Frequently Asked Questions:
The latest versions of our software are free to download from our Downloads page.
Note that the same software installation is required for all Editions of DOTE and DOTEbase.
Download the latest version of the software you wish to install. Read our instructions for installing DOTE and our instructions for installing DOTEbase for more information.
If you have already installed DOTE, you could try our Lego demo project, which illustrates the functionality of the software with multiple synced media sources and seven different transcripts.
If you have already installed DOTEbase, you can also try our Lego demo DOTEspace, which illustrates the concept of a DOTEspace that contains several projects, complete with sample clips, annotations, tags, clip collections and a canvas.
It illustrates how DOTEbase can be used for qualitative analysis.
You can download them from our Downloads page.
To use the premium features of DOTE, or unlock DOTEbase, you will need to purchase or order a license in our webshop and then activate the license key in the software.
Researchers and students from low- and middle-income countries qualify for a discount of 50% of the original price of the Pro Edition.
We only offer discounts for individuals.
If you qualify for a discount, you will receive a personal coupon for one-time use in our web shop.
Please determine whether you currently reside in a Middle or Low Income country using World Bank designations (scroll to the bottom of the page to view country list): World Bank Middle and Low Income Country List
Apply for discount
We offer professional DOTE and DOTEbase Masterclasses upon request for institutions or research groups.
The Masterclasses can be online or onsite.
All enquires about Masterclasses should be directed to the DOTE team.
We have created several Editions of our software license for use with DOTE and DOTEbase.
More details are available on our pricing and comparison page.
To unlock the premium features of DOTE and to use DOTEbase, a license key is required.
The license key is an encrypted hash string that identifies the license holder, and is stored in a license file that is emailed to the user upon purchase of a license.
The software checks our license server to ensure the integrity of the license key and to match it to our database of existing users.
Once DOTE or DOTEbase has been unlocked with a license key, an internet connection is not required to continue using the software.
DOTE and DOTEbase are both secure local desktop applications.
This is a deliberate decision by the designers.
NO user data created by the software is stored on, or sent to, the cloud or any other online location.
Therefore, a user cannot access their projects and transcripts via a web browser or a cloud-based version of our software. No one can.
In fact, we strongly recommend for a variety of good reasons that you do not try and use your own cloud service to store the projects and transcripts.
Both DOTE and DOTEbase will attempt to connect with our license-server when the application is opened, or once per day, in order to check if there is a newer version of the user's license or if there is an updated version of the software available. However, the absence of an internet connection will never prevent a licensed user from using the software.
We have produced more than 50 informative video tutorials to help you get familiar with the incredible functionality of DOTE and DOTEbase.
They are all available on our YouTube channel.
We run our own DISCORD server with some public channels for DOTE and DOTEbase users.
There are private channels for PRO and PRO COMMUNITY Edition users.
DOTE does not support importing legacy transcripts using a built-in convertor.
This is partly because there are many features of our software that have no parallels in other software.
You can, of course, copy and paste a transcript as plain text into DOTE from you existing word-processing software.
We only plan to build convertors from other software formats if there is a strong demand.
Please join our Discord server to take part in this conversation.
We do offer Import from JSON and from SRT functionality.
See also our video tutorial on how to import and conform transcripts from published sources.
While DOTE does not support annotating the audio-visual timeline, clips and annotations can be made on the transcript (with a PRO Edition).
Our latest software DOTEbase introduces the native ability to create clips and annotations on the audio-visual timeline without the need for a transcript.
These media clips can even be organised on their own multi-tiered timeline.
DOTE is designed to support script-based systems of transcription, including Mondadaian conventions (score-based within a neighbourhood).
It does not support a score-based system, such as found in ELAN.
However, DOTEbase does support a score-based system for organising media clips.
DOTE is designed to support the manual art of transcription.
We do not believe that reliable automatic recognition of spoken conversation and social interaction in natural settings is possible in the foreseeable future.
And anyway, transcription is analysis, which is a profoundly human endeavour.
The DOTE and DOTEbase applications themselves do not collect any data on users.
They are local desktop applications that only store DOTEspace, project and transcript data on the user's computer.
When purchasing a license on the webshop to activate a specific Edition of DOTE or DOTEbase, the username, email address and affiliation given by the purchaser are stored securely on our license server.
The DOTE and DOTEbase applications can securely access the license information to confirm the validity of the license holder.
The license key is encrypted with a high-level encryption algorithm.
The webshop and license server are all maintained with a high-level of security by the IT services of a public university in Denmark, and therefore conform to the GDPR.
The webshop uses Google Analytics to anonymously track page views and browser country location.
DOTE and DOTEbase do not support storing your DOTEspaces, projects and transcripts in an encrypted form for everyday use on a local machine.
The data is as safe as your computer is.
If you decide to export and share DOTEspaces, projects and/or transcripts created using DOTE or DOTEbase, then be aware that the exported file is not encrypted by default.
If it contains sensitive data (eg. in the video or transcript), then it is up to you to encrypt the file yourself with a secure password before sharing or uploading.
This is easy to do with desktop software, such as 7-Zip or a built-in archiving software application (Windows/macOS).
In addition, when exporting a Transcript, Project or DOTEspace one can select which types of meta-data to include or exclude.
DOTE was developed by the BigSoftVideo Team.
It was conceived in 2017, prototyped in 2018 and developed in fits and spurts from 2020 to the first release in October 2022.
DOTEbase started developement shortly after the initial release of DOTE, and was first released in June 2024
We released v1.0 of DOTE in October 2022.
Minor updates and hotfixes have been released on a regular basis.
We plan to release a brand new version (v2.0) with many new features later in 2024.
DOTEbase was released in June 2024, so only minor updates and hotfixes are planned for the near future.
The core software of DOTE is free to download and use.
One can create, edit and publish a short, basic transcript using the free edition.
This is especially useful for students learning to transcribe.
A license is required to use the premium features of DOTE.
DOTEbase, however, is a licensed-only software application, sharing the same license as DOTE.
Given that the software has been developed by researchers (in their own time) and paid software developers over more than four years, the investment in time and labour has been enormous.
The fact that we achieved this in a very difficult funding climate is a miracle.
We would like to continue developing software for qualitative research, but this will only be possible if we can generate an income stream.
We have other free software available, developed by the BigSoftVideo team, but we can no longer support such development.
So if you like DOTE and DOTEbase, then please support us and buy an Edition license, and take part in the conversation.
The incentive is also that there are some really powerful premium features accessible with the paid Editions.
Because Edition licenses are sold through a university webshop in Denmark, then Danish taxes and administrative overheads are deducted.
Most of what is left comes back to VILA and BigSoftVideo to finance further software development.
Besides creating DOTE and DOTEbase, the BigSoftVideo team has developed virtual reality software (AVA360VR) to better organise, annotate and analyse 360-degree video data recorded in complex settings (see our video intro).
Moreover, we developed a technical implementation in virtual reality (BreachingVR) of Garfinkels' tutorial experiment using inverting lenses (see our published article).
The team is also engaged in other projects that are not public yet, such as software (CAVA360VR) to support the collaborative analysis online of 360-degree videos in VR, and software (360mash) to recam and anonymise video data, including 360-video.