Making textual notes whilst listening may take a bit of practice; we have added simple short cut keys for colouring and the ability to type whilst working from the Audio Pane, which make things much easier.

If you are going to be adding a lot of text then you may want to keep the cursor in the Text Pane; see the instructions at the bottom of the page for some tips.

Remember to keep the focus in the Audio Pane; If you find yourself in a different pane just use Alt and the right arrow to move back to the Audio Pane.

1. Plug in a good microphone (if you have a built-in microphone, it is unlikely to be good enough quality).
2. If you don’t have a Project tab, open a new one with the '+' tab or Home Tab → New Project → Blank Project or App Menu → New.
3. Choose the Colour Key you want to use, from the Audio Side bar
4. Click the drop-down arrow below the Record button, go to Record From and select your microphone from the input devices listed.
5. When you are ready, press the Record button or Ctrl+R.
6. Colour important chunks of audio using the number keys 1-5 (0 will return them to the default colour). You can use Continuous Colouring to colour successive chunks. Colour Sections using the simple shortcut keys 6-9.
7. When the speaker moves onto a new topic, use the Section Button or Enter to move the audio into a new section.
   
   
8. Try to add a little text in each section to say what that section is about; you can just start typing, leave the focus in the audio pane and Audio Notetaker will add your text to the Text pane for you. Pressing Enter at the end of the text will return you to the Audio Pane.
9. It is easiest if you leave the focus in the audio pane the whole time, and just use the simple shortcut keys for section and chunk colouring. However, if the focus ends up in a different pane, you can use ALT+Right Arrow to move back.
10. When you want to stop recording, press the Stop button or Ctrl+R.
11. Fill in the Title, Topic and Speaker in the Tagging Fields and use the Save button  or App Menu>Save As to save the recording as an Audio Notetaker Project.

Working from the Text Pane

If you are going to be making a lot of text notes while recording you may find that you want to work with focus in the Text Pane. To add colour and sections you will need to use the 'complex' shortcuts.