage. Transcript passages also appear in the command palette search: Ctrl K on Windows or ⌘K on Mac.
Highlights and notes
Select a passage and highlight it in one of five colours, with a note if you want one — one colour for concessions, one for credit, one for follow-up, whatever scheme you already use on paper. The Highlights pane collects them, filterable by colour. Its Report button saves all highlights and their notes as a Markdown report.
Following a document reference
When a transcript contains a Bates-style document identifier, Lexware looks for an exact match in the matter's document index. The first matched reference you open offers the available readers — a popup, a new Lexware reading window or your external reader — with an option to remember the choice for this matter. You can change it in Edit matter. An unmatched reference says the matter does not hold that document and opens nothing.
From transcript to work product
A passage worth keeping goes straight to the scratchpad — Send to scratchpad captures the quote with a backlink to its source PDF page. Copy with pinpoint reference copies the passage and its reference; Copy reference only copies the reference alone. The format menu offers compact, narrative, Queensland day–page and Federal Court forms, and remembers your choice.
Add to chronology opens an event draft with the passage as its source. Supply the event date and description, check the reference, then save to add it to the chronology.
On a second screen
Working with the transcript beside the chronology is exactly what two monitors are for: right-click Transcripts in the sidebar and choose Open in new window.
Your transcripts stay yours
Everything above — the import, the search index, the highlights, the report — happens on your own machine, and the transcript PDF you were sent is never altered. For the full picture, see how Lexware looks after your information.