Patent ID: 6869018

Claim:
A method for transferring annotations associated with a draft electronic transcript having a word/line content to a revised electronic transcript having a word/line content, comprising: receiving a draft electronic transcript; receiving a revised electronic transcript; determining from the word/line content of the revised electronic transcript and from the word/line content of the draft electronic transcript if the revised electronic transcript is derived from the draft electronic transcript and where within the revised electronic transcript the annotations are to be located; if so, creating annotations to the revised electronic transcript based on the annotations associated with the draft electronic transcript; storing the revised electronic transcript and its created annotations; and wherein the determining step includes the steps of: forming a word-list for the draft electronic transcript having entries associated with each word in the draft electronic transcript, the entries including a hash for each word, a page number for each word, a line number for each word, a start position for each word, and an end position for each word; forming a line-list for the draft electronic transcript having entries associated with each line in the draft electronic transcript, the entries including a hash for each line, a page number for each line, and a line number for each line; forming a word-list for the revised electronic transcript having entries associated with each word in the revised electronic transcript, the entries including a hash for each word, a page number for each word, a line number for each word, a start position for each word, and an end position for each word; forming a line-list for the revised electronic transcript having entries associated with each line in the revised electronic transcript, the entries including a hash for each line, a page number for each line, and a line number for each line; comparing entries within the line-list for the draft electronic transcript to entries within the line-list for the revised electronic transcript; and comparing entries within the word-list for of the draft electronic transcript to entries within the word-list for the revised electronic transcript.