Are There Any Working Court Reporters Using Plover?

[Glen Warner]

In one of the court reporting Facebook groups, one of the members said that he didn't believe that Plover would be good for a working court reporter to use vice CAT software.

The two pros that I know of that are using Plover are using it to caption or CART, but not for depositions ... which, of course, begs the question:

Are there any working court reporters using Plover instead of one of the big CAT programs?

Thanks!

--gdw 

[Gabriel Holmes]

as a civil servant who has used his steno machine at work without a problem and has worked at an agency that specifically hires "verbatim reporters" I really don't see why this couldn't happen, in principle. In fact, I could even see it becoming common one day. Court reporters do transcripts of depositions, trials, and administrative hearings. There's nothing so special about any of those formats that precludes the use of Plover, and I really don't see saving a few bucks on software as a hard sell. Moreover, there are plenty of clerical and legal support staff who would be happy to develop an additional competency.

[gfs...@yahoo.com]

Once when my work computer crashed, I could not access Eclipse.  I pulled out my 2nd computer with Plover on it and finished the job.  I was doing transcriptions at the time and had a major deadline.  I have since switched careers (became a teacher,) but want to tell you that if I had learned Plover first rather than Eclipse first, which my CR school taught, I'd have used Plover for my depositions and transcription work.  There was no such thing as Plover when I was in CR school.  

I now use Plover for all word processing.  It is easier for me than Eclipse was (and I really love Eclipse) because there was less to learn.  Plover works in conjunction with what I use MS Word for, for my purposes.  I hope this helps.  

--Glorious Fealing--

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[Glen Warner]

On Sunday, August 19, 2018 at 2:54:05 PM UTC-7, gfs...@yahoo.com wrote:

Once when my work computer crashed, I could not access Eclipse.  I pulled out my 2nd computer with Plover on it and finished the job.  I was doing transcriptions at the time and had a major deadline.  I have since switched careers (became a teacher,) but want to tell you that if I had learned Plover first rather than Eclipse first, which my CR school taught, I'd have used Plover for my depositions and transcription work.  There was no such thing as Plover when I was in CR school.  

I now use Plover for all word processing.  It is easier for me than Eclipse was (and I really love Eclipse) because there was less to learn.  Plover works in conjunction with what I use MS Word for, for my purposes.  I hope this helps.  

--Glorious Fealing--

 Thank you for sharing that, Glorious!

--gdw  

[Jorge Luiz Neto]

Agora queria comentar outra coisa com você e o pessoal do grupo... Seria magnífico se algum programador fizesse um código com os mesmos aspectos do Plover, só que voltado para o teclado QWERTY, utilizando todas as letras e símbolos do teclado. Cairia como uma luva para o meu tipo de trabalho de digitador... Porque até eu criar e treinar os atalhos para este teclado do STENO irá demorar meses, ou talvez anos. Comenta aí a respeito. Se já tiver este código, e eu não estiver sabendo, e puder me apresentar. 

[Erika]

The transcription work I do is very similar to legal transcription and sometimes we do get recordings of court proceedings that are just being transcribed by recording rather than in realtime for whatever reason (or perhaps in addition to the court reporter's transcript for some reason). If I was fast enough to do realtime, I don't see why this couldn't or wouldn't work just as well in that scenario. The only thing I could see being a roadblock would be if there was push back from the industry who is used to doing things the traditional way and resistant to change/loyal to the proprietary software companies they have used in the past. But even if that happens, it would still only be a matter of time before Plover or something similar is common in professional situations. There are a few others working for the same transcription company I do that use steno. I guess they work in transcription due to the time freedom it offers. They have mentioned that even though they are able to write in realtime speed, they are barely able to produce transcripts any faster than the QWERTY transcriptionists because by the time they run it through their translation software and edit it, the QWERTY users have edited on the fly and turned in their finished product right away after finishing typing. Using Plover, I am able to have the best of both. I am able to produce my final transcript in nearly the same amount of time I did on QWERTY even though I am still quite slow on steno. I hope my imaginations of how fast I will be once I'm more up to speed become a reality. 

[Gabriel Holmes]

 another thing that Plover has going for it is that it doesn't require a fancy installation, you just drop it anywhere you like on your C drive and you're off and running. So it completely bye bypasses IT.

On Saturday, August 18, 2018 at 10:42:20 AM UTC-4, Glen Warner wrote:

[Glen Warner]

On Wednesday, August 29, 2018 at 3:09:46 AM UTC-7, Erika wrote:

The transcription work I do is very similar to legal transcription and sometimes we do get recordings of court proceedings that are just being transcribed by recording rather than in realtime for whatever reason (or perhaps in addition to the court reporter's transcript for some reason). If I was fast enough to do realtime, I don't see why this couldn't or wouldn't work just as well in that scenario. The only thing I could see being a roadblock would be if there was push back from the industry who is used to doing things the traditional way and resistant to change/loyal to the proprietary software companies they have used in the past. But even if that happens, it would still only be a matter of time before Plover or something similar is common in professional situations. There are a few others working for the same transcription company I do that use steno. I guess they work in transcription due to the time freedom it offers. They have mentioned that even though they are able to write in realtime speed, they are barely able to produce transcripts any faster than the QWERTY transcriptionists because by the time they run it through their translation software and edit it, the QWERTY users have edited on the fly and turned in their finished product right away after finishing typing. Using Plover, I am able to have the best of both. I am able to produce my final transcript in nearly the same amount of time I did on QWERTY even though I am still quite slow on steno. I hope my imaginations of how fast I will be once I'm more up to speed become a reality. 

Hi, Erika.

I am also doing transcription work using my writer and Plover, using audio from recorded depositions mostly and, on occasion, courts ... complete with poorly-placed microphones, which the attorneys would walk away from most of the time (arrgghhh!!!!).

Still slower than I want to be -- though I'm pretty sure all stenographers say that, no matter how fast they actually are -- but Plover keeps my hands on the steno keyboard, without having to use any expensive CAT software ... or, even better, Windows (Mac user here!!).

Speaking of which, I should probably get back to work on the transcript I should be working on right now!

--gdw   

[Glen Warner]

On Sunday, September 2, 2018 at 7:23:10 AM UTC-7, Gabriel Holmes wrote:

 another thing that Plover has going for it is that it doesn't require a fancy installation, you just drop it anywhere you like on your C drive and you're off and running. So it completely bye bypasses IT.

That's true, Gabriel!

I haven't tried running Plover from a flash drive yet, but I should probably do that one day, just to see how it is.

--gdw   

[Vicente Mendoza]

Just read your post.   I am a working court  reporter and have used Case Catlyst for 20 years.  I love Plover.   I still use CaseCatlyst because  I output Real-Time for the Judge I work with, but if I were freelancing, I would use  Plover 100 percent of the time.   I have Plover installed in my back office which allows me to input text quickly into Word, e-mails, and yes, even into CaseCatlyst itself when I'm editing or doing audio transcriptions and/or English/Spanish translations without having to drag in my steno machine from the courtroom to my back office.   The Real-Time is actually faster than my CAT software and it will work for any working reporter.   All it needs is an editor with the line numbers (which you need to choose your own software or template).  I made a Word Template with the 25 lines and self numbering pages that works great with Plover.   It's just the reassurance of knowing that I can do my job even without the CAT software that I use.   It's a great software to have.  My dictionary is almost 400,000 words and Plover can handle it with an RTF dictionary export from Case Catlyst.  There is no lag time when entering text into any app you are in, including your CAT software.  There is enough information out there that is pretty straight forward.   It took me a few days to read all the materials, but I got it to work for me within a week and use it everyday in my back office for every other app, sending emails to writing letters . Best of all, you don't have to pay an arm and a leg for it.   It's still being developed and run by volunteers and the new version 4 is great. Hope this helps.

[Kyle Mulka]

I’m curious what’s missing from Plover in order to use it for your work. You mentioned Real-Time for the judge you work for. I’m curious what that entails. Could you use something like Aloft for that?

https://github.com/stanographer/aloft


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[Vicente Mendoza]

What is aloft?...I will look into it...figured out a way to print an ascii through generic text printer...just need to be able to print word index and condensed transcripts and looking at other software options....realtime viewing from another computer is the only holding me from using it 100 percent...I use caseview net for Judge’s real-time but will certainly look into aloft.  Also need audio sync with text.   It’s almost there, just a bit more development.  I love the real-time response time with plover.  

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[Kyle Mulka]

As I understand it, basically it can live stream text from your computer to other people’s. I guess there might not be much documentarion on it. Maybe ask Stanley about that. Here’s some more info:

http://stanographer.com/aloft/

[Vicente Mendoza]

Thank you so much!  I'm reading up on it, what I can find online, but I'm definitely looking at it. I plan to transition to Plover for everything, I just need to make sure everything  is working  for me first. Still learning.