Realtime - Are you afraid of it? If so, why?

[Marla Sharp]

My friend Reagan Evans and I are putting on a realtime seminar at the DRA convention at the Fairmont Hotel in Newport Beach February 20-22. Yes, I'm a nervous wreck because I've never put on a seminar before, not to mention I'm no realtime expert. But Reagan and I feel strongly that realtime is an excellent way for us to stay relevant and necessary in this era of electronic recording. And we'd like to help reporters overcome their fears.

So I'd like to take a poll to find out what the top fears are. I’ve listed what I think might be a few, plus a fill-in-the-blank. Put them in descending fear factor order (the biggest fear first).

__ Setting up/troubleshooting
__ Mistakes appearing on the attorney’s screen
__ Don’t feel you’re good enough to do realtime for anyone but yourself
__ Just the idea of having someone watch your output makes you want to quit court reporting
__ Fill in the blank ____________________

Thanks!

[Tami]

Another big drool for Eclipse. That is really cool, Marla.

Many times I write the note for the judge's benefit. I obviously know what a certain word should be, and yet it made its way through to the judge and I feel it's important enough for him to know "reaction" should be "rehabilitation" -- my most current flub that comes to mind.

I can't even do macros on the fly in Procat, even though I've asked for them for years.

I one hundred percent agree about never losing our voice.

[Marla Sharp]

Yeah, I always write corrections in parentheses when I've mistyped something. It helps both of us - the reporter and the attorney - know what it should've been. I imagine it also gives them confidence in you that not only did you know you made a mistake, but you also corrected it.

Oh, one more plug for Eclipse, then I'm done. I've only been on it a year, and I think it's the most amazing software in the world.

When the attorney uses Bridge, the free realtime software from Advantage (makers of Eclipse) and you're using Eclipse, it auto refreshes. So any corrections or dictionary entries you make as the day goes on fixes the attorney's transcript as well. You can still use Bridge with other steno software, but it just won't autorefresh.

I just tested it out with Reagan Evans the other night, and it was super simple. You can download it by clicking this:
http://www.eclipsecat.com/files/BridgeSetup.exe
You can just copy all the contents onto a flash drive or CD and give it to the attorney.

[Tami]

I've been getting Eclipse plugs now for a long time. Jenny and Brenda have made sure of that.

I'm wondering how the Bridge software would help in the court setting. We're using Live Note.

Guess I should ask one of our supervisors. What an amazing feature. I already knew they had it, but I liked the reminder.

My contract is up with Procat on the 18th, and I really think I'm not going to renew. After 21 years with them, it's just not an easy decision.