Scrolling text hidden behind deposition video in OnCue

Trial techs everywhere have switched to OnCue's trial presentation software, and my experience using it in court has been very positive. It does however have a minor glitch, which I think many will want to be aware of. In version 4.3, if when working in the designation editor, while showing ranges from the same designation list (a list defined as multiple deposition designations for a single deponent) in presentation mode, you toggle off scrolling text for a designation range from the same list by clicking the green arrow / red X lined page icon at the right above the waveform:

. . . and then publish the designation line numbers for the closed captioning text can peek out on the left:

It's a minor problem which can easily be corrected by pressing T to toggle off the scrolling text. Pressing T when you see this error won't bring back the scrolling text first. It clears the hidden cut off text 'behind' the video. If you press T a second time it will display the scrolling text again.

The problem seems to occur, when one designation range from a list has been presented with scrolling text; the scrolling text setting for another designation is turned off; the designation range is cleared from the presentation screen; and then the next designation is presented. If you do NOT clear the previous designation, the error does not occur.

Also keep in mind that if you toggle off the scrolling text for a designation range, the update won't take effect at all unless you first select a different designation range. Just toggling off the text and then publishing the range will leave the closed captioning text in place.

This problem did not happen in all deposition videos I tested, but did frequently reoccur in the videos in the OnCue demo case. I just post here about it, because it's good to be aware of potential problems and not be surprised in the courtroom.

OnCue's designation wizard

It's no secret that attorneys will list deposition designation page and line ranges in a variety of formats. The same attorney may use a page / line range form inconsistently, and of course, even the best lawyers will inevitably enter page and line numbers incorrectly. Like nearly all litigation support professionals, I have spent many hours parsing through lists of designations to put them in the format required by TextMap, Trial Director, and other applications.

Luckily, OnCue's trial presentation software includes a 'Designation Wizard' which can import page and line ranges that have been listed in a variety of forms. Not just loads files in the format used by Lexis TextMap (as discussed in the Tip of the Night for May 5, 2024), or the format used by Sanction, but in almost any random form an attorney might come up with.

In this example, we can see how page line numbers entered with different delimiters (both using common delimiter characters) and common terms used in English), get interpreted as designation ranges by OnCue which then automatically generates designation snippets. If it can't tell that range is intended, it will highlight the unknown range in red:

Even when ranges are entered with extra spaces between page and line numbers, or with different delimiters for a single range, OnCue can still get them correct:

You copy ranges in, or enter them one by one, and the Designation Wizard creates the new video clips almost in realtime.

The Wizard will help you catch mistakes you might have otherwise missed, and get video clips finalized for the next morning faster, so you can get to bed sooner - the key challenge every trial tech faces.

Imports of TextMap Annotations Into OnCue As Deposition Designations

Sorry for not posting for a while. I was hot seating a trial, and was just too busy to update the site.

The OnCue trial electronic presentation software makes it easy to import deposition designations added as annotations in TextMap as new designations for video clips to be played in the courtroom. You can simply go to File . . . Import . . . Import Designations , select a .csv file exported from TextMap and import the annotations.

In version 9.1 of TextMap, annotations will be exported in this format.

Note that in order to complete the import into OnCue you will need to change the headings from 'Transcript' to 'Deponent', and from 'PgFrm' 'LnFrom' 'PgTo' and 'LnTo' to simply 'Page' and 'Line', and change 'Issues' to 'Linked Issues'. OnCue does not allow entries in the Notes field of TextMap to be imported into a field in its database, but having this as a field in the .csv file will not affect the import.

OnCue has a limitation in handling imports of annotations from TextMap. While TextMap will export ranges with multiple issues on a single row with the issues separated by semi-colons, OnCue cannot import designation ranges to which more than one issue is assigned. OnCue terms issue designations as 'highlighters'. Unless each issue is placed on a separate row, you will get an 'Unknown highlighter ID' when importing.

It's necessary to edit the .csv file exported from TextMap this way, adding duplicate rows for individual issues:

With the updated .csv file, the import can be completed. The set of designations will be imported as a new set of designations named after the name of the .csv file.