Have you ever finished a long meeting, lecture, or interview, only to realize you need to quickly get the key points out to your team or for your own review? Sifting through a lengthy transcript can be incredibly time-consuming. Thankfully, Otter.ai is a lifesaver, and its ability to generate summaries is a game-changer. But what happens after Otter works its magic? How do you get that concise summary out of the platform and into your workflow?
This comprehensive guide will walk you through every step of exporting summaries from Otter.ai, ensuring you can leverage your meeting intelligence effectively.
Exporting Your Otter.ai Summaries: A Step-by-Step Guide
Otter.ai offers several ways to get your summaries and takeaways into the format you need. We'll cover the most common and useful methods.
Step 1: Access Your Conversation in Otter.ai
First things first, you need to open the conversation from which you want to export the summary.
1.1 Log In to Otter.ai: Open your web browser and navigate to
otter.ai 1.2 Navigate to "My Conversations": Once logged in, you'll typically land on your "Home" page or "My Conversations" page. This is where all your transcribed conversations are stored.
1.3 Select the Desired Conversation: Browse through your list of conversations or use the search bar to find the specific meeting, lecture, or interview you want to summarize and export. Click on the conversation title to open it.
Step 2: Understand Otter's Summary Features
Before exporting, it's helpful to know what types of summaries Otter.ai provides and how they are structured.
2.1 The "Summary" Tab: Within your open conversation, look for the "Summary" tab. This is where Otter's AI automatically distills the main points, action items, and keywords from your transcription. It often presents them as bullet points or a concise overview.
Pro Tip: Otter.ai can even tailor summaries based on the type of meeting (e.g., sales call, team meeting) if you use custom templates. This makes the summary even more relevant!
2.2 Highlights: You can manually highlight important sections within your transcript. Otter.ai also uses these highlights to contribute to the overall summary.
Why highlight? Highlighting ensures that your most critical takeaways are definitely included in any generated summary.
2.3 Action Items: Otter.ai is designed to identify and list action items discussed during the conversation. These are often included in the summary view, making it easy to track tasks.
Step 3: Initiating the Export Process
Once you're in the conversation and have reviewed the summary, it's time to export!
3.1 Locate the Export Option: In the upper right corner of your conversation interface, you'll see a series of icons. Look for the three-dot icon (often representing "More options" or a menu). Click on it.
3.2 Select "Export": From the dropdown menu that appears, click on "Export". This will open the export settings panel.
Step 4: Customizing Your Export (Crucial for Summaries!)
This is where you tell Otter exactly what you want to export and in what format. Pay close attention to these options to ensure you get the summary you need.
4.1 Choose Your Export Format: Otter.ai offers several export formats. The availability of some formats might depend on your Otter.ai plan (Basic, Pro, Business, etc.).
TXT (.txt): A plain text file. Ideal for a simple, unformatted summary that you can easily copy and paste anywhere.
DOCX (.docx): A Microsoft Word document. Great for retaining some formatting and for further editing in Word. This is often the preferred choice for professional notes.
PDF (.pdf): A Portable Document Format. Excellent for sharing a polished, non-editable version of your summary.
SRT (.srt): SubRip Subtitle format. This is primarily for video captions and includes timestamps. While not directly a "summary" format in the typical sense, it's useful if your summary includes specific time markers you want to align with video.
CLIPBOARD: This option simply copies the selected content (summary, transcript, or highlights) to your computer's clipboard, allowing you to paste it directly into another application.
4.2 Select What to Include: This is the most important step for exporting just the summary!
Show highlights: Crucially, toggle this option ON if you want to export a summary based on your highlights. Otter's "Highlight Summary" feature automatically compiles your highlights.
Show speaker names: Choose whether to include the speaker names in your exported summary. For a concise summary, you might want to turn this off, but for meeting notes, it's often helpful.
Show timestamps: Decide if you want timestamps next to each point in your summary. This can be useful for referencing the original audio.
Show images: If you've added images to your conversation in Otter, you can choose to include them in the export.
Combine paragraphs of the same speaker / Combine all paragraphs into one: These options are more relevant for full transcript exports. For summaries, you'll typically want to keep them as distinct points.
Remove Otter branding: (Available for TXT and CLIPBOARD formats, usually with paid plans). Toggle this on for a more professional, white-label output.
4.3 Preview Your Export: As you adjust the settings, Otter often provides a live preview of how your exported summary will look. Review this carefully to ensure it contains exactly what you need.
4.4 Finalize and Export: Once you are satisfied with your selections, click the "Export" button.
The file will then download to your computer's default downloads folder, or you'll be prompted to choose a location.
Step 5: Using Your Exported Summary
Congratulations! You've successfully exported your summary. Now, how can you use it?
5.1 Meeting Minutes: Paste your DOCX or PDF summary directly into your meeting minutes document.
Email Follow-ups: Quickly share the key takeaways with attendees via email.
Project Management: Copy and paste action items into your project management software (e.g., Trello, Asana).
Study Notes: If you used Otter for lectures, your summary is a fantastic study aid.
Content Creation: Repurpose key points for blog posts, articles, or presentations.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) - How to Export Summary from Otter.ai
How to export highlights from Otter.ai?
To export highlights, open the conversation, click the three-dot menu, select "Export," choose your desired format (TXT, DOCX, PDF), and ensure the "Show highlights" option is toggled ON before clicking "Export."
How to get a summary of action items from Otter.ai?
Otter.ai automatically generates a list of action items within the "Summary" or "Takeaways" section of your conversation. When you export the summary (as described in the steps above), these action items will typically be included if they are part of Otter's automated summary.
How to export a full transcript along with the summary from Otter.ai?
When you go to the "Export" options, you can choose to include the full transcript along with elements like speaker names, timestamps, and highlights. The summary itself is usually a separate section within the overall conversation view, but by exporting the transcript with highlights, you get the context for your summary.
How to export Otter.ai summaries to Microsoft Word?
Open the conversation, click the three-dot menu, select "Export," choose "DOCX" as the format, and ensure "Show highlights" (for summary) or other relevant options are selected, then click "Export."
How to export Otter.ai summaries as a PDF?
Follow the same steps as exporting to Word, but select "PDF" as your desired file format in the export options.
How to export Otter.ai summaries with timestamps?
Within the "Export" options, toggle "Show timestamps" ON along with "Show highlights" or other desired content before finalizing your export.
How to export Otter.ai summaries without speaker names?
When selecting your export options, ensure the "Show speaker names" toggle is OFF to get a summary without speaker attribution.
How to bulk export summaries from Otter.ai?
Bulk export for conversations and takeaways is typically a feature available on Otter Business and Enterprise plans. Navigate to "My Conversations," select multiple conversations using the checkboxes, click the "Export" icon at the top, choose your format and settings, and then export.
How to share an Otter.ai summary via email directly?
While Otter.ai offers automatic sharing of meeting summaries via email for synced calendar events (if enabled), you can manually export the summary (as TXT or DOCX) and then attach it to an email in your preferred email client.
How to customize what's included in an Otter.ai summary before exporting?
You can customize the summary by manually highlighting key points within the transcript. Otter's AI chat feature also allows you to ask specific questions about the transcript to generate tailored summaries. For automatic summaries, Otter can tailor them if you've set up custom templates for different meeting types.
