Question about ESP Seminars

[Cathryn Bauer]

Greetings:

For those who have been to the ESP seminars in Vegas, I am hoping for some input on which level to go to, Intermediate or Advanced. The first description I read suggested Advanced would be better, and another one made it sound like Intermediate would be the way to go.

My goal for the seminar is to fill in the gaps, so to speak, so that I don't ask embarrassing questions like, "How do you make a parenthetical?" I'd like to really understand the advanced features like the metadictionary, autoreplacements, and the prefix and suffix tables. Maximizing day-to-day use is my goal here. I'm not so interested in supertech stuff like writing my own macros and tweaking the program.

So what do you think? And BTW, who-all's going this year?

Blessings, Cathryn

[Dave Stanley]

Cathryn, what has happened in the past in the advanced session is that Jeremy, the programming guru, goes over all the new features in the "next" version, which will be the 4.3 version. he is always open to questions, however, but he generally has a full plate covering the new features. But it seems from the advanced agenda (below) that he may be doing exactly what you want.
Advanced:
FRIDAY:
10:00—12:00—Forms and Fields
1:00-2:30—The Metadictionary
2:45-3:45—New Enhancements
SATURDAY
10:00-12:00—Advanced Prefix/Suffix Management
1:00-2:30—Advanced Phonetics (Fine-tuning the phonetics for Translation Magic)
2:45-3:45—More on the Programming Tab, Q&A if time permits

To my understanding, Mike Starkman is doing the intermediate sessions. here is the agenda:
FRIDAY:
10:00—12:00
Translation Magic
A. Activating feature
B. Understanding its capabilities and limitations
C. Adjusting aggressiveness scale
D. Import text files into spell checker
AutoBrief soup to nuts.
1:00-2:30
Dictionary filters
A. Dictionary columns/organizing
B. Basic filtering
C. Filters and briefs
D. Miscellaneous filters
2:45-3:45
Prefix/suffix handling
A. Proper definitions
B. Glance at prefix suffix table
C. Dictionary filters
SATURDAY
10:00-12:00
Glue Alphabets
A. Proper definitions
B. Defining trigger strokes to avoid using multiple alphabets
C. Dictionary filters for alphabets
1:00-2:30
Conflict resolution
A. Basic conflict global
1. Proper selection process
B. Stacking error conflicts
C. Prefix/word conflicts
D. Capitalization and number conversion conflicts
E. Punctuation conflicts
2:45-3:45
Slop Strokes
A. Special entry slop strokes
B. Slop strokes under Programming tab

if space allows you can switch classes. hope to see you there.

Dave Stanley

[Cathryn Bauer]

First, thank you very much for giving me such a detailed answer. So this is the last word, or the latest, in any event? I saw two different descriptions at different points. I am signed up for advanced. If this is what it's going to be like, I'm certainly in the right class.

Ted (Spousal Unit, a NASA computer scientist) is the veteran of many technical conferences. He suggested a flexible approach, e.g., seeing what was going to be covered in both sections and moving back and forth as topics changed.

We'll see how it all shakes down. See you there!

Blessings, Cathryn