Text Formatting

HeyDonna provides professional text formatting tools to help you create clean, properly styled transcripts.

Clear Formatting

Remove inline formatting from selected text while preserving important transcript elements.

Keyboard Shortcut

Press Cmd+\ (Mac) or Ctrl+\ (Windows/Linux) to clear formatting from selected text.

What Gets Cleared

• Bold text
• Italic text
• Underline
• Text color changes
• Highlight colors

What's Preserved

When you clear formatting, these important elements are kept intact:

• Speaker labels - The colored speaker marks remain
• Word timing data - Audio sync information is preserved
• Paragraph formatting - Indentation and alignment stay
• Block-level styling - Headers, quotes, etc.

When to Use

Clear Formatting is useful when:

• Pasting text from other applications
• Cleaning up imported content
• Removing accidental formatting
• Standardizing transcript appearance

Text Alignment

Control how text is aligned within paragraphs.

Alignment Options

Access alignment from Format → Align or use keyboard shortcuts:

When to Use Alignment

• Left (default) - Standard transcript text
• Center - Title pages, headers, page numbers
• Right - Rarely used in transcripts
• Justify - Full-width text blocks

Standard Formatting

Bold and Italic

When to Use

• Bold - Speaker labels, important terms, emphasis
• Italic - Foreign words, titles, emphasis

Re-apply Template Styles

For court-template projects, an outdated-style warning above the editor offers Re-apply Template Styles. It updates the proceedings paragraph geometry and creates before-and-after snapshots in Version History.

Re-applying first waits for this tab's pending edits to sync. If those edits cannot be confirmed as synced, no template-style snapshot or geometry change is made; an inline message asks you to try again. Keep the tab open, restore your connection if needed, and retry after syncing completes. Editing remains available.

Template Break Types

In the template editor toolbar, open Break type to insert a break or change the selected break. There are three choices:

• Page Break — a plain page break (also the default for legacy breaks).
• Section Break (Next Page) — a section boundary on the next page.
• Section Break (Continuous) — a continuous section boundary, editable only in the template editor.

Changing a selected break updates it without inserting another. Choosing Page Break clears the previous section kind. Use Remove Page Break to remove the selected break.

An existing template-linked break keeps its link and chosen kind when its node is moved. Removing it removes that node's choice; inserting a new break does not recover the deleted choice. Undo restores the original break, including its link and kind, within the current editing session. Undo history is not retained after reopening the document.

Template breaks show their actual kind as a visible label. Imported Section Break (Odd Page) and Section Break (Even Page) retain their kinds unless you explicitly change them; they are not picker choices. Inherited breaks show Break (Inherit). Labels do not change page layout or become transcript text. The file editor is unchanged.

All three choices are valid. Save Template stays enabled except while its own save is in progress; save to retain your choice when reopening the template.

Tips for Consistent Formatting

1. Use templates - Start with a proper template for consistent styling
2. Let AI Format handle it - The Format tool applies proper court reporting styles
3. Clear before styling - Clear formatting before applying new styles
4. Check speaker labels - Ensure they're properly formatted before export