How to use Stenobox

From a recording to a finished transcript in three moves: upload your audio, review it against the synced audio, and certify. This guide walks through every step and every button. Looking for quick answers on pricing, accuracy, or the free trial? See the FAQ.

The basics

Stenobox takes a court or deposition audio recording and produces a fully formatted draft transcript — Q./A., speaker labels, court-style numbers and dates, the works. You then review the draft against the audio, fix anything that needs it, and certify. The typing and formatting are done for you; your judgment and certification stay with you.

1. Set up your page — your name and your state, once; your state picks the page.
2. Upload your audio file (or record live).
3. Review the draft against the synced audio — right-click any word to hear it — then certify and export.

Prefer to work in Word or your own software? You don't have to use our editor at all. Open the finished transcript and click Copy all beside Download — the whole formatted transcript copies to your clipboard, ready to paste into Word, your CAT software, or any other program. (More on that below.)

Prefer Stenobox in its own window, like a regular program? Chrome can do that today: with Stenobox open, click Chrome's three-dot menu, then Cast, save, and share → Install page as an app (on older Chrome versions: More tools → Create shortcut, and tick “Open as window”). Stenobox gets its own icon on your desktop or dock and opens in a clean window of its own — no tabs, no address bar. Everything works exactly the same; it's the same Stenobox, just in its own frame.

Preparing your audio

Stenobox works from an audio or video file. Audio formats: MP3, WAV, M4A, WEBM. Video formats: MP4, MOV, M4V, MPG, MPEG, AVI, MKV, WEBM — upload the video as-is and Stenobox extracts the audio track for you (the video itself is never stored; only the audio is kept). Audio files can be up to 500 MB (roughly a full day); video files up to 2 GB. Recordings from FTR courtroom systems (.trm files) upload directly too — see FTR court recordings below. A few tips:

• Audio quality matters most. The cleaner the recording, the better the draft. Put the recorder close to the speakers, and minimize people talking over each other where you can.
• Tougher audio still works — you'll just verify more. Heavy accents, crosstalk, or a noisy room mean more spots get flagged for you to check against the recording. Nothing is hidden; the click-to-hear review is built for exactly those moments.
• Zoom recordings: Zoom usually saves an audio-only file alongside the video — look for audio_only.m4a in the recording folder (or choose “Audio only (M4A)” when downloading a cloud recording). You can upload that directly, no conversion needed.
• Multi-hour recordings are fine — full-day depositions are handled.

FTR court recordings (.trm files)

Courtrooms that record with FTR (For The Record) systems produce .trm audio files, usually alongside .trs files and an .htm log sheet. Those files won't open in a normal audio player — but Stenobox takes them directly. No FTR Player export, no conversion step.

• Drag the whole case folder onto the upload zone (or select all the files in it). Stenobox packages everything into one upload, joins the audio segments in the recorder's own order, and processes the day as a single transcript. A zipped copy of the folder works exactly the same way.
• The log sheet becomes your spelling guide automatically. The clerk's .htm log lists the judge, the parties, and the case numbers — Stenobox reads it so those names come out spelled right, without you attaching anything separately.
• Protected recordings can't be processed. If a recording was marked protected or encrypted in FTR, you'll see a clear message — for that one, export MP3 or WAV from FTR Player and upload that instead.
• Limits: up to 500 MB and 400 files per upload — a full court day fits comfortably. A longer stretch can simply be split into two uploads.

Curious what these files actually are? The guide FTR recordings: what .trm files are and how to get a transcript covers the background.

FTR and For The Record are trademarks of their respective owner. Stenobox is not affiliated with or endorsed by them.

Video recordings

If your recording is a video (a screen recording, body-cam, phone video, or a Zoom MP4), you can now upload it directly — Stenobox extracts the audio track, transcribes it, and keeps only the audio (the video is deleted after processing). Converting first is only worth it when the video is over the 2 GB limit: audio alone is far smaller, so extracting it yourself gets even a very long recording under the cap. The free, offline VLC Media Player does this in under a minute.

Convert a video to MP3 with VLC

1. Install VLC (free) from videolan.org if you don't already have it.
2. Open VLC. In the menu bar, click Media → Convert / Save… (on Windows the shortcut is Ctrl+R; on a Mac use File → Convert / Stream).
3. Click + Add and choose your video file, then click Convert / Save at the bottom.
4. In the Profile dropdown, choose “Audio – MP3.”
5. Next to Destination file, click Browse, pick a folder, and give the file a name ending in .mp3.
6. Click Start. VLC writes the MP3 (a progress bar runs along the bottom). When it finishes, upload that .mp3 to Stenobox.

Any tool that exports MP3, WAV, or M4A works too — VLC is just the easiest free option that runs on your own machine.

The upload page, field by field

Click New upload on your dashboard to open the form. Drop in the recording, pick the kind of proceeding, and click Begin Transcription. Everything else lives under Add case details and is optional — but worth the minute: those fields are what get names spelled right and the format correct from the first line.

Audio or Video File (required)

Drag and drop your recording, or click to browse. Accepts audio (MP3, WAV, M4A, WEBM), video (MP4, MOV, M4V, MPG, MPEG, AVI, MKV, WEBM) — from a video, Stenobox extracts and keeps only the audio — or an FTR case folder (details above).

Proceeding type (under Add case details)

Deposition/EBT, examination under oath, court hearing, or an unsworn statement — pick one before Begin Transcription turns on. It’s the one required answer, and the most useful: a deposition comes out in Q./A. from the very first question instead of named labels, and the title page and certificate are built for that kind of proceeding.

Context & known participants (optional)

A plain-English note about the proceeding and who's speaking. This helps Stenobox label speakers correctly and spell names right. Example:

Deposition. MR. JONES is questioning (Q). ALAN SIMS is the witness (A). MS. REED appears for the defense.

Number of speakers (recommended)

How many voices are really on the recording — count only the people who speak. A deposition with one examiner, one defending attorney, and the witness is 3. When you provide it, Stenobox anchors to exactly that many speakers instead of guessing, which keeps one attorney from being spread across several names. It matters most when the caption lists a dozen attorneys and only two show up.

Case Caption / Spelling Guide (biggest accuracy boost)

Drag in the case caption or a spelling sheet as a PDF, Word document (.docx), or plain text (.txt) file. Stenobox uses it to spell party names, counsel, and other proper nouns the way the record requires. Names are the number-one source of transcript errors, so this is the single best minute you can spend on a job.

Transcript style

• Court Standard (default) — keeps every word, stutter, and false start, but removes standalone “um” and “uh” the way certified transcripts conventionally do. Yes/no answers like “uh-huh” and “uh-uh” always stay — those are testimony, not fillers. (See our guide on this convention.)
• True Verbatim — keeps everything exactly as spoken, including “uh,” “um,” stutters, and false starts, for a strict verbatim record.
• Clean Verbatim — removes filler words, stutters, and false starts, for a clean, readable record.

Interpreted proceeding (checkbox)

Check this for proceedings with a foreign-language interpreter. Stenobox keeps only the English on the record — it drops the foreign-language speech, formats the questioning attorney and the interpreter into Q./A. (the interpreter’s English answer is the witness’s answer), uses THE WITNESS for anything the witness answers in English directly, and keeps THE INTERPRETER for the interpreter’s own remarks.

Keep review audio until I delete the transcript (checkbox)

Off by default, which means the copy of the audio used for click-to-hear review deletes itself after 30 days. Turn it on and future uploads keep their review audio until you delete the transcript. This is an account default — you can still change any single job later under Tools › This job in its review editor.

Email me when a transcript is ready (checkbox)

On by default. When the job finishes, Stenobox sends a short note to your sign-in address so you don't have to keep the tab open. The email says only the job name — the transcript itself is never sent by email.

Begin Transcription

Starts the job. The form folds away and a progress card takes over.

Bring your own transcript (choose A finished transcript at the top of the form)

Already finished the transcript in your CAT software or another tool? At the top of the form, under What are you starting with?, pick A finished transcript and upload it instead of a recording — Word (.docx), RTF or plain text. Line numbers and page headers are stripped on the way in, your title page and certificate move onto the cover pages (the index is rebuilt with the new page numbers), and your words are never rewritten. Add the audio or video too and every word gets its place in the recording: click-to-hear, the foot pedal and the moving highlight all work on your text, a video plays in the review like any video upload, and the usual review flags mark where the recording seems to say something different from what was typed. Leave it out and the transcript opens in the editor right away, ready for Proofread. Imported transcripts never count against your plan’s hours, and they download as Word, Court ASCII or the CAT job file like any job (brought in without audio, the CAT job file carries no word timing). If you finish in CAT software, see Working in CAT software for the round trip.

What happens while it runs

Processing runs on its own — you don't have to sit and watch. Most transcripts are ready in about 10 minutes per hour of audio, and a live time estimate shows on screen. You can switch to another tab or app; keep the tab open and Stenobox will pop up a desktop notification the moment it's done (allow notifications when your browser asks). If you close the tab entirely, no problem — the finished transcript will be waiting in your dashboard.

The review editor

When the job finishes, it opens in the review editor. Click the transcript to edit it; changes save automatically. The top bar has Back, the transcript title, save status, Tools, Download, and How to use. Click the title to rename the job. The toolbar below holds Undo, Redo, alignment, Convert to Q&A, Proofread, Find & replace, and Go to page.

Pick up where you stopped: when you reopen a transcript from the dashboard in the same browser, Stenobox returns to the audio time, page, editing cursor, and title/index/certificate section where you left off. Playback stays paused until you start it. This viewing position is remembered on that device; it does not sync to a different computer or browser.

Listen along

• Click any word to place your cursor and edit. A plain click does not move the audio. Hover over or click a highlighted flag to see its details; right-click a word or click its line number to listen from that spot.
• Double-click a word to select it, or triple-click to select its paragraph, just like a normal text editor.
• Right-click a word to play the audio from that spot, rewound a hair for lead-in. Click a line number to play from the start of that line. (Alt-click — Option-click on a Mac — does the same as right-click.)
• Highlight and edit it like Word — drag from any word to select as much text as you need, even across separate paragraphs and printed pages. Then just start typing to replace it, press Ctrl+V to paste over it, Ctrl+X to cut it, or Delete/Backspace to remove it. One Undo brings back the entire selection.
• Opening and closing lines are yours to write. Stenobox doesn't insert generated opening or closing lines (the “taken by” block, “Commencing at…”, the concluding time) into a fresh draft — the transcript carries exactly what you type and what was said, so type those lines the way you deliver them, like any other text. Transcripts from before this change keep the lines they already have, editable like everything else.
• Use the audio bar at the bottom to play/pause. −5s rewinds five seconds for a re-listen; the speed menu slows tricky testimony to 0.5× or speeds through clean stretches.
• Follow audio keeps the transcript scrolling in time with the playback. Scrolling by hand pauses that until you click ◎ Current word to snap back.
• Watch video (under Tools › Listening) — if your recording was a video, it opens automatically in a mini player synced to the transcript: right-click a word or click a line number and the video jumps there. Drag the panel by its title bar to park it anywhere on your screen, and drag a corner to make it bigger or smaller — it remembers your spot and size. Pop out floats the video in its own little window on top of everything — drag it anywhere on your desktop, size it however you like, and it stays visible even while you work in Word or another program; right-clicking a transcript word still jumps it to that moment. Click Pop back in (or close the floating window) to return it to the panel. The video plays locally in your browser and is never uploaded — your browser simply remembers which file on your computer the job came from. If you move, rename, or edit that file, or open the review on a different computer or browser, use the Watch video button to pick it once more — it will be remembered again from then on. It works because the transcript came from the same recording, so they share the same clock. Close the panel to go back to audio playback.
• Word highlight (under Tools › Listening) — turns the follow-along highlight on or off: the word being spoken lights up as the audio plays. Turn it off if the moving highlight distracts you — Alt/Option-clicking a word to play from that spot still works either way. On unless you turn it off; remembered on this device.
• Boost quiet voices (under Tools › Listening) — evens out the volume so a soft-spoken witness or a far-away mic comes up without making loud passages louder, and trims low rumble. Off unless you turn it on; remembered on this device.
• Silence (under Tools › Listening) — choose how long quiet stretches play. Skim speeds through them — you still hear every second, just faster — and snaps back to normal speed (rewinding a beat) the moment sound returns. Skip jumps straight to just before the next word a backup listen heard — the fastest option, but the jumped stretch is never played, so quiet speech that both backup listens also missed would go unheard; Skim is the safer choice for a final certification pass. Neither will act anywhere a backup listen heard a word, and a badge next to the speed menu shows every skim and skip (including how much a skip jumped). Works with the video panel too. Set to Play everything unless you change it.
• Foreign language (under Tools › Listening — appears only on interpreted jobs) — on an interpreted proceeding the interpreter’s English is the record, so the foreign-language passages aren’t in the transcript but are still in the audio. Fast-forward plays those passages fast and returns to your normal speed just before the next transcribed words; Skip jumps straight past them, landing a beat before the next words. Any passage carrying a possible-dropped-testimony or no-audio flag always plays at normal speed, and the badge next to the speed menu shows every action. Works with the video panel too. Set to Play everything unless you change it.

Flags — the spots worth a second listen

Stenobox highlights the places worth double-checking, color-coded:

• Disagreement — the wording is uncertain.
• Missing words — words may have been dropped.
• Dropped testimony — a passage that didn't survive formatting; verify none of it is testimony.
• Wrong speaker — a line may be attributed to the wrong person.
• Low confidence — an optional faint underline on words Stenobox wasn't fully sure of.
• Reviewed — checked flags move into the Reviewed section of the Flags panel. Use Show reviewed flags on the page to show their green highlights.

Open Flags from the icons at the right edge, or choose Tools › Checking › Review flags. The panel lists flagged spots in page order and counts what is left and done. Click a row to go to its passage and audio position. Use All, Review, or Proofreading to filter the list. Tick a checkbox when you have checked a spot; it moves into Reviewed. Expand that section to uncheck it if needed. Hover popups remain available on the page.

Fixing a flagged spot

Hover over or click a flagged spot to compare Version 1 and Version 2. Use the matching button in Flags, or Use this in the popup, to apply the reading you want. A proofreading finding with a suggested correction has a Fix it button. You can also edit the passage yourself. Undo restores the words and the reviewed status changed by that correction.

Editing directly

Click anywhere in the transcript and type. Changes save automatically after you stop typing. The top bar shows Saving... while work is being saved and Saved ✓ when it finishes. This includes transcript edits, notes, reviewed marks, cover pages, and panel settings. If a save fails, the status says Not saved — check your connection (retrying); keep the page open while it retries. Press Tab to indent five spaces.

Other tools

• Name spellings — a list of every name found. Fix one and it's corrected everywhere in the transcript, possessives included.
• Wrong-speaker flags — when a turn's Q./A. or speaker label looks wrong, the flag offers Change label to…, and when several Q./A. labels are flipped, Fix all Q./A. label flags corrects the whole batch in one click.
• Find & replace (Ctrl+H) — type a word and press Enter (or the ↑ ↓ arrows) to jump to each place it appears, highlighted and ready to play — finding ignores capitalization. Replace changes just the highlighted match and stays there so you can check it; Replace all changes every one at once, like in Word — Replace all matches capitalization exactly, so run it twice if a name appears both ways. Your browser's own search (Ctrl+F) works on the transcript too.
• Insert / Clipboard — open it from the right-edge icons or Tools › Checking. Click a copied snippet or standard line to insert it at your cursor. You can save your own lines; the exhibit line asks for its number. The × beside an item removes it from the list.
• Strong flags only, under Tools › Checking, hides weaker wording flags. Missing-word and wrong-speaker flags stay visible.

Arrange your side panels

The right-edge icons open Flags, Speakers, Notes, and Insert / Clipboard. Up to two panels can share each side. Drag a panel by its title to dock it on either side or let it float; drag its edge to resize it. Click × to close it, or its icon to reopen it. Tools › Account › Reset panel arrangement puts Flags on the right and closes the other panels. Your notes and saved lines stay saved.

Speakers: use a row's menu to rename a speaker or merge its labels into another speaker. These actions change speaker labels in the transcript body; names inside testimony and the cover pages stay as they are.

Notes: click a passage in the transcript, open Notes, and choose Add a note. Click that note later to return to its passage and audio. Older notes without a passage bookmark still return to their audio time. Notes are for your review and do not print.

Proofreading

When your edits are done, press Proofread on the toolbar. Stenobox reads the transcript as it stands and lists possible reporter errors in Flags › Proofreading — doubled words, typos, inconsistent name spellings, questions and answers run together, and sentences that do not read right. It does not change the text on its own. Use Fix it where a suggested correction is available, or edit the passage yourself. Listen to the recording to check the finding when audio is available. Proofreading is included in every plan.

Keyboard shortcuts

Click a row in the Flags panel to use its keyboard controls. Click back into the transcript when you want to type:

When you type in the transcript, Enter and the arrow keys edit and move through the text. Esc and the playback F-keys still control the audio.

Using a foot pedal

The review editor works with transcription foot pedals — the same ones used with Express Scribe — so your hands never leave the keyboard:

• USB pedals (Infinity, Philips, Olympus, and most others): in the review editor, open Tools › Listening › Foot pedal and click Connect USB pedal (Chrome and Edge). If a pedal does something unexpected, use the Press to assign buttons — click one, tap the pedal once, and it's mapped. Your pedal reconnects automatically next time.
• Pedals that type keys (keyboard mode): set the pedal's buttons to F9 (play), F7 (rewind), and F8 (fast-forward) in your pedal's own software — no setup needed in Stenobox at all.

By default the play pedal behaves the way transcriptionists expect: hold it down to listen, let go to stop, and playback backs up about a second when you resume so you never lose a word. You can switch to tap-to-toggle and change the backstep in the Foot pedal panel — your settings are remembered on this device.

Recording live

Recording in Stenobox is optional, and it’s designed with digital reporters in mind — capture the proceeding and the record in one place. If you write steno or voice, it works as a second method alongside your writer — or skip it and upload your audio afterward. While you record, Stenobox types a rough draft on numbered pages, in transcript form, and you can fix it as it comes in; your corrections carry into the finished transcript when you hit Produce.

Next to New upload on the dashboard is ● Record — capture the proceeding on your own computer and watch a rough draft form as people speak:

• What you're recording: pick one before you start — This computer's audio for a Zoom or other call playing on this machine, Microphone for an in-person proceeding in the room with you, or Both for a hybrid where some people are in the room and some are on the call. Choosing Microphone or Both lets you pick which microphone to use; a table or conference mic will hear the room far better than the one built into a laptop.
• Starting: click Record. For This computer's audio or Both, the browser opens a share window — choose Entire Screen and tick Share system audio. That checkbox is what lets Stenobox hear the call.
• While recording: a rough draft forms on numbered pages. Click a line to type into it. F3 makes the line a question, F4 an answer, F2 names the speaker, M marks a moment to check later. Names you type go on your spelling list and carry into the finished transcript. In a hybrid recording your own voice is labeled THE COURT REPORTER. Press ⓘ Shortcuts for the full list.
• Reporter notes: type what just happened in the note box — or a short form like ws for witness sworn, otr off the record, botr back on the record, rec recess, ex exhibit marked — and it lands as a parenthetical with the time of day typed for you: “(At 10:02 a.m., witness sworn.)”. Alt+P jumps to the box.
• Playing something back: right-click a word (or Alt+click it) and that moment plays, starting a beat early so you get the lead-in — the recording keeps going while you listen. The round play button in the playback bar pauses only your listening; Pause recording at the top pauses the record itself.
• Marks: press M or click ⚑ Mark to stamp the current moment — an exhibit, a spelling to check, an objection. Each mark becomes a chip above the waveform; click the chip to play from just before that moment, or its × to remove it. Marks save with the recording.
• Copying from the draft: highlight any passage and copy it — the draft holds still while you're selecting and catches up the moment you click away. Or click Copy all in the playback bar to copy everything captured so far, speaker labels included.
• Watching from a second device: sign in on another device and the dashboard shows the recording in progress — open it to watch the draft form live. There too you can highlight any passage to copy it (the screen holds still while you select), or click Copy all for everything streamed so far.
• Letting counsel follow along: click 🔗 Share live view while recording and a private link copies to your clipboard. Anyone you send it to can watch the rough draft on their own phone or laptop — no account, no sign-in, transcript only (they never get the audio, the file, or anything else in your dashboard). The link stops working shortly after you stop recording, and Turn off kills it instantly. Each share creates a fresh link, so an old one can't be reused.
• Afterward: the recording saves to your dashboard automatically. Click Produce — right away or months later — to turn it into a full court-formatted transcript with the usual review.

Two honest notes: the live rough draft is a readback aid, not the deliverable — Produce re-transcribes from the audio at full quality and applies your corrections. And because a browser tab can be closed or lose power, keep your usual recorder running as a backup for anything irreplaceable. Recordings you make here stay in your library until you delete them — they may be the only copy of the proceeding, and Produce works whenever the transcript is ordered.

If the tab ever closes mid-recording — a crash, a lost connection, a dead laptop — you don't lose the session. While you record, Stenobox continuously backs the audio up to your dashboard (it stays within about a minute of live; if your connection drops, the backup catches up the moment it returns). Next time you open Stenobox, a banner offers to recover the interrupted recording as a normal saved recording — live draft, speaker names, and marks included. Your local file is a second, independent copy: the file you chose when you started holds everything too (if it was interrupted, look for a file ending in .crswap in that folder and rename the ending to .webm to play it). The browser also warns you before closing while a recording or its save is in progress.

Finishing & exporting

Page layout (Settings › Page layout)

Your first sign-in asks for your name and your state, then shows you the page set from them: 32 states have their own page, each built from that state’s court rule, and everyone else starts on the Federal page (the Judicial Conference 63-character column). Change it any time under Settings › Page layout (from the dashboard, or Tools › Account on a transcript): pick another page, or Custom margins for your own left and right margins and, if your court wants them, where Q./A. labels, speaker names and wrapped lines start — on the same Courier 10-pitch, 25-line page. On a page whose rule fixes the margins, the boxes are locked and the rule is named. Save applies it to the job you have open and to every job after; nothing already downloaded changes. Every job follows your one page on every device. Working in a state without its own page yet? Set your state under Settings › Account — that’s what tells us which one to build next.

Title, appearances, index, and certificate pages

The title, appearances, and index pages are above the transcript; the certificate is below it. Click any of them to edit. Fill any bracketed blanks before exporting. Use Remove above a page to leave it out of the document; its restore strip brings it back.

The line above the cover pages names the template on this job. Change opens your saved templates. After editing a cover page, use the save options on that line to update the named template or save a new one. You can make a template the default for new jobs of that proceeding type. A template may also include your opening and closing lines; review the preview before saving them. Applying a different template to an existing job changes the cover pages, not its transcript body.

Choose Tools › This job › Format for this job's page format. Open Tools › Account › Margins & indents for your account layout, including front-page line numbering under Advanced. Click Download for Word, plain text, Court ASCII, or a CAT job file. Certificate page counts are computed when you export.

When the transcript is verified, click Copy all beside Download to copy the whole thing to your clipboard, then paste it straight into Word or your CAT software to finalize and certify. Your transcripts stay in your dashboard so you can reopen them anytime; you can search them from the dashboard search box. Uploaded source files are removed within a day of processing. Review audio auto-deletes after 30 days by default; turn on Keep review audio until I delete the transcript for future uploads, or change one job under Tools › This job in its review editor. Recordings made with Stenobox stay until you delete the transcript.

Working in CAT software

Every transcript can be downloaded as a CAT job file (.rtf) plus its audio — both on the Download screen. Import the .rtf in your CAT software the way you’d open any job, then use its audio-attach feature (in Case CATalyst: Associate Audio) to link the downloaded audio file. Clicking a word in your CAT plays that moment of the recording.

Checking a transcript you already wrote. Stenobox fits between your scoping and your final — the fixing happens here, the block pages and certificate stay in your CAT:

1. Bring it in with the audio. Pick A finished transcript at the top of the upload form, upload the transcript and the audio or video, and click Submit. Every word gets its place in the recording, and review flags mark where the recording seems to say something different from what was typed.
2. Fix it in Stenobox. Work the flags with click-to-hear and the foot pedal, then run Proofread for the rest — you listen where it matters instead of everywhere.
3. Download the CAT job file and finish in your CAT. Import the .rtf as a job, attach the audio if you want in-CAT sync, add your block files and produce. The words come back exactly as you left them; your CAT applies its own layout. Or finish in Stenobox: your own title page and certificate come in with the transcript and sit on the cover pages (the index is rebuilt with the new page numbers), Change swaps them for one of your templates, and you download Word or Court ASCII.

Flagging here and fixing in your CAT works too, but on a long transcript you would be finding every spot twice. A transcript brought in without audio downloads the same way, just without word timing.

If something looks wrong

A stretch repeats the same word, or a warning says “Garbled transcription removed.” Very rarely, the transcription of one stretch can break down into a repeating loop — the same word over and over, which was never in the audio. Stenobox catches this, removes the repetition automatically, and flags the stretch so you know exactly where it happened. Because some speech from that stretch may be missing from the draft, the quickest fix is to open the transcript and click Tools › This job › Reprocess audio — Stenobox re-runs the stored audio as a brand-new transcript, no re-upload needed, and your first draft stays untouched in your dashboard. This kind of breakdown almost never happens twice with the same recording, and reprocessing never costs extra on your flat plan. Reprocess remains available while that job's review audio is stored; after automatic deletion, upload the original file again.

The same advice covers most one-off oddities — a draft that seems to cut off early, or a stretch of clearly wrong text: reprocess first. If a second run shows the same problem in the same spot, the audio itself is usually the cause (a dropped connection during the original recording, a stretch of heavy crosstalk) — email us and we'll take a look with you.