Numbers

[Lorna Brodie]

Hi, Mark,

Of course I haven't read every single discussion here, so maybe you've already addressed this. I am trying to improve my number skills, and I believe you are also on DigitalCat, so I'm wondering, do you use "Numbers Resolution" in the program?

Thanks,

Lorna

[Shelley Ottwell]

I too am a digital cat user and my understanding is that Numbers Resolution only works if you REMOVE all of your number dictionary entries from your personal/job dict. Also, I believe you have to have a separate numbers dict. I played around with it for a while and I found it to be more of a hinderance than a help. I truly believe it depends on your personal style of writing numbers, i.e., whether you use the number bar exclusively or the keyboard w/out the number bar. I, unfortunately, use both the number bar and the keyboard. Plus, I also have certain numbers with letters defined for the type of work I do. So the short answer: it didn't work for me. WTH
BRP - you can also look on Stenovations website. They do have a users forum over there.

[Lorna Brodie]

Hi, Shelley,
Thanks so much for your response. I, too, use the number bar and the keyboard, and I really need to change the way I write numbers, be more efficient about it, because I am studying for captioning.

If you have any other info you'd like to share, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again.

[Lorna Brodie]

Well, I have to confess, since I've been reporting, I haven't had a real "written in stone" method of writing my numbers, just what has been comfortable for me. Now that I am thinking about captioning, I know I have to be a lot more precise with everything. Any tips, anyone have a great method they look for writing numbers differentiating between words and numerals...love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks

[Tami]

I use no AI either, Lorna.

My short-and-fast rule is if I want it to look like a number, I write a number. If I want it to look like a word, I write a word.

(Admittedly that might be old school because I started doing it that way before AI was available.)

[Shelley Ottwell]

Lorna,
Yeah, I too for years had the hodge-podge method. I did spend some time cleaning up the way I write numbers just because it was so awful. I really truly believe one needs to find a method and stick to it for it to be effective. I used Ed Varallo's (sp?) book on realtime and the number solution in there had some great ideas that didn't take too much effort to implement. I will say I love his reverse, double and time format strokes. Now that I think about it I think those are the only ones I use.

Say if you have to write 22, the stroke would be 2-U. The U means double. I think he used the E for reverse but I chose the R instead. It was just an easier stroke for me. Say it's 92, you'd write 2-R9. AFA time goes say it's 4:30, the stokes would be 4-BG/30. The 4-BG is defined as 4: (attach # flag in DC.) For the plain ol' 4:00 it's simply 4*BG. On the reverse side if it's 9:00 the stoke would be KW*9. There was something he had with the -Z for the year ('92) but it just didn't stick with me.

I do write 401(k) as FOIK and 401(b) FOIB. For telephone #s and SS#s, I still do it the hard way. There is a realtime command in DC for those, and also a "Make time" and "Make date." Those might be worth a look at. HTH

You'll have to clean out your dict and add those strokes in for the conversion to work correctly along with the Attach # flag on each number (very important!). The add-in part was really easy - not so much on the clean-out!!

Mark K does have a numbers theory you might want to look at though. I do need to go back and look at it again... I think the first time I looked it scared me :)
Sorry for hijacking your thread!

[Lorna Brodie]

Shelley,
Thanks so much for your input. Now I'm really interested in the number theory you're using. Where did you find his book?

Thanks,
Lorna

[Shelley Ottwell]

Lorna,

I honestly don't remember! I will have to get back to the office on Monday and maybe I can find some info in the book itself. There is an older thread over on Depoman.com that has some great info for numbers too: "writing numbers out with no number bar." I'm thinking that Stenograph might sell the book but it's purely a guess. I do know that there's so much more that I SHOULD/COULD be doing with writing clean numbers but I am so much improved over where I started... Hope all this helps!

[Lorna Brodie]

Oh, you have been a tremendous help and an inspiration to me to do something about my numbers. Thanks again for all of the great tips.

[Shelley Ottwell]

The book is titled "The Realtime Writer's Manual" A Commen-Sense Guide for Court Reporters by J. Edward Varallo
Apparently I have the 6th printing done December 1999.
Direct Orders/Inquiries to:
J. Edward Varallo
c/o JEV Books
P.O. Box 251
Grafton, MA 01519.

You might check NCRA store. HTH

[Mike Rowell]

I started using "U" for reversals and "E" for ordinals in the past few weeks. I took to the ordinal extension right away, but the reverse is taking a little more time. Also, I am thinking of working in the * as an extra zero. I know there are a lot more ideas for extensions out there for various measurements, ie: feet, pounds, grams, ounces. Would love to see some more ideas on this. I remember seeing a good thread about them on depoman.

[kathy - iamwrdsmth]

Word of caution, on my software, StenoCAT,
using the U with a number is a conflict resolution
keystroke and the software will go back and select
whatever word that corresponds with the number
you stroked. EX: 2U would select the second word
in the conflict.

simply disable the conflict resolution feature if you're
writing your numbers using the U.

I write
22 TWU 22nd TWUND

2006 TW EUX
2007 TW FN (or TW FRN when I drag the R)
2008 TW AE T
2009 TW AOEUN
2010 TW E PB
2011 TW HR E FRPB

kathy

[Rolayne Volpe]

I implemented Mark K's theory on writing years in one sroke. Love it! It has to do with math and adding, but math has always been easy for me. So on all the years, you ignore the first two numbers, i.e., 1975 or 2001, just ignore the 19- and the 20- and use the two latter numbers. So with 2001, you write the 0 with the left hand and the 1 with the right hand. It works for me, and it clicked the first time I saw his method. It's in his theory book. But writing the years in one stroke as opposed to the three I was using, helps. When you can do it in one stoke instead of three, I'm there!!! :)