ONLY PROCAT USERS

[Kwanna Collins]

Hello everyone. I went to a ProCat demo yesterday and was very impress. I have narrowed my search to two softwares, Eclipse and Procat. I will love your opinion. Any pros and cons with Procat?

As a soon to be graduating student, i want to make the right decision.

As always, thanks a million.

[Phil Stillerman]

As a ProCAT user for about ten years, all I can tell you is that the "learning curve" is very user-friendly; support is great, staff is very knowledgeable. Their user-website is very helpful. I do have to say, though, that I've not used any of the other popular systems. I think if it's a "draw" between the two, check to see if there are other ProCAT users in your immediate area. If there are, and if they're willing to answer the "stupid" questions (there is no "stupid question" though) I would go with that.

Eclipse is very popular, and may have more bells and whistels than ProCAT, I've never compared the two. It depends on what you want so far as the bells and whistles. When I was looking for a CAT system and was about ready to make the final decision it was between Aristocat and ProCAT.

[Deborah M.]

I was on ProCat for about 10 years, back in the DOS days, hehe. I am now on Eclipse and love, love, love it. I have also been on Aristocat and Case Catalyst. I wouldn't trade Eclipse for ANYTHING. I think it's the only software company that's actually owned by a former court reporter. The guy that writes the software is a genius. They are very responsive. (Although way back when, Bob Bakva, the owner of ProCat, came to my house at 9pm to get the darn printer working, but I was one of his first customers and I doubt that would happen now!) I have never met anyone who regretted being on Eclipse. Good luck on your decision! It's a tough one, I know.

[Mary Ann Payonk]

Hi, Kwanna. How are you? When I read your message, I thought about Phil (Hi, Phil!) He put a lot of thought into his choice before he chose ProCAT. One of his first-use comments after being on the system for a while was that it was very user friendly. I believe it is user friend, and I believe it's a good, solid CAT system.

But I'm on Eclipse, and I wouldn't have another CAT system if it was free. I've been reporting for 32 years. I typed my own notes until late in the game, and the first CAT system I bought was StenoCAT. I thought it was great at the time, but I'd set my sights on realtime. On StenoCAT back then, it was much too difficult to deal with the realtime output ... there was a "realtime" screen, where you could watch the realtime output, but then if you wanted to edit the file, you had to open another window and go to the "edit" screen. I knew there had to be a better way. That better way was Eclipse ... everything done on one screen. It's been my opinion that Eclipse has focused on realtime from the get-go. They offer Bridge, which is not only free, but it's much more user friendly than LiveNote.

I would suggest that if you have set your sights on realtime as your goal once you get out in the working world, you need a very powerful system that will give you ALL the bells and whistles that Phil talked about, along with ease of use. To me, that's Eclipse. If you want to start out with a user-friendly system in the beginning and work for a couple of years, knowing that you're going to have to work yourself up from newbie to seasoned realtime reporter eventually, you could choose really any CAT system, then switch once you were out in the working world long enough to hone your skills to the point where you are ready for instant rough drafts and outpitting realtime for pay. That's the goal ... getting good enough at realtime so that people will pay you to read your screen. And when you're doing that, you want not only your own skill and ability beind it, you need a good realtime CAT system. For me, tha's Eclipse.

Good luck, Kwanna!

M.A.

[Robin Delloro]

I've been a ProCAT user for ten years. I've kept my tech support current. What I love most about ProCAT is their tech support. They know how to dummy it down for me when I need it. They have incredible patience. And after this many years, I think they know who I am....maybe I'm calling too much. Without ever having used another software, I have to guess they're all pretty much the same. One big advantage to ProCAT is that they never stop supporting their software. You can have any ancient version of Winner, but they'll still help you w/it. Good luck with your decision.

[Tami]

I was on Procat for 22 years and just recently switched to Eclipse.

Wish I had switched a looong time ago.

You can purchase Eclipse through Acculaw at a reduced rate. Just got mine for $3100, which includes full support for the year and all updates through Eclipse.

Made the same purchase for my son last December, Eclipse through Acculaw, with no glitches.

[Patrick J. Heard]

Eclipse IS the right decision.

I can tell you all about it. I am the Northern California Eclipse sales rep, and I'm a working court reporter. I've been on Eclipse for 11 years and I absolutely love the software. That's why I sell it, too!

Patrick Heard

[e-mail]

[Tami]

The NCRA realtime contest results are a perfect example of why I feel that Eclipse is far more superior to Procat.

I don't know how it all unfolded this summer, but last summer the top six or seven qualifiers were all on Eclipse. A couple years ago -- in Texas -- one of the high finishers told me it was because of Eclipse that he did so well, and I think even the winner gave major props to Eclipse.

If I felt Procat was on the cutting edge, I never would have left. I got tired of asking for the technology that was important to me -- realtime macros being at the top.

I was told more than once that that was not important to their customer base and that I was pretty much the only one asking for those capabilites.

They did get a nice brief suggestion feature this past year, but it was a little too late. Actually waaay late in my opinion.

I'm so happy to be moving on.