The first release SIL Transcriber, Alpha 1, includes the basic “Happy path” functions of the program. It allows a task to be created and transcribed. Once transcribed it can be reviewed and uploaded to Paratext.

Even in this first alpha release, it allows multiple users with different roles. The program has been localized into 9 languages. When the administrator first runs the program and chooses a language, this language becomes the default (which can be changed) for each other user of the program. (The downloads page contains a PDF with a more detailed descriptions of getting setup and using the program: connecting up the foot pedal, etc.)

This first alpha version allows for a single project. So if a Paratext project is chosen, uploaded content will be written to the files of that project. If on the other hand, the administrator “skips” choosing a Paratext project, then it is not possible with this version to later decide to sync to a Paratext project. (We plan to change this in the next version in a couple of weeks.)

The Roadmap is given on the developer page on this site. We plan to do a release every couple of weeks between now and the end of the year.

We would like your suggestions and feedback. We may get a “discourse” site prepared so each of you will be able to see issues or suggestions of the others and “vote” for them. For now, you can email this feedback or put it on the contact form on this site (which will create an email). We will then rework this feedback into issues and include it in the development schedule. The hope is to get much of the critical feedback into the beta (by the end of the year).