e-Tip #77 - May 2008 - Text-Only Version <> Keith Vincent - "Locked" Conflicts: Tips for Sound-Alikes For a few months, I’ve been helping to fine-tune the French version of Total Eclipse, and it’s given me a fresh appreciation for conflicts. English has some words that sound alike (your and you’re), but French is full of homonyms. Et, est, ai, ais, ait, aie, aient -- those seven French words sound the same, and five are simply various forms for “have.” Eclipse does an amazing job of resolving dictionary conflicts, but here are tips to get the biggest bang for your buck (or Euro). 1. Eclipse conflict resolution works. I was taught to write “there,” “their,” and “they’re” in distinct ways. Thus, my dictionary does not contain a conflict entry for these homonyms. I was not taught distinct ways to write “your” and “you’re.” I began writing AOUR to mean “you’re,” so that is not a conflict entry for me. When I write KWRAOUR, I usually mean “your,” but I may also mean “you’re.” When you’re writing really fast, old habits take over! I use a conflict entry for KWRAOUR, and Eclipse handles it brilliantly. 2. Let Eclipse “Pick 1st Conflict Choice by Default.” This option in the “Translate” section of User Settings is much more nuanced than its name implies. It only takes effect when Eclipse cannot find a context rule that was implied by your previous editing. Even so, your first conflict choice should always be the most likely one. For me, KWRAOUR = 1, your; 2, you’re. 3. Use the “Shift key” to pick exceptional choices. Each time you pick a conflict choice, Eclipse learns a context rule. If you hold down the “Shift” key while pressing the number for a conflict choice, Eclipse will not attempt to learn a context rule. At the end of a question, my \did you\{,}did you conflict inserts a comma at the right spot. Occasionally a sentence like “Why did you?” would not need the comma. I would press Shift and 1 together to pick “did you” without implying a new rule. Most conflicts should be allowed to learn without limit, but Conflicts can be “locked” if only a few context rules are sufficient. That helps ensure predictable translation, but other choices will still be easy to pick while editing. To “lock” a conflict, just find that entry in your dictionary. Then press the “Enter” key to enter the “Properties” dialogue. An “Advanced” button will lead to a screen with a “Lock” option. Lock the conflict and it will stop learning new context rules. Thus, my French colleague might express “and” by writing *E, but it sounds like at least six other things besides “et.” She could create this conflict: \et\est\ai\ais\ait\aie\aient. She could then lock it and let Eclipse pick 1st conflict choice by default. In that case, Eclipse would always translate *E as “et,” but she could easily pick any of the other choices, if necessary, while editing. Of course, let’s look at an English example, too. \exhibit number\Exhibit No.{#N} is a conflict that only needs to know a few rules. If this conflict is followed by a written number, or digits, Eclipse should pick “Exhibit No.” and it should convert the number to numeral form rather than written form. The same dialogue that lets you lock a conflict also lets you add context rules. You’ll visit 3 dialogues as you add a rule. The 1st dialogue tells Eclipse what comes before “Exhibit No.” I’ll just click OK because I don’t care what comes before; in this case the decisive matter is what follows. In the 2nd dialogue, I’m telling Eclipse to pick the “Exhibit No.” choice, in light of what comes next. The 3rd dialogue tells Eclipse what comes after. Here I used the drop-down arrow to pick “Number in digits.” The same list also offers “Written number” as a choice. This conflict really only needs two rules, and then it can be locked. <> Wil Wilcox - GoToMyPC: Audio & File Transfers Since writing about GoToMyPC enabling a scopist to remotely hear sound from a court reporter's host computer, we've received quite a few e-mails requesting more information regarding this. Some of the issues people have reported are connecting and seeing the realtime just fine but not hearing any sound at all or else hearing what is transpiring in the room live instead of the audiosync being played back. I'm going to try to clarify the GoToMyPC audio feature. You should first experiment with this when you are not in the middle of daily-transcript proceedings. Let me repeat. You've absolutely got to try this before you use it on the job, to see if it will even work for you and not cause a problem. One reporter told me that when her scopist would connect, it would shut off her audiosync and that it stopped recording from that point on. Also, if you don't have headphones plugged into your laptop when your scopist hits play, your audiosync could start playing loud and clear for all of the participants in the proceedings to hear. What if your scopist connected to your computer and, instead of closing GoToMyPC, attempted to stop your realtime? Test how this works and familiarize yourself with how to use this, before embarrassing yourself, or worse. Next, whenever you're talking about recording audio on computers, you're getting into a fairly technical subject. Your results will vary depending on the hardware of your particular computer. The internal sound card in some computers is not capable of playing audio with GoToMyPC. If that is the case, try using a USB sound card instead. If your scopist logs onto your computer with GoToMyPC and hears the live audio in the room, not what should be playing back from your CAT software, then the sound configuration in GoToMyPC may be incorrect. Open the Sound Preferences of GoToMyPC and adjust Sound Settings by right-clicking on the MyPC icon in your task bar or, when connected, by clicking on the speaker icon on the green title bar of the GoToMyPC window. Under Sound Options where it says "GoToMyPC will transmit sound from" it should NOT say "Detect Automatically." What you want it to say is something ending in "Mono Mix" or "Wave Out Mix" or similar wording depending on your computer's hardware. Do not select "Manual." You may want to use GoToMyPC to send files to your scopist. GoToMyPC has a wonderful file transfer feature. So instead of having your scopist edit simultaneously while you're writing realtime, you may want to split the file into parts at the recess and transfer the file in sections. If you use the SPEEX audio codec for audio recording, the sound file will be smaller and will not take so long to send. One thing that my scopist and I sometimes do is wait until a break and then send the file using GoToMyPC. We've found that it works well to log into GoToMyPC and open the file transfer window by clicking on "Tools" "Transfer or Sync Files." We select the folder on the reporter's computer and the folder on the scopist's computer that the files are going to be transferred between. We even do this before the start of the job and just leave it ready to use at a break. Then it's simply a matter of stopping realtime translation and using the File Transfer window.. Also, if you want to stay connected for long periods of time, go to Preferences, Security. Under "Viewer security after time-out,” increase minutes of inactivity. Have password, will travel.  A fantastic thing about GoToMyPC is that all you need is a password and you can connect to your computer from anywhere. I used to carry my laptop around with me whenever I traveled, in case I needed to access a certain transcript or program. Now I just leave my computer connected to the Internet when I'm gone. Even if the computer is in sleep mode, GoToMyPC will enable you to connect to it and run programs on it, just as if you were sitting there. I'll leave you with one note about security.  GoToMyPC has an authentication feature where you can create one-time passwords so that whoever you are allowing access to your computer will have access for that one session only. <> Keith Vincent - Quick Note: Realtime Transcription Tools For the past few months, I’ve been speaking about Advantage Software’s efforts to share Auto-Refresh technology with our whole industry, via the free Bridge protocol. There’s progress. First, here are two powerful programs that are designed to compete with LiveNote, but they do not require realtime tokens. DepoSmart (Clarity Legal Software) is supporting the Bridge Auto-Refresh protocol. DepoSmart comes in PC, Mac, and Linux versions. Clarity Legal also offers trial presentation software as well as an alternative to e-Transcript. To try out the software, go to www.claritylegalsoftware.com. Transcript Manager Pro (1360 Studios) is another program that’s available in both PC and Mac versions. The company has committed to supporting the Bridge Auto-Refresh protocol, and I’ll certainly let you know once that is done. Attorneys can download the program from www.1360studios.com for a free 30-day tryout and then purchase after that. Also, if you’re a reporter or reporting firm who sometimes loans a computer to realtime clients, there’s a free Reporter’s Version that you can install: www.freerealtimesoftware.com. For the past three years,? I’ve been a big fan of the StenoCast wireless realtime equipment. The X1 is for your steno machine. The X7 lets your computer offer a wireless realtime output to up to seven clients. What’s new? The new X7 no longer has to connect via a serial port or serial adapter. It plugs into and is powered by a USB port of your computer. The EzReceivers have been improved, too. I plugged one into a new client’s computer, and it worked without asking for a driver installation disk. The price is also somewhat reduced. www.Stenocast.com. In last month’s e-Tip, I mentioned that Bridge 2.0 could be run from a flash drive. That really helps if an attorney’s computer has been locked down to prevent the installation of new programs. For your convenience, Advantage Software will offer flash drives containing the Bridge program as well as a number of helpful video demonstrations. The cost is just $10 to $15 each, depending on how many you purchase. The flash drives also contain BridgeDistSetup.exe. This lets you personalize copies of Bridge that you give out. Just another way to help you market your realtime transcription services!