> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.pulselabs.ai/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.pulselabs.ai/analysis/highlights.md).

# Highlights

Highlights let you mark important moments, quotes, and responses as you review participant data. Instead of scrubbing back through video or re-reading transcripts to find something you noticed earlier, you can flag it on the spot and come back to it later.

#### What gets saved

Every highlight preserves:

* The **source reference** — exactly where the highlight came from (timestamp range, transcript passage, task response, or survey answer)
* **Your annotation** — a required note describing why the moment matters
* **Tags** — optional labels you can use to group and filter related highlights
* **Metadata** — your name as the author, and the date and time the highlight was created

Highlights are tied to the session or response they came from. If you re-open the same participant's data later, your highlights are still there.

#### Where you can highlight

<table data-header-hidden><thead><tr><th width="138.99993896484375">Text</th><th width="117.40008544921875"></th><th width="225.7998046875"></th><th></th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><strong>Source</strong></td><td><strong>Available in</strong></td><td><strong>What you select</strong></td><td><strong>What gets saved</strong></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Video timeline</strong></td><td>Evaluations</td><td>A range on the playback timeline</td><td>The video clip between your start and end points, including the corresponding transcript lines</td></tr><tr><td><strong>Transcript</strong></td><td>Evaluations</td><td>A passage of transcript text</td><td>The selected text and the matching video segment (timeline and transcript stay in sync)</td></tr><tr><td><strong>Follow-up survey</strong></td><td>Evaluations</td><td>Free-form text input within a participant’s follow up survey to an evaluation</td><td>The selected text tied to that specific task and the specific follow-up question</td></tr><tr><td><strong>Survey response</strong></td><td>Surveys</td><td>Free-form text input within a participant’s survey response</td><td>The selected text tied to that specific survey question</td></tr></tbody></table>

**Note:** Highlighting is currently limited to free-text content. You cannot highlight single-select, multi-select, rating, ranking, or matrix responses — only the free-text answers a participant types themselves.

### Creating an evaluation highlight

The exact steps depend on which capture method you're working in — see [Highlighting in surveys](#highlighting-in-surveys) for survey-specific instructions.

In every case, the flow is the same.

1. **Select the content** you want to highlight by clicking and dragging.
2. **Write an annotation** explaining why this moment matters. This is required.
3. **Add tags** (optional). Type to create a new tag or choose from tags already used elsewhere in the capture method.
4. **Save**. Your highlight is saved immediately, with your name, a timestamp, and the source reference attached.

#### Overlapping highlights

Overlapping highlights are not supported. If your selection overlaps with an existing highlight on the same content, you'll see an error and need to adjust your selection or edit the existing highlight instead.

### Viewing highlights

#### In a single participant’s data

Highlighted sections appear as visual markers wherever the content is displayed:

* On the video timeline and within the transcript (Evaluations)
* Within the relevant free-text response (Surveys and Evaluations)

Select any marker to open the annotation inline or in the side panel.

The **Highlights** tab in the participant sidebar lists every highlight created for that session, in chronological order. Each entry shows the annotation text, source type, author, date, and any tags. For video-based highlights, you can play the clip directly from the list. You can sort this list by tag to find related highlights quickly.

### Editing a highlight

Any project Editor can:

* Update the annotation text
* Adjust the selected transcript, video range, or text selection
* Add or remove tags
* Delete the highlight

Edits are saved immediately. There is no version history — previous annotation text is not preserved when you overwrite it.

### Highlighting in surveys

In surveys, highlights lets you flag meaningful passages within participants’ free-text responses as you review them.

#### What you can highlight in surveys

**Free-text responses only**. If a participant answers "Yes" to a yes/no question or picks an option from a dropdown, there's no text content to highlight.

This means highlights are most useful for:

* **Long-form text questions** — where participants write a paragraph or more
* **Short free-text questions** — like "What was your biggest frustration?" or "Tell us more about your answer"
* **"Other" free-text fields** — when participants write their own option on a single- or multi-select question

You cannot currently highlight:

* Single-select (radio) answers
* Multi-select (checkbox) answers
* Ratings, rankings, or matrix responses
* Dropdown selections
* File uploads
* Any non-text response type

If you need to flag a pattern across non-text responses, use the survey response table and filters instead.

### Creating a highlight in a survey response

1. Open a participant's survey response from the responses table.
2. Locate the free-text answer you want to highlight.
3. Click and drag to select the text passage.
4. In the annotation popup, write a note describing why this moment matters. This is required.
5. Optionally add tags. You can create a new tag or choose from tags already used elsewhere in the survey.
6. Save.

The highlight is tied to the specific survey question and participant response it came from.

### Viewing survey highlights

Within a single response, highlighted text appears visually marked inline. Click any highlighted passage to open the annotation.

The **Highlights** tab in the response sidebar lists every highlight for that participant's response in chronological order, with the annotation text, source question, author, date, and tags.

The **survey-level highlights** table aggregates every highlight across every response in the survey — useful for pulling together all highlights tagged "pricing concern" or all highlights from a specific question across all participants. Export as CSV for external analysis.

For full details on editing, deleting, tagging, and the cross-response highlights table, see Highlights.

#### Side panel

The side panel includes the Tasks and Highlights tabs.&#x20;

**Tasks tab**

On the right side, you'll see all tasks with:

* **Task names** — Which task is currently playing is highlighted
* **Follow-up survey responses** — If enabled, see the participant's responses here
* **Review status** — Each task can be individually marked as:

<table data-header-hidden><thead><tr><th width="178.00006103515625"></th><th></th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><strong>Review status</strong></td><td><strong>Meaning</strong></td></tr><tr><td>Approved</td><td>This submission meets your standards.</td></tr><tr><td>Needs Revision</td><td>Something was wrong — you can message the participant to redo it.</td></tr><tr><td>Excluded</td><td>Remove this task from analysis (e.g., due to technical issues).</td></tr></tbody></table>

**Highlights tab**

The Highlights tab displays all the highlights you have saved. After saving a highlight, you can:

* **Edit Annotation** — Modify the text and add or remove tags
* **Trim Highlight Clip** — Drag either side of the highlighted video to increase or decrease the video length (without overriding existing highlighted video clips)
* **Copy Link to Highlight** — Copy the highlighted clip to paste into any communication channel
* **Delete Highlight** — Remove highlight from the video clip

**Actions**

From the Actions menu on each task, you can:

* **Approve** the task
* **Request revision** — Send the participant a message asking them to redo the entire evaluation or a single task and related follow-up survey
* **Exclude** the task from analysis
* **Download** the video for that specific task

### Exporting data

Evaluation data can be exported in multiple ways:

* **By participant** — Download all recordings and responses for a specific person
* **By task** — Download all submissions for a specific task across all participants
* **Full evaluation** — Download everything at once
* **Custom options** — Choose specific data to include in the export

Exports are processed in the background. You'll see the download status and can retrieve the file when it's ready.

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