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Welcome to the Steno Wizard's Realtime Journey!






Remember when life was simple and all you had to do was make a selection on what your steno really meant? Those days are long gone.





Reporters must get themselves into top realtime form to compete in today's job market. This is my contribution toward ALL of us reaching the realtime goal.



My Steno Wizardry concept is based on the idea that writing realtime actually doesn't require magic -- just hard work, determination, and a little bit of FUN imagination.



My hope is my sharing of the ideas I've incorporated into my realtime journey will assist you in yours.



Thursday, March 29, 2012

Oh, the wonderful world of Auto Brief!

If you've got fairly recent versions of CaseCat or Eclipse, you must explore the briefing functions.  Absolutely wonderful feature.  Eclipse's is called Auto Brief, and Case's is Brief It (I think).  I'm more familiar with Eclipse's Auto Brief, and I truly love it!  I suggest you look in your software manual and find out how this feature works. 

In Eclipse, if I fingerspell anything, it will generate a brief for me.  If I write a 3-stroker two times, it will generate a brief for me.  Imagine writing cul-de-sac about a zillion times in a weeklong trial, and your briefing feature suggests K*U -- bang!  Instant speed.  I have mine set to insert an asterisk in the suggestion, and that seems to be working well.  I had to fingerspell really quick the name Towanna, and we ALL would want a brief for a multisyllabic name like that - TAO*PB.  Wow!

The biggest factor with improved realtime IMHO is being able to write cleanly and keep up with the speaker.  Use all the tricks available to you. 

Please note I'm not an Eclipse snob.  I'm certain Case has similar features in their briefing feature.  Whether you're a Case afficionado or huge Eclipse fan, we're ALL in this race together for realtime perfection.
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