Understanding the Editing UI

Once your file is transcribed, you'll see Narralyn's editing interface. It's designed to feel like editing text in a notebook, but every word is linked to the audio.

The Three Main Panels

Narralyn's interface has three main sections:

1. Audio Timeline (Top)

A visual waveform of your entire audio file.

What You See:

• Waveform bars = Audio volume (taller = louder)
• Colored sections = Audio that will be kept, where each color corresponds to the marked words in the same color, on the Word Editor
• Red playhead = Current playback position
• Button Panel = Buttons to play, zoom, cut, edit and delete cuts

What You Can Do:

• Click anywhere to jump to that time
• Zoom in/out for precision editing
• See the overall structure of your audio

What Each Button Does:

• Select All Words - Select all words into a single cut
• Select All & Filter - Select all words and filter the silences (creates multiple cuts)
• Filter Silence - Filter the silences from the current cuts (adds more cuts)
• Undo - Revert timeline to previous state
• Redo - Restore timeline from previous state
• Play Full - Play the entire audio file
• Play Cuts - Play each of the cuts in order. Resembles how the exported file will look like
• Play Selected - Plays a selected cut
• Stop - Stop the playback
• Split - Split a cut in the play head position
• Delete - Delete the selected cut
• -50ms - Expand the selected cut 50 ms away from its start time
• +50ms - Expand the selected cut 50 ms away from its end time
• Zoom bar - Expand or retract the timeline

1. Word Editor (Middle)

The heart of Narralyn - your transcript displayed as editable text.

Key Features:

• Click any word to create a cut from a word
• Click and drag multiple words to create a cut from multiple words
• Hide words to hide them from the transcript
• Edit text to change a word (doesn't affect audio)
• Create Phrase to change multiple words at once (doesn't affect audio)

Visual Indicators:

• Colored Words = Words that are part of each cut
• Gray strikethrough = Hidden words

Pro-tip: Right click on a word to access word-specific actions

3. Cut Details Panel (Bottom)

Detailed information about the currently selected cut.

Displays:

• Cut number (e.g., "Cut 3 of 24") and color (according to Audio and Word Timelines)
• Start and end timestamps
• Duration of the cut
• Number of words in the cut
• Transcript text for this cut
• Actions: Hide (top right eye button on each cut), merge with previous, merge with next

Top Menu Bar

Always visible at the top:

Left Side:

• Narralyn logo → Return to homepage
• Credits balance → Current credits remaining
• Save / Load → Offline save and load
• Project name → Shows current file name
• Dropdown Button → Project selector - allows to select another project

Right Side:

• Settings → Preferences (delete account, auto-save, etc.)
• Logout → Logout of Narralyn
• Export Cuts → Download your edited audio, multiple options available
• Delete Project → Clean up your project list by deleting the currently selected project

Keyboard Shortcuts

• Space = Play/pause
• S = Split at playhead
• ←/→ = Move playhead
• PgUp/PgDn = Change page
• Delete = Delete cut
• Ctrl+Z = Undo
• Ctrl+Y = Redo
• Ctrl+N = New project

Common Questions

Q: How do I save my work? A: Cloud Auto-save / sync is enabled by default. Your work is saved every 30 seconds automatically. Additionally, you can work offline from the moment your transcript has been created.

Q: Can I work on multiple files at once? A: No, Narralyn works currently one file at a time. Use the dropdown list to the right of your project name to load a different file.

Next Steps

👉 Word Editor Basics - Learn advanced word selection, deletion, and editing techniques

👉 Using the Audio Timeline - Master timeline navigation, zooming, and precision editing