No Good at All, I say ...!
Let's fix that.
So, I've been kicking around various court reporting-related websites for a while now; it's way past time that I update this links page!
Court Reporting Help
http://www.courtreportinghelp.com
This is a site I most heartily recommend. They have some interesting programs (Speed Teacher and the Drill Machine), lots of drills (for the Drill Machine), and some interesting commentary (though that is usually well buried). You'll want to download and install the Drill Machine, at the very least (it's free, y'know) ... as well as the following drills:
Little Words (1, 2, and 3), Singed Fingers, and Vowels 'r' Us ... and anything by Ms. Tedley.
And, speaking of drills, have you downloaded these drills yet? ... and have you been to this page yet?
-o0o-
Stenomaster
This one I call "Be Like Mark." It's Mark Kislingbury's site. In case you don't know, he's the guy that recently broke the world speed record for steno (360+ wpm) ... and tried for 400 wpm at the NYC convention (no joy, alas ...).
Mark has his own theory, called StenoMaster, which appears to follow the "Life's a Brief" method of writing.
His drilling technique is somewhat controversial (see Chapter Two of "The Plateau") ... but he did manage to reach 360 wpm with 97.22 percent accuracy ... so perhaps there is a happy medium somewhere between the advice given in the afore-mentioned "The Plateau" and the StenoMaster theory.
The trick, of course, is to find that happy medium.
-o0o-
CourtReportingStudent.com
http://www.courtreportingstudent.com
I found this site some time ago. They sell CDs to help with speed building, among other things. They require a one time fee of $25 ... which gets you half price on everything they sell.
-o0o-
StenoPractice.com
This is the site of Todd Leiter, author of the Mastering Machine Shorthand series, which includes Mastering Machine Shorthand, Volume 1, Finger Drills Plus/Proper Names, The 1350 Most Common Words, and the two volume set, 800 Most Common Depo Phrases, Volumes I (A - L) and II (L - Z).
Also, Todd's site was the first one to link to mine, and now (several years later, alas), I'm finally getting around to returning the favor (um ... sorry about the delay, Todd!). :o)
-o0o-
Speed Builders
http://speedbuilders.com/Index2.htm
This site offers streaming dictation -- as in, you connect to the site, pick your drill, and it comes to you over the internet.
Note that if you just go to speedbuilders.com, there's a rather annoying (and noisy!) Flash introduction (sorry Marc!), so the link I provided above will bypass that particular page.
Also note that these drills aren't free (you can't make any money that way, y'know ...). Check the site for current prices.
CAT Software Vendors: The CAT's Out of the Bag
You're a Starving Student™ ... and you need CAT software. How can you balance out these two important facts? By buying your CAT software as cheaply as you can ...! Case in point:
digitalCAT ($45)
For $45, digitalCAT is the one you want. It's not only cheap (but not at all sleazy, by the way), but it is easy to use -- and comes with the Cheap and Sleazy seal of approval (well, okay; it doesn't exactly "come with" said approval ... but it's implied by it being mentioned here)!
Also note that unlike other CAT vendors, Stenovations isn't sending you a crippled version; they are sending you the FULL version! The only things that don't work are the captioning suite and a feature called Audio Depo -- which, I understand allows you to put together a transcript complete with audio, so that your client can click somewhere in the transcript and hear what was said.
As for the captioning suite, if you're a student doing an unpaid captioning internship, Sandra Jackson, the president of Stenovations, has some really good news for you! You can read it in The Good Stuff; look for the 13NOV05 update.
Need to steno directly into another program? digitalCAT has CATNip.
Need to send someone your transcript in Microsoft Word format? digitalCAT has File -->Save As--> Microsoft Word. This feature makes it easier for me to print stuff on my school's computers.
Note that the Save as Word thing is quite different from saving as .RTF. RTF files can be opened by nearly all word processors. Word files can be opened by ... Word.
Need to -- well, there's more, but I'll spare you.
And don't get me started on the UI ("User Interface") and DC's "Ease of Use!"
This time ...!
-o0o-
Forums
If you're reading these words, you're on the internet (well, duh!) -- unless, of course, someone printed out this page for you. Assuming that's not the case, I have a small collection of forums I visit often.
As with any endeavor, having a supportive community is very helpful when you have questions of one type or another ... and that's why forums are Good.
StenoLife
This site has an online magazine ("Steno Life"), a live chat every week, and a rather active forum.
-o0o-
Phoenix Theory Forum
http://www.phoenixtheory.com/forum
If you're taking Phoenix Theory (or even if you're not), the Phoenix Theory Forum is a great source of information for all Students o' Steno. There's questions (and answers) on speed building techniques, theory (and not just Phoenix Theory, but that is what the site is for), various flavors of CAT software, etc.
The "moderators" have been around the field for quite a while, and between them, can answer (almost) all the questions put to them.
Lots of info on this forum ... and it is mostly students, at various levels. If you were scared or intimidated by other sites you have found, this one will feel like home for you.
-o0o-
NCRA Forum
http://forums.verbatimreporters.com/Index.cfm?cfapp=4
If you're a member of the NCRA, the NCRA Forum is full of useful tidbits ... and, if you are close to graduating, you should know that to take the RPR, you have to be a member of the NCRA for at least five months ... so check your calendar, do those calculations, and join up, before it's too late ...! :o)
-o0o-
Depoman
This site has a lot of info ... and a rather amusing blog (archives are here) ... and a very informative forum.
The site recently went through an upgrade to new software, but the old forum is still available. You can find it here.
Definitely worth a stop, in your search for court reporting ... uh, stuff.
-o0o-
The Court Reporters Forum at CompuServe
http://community.compuserve.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?nav=start&webtag=ws-crforum
Another forum, with a good mixture of students and working professionals. They've recently added some new administrators ... including Keith Vincent, the man behind the Help videos in Eclipse.
But.
If you have never posted a message to this forum, here's a tip for you that will save you several minutes of frustration while reading through answers to your very important question: Post a quick introductory message in the Welcome forum first.
Why, you ask? Well ... take a look at this thread.
For those of you who missed it, in that thread, a question was posed, and seven responses were received. Unfortunately, all of these responses were of the "Welcome to the forum!" variety, with nary an answer in the bunch.
While doing a Google search, I came across a template for this particular forum. It had the basic "Welcome to the CR Forum!" verbiage in it, but there were spaces for names and specifics for the question (I think; it's been a while). So, these responses appear to be nearly computer-generated, with a wee bit of input from the SysOps.
So, to avoid having your question disappear in a sea of welcome messages, post an intro in the Welcome section. Trust me, you'll be glad you did.
-o0o-
Eclipse Forum
http://www.eclipsecat.com/?q=forum
Eclipse users have the CR Net Forum. Lots of info for Eclipse users, but you can pick up some good tips here as well from the working professionals that frequent this particular forum.
DigitalCAT Forum
http://stenovations.com/pforum
Not to be outdone, Stenovations has a support forum for digitalCAT users. Because the spammers were hitting the forum pretty hard, the adminstrators have taken it down and switched to a different version of software. You have to register again, and you can't post until you get a "thumbs up" from the folks at Stenovations ... but if that keeps the spammers away, that's just fine with me.
-o0o-
All the Incarnations of Stephen Shastay's Blogs
As my regular readers probably know, I'm a big fan of Stephen Shastay's work, and often point people having Difficulties towards one of the entries in his blog on his (patent pending) Magic Drill.
What my regular readers might not know is that Stephen Shastay's blog has gone through several incarnations ... and there are no links taking the reader from one to the other ... so here, in order, are all the links I've been able to scare up:
The first blog (14FEB05):
http://shastay.blogdrive.com/archive/cm-5_cy-2004_m-02_d-14_y-2005_o-0.html
This blog has a calendar to assist with navigation. Unfortunately, even though the link I provided goes to the very first entry (14FEB05), the calendar is for the current month ... so you'll have to navigate to February 2005 to find the next entry ... and that is somewhat time consuming.
Fortunately, it's worth it.
The second blog (15MAY06):
http://courtreportinghelp.com/blog/category/how-to-use-this-blog
When using the second blog, on the right side of the screen you will see three months worth of archives. Start with the May archives and work your way through the July archives. Once that's over, you need to go to the next (and current) blog.
The Current Blog (14AUG06):
Hot Tip
I have gathered all of these blog entries from the first two blogs into one Word document, which weighs in at a hefty 62 pages(!). Once I get the current blog copied and pasted into this document, I will (with His Steveness' permission, of course) convert the Word document into an .rtf document, and put a link there for everyone to download.
'Nother Hot Tip
I notice the link to the Magic Drill audio files has disappeared from the obvious links at the top of CourtReportingHelp.com! Fortunately, they're still there ... just buried. You can find them here:
http://courtreportinghelp.com/MP3s/Free%20MP3s/Free%20MD%2001/FreeMD.htm
-o0o-
Miscellaneous
Fancy Pants Loves Binita
http://binitashrestha.com/blog
Former fellow starving student Binita Shrestha's blog (she recently passed her final test) is usually an entertaining read (her description of her internship was quite amusing, as was her description of how she paid "BILLIONS OF DOLLARS" for her new Mira). She also includes audio drills created by her FSO (that's "Fairly Significant Other," in case you were wondering) as a free download.
My only whine is you can't readily figure out which blog entry came first! :o( Still, entertaining reading.
"Whoa, Binnie!" Update (01AUG08)
While doing a Google search for a ProCAT Flash manual, I found a link to one of my responses to Binnie's blog. Knowing the archives were gone (see previous update, below this one), I clicked the link ... and it actually worked!
A little more exploration and I not only found Binita's final (?) blog entry ... I found an Archives page ... and I just *had* to put the link here.
I got even more interested when I saw that the audio drills Binnie's hubby did were up as well ... but when I tried playing them, they lasted for maybe a second.
Maybe they'll fix that one ... one of these days.
"Whoa, Binnie!" Update (11MAY07)
I sent Binnie an e-mail about the "which blog entry came first" issue, and Scott (FSO and "The Man Behind the Woman") sent me an e-mail:
Hey GD,
Woe be upon Binita's blog. ;-) Neither of us have had any time to update it. I've been wanting to make a proper site at the domain root but haven't been able to. It'll be a nice weekend project that I'll get around to in the next, oh, months.
Anyhow, Binita's blog is presented in reverse chronological order. So the person would have to click 'Previous posts' until they got to the beginning page. To simplify things, I put together an archives page, which makes it easier:
http://binitashrestha.com/blog/archives
There the posts can be viewed in clumps by month or category. Enjoy.
Best,
Scott
Thanks, Scott!
On that page Scott has a set of links pointing to each month, descending from the latest to the earliest, so readers can follow Binnie's progress through the maze known as court reporting school.
-o0o-
Word Goddess
This site is for court reporting students living in the Great White North (you know ... Canada, eh!), but it's also worth a look for those of us living in the Great Green South (or whatever they call us up there).
One interesting thing about this site is if you visit the main page using Internet Explorer, a video plays of a student and a (more or less) professional stenoing away on their respective machines. Alas, I have yet to figure out how to hijack the video and convert it to something that Firefox users can actually see, but ... maybe one day.
Update (05APR07)
Of late, the Word Goddess page is down! That is, when I attempt to go to the page, all I get is a blank page.
The author, Rachel Rosenberg, says the page will be down "for the forseeable future," but does not say why or when it will be up.
In the meantime, you can see the archived versions of the page here.
Also, using one of these archived pages, I did manage to download both the .wmv movies of the two students using their steno machines. Even better, I have converted those .wmv files into .mp4 files, so I will put them on ol' Cheap and Sleazy ... as soon as I get an okay from Ms. Rosenberg.
Alas, she seems quite busy these days, so I don't know how long that will take ... but I'll send her an e-mail.
Update (06APR07)
Rachel gave me the okay, so here is her borrowed text, and (hopefully) the movies:
IF YOU CAN'T WRITE IT SLOWLY, YOU CAN'T WRITE IT FAST!
TECHNIQUE: How is it supposed to look?
ADVICE:
Just bash away at steno to get it down; use superior editing techniques to produce accurate real-time; finger-faulting will naturally reduce as time goes by.
ADVICE:
Move hands and fingers very little, with only slight key depression; get on and off keys fast even when speech is slow to keep alert for sudden increase in speech; use careful editing of text and care in making dictionary entries; stay right on top of the word.
Reporter 2 (20 years experience; photo taken is of 200 wpm dictation)
So, now you see how it's supposed to look! This kind of lends credence to the practicing technique where your instructor will put a penny on the back of both of your hands, I would think ....
-o0o-
Update (16DEC07)
Wordgodess is back online!
Update (24MAR08)
I got an e-mail the other day from Ms. Diana Van Dyke, a CSR in Southern California. She wanted to let me know about a website just for Starving Students™!
Diana pointed me to this site:
"So what?" you say? Well ... click the Questions and Answers link, and take a look at the software available. I'll wait.
Ah, back I see ...! If you're anything like me, you probably looked at every piece of software listed on this site for your particular platform (Mac or Windows; nothing for Linux folk, alas ...). You probably already downloaded some, right?
If not, let me tell you about a couple programs I found there. I've already mentioned Audacity, the free sound editing tool (see Different Dictation if you missed it) ... but what I haven't mentioned is a pair of programs called Genius (Mac only) and jMemorize (Windows only).
These programs are flash card programs -- except unlike those flash cards of yester-year, these keep track of what you miss, and quiz you on those cards again until you get it ... and sometimes even after you do, to make sure that you still have it!
I took the state capitals list that came with Genius as a sample file, and changed the capitals to the one-stroke brief Phoenix Theory has for states:
Steno States, from Genius
I haven't figured out how to take the quiz with my steno machine as yet ... but the point here is to help me remember those 50 strokes ... and Genius (or jMemoriz) will help me to do that.
Finally, I replied to Diana's e-mail, but Earthlink's spam buster kicked it back for me to authenticate; did so, and it said this message is no longer in the Spam folder! So Diana, I was not ignoring you; just got beat up by the spam filter ... so here, in public, I want to say THANK YOU for pointing out this resource for Starving Students™!
Well. That's about all I can come up with off the top of my head ... but if I come up with any more, I'll be sure to update this page.
Update (08MAY08)
CSR Nation: My Space for Court Reporters
I've been remiss in not mentioning CSR Nation!
As it says above, CSR Nation is like My Space for court reporters -- but not just court reporters. Students, transcriptionists, videographers -- pretty much anyone who works (or studies) in this field can join. You can even customize your personal home page, and upload an .mp3 file for others to play while they read your life story! (mine is rather short; sorry about that!)
Once you've finished reading this update, rush your buns (that's a technical term, by the way) over to CSR Nation.com and sign up today!