Digitalcat for Students

[Mary Jo Cochran]

I can use some help. I (think) I downloaded Digitalcat for Students. I have been reading through the manual.
I am going to be using Stenocat Dictionary. I have it loaded (I think) on my computer.

How to I "initial(?)" my machine?
I have a USB cable. Do I connect that cable from the writer to the back of the compute (which is too short), or can I use the front USB.

I really want to get started on student Digitalcat, get my dictionary going, learn how to dump and make a transcript, before I download the three month tryout and then start paying for it.

[Becky Young]

Does DigitalCAT offer support to students? Getting set up initially can be somewhat confusing. If they offer support to students, I'd go ahead and call. Believe it or not, all USB plugs on your computer are not created equal. You may need to try another port. Once software is open, go to Translator, Steno Source. Make sure you have the right machine selected. Then just try each of the different com ports. If you happen to be using any kind of an adapter, there are certain brands of adapters that work better than others. It may be a matter of picking one USB port, and then trying the various comp port selections in DigitalCAT. Mine is set to COM5, but yours may be different.

Gook luck. -- Becky Young

[Glen Warner]

Hi, Mary Jo.

What I would do is install the driver for the USB adapter, then connect your writer to your laptop.

Next, I would check the Device Manager to see which COMM port the adapter is using. You can do that many ways, but if you're using XP, you can simply right-click on the My Computer icon and select (I think!) Properties. That should bring up another window where you can click "Hardware."

Once you have that window showing, you should scroll down until you see something like LPT/USB devices, or something similar (sorry, I'm on my Mac, and removed Windows a few months back, so this is from my ailing memory!).

One of those USB devices should say the name of your USB adapter; i.e., CoolGear USB Adapter. Click that, and see what COMM port is revealed ... then, as Becky said, match the COMM port you see in the Device Manager with that in Steno Source, and you're good to go!

As for your StenoCAT dictionary, unless you converted it to .rtf format, you're going to have some difficulties, as DC won't import anything BUT an .rtf dictionary ... and the only way to get it converted would be to send it to Stenovations -- unless, of course, you know someone close to you that has StenoCAT, then they should be able to do the conversion for you.

Once the conversion is done, do the following:

(1) Open the Dictionary Maintenance program (DictMain.exe)

(2) Create a new dictionary by either clicking the New icon, or doing File--> New

(3) Name the new dictionary something appropriate (your theory's name, DC_StenoCAT, etc.). That should produce an empty window with whatever name you gave it at the top.

(4) Finally, click File--> Import RTF, and in the file navigation window, point it to where you have the .rtf version of your StenoCAT dictionary.

At this point, you'll see a little window that tells you how many entries it's importing. If you have a lot of entries in that dictionary, it may take a few minutes, but it shouldn't take forever!

Once that's done, close the DictMaint.exe program (File-->Exit, then open the Translator/Editor program (Transcript Editor.exe) ... then click the Translator-->Dictionaries menu item, and use the Add button to add that new dictionary to the Dictionary Setup window.

From there, you should be realtiming to your laptop! Congrats!

Lastly, note that your theory dictionary (I guess that would be your StenoCAT dictionary) should be at the bottom of the group of dictionaries you have in that window. This allows DC to search that dictionary first for translation ... but you should search each dictionary for any steno outline you enter to avoid such conflicts! That tip should keep you from pulling your hair out over weird translations!

Sorry for the length ... and enjoy DC!

--gdw
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"For a Good (steno) Time ...."
http://www.cheapandsleazy.net

[Glen Warner]

For those of you who are anxiously awaiting an answer (and thinking that I am ignoring her(!!)), Laurie contacted me by e-mail.

Turns out that Stenograph sent her USB cables with her Protege -- which (of course!) work just fine with Case Catalyst (and Eclipse, thanks to some serious reverse-engineering of Stenograph's USB protocol), but do not work with digitalCAT.

Laurie needed to use a USB-Serial adapter and connect to the Protege's serial port ... and now, all is well!

Just wanted to share ....

--gdw
-------------------------
"For a Good (steno) Time ....."
http://www.cheapandsleazy.net