I am not sure which board to put this on, but here goes. I am a newbie with 16 years of past health care experience. I graduated from a one-year MT course and I have been working for a small service for several months.

On one account, I have to use WP 5.1. Currently, I am not able to use macros. I would like to know if there is a macro product for WP 5.1 that is similar to ShortCut for Word. I would like to be able to add new macros and have a macro expand by using a FEW keystrokes. I have seen a product called WPEXPAND. I e-mailed their company today. Does anyone know about this product?

I cannot make any money when I have to enter a keystroke for everything I hear. This is extremely discouraging--not to mention a very poor business practice. I have another account that is not much better. There are a few macros that I retrieve for lenthy phrases. It is too time-consuming to retrieve them for anything else.

I can use ShortCut only for my smallest account. Sigh. Does everyone work this way? Or do you only accept work where you can actually be productive? I feel like my hands are tied with this technology (or lack of it). I hope that the experienced transcriptionists out there can help me out.
Any advice?

Thanks very much,
stargazer

My understanding is that ShortCut only works for Windows and my WP 5.1 is DOS.

Debby

For WP in Dos, I think Smartype is the best investment. It will be a bit faster for you to pick up than PRD, as it has a small window at the bottom of your screen that will show you words as you type. Rather than try to explain how it works, go to the website and take a look at it.
http://www.theprogrammers.com/st.html

I used PRD when I first started, but a couple of years ago switched to Smartype and I absolutely love this program. It does what PRD does, but does a lot more. It is also a really great "reference" list and many times I've come up against a word I wasn't sure of, but started typing the first three letters and find it by glancing down at the reference screen.

If you have any questions about Smartype after looking at the website, feel free to email me!

Joann (No, I don't get a commission )

Hope I can return the favor to all of you sometime.

Debby (Who finally feels hopeful enough to post a smiley face! )

Thanks so much for the advice. I will see what I can do. I am trying to learn the ins-and-outs of three systems: DOS with WP5.1, Windows with Word, and UNIX with WP5.2. (I transcribe three specialties and they all use totally different systems.) Whew! Again, I appreciate the help.

Debby

You asked for an update.... The docs just changed from WP to Word, so I can now use my macro program and Auto Correct, which makes me a happy camper. I very much appreciated all the suggestions about WP, though.

I have increased my line count quite a bit since starting out 3-1/2 months ago, so I am encouraged by that. But I still have some accounts where I could be more productive with different technology. If I have to call in to a doc's system that isn't transcription-friendly, that can be frustrating. But they would have to spend a lot of money to replace the sytem and of course, they are not that concerned about my production! They have other priorities naturally.

Still, I am very happy with MT! I guess now you could call me an encouraged newbie. If I could just provide my own software and hardware, or work with decent doc-supplied software for every account, it would be even more productive and give a faster turn around time for the docs. Well, we will see what comes to pass. With Y2K upon us, maybe some of those older, slower systems will at least be updated, if not replaced.

Thanks for asking,

Debby