For those hard-to-hear recordings or when you're monitoring your audio recording at a depo through your microphone, try the Boostaroo headphone amplifier. I recently had a super quiet depo, and this little amplifier made it crystal clear. Hard to believe how much it helped, really.

I velcroed my mini keyboard to the top of my Stylus for quick and easy editing on the fly. With the display flipped up, the keyboard rests on a thin strip of velcro that runs along with edge of the opening for the display. Works great.

I used to use this wireless mini keyboard with my Stentura. Just velcroed it to the top. Handy.

I always carry my travel tray that I attach to my spare tripod so I have a place for my laptop in those tight situations where I don't have a table.

Can't even tell you how many times I've used my back cushions. Actually it's so rare that I get a comfortable chair, I use both of them almost every day. I use a cushy one that ties onto the chair and also a self-inflating smaller one when I'm still just a little too far from my machine.

When I first saw this wrist rest at a convention, I thought it was silly, something I'd never use, let alone have room for in my bag. I was wrong on all counts. I use it every day. It creates a close-by, comfortable place to rest your wrists. I'm a lot less fatigued at the end of a depo now thanks to this handy contraption - steno wrist support.

I recently bought an ACER Aspire netbook for $350 at Costo. It has a 160GB hard drive in it. I love it. I can either run Bridge on it for an attorney or use it as my depo laptop. I tried velcoring it to the top of my Stylus, and it worked great. Now I take up less table space, and my laptop couldn't be closer.


Can't forget about my favorite earphones, which are pretty much any earphone made by Shure. Shure earphones rock. They don't hurt your ears, they don't allow outside noise in (though they're not necessarily noise-cancelling, which I personally don't like because the buzz or whatever sound it emits gives me a headache), and they fit easily in your purse. I've used Shure earphones for years now, but I recently bought a new pair that work in my iPhone as well. So it has a mic in it so I can take calls, and it fits in my headphone jack in my laptop so that I only need one set of earphones. Click here for those.


Just recently bought these daisy-chain microphones that are awesome. Keith Vincent recommended them at the Vegas Eclipse convention. Basically, it's a USB sound card (bypasses your internal sound card) that you plug these little daisy-chained mics into. I was in an arbitration this week, and I placed a mic at each counsel's table. The audio came out great - much better than it had the last time I was there. Plus, there's a headphone jack for monitoring the audio recording, which is handy if you have someone soft-spoken far away from you. It's on sale for $199, and it's well worth it.

NEW BACK CUSHION!! I'm sooo loving my new back cushion. It's from Relax the Back. It's a bit big to carry, but I just slide it over the extended handle of my steno case and plop my briefcase over it. Easy. It is THE BEST back cushion I've ever used.

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I'm always looking for more gadgets or products that make my life easier, so let me know if you have anything you love.

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Comment by Marla Sharp on June 29, 2009 at 15:08
Ooh, no idea. Sounds weird. You should call them. I'm sure they have good support. Once you get an answer, please let me know.

If you go into Start, Settings, Control Panel, Sounds and Audio Devices, then the Audio tab, what's listed in the sound playback? Is it your computer's regular audio output or is it using the Andrea sound card?
Comment by Sarah Goekler on June 29, 2009 at 14:19
Marla,

A while back I purchased a USB mic from Sound Professionals like the one you have the link too, and I have a problem with it. It records everything just fine, but when I play it back by plugging my headphones into it, I get an amplified sound of all the noise happening around me in my house. It picks up my dryer and any noise on top of the playback. Did you have any problems like that? I might have to change some settings or something. Any suggestions?

Thank you!!
Comment by Lisa Breiter on June 9, 2009 at 11:47
Thanks for this thread and the spreadsheet. I am going to be looking into incorporating that. Keep after using the number conversions. I had a hard time as well because I had already learned to write the dollar sign first and then numerals on the number bar for money amounts. It was a real chore to learn to do things that way. Now I can't live without the number conversion in Eclipse. It's just one less thing I have to think about.
Comment by April McMillan, CRR, RPR, CSR on June 8, 2009 at 18:08
Kelli, that is a great idea about the lumbar support on your lap! I have a "bottom" support made to ease stress on the tailbone, a low-back support, and now I'll have to search for the third one :)
Comment by Rhoda Collins on June 8, 2009 at 11:07
I use the Radio Shack amplifier someone posted on CRforum....works great!!! I can post something later if anyone is interested....you get splitter cables to be able to hear the AS off your computer as you work too and to use it as your AS mic.
Comment by Marla Sharp on June 7, 2009 at 12:16
I know what you mean about never getting to it. I just went to the Eclipse ESP convention in Vegas and bought Keith Vincent's tutorial on number conversion. It's sitting here beside me quietly whispering, "You know if you don't use me now, I'll get stashed away somewhere and you'll never see me again." My problem is the dollar sign. In StenoCAT, the dollar sign would go before the number whenever you hit it. In Eclipse, it doesn't. I have to totally take out all of my numbers I've worked so hard for so many years at perfecting and let Eclipse's number conversion do it all for me. I'm worried. I have trust issues.
Comment by Marla Sharp on June 7, 2009 at 9:51
That looks like The Sound Professionals microphone I have. You can plug in headphones to monitor as well. I never do, though. I'm going to try it. I plugged in a USB extension cable to get it away from my computer so the fan and other laptop noises don't interfere.
Comment by Sue Baker on June 5, 2009 at 11:03
That is very organized, got everything on it. You are a sharpie!
Comment by Marla Sharp on June 5, 2009 at 10:58
Comment by Marla Sharp on June 5, 2009 at 10:57
I got tired of writing captions down, so I started doing my job sheets in a spreadsheet in Excel. I really love having a spreadsheet because I can do a search in Windows Explorer for a key word, I can print them out if I need to, I always have them backed up on my backup drive, and I can do a running tally of how much is owed to me for the job (and check it off as payment comes in). I just create a simple formula, and Excel adds it up for me. I'll try attaching a blank one here so you can see what I mean. If I can't attach it and if you're interested in using it, just email me and I'll forward it to you.

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