Questions about steno

[JustLisnin2]

Hi everyone. I'm a little over a month into steno, and I'm still very hesitant about making some changes to the default dictionary entries, so I thought I'd ask here first.

1. I've mis-stroked "or" as "are" so many times now that I'd like to change the "-R" stroke to be "or". Is that OK or is there some secret logic that I'm missing as to why there are two "are"s on the steno keyboard?

2. I've just discovered that sometimes a common word that I type a certain way can change based on the word I type after it. For example, if I type "was" using "WA" and I type "that" right after, it will change to "with that". That's thrown me off my rhythm many times. I'm wondering if there's any logic to this as well because I really want to delete it from the dictionary. And I was wondering if there are other entries like this that some of you have come across in your experience.

3. I transcribe a lot of market research interviews, and there are lots of common phrases that come up. I've started adding a few to my dictionary, but I don't think I've built up the best intuition for briefs yet. Is there a resource that I can use in addition to Learn Plover! that can help me with designing solid briefs that are memorable and don't cause conflicts? Here are some of the brief phrases I've created so far:

Go ahead = TKPWHED ("ghed")

interest rate = TR-RT (I know there's already one in the dictionary, but this was easier for me to remember)

get started = STKPWART ("sgart")

so to speak = STPAEK

market research = SPHEFRPB ("smerch")

in general = STKPWHREPBL (this is just "in" along the top and "general" at the bottom)

social media = SPHOEURBL ("smoyshal")

makes sense = SKEPLS ("skems")

make sure = SKHAOURPL ("skhurm")

a couple = KPHR- ("kpl")

a couple of = KPHRF ("kpl of")

think about = THEUBT ("think bt")

smartphone = SPHOERPB ("smorn")

not necessarily = TPHOERLS ("norls")

those of you = THOEUF ("thoyf")

customer service = SKUFRTS

sounds like = ?

app = AP/-P

I'd love it if anyone is willing to share some of the briefs that they've added to their dictionaries. It would be really helpful for me, especially in phrases. I spent a good half hour trying to come up with my briefs for "app" and "smartphone", and I'm still not happy with what I have. 

Sorry for the long post, and thanks in advance.

Best,

Nat 

[Mirabai Knight]

On Tue, Jul 28, 2015 at 6:25 PM, JustLisnin2 <nmal...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi everyone. I'm a little over a month into steno, and I'm still very
> hesitant about making some changes to the default dictionary entries, so I
> thought I'd ask here first.
>
> 1. I've mis-stroked "or" as "are" so many times now that I'd like to change
> the "-R" stroke to be "or". Is that OK or is there some secret logic that
> I'm missing as to why there are two "are"s on the steno keyboard?

By all means redefine the second R as "or"! I hardly ever use -R for "are".

> 2. I've just discovered that sometimes a common word that I type a certain
> way can change based on the word I type after it. For example, if I type
> "was" using "WA" and I type "that" right after, it will change to "with
> that". That's thrown me off my rhythm many times. I'm wondering if there's
> any logic to this as well because I really want to delete it from the
> dictionary. And I was wondering if there are other entries like this that
> some of you have come across in your experience.

Yes, that's a terrible entry. Please do delete it or redefine it. We
should wipe that from the dictionary. Most misstrokes are benign, but
that's a prime example of a malevolently erroneous misstroke
definition. Thanks for bringing it to our attention!

> 3. I transcribe a lot of market research interviews, and there are lots of
> common phrases that come up. I've started adding a few to my dictionary, but
> I don't think I've built up the best intuition for briefs yet. Is there a
> resource that I can use in addition to Learn Plover! that can help me with
> designing solid briefs that are memorable and don't cause conflicts? Here
> are some of the brief phrases I've created so far:

[snip of universally fantastic briefs]

Wow, every single one of these is fantastic! Memorable, easy to write,
and not likely to cause any conflicts. They feel very much after my
own heart, too. I've always been a fan of the "portmanteau" style of
briefing. Extremely well done!!

>
> I'd love it if anyone is willing to share some of the briefs that they've
> added to their dictionaries. It would be really helpful for me, especially
> in phrases. I spent a good half hour trying to come up with my briefs for
> "app" and "smartphone", and I'm still not happy with what I have.

Why not just AP for "app"? That's what it's currently defined as in my
dictionary, though I don't recall what AP is defined as in the Plover
default dictionary. It's such a common word; seems like it should be
set to the simplest stroke possible.

How about STPOEPB? "Sphone"? Or SPHOEPB? "Smone"?

[JustLisnin2]

Thanks for replying and for your encouragement, Mirabai. AP comes out as "ap" in the default dictionary, which really boggled me, so I was scared to change it. But now that I think about it, it's pretty meaningless. I'll change it to "app". And thanks for your suggestions on "smartphone". 

Thanks again. I'm really loving steno.

Nat

[Harvey]

Mirabai, AP in the default Plover dictionary is defined as "ap," and I don't even know what that means or why it's defined that way lol. I keep forgetting to redefine it.

On this subject, and slightly aside, how would you guys feel about defining slightly longer phrases? In my transcription work and in interviews in general, I hear people saying "Tell me a little bit about," "to be able to," "in terms of," and a few other seemingly universal phrases. I've heard of people defining two-word phrases, but never multi-word phrases so far in my limited poking around.

[Theodore Morin]

There are examples like: Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury, from time to time, on the other hand.

Generally, not too useful because they teach you to not stay on top of the speaker. You hesitate when you hear ladies, for example, losing speed by stopping. They are helpful if you fall behind though.

I just type from my mind though, and certain phrases are useful because I use them a lot, but tying from the mind is different from transcription.

2 cents

On Jul 28, 2015 9:16 PM, "Harvey" <gden...@gmail.com> wrote:

Mirabai, AP in the default Plover dictionary is defined as "ap," and I don't even know what that means or why it's defined that way lol. I keep forgetting to redefine it.

On this subject, and slightly aside, how would you guys feel about defining slightly longer phrases? In my transcription work and in interviews in general, I hear people saying "Tell me a little bit about," "to be able to," "in terms of," and a few other seemingly universal phrases. I've heard of people defining two-word phrases, but never multi-word phrases so far in my limited poking around.

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[Harvey]

I didn't know they didn't teach you to stay right on top of the speaker, but I've made sure to stay behind a bit when I'm somehow able to type with my keyboard as fast as a slow talker during my transcription work. Thanks for that insight.

[JustLisnin2]

Hi Harvey,

I was going to add more complicated phrases to my dictionary, but then I realized how many iterations of those phrases there were. I added "think about", and then started noticing how often they said "thinking about". I added "a couple of" and then noticed the number of times they said "a couple" without the "of". And like Ted said, you hesitate each time trying to think about which one to use.  "Talk about" and "talking about" are both in the dictionary, and I find myself hesitating each time I type it. That leads to mistakes, too. I'm using steno for transcription now pretty much exclusively, and going back over a 20-page transcript searching for errors that your grammar check won't catch is dreary work.

"In terms of" is in the dictionary, by the way. (NERPLS)

Best,

Nat

[Glen Warner]

In the "Nobody Asked *YOU,* Buddy!" department, I use A*-P for "app."

I also use STP*-OEPB for "cell phone," and STP-OEPB for "iPhone." 

I don't have anything for "smartphone," but if I just add an asterisk to my outline for "phone" (TP-OEPB), that makes it a suffix, so it sicks to whatever I wrote before it.

Hope that makes sense ...

--gdw

[Ellis Pratt]

Some common ones I think didn't exist in the standard dictionary:

"P-PBDZ": "£",

"KWROER": "{\u20ac}", (€)

"KWRAT": "@",

"TKOT/KROPL": "dot com",

"TKO*-PL": ".com"

"PHOEUT/TKAET": "metadata",

"HAOEUP/HR*EUPBG": "hyperlink",

"PHROPB": "{PLOVER:RESUME}", 

"PHROF": "{PLOVER:SUSPEND}", 

"PHROLG": "{PLOVER:TOGGLE}",

"STPH-P": "{#Up}",

"STPH-G": "{#Down}",

"KPH*-S": "{#Super_L(s)}", (save file in OS/X)

"PH-R": "{Mr.}{ }{-|}",

"TERPL/-BS": "terms and conditions",

"SPHOEPBLG":":-)",

"SAOEPBLG":":-(",

"WOEPBLG":";-)",

[JustLisnin2]

Hi Glen,

When I was looking for resources online about briefs, I found a Web site called briefpedia.com that let's you search for briefs, and A*-P was what they had for "app" as well. I wondered what theory that was from, and I know you mentioned that you're using Phoenix, but the "asterisk-P" combination is used for fingerspelling in Plover theory. What are you using for fingerspelling?

Also, I find it interesting that you have a "phone" suffix. Aside from smartphone, what other instances would you be using it as a suffix? I can see adding a "smart" prefix, though. These days, everything in technology is "smart". It just hasn't come up yet in any of my interviews, so I can't think of anything other than "smartphone" right now.

Nat

[JustLisnin2]

Thanks for that, Ellis. I did notice that a few of those non-letters weren't in the dictionary. I wish I could toggle Plover on and off, though, but I'm having a lot of problems with my Sidewinder and with Plover, that every time I toggle it off manually or even just stray from typing, it stops outputting steno. It used to just happen in my browser, but now it's happening in Word, too. So I just try to avoid doing anything else while stenoing and I have a separate laptop sitting next to me that I use for Googling and such.

Thanks again,

Nat

[Glen Warner]

Hi, Nat.

Phoenix has five finger spelling alphabets.

A*-RBGS /PW*-RBGS /KR*-RBGS gives me "ABC," A-RBGS /PW-RBGS /KR-RBGS gives me "abc,"  A-FPLT /PW-FPLT /KR-FPLT gives me "A.B.C.," A*-FPLT /PW*-FPLT /KR*-FPLT gives me "a.b.c.," and A* /PW* /KR* gives me  "-a-b-c."

As for the "phone" suffix, "megaphone" comes to mind immediately ...

Briefpedia is good, and if you have a Droid-based phone, there's an app:

http://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.stenovations.briefpedia

Fair warning -- if the website is down for maintenance, the app quits working.

For those of you using an iDevice, there's "The Brief Machine:"

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/isteno-brief-machine/id371890433?mt=8

And finally, go here:

http://www.kvincent.com/html/steno_tips.html

There's a lot of briefs on that page, in both .pdf format, and .rtf format, so you can use it as a dictionary as-is ... but I just use it to look for stuff, using the Dictionary Maintenance program that comes with digitalCAT.

Well.  Good luck!

[JustLisnin2]

Thanks for the resources, Glen. I just looked up words ending in "phone" and found a few. :D

Nat

[Owain]

On Wednesday, 29 July 2015 01:15:52 UTC+1, JustLisnin2 wrote:

Thanks for replying and for your encouragement, Mirabai. AP comes out as "ap" in the default dictionary, which really boggled me, so I was scared to change it. But now that I think about it, it's pretty meaningless

Ap will really only be useful if you're working with Welsh genealogy.

The Welsh patronymic system describes family trees in terms of the male line only and records the family association in the 'ap' or 'ab' prefix ('ap' is a contraction of the Welsh word 'mab', which means son). For example, Rhys ap Dafydd translates as 'Rhys, son of David'. Modern Welsh surnames such as Powell, Price and Prichard are the result of this contraction and a progressive tendency to Anglicise Welsh names: under the patronymic system they would have been ap Hywel, ap Rhys and ap Richard.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/history/sites/themes/society/family_03_welshnaming.shtml

Owain

[JustLisnin2]

Good to know :)