footswitch3 Files

footswitch3 (8.6.0)

Description: Transcribers tool for use with a USB foot pedal on Linux only
 This python utility allows transcribers on Linux to use a USB foot pedal
 with the Gstreamer 1.0 Media player python interface, using LibreOffice as the
 word processor.
Note: ** The Vec Infinity in-USB3 ** is known to be non-standard for Linux.
      Although this version of footswitch will attempt to work with it,
      it is NOT recommended for use with Footswitch.
      If you require details, feel free to contact me.

    ** Garbled video output?
       See IMAGESINK below

 Footswitch3 despite its name supports transcribers without a foot pedal.
 Footswitch3 is a media player incorporating both direct calls to Gstreamer,
 whilst listening to the physical footpedal and handling external requests for
 information from the provided LibreOffice macros via Tcp.

 Using LibreOffice as the word processor allows you to export your transcription
 in multiple Microsoft Word formats, plus HTML, PDF, Rich text, XML. Your client
 never has to know that you are working on Linux, unless you want them to.

 The LibreOffice python macros provided, enable the transcriber to
 assign  time stamps and generally control the audio using function keys
 from within LibreOffice.
 The macros allow users without a foot pedal, to use LibreOffice to control
 footswitch via Function keys or a mouse via a toolbar (included).
 Key macros can be assigned to the foot pedal to increase hands free operation.

 Features:
  - Uses Gstreamer 1.0 python bindings so will play whatever audio/video media
     Gstreamer can play
  - Common formats explicitly catered for:
        .aac, .aif, .avi, .dts, .flac, .flv, .m4a, .mid, .mka, .mkv, .mov,
        .mp3, .mp4, .mpeg, .mpg, .ogg, .ogv, .opus, .wav, .webm, .wma, .wmv
  - Configuration of 3 pedals for a USB footpedal
     Jump Forward, Jump Back, Play/Pause, Timestamps and Disable (pedal)
  - Extendable foot control via foot pedal and modifier key combinations
  - Foot pedals from most manufacturers should be catered for, if it is a HID device.
     (known to work with the Olympus RS28, Vec Infinity in-USB2,
     MicroDia and the AltoEdge foot pedals.
  - Controls Pause,Play,Jump back, Jump Forward, Stop
     Play slower, Play faster, Return to normal speed, Mute
     Adjust Volume
  - Allows for Classic transcriber Play/Pause where Play is pedal held down
     and Pause is when it is released, or standard press to play, press to
     pause
  - Configurable Jump lengths and jump back after pause
  - Configurable default load audio directory
  - LibreOffice macros for control from within LibreOffice via mouse click
     or hot key
  - Recently used file list with timestamps allowing you to pick up exactly
     where you stopped.
  - Fully configurable time stamps sets - design your own
  - Timestamps via hot-key or foot pedal directly into transcript
  - Automated time stamps

 Audio Quality
  - Includes a 15 band pulseaudio equaliser and other audio effects
  - Audio effects via pulseaudio for Mono to Stereo conversion, Pitch control,
     a High-Pass filter for rumble reduction and a Low-pass Filter for hiss.
  - Audio Clipping Test
  - Audio Clipping resolution

 Support multiple transcription clients
  - Multiple Clients, each with multiple billing rates per minute
  - Configurable Audio input directories for each client

 Tools:
  - Allows for input of up to 10 Speaker names providing the ability to hot-key
     speaker names directly into the transcript with or without timestamps.
  - Calculator to calculate time differences for partial transcription billing
  - Pre-loaded LibreOffice drop down menus and menubars
  - Drag and drop of audio files supported
  - Audio Visualisations
  - Video Subtitle and Language selection
  - Job Queue
  - Transcription notes for each audio file
  - Video On Screen Display (OSD) timecode timestamps into your document
  - For video: automatic screen size based on reported video size
     and advance and retreat by frame
  - Video snapshots
  - Automated File format conversion tool / Audio extraction from video.
    primarily aimed at converting .dss files to .mp3

 Data and Invoicing
  - Sqlite3 database for statistics and transcription clients details
  - Database browsing, editing and archiving
  - Rebuild database facility
  - Ability to view, select and export data to CSV files for spreadsheets
  - Export data directly to LibreOffice Calc with calculated value of
  -  transcription, rate per minute and running time rounded in minutes
  - Import invoice data directly into LibreOffice Calc and Writer via macros
  - Sample Invoice templates for LibreOffice Documents and Spreadsheets
  - Database print for lists and simple html invoices

AES media file encryption
  - Ad-Hoc encryption of sensitive media files with AES CBC (cipher block chaining)

footswitch3 (8.6.0)
 *
 * Update to onoffbutton changing label text to take account of the windows background colour
 *
 * Fix for Deadlines, which could technically fail setting the background colour
 *
 * Removal of libreoffice-gtk2 from the debian requirements list
 * libreoffice-gtk3 is now the standard
 *
 * Removal of gir1.2-gtk-2.0 from the debian requirements list
 * gir1.2-gtk-3.0 is now the standard
 *
 * Allow for wxpython prior to version 4.1 not having Colour.GetLuminance()
 * plus change the old colour brightness calculation to match Colour.GetLuminance()
 *
 * Will now run without libreoffice
 * Installation still requires libreoffice be present, as this is the norm and makes installation easy for most
 * For those few who don't use LibreOffice, you can turn off the menus and the config entries etc,
 *  by creating a file in $HOME/.config/fs3 called No_LibreOffice e.g.
 *   touch /home/rolf/.config/fs3/No_LibreOffice
 *  installations will no longer insist on installing the macros and most of the references to libreoffice
 *  will be turned off.
 * This is also accessible via the Tools-> Configure->Options->LibreOffice Integrated On/Off button
 *  which will create or remove the file for you.
 *
 * Fixed the font mess in the Footswitch manual Pdf
 *
 * The Zoom window recalculates its size more accurately and hopefully, more efficiently.
 *
 * Show frame count has been changed in a similar fashion
 *
 * Added Drag and Drop media from the View Statistics window to Play it
 * Data -> View Statistics and View Archive now allow Drag and Drop of a list item onto the main footswitch panel
 *         like Dragging and Dropping a file from a folder
 *
 * Added Drag and Drop media from the Deadlines window to Play it
 *
 * Archive now offers a Delete option, which rather than archiving data, instead simply deletes the
 * selected records
 *
 * Clear Archive is now an option in the Data Menu
 * This clears the Archive database by a supplied Date, you may then select/de-select the items to be deleted
 *
Please read the accompanying document

    footswitch3.pdf or Installation notes below

The package installs itself into Sound and Video Applications and can
be found in that menu.

Install with debian GDebi package installer 'gdebi' or apt or dpkg
(dpkg requires that you pre-install dependencies)
Installation on an Arch OS - see the separate "readme" file.

Dependencies:
python3,
python3-configobj,
python3-gi,
gir1.2-gtk-2.0,
gir1.2-gtk-3.0,
gir1.2-gst-plugins-base-1.0,
libgstreamer (>=1.0),
gstreamer1.0-alsa,
gstreamer1.0-pulseaudio,
gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad,
gstreamer1.0-plugins-base,
gstreamer1.0-plugins-good,
gstreamer1.0-x,
gstreamer1.0-libav,
libreoffice-writer (>=4.2),
python3-uno,
libreoffice-script-provider-python,
wxpython (>=4.0.3)
sqlite3,
pulseaudio (>=11.0),
swh-plugins,
bs2b-ladspa
wkhtmltopdf,
python3-evdev,
python3-requests,
ffmpeg
sox

Please be aware that at time writing the lateset wxpython 4.2.0 gtk3 is not available from the debian repositories,
 so it has to be installed manually.

sudo pip3 install -U -f https://extras.wxpython.org/wxPython4/extras/linux/gtk3/ubuntu-20.04 wxPython

should sort that out

If this fails, you may have to copy the installation to your local machine and load it from there
 sudo pip3 install download ./ https://extras.wxpython.org/wxPython4/extras/linux/gtk3/ubuntu-20.04 wxPython
 then
 sudo pip3 install ./names_of_packages_downloaded

If you aren't running Mint20 or an Ubuntu 20.04 variant, you will need to look in https://extras.wxpython.org/wxPython4/extras/linux/gtk3/ and decide which flavour of Linux is most appropriate to you.
Note: the cp38, cp39, cp310 etc in the names, ths refers to the version of python3 on your box, pick the appropriate one.

The installation process:
-------------------------
The installation process will attempt to identify your foot pedal.
If you have a Vec Infinity in-USB2 foot pedal everything should be straight forward as that is the default.
If you are using a different foot pedal, the installation will attempt to identify it, from a known list.
If you have no foot pedal, footswitch will allow for this by creating a dummy entry and not worry you about it again.

Once the installation process has run it course, if this is an initial installation and you have an identified foot pedal you should now re-boot your PC.
This will allow for your login to be registered in the linux groups “input” and “plugdev” which permit access to the foot pedal device.
It also registers the just installed files in the 'udev' system which define how your foot pedal should be accessed.

With everything installed and registered, you can finally start footswitch.
It will have been loaded in the 'Sound & Video' entries in your 'Applications' menu.

The installation of the LibreOffice extension
---------------------------------------------
The first time that you run it, it will load the footswitch extension for LibreOffice. Just follow the instructions on the screen and then close down LibreOffice, so that it too can register the new extension.
(The next time that you open LibreOffice Writer, you will be able to see the footswitch menu and the toolbar, the default hot-keys will also have been created.)

With the footswitch LibreOffice extension loaded, you will be reminded to define your foot pedal codes and then footswitch will load.

If you have a foot pedal:
-------------------------
In Footswitch, open the Tools menu and click 'Define foot pedal codes'.
Click into the Left Pedal box.
Press the Left pedal on your foot pedal, it should register the code which that pedal sends and move automatically on to the next box.
Press the Middle pedal on your foot pedal, it should register the code which that pedal sends and move automatically on to the next box.
Press the Right pedal on your foot pedal and then click Save.

Now Close footswitch and restart it to register the foot pedal codes you have just entered.

If your foot pedal doesn't appear to work:
------------------------------------------
In Footswitch, open the Tools menu and click Configure
The pedal device will offer available devices for your foot pedal
select the appropriate device
Now Close footswitch and restart it.

If you don't have a foot pedal:
-------------------------------
Don't worry about it, just carry on.
Ensure the pedal device is set to /dev/input/eventx

Finally
-------
Finally, you can start LibreOffice Writer, load a audio/video file into the footswitch program and start to transcribe.


Once the audio file is playing, by using the:
footswitch Tool bar,
footswitch Menu,
the foot pedal if you have one,
or the Hot-Keys,
you should now be able to control the Audio directly from the LibreOffice document.

The foot pedal, if it exists, will default to Left pedal – Jump back, Middle Pedal – Play/Pause and right pedal – Jump forward.

Use Tools → Configure in the footswitch program to alter any settings not to your liking.

If you own a foot pedal that does not appear to work properly after this run through, please refer to the documentation which covers extensively how to trouble shoot foot pedal devices, amongst a host of other things.

Upgrading footswitch:
---------------------
If you upgrade footswitch to a later version, install it as if it were a new installation.

The installation process will, perform any necessary data conversions and leave your existing configuration as it was.

If you have a configured and working foot pedal, you do not need to re-boot your system and you should not need to re-register your foot pedal codes either.

The LibreOffice extension will be reloaded as that may have been altered.
It will replace any existing extension.

Be aware that it will revert the position of the toolbar and the values of the Hot-Keys, if you remapped them. You could say 'No' to reloading the extension. If there is an issue after that, you can load the new extension manually. (See the documentation.)

Removing footswitch:
--------------------
Remove the package with the usual software tool, e.g. the one you used to install it.
In LibreOffice Writer use the Tools-->Extension Manager to remove the footswitch extension
In your $HOME directory remove the fs3 directory


For the full change log see /usr/share/doc/footswitch3/changelog.gz