Guest guest Posted February 18, 2003 Report Share Posted February 18, 2003 If you just want to test out using an expander, you can do what I did -- I bought the cheapest thing I could find to use while I'm still a student, just so I can get used to using it. I didn't want to a huge amount of money on something that an employer might pay for after I start working for them. I got Shortkeys. $20. (: http://www.shortkeys.com/ -Allie > >Subject: Re: SMartype FeedBack > > Date: Tue, 18 Feb 2003 14:37:46 -0800 > To: <nmtc > > >Kel, > >I have been wondering about the same thing. The smartype web site gives a good description about how it works, but I wonder if it is something that MTs depend upon to pick up some speed. My typing speed is not really fast enough, but the smartype program is a bit of an investment if a person isn't sure it is going to work out. > >Ken Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 18, 2003 Report Share Posted February 18, 2003 If you just want to test out using an expander, you can do what I did -- I bought the cheapest thing I could find to use while I'm still a student, just so I can get used to using it. I didn't want to a huge amount of money on something that an employer might pay for after I start working for them. I got Shortkeys. $20. (: http://www.shortkeys.com/ -Allie > >Subject: Re: SMartype FeedBack > > Date: Tue, 18 Feb 2003 14:37:46 -0800 > To: <nmtc > > >Kel, > >I have been wondering about the same thing. The smartype web site gives a good description about how it works, but I wonder if it is something that MTs depend upon to pick up some speed. My typing speed is not really fast enough, but the smartype program is a bit of an investment if a person isn't sure it is going to work out. > >Ken Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 18, 2003 Report Share Posted February 18, 2003 If you just want to test out using an expander, you can do what I did -- I bought the cheapest thing I could find to use while I'm still a student, just so I can get used to using it. I didn't want to a huge amount of money on something that an employer might pay for after I start working for them. I got Shortkeys. $20. (: http://www.shortkeys.com/ -Allie > >Subject: Re: SMartype FeedBack > > Date: Tue, 18 Feb 2003 14:37:46 -0800 > To: <nmtc > > >Kel, > >I have been wondering about the same thing. The smartype web site gives a good description about how it works, but I wonder if it is something that MTs depend upon to pick up some speed. My typing speed is not really fast enough, but the smartype program is a bit of an investment if a person isn't sure it is going to work out. > >Ken Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 18, 2003 Report Share Posted February 18, 2003 Re: SMartype FeedBack > but I wonder if it is something that MTs depend upon to pick up some speed. My typing speed is not really fast enough, but the smartype program is a bit of an investment if a person isn't sure it is going to work out. > I can say that without a doubt an expander of some sort is indispensible in this business for people on production pay. It is not very hard at all to get a 30% plus decrease in key strokes with an expander. You can also set the expander to remember capitalization for you, remember which drugs us a hyphen with XR extension (or not), etc. Quixote Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 18, 2003 Report Share Posted February 18, 2003 Re: SMartype FeedBack > but I wonder if it is something that MTs depend upon to pick up some speed. My typing speed is not really fast enough, but the smartype program is a bit of an investment if a person isn't sure it is going to work out. > I can say that without a doubt an expander of some sort is indispensible in this business for people on production pay. It is not very hard at all to get a 30% plus decrease in key strokes with an expander. You can also set the expander to remember capitalization for you, remember which drugs us a hyphen with XR extension (or not), etc. Quixote Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 18, 2003 Report Share Posted February 18, 2003 Re: SMartype FeedBack > but I wonder if it is something that MTs depend upon to pick up some speed. My typing speed is not really fast enough, but the smartype program is a bit of an investment if a person isn't sure it is going to work out. > I can say that without a doubt an expander of some sort is indispensible in this business for people on production pay. It is not very hard at all to get a 30% plus decrease in key strokes with an expander. You can also set the expander to remember capitalization for you, remember which drugs us a hyphen with XR extension (or not), etc. Quixote Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 18, 2003 Report Share Posted February 18, 2003 Allie, Thanks for the site. It appears to work in the same fashion as Word autotext does, entering shortcut keys for a specific expanded text. From checking the website it seems the program doesn't automatically expand and suggest possible words as you are typing, functioning as what I guess would be called a true automatic word expander. Good price, though. I think Smartype is around $180. I am sure that I will eventually need something that I don't need to memorize a zillion shortcuts. Ken Re: SMartype FeedBack > > Date: Tue, 18 Feb 2003 14:37:46 -0800 > To: <nmtc > > >Kel, > >I have been wondering about the same thing. The smartype web site gives a good description about how it works, but I wonder if it is something that MTs depend upon to pick up some speed. My typing speed is not really fast enough, but the smartype program is a bit of an investment if a person isn't sure it is going to work out. > >Ken Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 18, 2003 Report Share Posted February 18, 2003 Quixote, Thanks for the imput. What program do you use? I noticed that from what I can read about Smartype, it seems to work pretty slick. If I understand it correctly, it presents the most likely possibility as you 'enter' the word, always redefining as you get farther into the word, and also presents a selection of less likely possibilities below. So a person just types along regularly and finishes the word as early as possible with a space-bar enter or a number selection. I am wondering if there is a way to get into that for now for something less painful than $180 or if it might be wiser to wait to see where I end up working. I am sure this is all old hat to those who are working, but it is new to me and others. Ken Re: SMartype FeedBack > but I wonder if it is something that MTs depend upon to pick up some speed. My typing speed is not really fast enough, but the smartype program is a bit of an investment if a person isn't sure it is going to work out. > I can say that without a doubt an expander of some sort is indispensible in this business for people on production pay. It is not very hard at all to get a 30% plus decrease in key strokes with an expander. You can also set the expander to remember capitalization for you, remember which drugs us a hyphen with XR extension (or not), etc. Quixote Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 18, 2003 Report Share Posted February 18, 2003 Ken, I liked the suggestion from someone that you get the program that costs $20 or something like that for now. You never know where you will end up working or if you will end up working for yourself. If you end up working for someone else, you might end up using a word processor program that does not work well with Smartype and you will have ended up spending that $180 unnecessarily. The system I used is supplied by my employer (a very large hospital with 20 transcriptionists in medical records alone) and includes an abbreviation expander along wiht the autocorrect and autotext of MS Word. Just my thoughts, Margaret >>> " kgrassman " 02/18/03 07:29PM >>> Quixote, Thanks for the imput. What program do you use? I noticed that from what I can read about Smartype, it seems to work pretty slick. If I understand it correctly, it presents the most likely possibility as you 'enter' the word, always redefining as you get farther into the word, and also presents a selection of less likely possibilities below. So a person just types along regularly and finishes the word as early as possible with a space-bar enter or a number selection. I am wondering if there is a way to get into that for now for something less painful than $180 or if it might be wiser to wait to see where I end up working. I am sure this is all old hat to those who are working, but it is new to me and others. Ken Re: SMartype FeedBack > but I wonder if it is something that MTs depend upon to pick up some speed. My typing speed is not really fast enough, but the smartype program is a bit of an investment if a person isn't sure it is going to work out. > I can say that without a doubt an expander of some sort is indispensible in this business for people on production pay. It is not very hard at all to get a 30% plus decrease in key strokes with an expander. You can also set the expander to remember capitalization for you, remember which drugs us a hyphen with XR extension (or not), etc. Quixote Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 18, 2003 Report Share Posted February 18, 2003 Ken, I liked the suggestion from someone that you get the program that costs $20 or something like that for now. You never know where you will end up working or if you will end up working for yourself. If you end up working for someone else, you might end up using a word processor program that does not work well with Smartype and you will have ended up spending that $180 unnecessarily. The system I used is supplied by my employer (a very large hospital with 20 transcriptionists in medical records alone) and includes an abbreviation expander along wiht the autocorrect and autotext of MS Word. Just my thoughts, Margaret >>> " kgrassman " 02/18/03 07:29PM >>> Quixote, Thanks for the imput. What program do you use? I noticed that from what I can read about Smartype, it seems to work pretty slick. If I understand it correctly, it presents the most likely possibility as you 'enter' the word, always redefining as you get farther into the word, and also presents a selection of less likely possibilities below. So a person just types along regularly and finishes the word as early as possible with a space-bar enter or a number selection. I am wondering if there is a way to get into that for now for something less painful than $180 or if it might be wiser to wait to see where I end up working. I am sure this is all old hat to those who are working, but it is new to me and others. Ken Re: SMartype FeedBack > but I wonder if it is something that MTs depend upon to pick up some speed. My typing speed is not really fast enough, but the smartype program is a bit of an investment if a person isn't sure it is going to work out. > I can say that without a doubt an expander of some sort is indispensible in this business for people on production pay. It is not very hard at all to get a 30% plus decrease in key strokes with an expander. You can also set the expander to remember capitalization for you, remember which drugs us a hyphen with XR extension (or not), etc. Quixote Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 18, 2003 Report Share Posted February 18, 2003 Ken, I liked the suggestion from someone that you get the program that costs $20 or something like that for now. You never know where you will end up working or if you will end up working for yourself. If you end up working for someone else, you might end up using a word processor program that does not work well with Smartype and you will have ended up spending that $180 unnecessarily. The system I used is supplied by my employer (a very large hospital with 20 transcriptionists in medical records alone) and includes an abbreviation expander along wiht the autocorrect and autotext of MS Word. Just my thoughts, Margaret >>> " kgrassman " 02/18/03 07:29PM >>> Quixote, Thanks for the imput. What program do you use? I noticed that from what I can read about Smartype, it seems to work pretty slick. If I understand it correctly, it presents the most likely possibility as you 'enter' the word, always redefining as you get farther into the word, and also presents a selection of less likely possibilities below. So a person just types along regularly and finishes the word as early as possible with a space-bar enter or a number selection. I am wondering if there is a way to get into that for now for something less painful than $180 or if it might be wiser to wait to see where I end up working. I am sure this is all old hat to those who are working, but it is new to me and others. Ken Re: SMartype FeedBack > but I wonder if it is something that MTs depend upon to pick up some speed. My typing speed is not really fast enough, but the smartype program is a bit of an investment if a person isn't sure it is going to work out. > I can say that without a doubt an expander of some sort is indispensible in this business for people on production pay. It is not very hard at all to get a 30% plus decrease in key strokes with an expander. You can also set the expander to remember capitalization for you, remember which drugs us a hyphen with XR extension (or not), etc. Quixote Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 18, 2003 Report Share Posted February 18, 2003 Well, I work for MedQuist and they have a proprietary windows program called Webcorrect that runs entirely inside an Internet Explorer window. It has a built-in expander which works well enough but is missing some of the extra features available. I had used Shortcuts for dos in the past and it was very nice. You could use special keys such as backspace, up arrow, down arrow, etc. It would keep track of your keystroke savings and I had it up to about an average of 37%, which meant for every 100 keystrokes I had only typed 63 of them with expansions claiming the rest. It does not sound like much until you look at a full days work; 1000 lines = 65,000 keystrokes x 37% = 24,050 with actually typed keys at 40,950. I also use it like autocorrect for commonly misspelled words, forgotten capitilizations, etc. As far as remembering all the shortcuts goes, I think it is miniscule in proportion to the myriad of medical information that we have to digest and retain. :^) Quixote Re: SMartype FeedBack > > > > > but I wonder if it is something that MTs depend upon to pick up some speed. > My typing speed is not really fast enough, but the smartype program is a bit > of an investment if a person isn't sure it is going to work out. > > > > > I can say that without a doubt an expander of some sort is indispensible in > this business for people on production pay. It is not very hard at all to > get a 30% plus decrease in key strokes with an expander. You can also set > the expander to remember capitalization for you, remember which drugs us a > hyphen with XR extension (or not), etc. > > Quixote > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 18, 2003 Report Share Posted February 18, 2003 Well, I work for MedQuist and they have a proprietary windows program called Webcorrect that runs entirely inside an Internet Explorer window. It has a built-in expander which works well enough but is missing some of the extra features available. I had used Shortcuts for dos in the past and it was very nice. You could use special keys such as backspace, up arrow, down arrow, etc. It would keep track of your keystroke savings and I had it up to about an average of 37%, which meant for every 100 keystrokes I had only typed 63 of them with expansions claiming the rest. It does not sound like much until you look at a full days work; 1000 lines = 65,000 keystrokes x 37% = 24,050 with actually typed keys at 40,950. I also use it like autocorrect for commonly misspelled words, forgotten capitilizations, etc. As far as remembering all the shortcuts goes, I think it is miniscule in proportion to the myriad of medical information that we have to digest and retain. :^) Quixote Re: SMartype FeedBack > > > > > but I wonder if it is something that MTs depend upon to pick up some speed. > My typing speed is not really fast enough, but the smartype program is a bit > of an investment if a person isn't sure it is going to work out. > > > > > I can say that without a doubt an expander of some sort is indispensible in > this business for people on production pay. It is not very hard at all to > get a 30% plus decrease in key strokes with an expander. You can also set > the expander to remember capitalization for you, remember which drugs us a > hyphen with XR extension (or not), etc. > > Quixote > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 18, 2003 Report Share Posted February 18, 2003 Well, I work for MedQuist and they have a proprietary windows program called Webcorrect that runs entirely inside an Internet Explorer window. It has a built-in expander which works well enough but is missing some of the extra features available. I had used Shortcuts for dos in the past and it was very nice. You could use special keys such as backspace, up arrow, down arrow, etc. It would keep track of your keystroke savings and I had it up to about an average of 37%, which meant for every 100 keystrokes I had only typed 63 of them with expansions claiming the rest. It does not sound like much until you look at a full days work; 1000 lines = 65,000 keystrokes x 37% = 24,050 with actually typed keys at 40,950. I also use it like autocorrect for commonly misspelled words, forgotten capitilizations, etc. As far as remembering all the shortcuts goes, I think it is miniscule in proportion to the myriad of medical information that we have to digest and retain. :^) Quixote Re: SMartype FeedBack > > > > > but I wonder if it is something that MTs depend upon to pick up some speed. > My typing speed is not really fast enough, but the smartype program is a bit > of an investment if a person isn't sure it is going to work out. > > > > > I can say that without a doubt an expander of some sort is indispensible in > this business for people on production pay. It is not very hard at all to > get a 30% plus decrease in key strokes with an expander. You can also set > the expander to remember capitalization for you, remember which drugs us a > hyphen with XR extension (or not), etc. > > Quixote > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 18, 2003 Report Share Posted February 18, 2003 Oops. Here is link to Shortcut for Windows. http://www.ehti.net/product_suite.asp?p=13 Quixote Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 18, 2003 Report Share Posted February 18, 2003 Oops. Here is link to Shortcut for Windows. http://www.ehti.net/product_suite.asp?p=13 Quixote Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 18, 2003 Report Share Posted February 18, 2003 Margaret, Thanks for the tip. Hunting down something cheaper is better for now. I can go at about 70 wpm to start with but bog down after a couple of hours. I haven't figured out how people can keep up speed hour after hour. Maybe it's that Y chromosome. Ken Re: SMartype FeedBack > but I wonder if it is something that MTs depend upon to pick up some speed. My typing speed is not really fast enough, but the smartype program is a bit of an investment if a person isn't sure it is going to work out. > I can say that without a doubt an expander of some sort is indispensible in this business for people on production pay. It is not very hard at all to get a 30% plus decrease in key strokes with an expander. You can also set the expander to remember capitalization for you, remember which drugs us a hyphen with XR extension (or not), etc. Quixote Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 18, 2003 Report Share Posted February 18, 2003 Margaret, Thanks for the tip. Hunting down something cheaper is better for now. I can go at about 70 wpm to start with but bog down after a couple of hours. I haven't figured out how people can keep up speed hour after hour. Maybe it's that Y chromosome. Ken Re: SMartype FeedBack > but I wonder if it is something that MTs depend upon to pick up some speed. My typing speed is not really fast enough, but the smartype program is a bit of an investment if a person isn't sure it is going to work out. > I can say that without a doubt an expander of some sort is indispensible in this business for people on production pay. It is not very hard at all to get a 30% plus decrease in key strokes with an expander. You can also set the expander to remember capitalization for you, remember which drugs us a hyphen with XR extension (or not), etc. Quixote Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 18, 2003 Report Share Posted February 18, 2003 Margaret, Thanks for the tip. Hunting down something cheaper is better for now. I can go at about 70 wpm to start with but bog down after a couple of hours. I haven't figured out how people can keep up speed hour after hour. Maybe it's that Y chromosome. Ken Re: SMartype FeedBack > but I wonder if it is something that MTs depend upon to pick up some speed. My typing speed is not really fast enough, but the smartype program is a bit of an investment if a person isn't sure it is going to work out. > I can say that without a doubt an expander of some sort is indispensible in this business for people on production pay. It is not very hard at all to get a 30% plus decrease in key strokes with an expander. You can also set the expander to remember capitalization for you, remember which drugs us a hyphen with XR extension (or not), etc. Quixote Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 18, 2003 Report Share Posted February 18, 2003 Ken, For one thing, you need to learn to pace yourself, get up and take breaks, don't go full out all the time. The old typing teachers used to teach us to type in rhythm. I think that was to get us to learn how to do it at a slower speed until we were ready to speed up. Speed will come when it is ready. But it is just like any other exercise, you need to do it for slow awhile before you are able to do it fast for longer. Think of it as like running a marathon versus a sprint and try to type the way you would if you were running a marathon, slow and steady for the long haul. Just my thoughts, Margaret >>> " kgrassman " 02/18/03 09:43PM >>> Margaret, Thanks for the tip. Hunting down something cheaper is better for now. I can go at about 70 wpm to start with but bog down after a couple of hours. I haven't figured out how people can keep up speed hour after hour. Maybe it's that Y chromosome. Ken Re: SMartype FeedBack > but I wonder if it is something that MTs depend upon to pick up some speed. My typing speed is not really fast enough, but the smartype program is a bit of an investment if a person isn't sure it is going to work out. > I can say that without a doubt an expander of some sort is indispensible in this business for people on production pay. It is not very hard at all to get a 30% plus decrease in key strokes with an expander. You can also set the expander to remember capitalization for you, remember which drugs us a hyphen with XR extension (or not), etc. Quixote Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 18, 2003 Report Share Posted February 18, 2003 Ken, For one thing, you need to learn to pace yourself, get up and take breaks, don't go full out all the time. The old typing teachers used to teach us to type in rhythm. I think that was to get us to learn how to do it at a slower speed until we were ready to speed up. Speed will come when it is ready. But it is just like any other exercise, you need to do it for slow awhile before you are able to do it fast for longer. Think of it as like running a marathon versus a sprint and try to type the way you would if you were running a marathon, slow and steady for the long haul. Just my thoughts, Margaret >>> " kgrassman " 02/18/03 09:43PM >>> Margaret, Thanks for the tip. Hunting down something cheaper is better for now. I can go at about 70 wpm to start with but bog down after a couple of hours. I haven't figured out how people can keep up speed hour after hour. Maybe it's that Y chromosome. Ken Re: SMartype FeedBack > but I wonder if it is something that MTs depend upon to pick up some speed. My typing speed is not really fast enough, but the smartype program is a bit of an investment if a person isn't sure it is going to work out. > I can say that without a doubt an expander of some sort is indispensible in this business for people on production pay. It is not very hard at all to get a 30% plus decrease in key strokes with an expander. You can also set the expander to remember capitalization for you, remember which drugs us a hyphen with XR extension (or not), etc. Quixote Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 18, 2003 Report Share Posted February 18, 2003 Ken, For one thing, you need to learn to pace yourself, get up and take breaks, don't go full out all the time. The old typing teachers used to teach us to type in rhythm. I think that was to get us to learn how to do it at a slower speed until we were ready to speed up. Speed will come when it is ready. But it is just like any other exercise, you need to do it for slow awhile before you are able to do it fast for longer. Think of it as like running a marathon versus a sprint and try to type the way you would if you were running a marathon, slow and steady for the long haul. Just my thoughts, Margaret >>> " kgrassman " 02/18/03 09:43PM >>> Margaret, Thanks for the tip. Hunting down something cheaper is better for now. I can go at about 70 wpm to start with but bog down after a couple of hours. I haven't figured out how people can keep up speed hour after hour. Maybe it's that Y chromosome. Ken Re: SMartype FeedBack > but I wonder if it is something that MTs depend upon to pick up some speed. My typing speed is not really fast enough, but the smartype program is a bit of an investment if a person isn't sure it is going to work out. > I can say that without a doubt an expander of some sort is indispensible in this business for people on production pay. It is not very hard at all to get a 30% plus decrease in key strokes with an expander. You can also set the expander to remember capitalization for you, remember which drugs us a hyphen with XR extension (or not), etc. Quixote Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 18, 2003 Report Share Posted February 18, 2003 Actually, 37% seems like a great savings; I'd take that any day. Re: SMartype FeedBack > > > > > but I wonder if it is something that MTs depend upon to pick up some speed. > My typing speed is not really fast enough, but the smartype program is a bit > of an investment if a person isn't sure it is going to work out. > > > > > I can say that without a doubt an expander of some sort is indispensible in > this business for people on production pay. It is not very hard at all to > get a 30% plus decrease in key strokes with an expander. You can also set > the expander to remember capitalization for you, remember which drugs us a > hyphen with XR extension (or not), etc. > > Quixote > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 18, 2003 Report Share Posted February 18, 2003 Actually, 37% seems like a great savings; I'd take that any day. Re: SMartype FeedBack > > > > > but I wonder if it is something that MTs depend upon to pick up some speed. > My typing speed is not really fast enough, but the smartype program is a bit > of an investment if a person isn't sure it is going to work out. > > > > > I can say that without a doubt an expander of some sort is indispensible in > this business for people on production pay. It is not very hard at all to > get a 30% plus decrease in key strokes with an expander. You can also set > the expander to remember capitalization for you, remember which drugs us a > hyphen with XR extension (or not), etc. > > Quixote > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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