If you’ve ever tried to find that one key moment in an hour-long meeting recording, you know how frustrating it can be. That’s where turning audio meetings into searchable text comes in handy. This guide is for anyone who wants to use Notta to make their meetings more useful—whether you’re a manager, freelancer, or just sick of digging through recordings. I’ll walk you through what actually works, what to skip, and how to get the most out of your transcripts without overcomplicating things.
Step 1: Get Your Audio House in Order
Before you even upload anything to Notta, it’s worth making sure your audio is decent. Garbage in, garbage out.
Tips for Quality Audio
- Use a good mic if you can. Laptop mics pick up a ton of background noise.
- Cut the fan and background chatter. Notta can’t tell your dog from your boss.
- Ask folks to speak up and not talk over each other. Transcription software struggles with crosstalk.
Pro tip: If you run remote meetings, record from the platform (Zoom, Teams, etc.)—these often have better built-in audio than your phone.
What Doesn’t Matter Much
- Don’t stress about accents—Notta’s engine is decent, though really thick accents or dialects can throw it off.
- You don’t need studio quality, but avoid "coffee shop ambiance" unless you love editing transcripts.
Step 2: Upload or Record Directly in Notta
Notta gives you two main options: record inside the app, or upload an existing audio file.
Recording Live
- Open Notta, hit record, and you’re off.
- Great for capturing meetings as they happen.
- You can also connect Notta to your calendar or Zoom for automatic recording (worth setting up if meetings are your life).
Uploading Files
- Drag and drop your audio file (MP3, WAV, M4A are all fine).
- For video meetings, Notta can pull audio from MP4s.
- Keep files under the max size (usually 1GB, but check your Notta plan).
What to ignore: Don’t bother with fancy file conversions—Notta handles most common formats. If you hit a weird error, try re-exporting your file at a lower bitrate.
Step 3: Let Notta Do Its Thing—But Don’t Expect Magic
Once you upload or record, Notta will transcribe. This usually takes less time than the meeting itself, but longer files = longer waits.
What Works
- Notta is pretty fast and accurate with clear audio.
- You get timestamps, searchable text, and speaker separation (if there aren’t too many people).
What Doesn’t
- Speaker labels can be off if people interrupt each other or have similar voices.
- Jargon, acronyms, and names will get mangled sometimes (especially company-specific lingo).
Pro tip: For recurring meetings, create a “custom vocabulary” if Notta offers it. This helps with company names or industry terms.
Step 4: Clean Up the Transcript (Don’t Skip This)
No transcription service is perfect. Even with Notta, you’ll want to do a quick pass for mistakes.
How to Edit Efficiently
- Use the search bar to jump to spots you remember (“Q3 budget” or “action items”).
- Notta lets you edit inline—just click and type.
- Fix the big stuff: wrong names, crucial numbers, confusing sentences.
- Don’t sweat every "um" or minor error unless the transcript is for external clients.
What’s Not Worth Your Time
- Perfect punctuation—unless you’re publishing, nobody cares.
- Fixing every filler word (unless it’s unreadable).
- Over-formatting. Simple is fine. Bullet points or sections help, but don’t go overboard.
Pro tip: If you need a super-clean transcript, do a rough edit first, then let someone else proofread. Fresh eyes catch weird phrasing.
Step 5: Make It Searchable and Shareable
The real power of Notta is in searching transcripts and sharing with others.
Tagging and Highlighting
- Use Notta’s highlight feature to mark key decisions or action items.
- Tag sections or keywords (“next steps,” “timeline”) so you can jump back fast.
Sharing
- Create a shareable link inside Notta—set permissions if you’re handling sensitive info.
- Export to Word, PDF, or text if you need to send transcripts outside your team.
- For regular meetings, set up folders by project or client to keep things tidy.
What to ignore: You probably don’t need to export every transcript. Keep them in Notta unless you need offline copies or backups.
Step 6: Search Smarter, Not Harder
Text search is where transcripts really shine.
- Use specific keywords, not “meeting” or “discussion.”
- Combine terms: “deadline AND Q3” gives better results than just “deadline.”
- Notta supports fuzzy search—so misspellings won’t ruin your day.
Pro tip: Bookmark or copy-paste crucial sections into your notes app or project management tool. Don’t rely on memory.
Step 7: Automate the Boring Stuff
If you’re transcribing lots of meetings, automate as much as you can.
- Sync Notta with your calendar so it records and transcribes meetings automatically.
- Use integrations (Zapier, Slack, etc.) to push transcripts to where your team works.
- Set up notifications for when a transcript’s ready—no need to keep checking.
When Automation Isn’t Worth It
- For one-off or sensitive meetings, manual uploads might be safer.
- Double-check permissions. You don’t want private stuff auto-shared to the wrong Slack channel.
Step 8: Don’t Overthink Security and Privacy—But Don’t Ignore Them
Your transcripts might contain sensitive info. Here’s what’s worth worrying about:
- Notta uses cloud storage. Check their privacy policy if you’re dealing with confidential data.
- Set strong access permissions—don’t share links more widely than you need to.
- Delete old transcripts you don’t need. Less clutter, less risk.
What you can skip: Overcomplicating with encryption unless your company has strict policies. Notta’s security is solid for most use cases.
Step 9: Keep It Simple and Iterate
You don’t need a 20-step SOP for meeting transcripts. The point is to save time and make info easy to find.
- Start with basic recording and cleanup.
- Add search, tags, and sharing as you need them.
- If something’s not working (like unreliable speaker ID), just skip it and stick to what’s useful.
Wrapping Up
Converting audio meetings to searchable text in Notta isn’t rocket science, but a little setup goes a long way. Don’t aim for perfection—just focus on clear audio, quick cleanup, and making transcripts easy to search and share. You’ll get faster (and lazier) with practice, and that’s kind of the point. Keep it simple, make your process your own, and don’t waste time fixing stuff nobody cares about.