I appreciate this is a Plover group, but is anyone willing to tell me if they have chosen other theory/ies and why?

[Elise D]

I'm interested in the Phoenix theory but mainly because I've seen a couple of people recommend it online. However, the more I read, I 'hear' about Philadelphia theory and the Magnum Steno.  

and......probably a silly question.....but can I confirm that the keyboard is always the same, right? No matter what theory you use, the keys are represented exactly the same on the keyboard, it's just a matter of the different combinations used for different theories?

thanks.

[jessica caudron]

Second question, yes, the keyboard is the same. idk when it was changed but at one time the Z was a right-side S. That's the only chord change I can think of that would be different.

I learned Sten-Ed with a sprinkle of Phoenix and now have switched to Magnum Steno. I wanted to shorten my writing and was prepared for more briefs and phrases. It was a smaller leap from Sten-Ed to Magnum than Phoenix to Magnum. There are a few additions to Magnum that make it worth it to me.  What's important is that you have a thorough understanding of your theory, whichever it is, then decide for yourself if you want to modify it for yourself. Some changes are relatively minor, like adding D to the stroke for a proper name or incorporating the asterisk. Some have major implications like inflected endings or the Phoenix vowel. It's difficult but not impossible or out of reach to make significant changes to your theory.  You just have to decide that's what you want to do. 

My opinion, your mileage may vary.

[Ilkka Pohjalainen]

On Wednesday, January 25, 2017 at 4:25:44 PM UTC+2, Elise D wrote:

 can I confirm that the keyboard is always the same, right? No matter what theory you use, the keys are represented exactly the same on the keyboard, it's just a matter of the different combinations used for different theories?

thanks.

The keyboard is the same for every theory in the sense the number of keys and the key labeling. Some theory, however, might require wide keys, such as the wide asterisk key or the wide DZ-keys in order to press for example final side -SZ combination.

[Glen Warner]

On Wednesday, January 25, 2017 at 6:25:44 AM UTC-8, Elise D wrote:

I'm interested in the Phoenix theory but mainly because I've seen a couple of people recommend it online. However, the more I read, I 'hear' about Philadelphia theory and the Magnum Steno.

I write Phoenix mostly because that was the theory that was being taught at the school I attended back in the day. However, after hanging out on the (now gone) Phoenix Theory forum back then, I think I made the right decision.

Thankfully, I can also add non-Phoenix outlines to another dictionary that I always have running just for that sort of thing, so right now I have a few outlines from StenEd, Mark Kislingbury's StenoMaster theory, a few from his Magnum Steno theory, and several from other theories entirely.

As a "for instance," when I was attending my state's one remaining court reporting school, where StenEd was king, we had just practiced a jury charge drill, where the phrase, "preponderance of the evidence" came up a few times. I was taught to write that phrase like so: PRA*-UFDZ ... and I would mess that stroke up pretty much every time I tried to stroke it.

My instructor asked myself and my fellow Phoenix Theory students how we were stroking that phrase, and we all said the same outline. She then asked the StenEd folks what they were using, and they all said, "P-PD!"

Whoa! I quickly added an asterisk and stroked it to see if it would give me any issues, and then added that stroke into my "Glenz_Fast" dictionary.

That was a few years ago, and I can probably hit that original stroke (PRA*-UFDZ) with less issues than I had before, but I'm still going to keep P*-PD, just because.

--gdw