This blog is part of a series on transcription. If you haven’t read the other blogs in this series, make sure to check out the summary page for a listing of all transcription blogs.
Shorthand is a good compromise between AutoCorrect and Instant Text, if you are wanting something powerful, but not overly confusing. At $99.95, it is cheaper than Instant Text, although obviously not as cheap as AutoCorrect. 😉 If you want to try it out and see if it is right for you, you can try it free for 30 days and decide at the end of the free trial if this is the route you want to go.
It has some advantages over AutoCorrect (no wonkiness happens when you add too many entries–there are no limits to the amount of entries you can add to Shorthand) but it also shares some of the same problems that plague AutoCorrect; namely, you cannot see what a letter combination will do until you type it. Will “mt” expand out to “medical transcription” or “medical transcribing”? Or perhaps it’ll expand out to “massage therapist.” Until you see it expand out, you don’t know what will happen. If you tend to be one of those people who forgets what they did before (like I do–did I enter this word/phrase or not, and if so, what did I put it under?) this can be a rather large drawback. Shorthand does offer the choice that if you’re typing and want to see what you’ve got already programmed in, you can hit a hot key (F10 usually) and see what Shorthand has listed. Of course, if you’re trying to save time and keystrokes by using Shorthand, hitting F10 and then searching the list to see what it has will definitely slow you down.
One of the biggest pluses to Shorthand is the fact that you can start using it almost instantly, and will have a pretty short learning curve with it. If you tend to get frustrated when a program isn’t really easy to use, and if you don’t want to spend a lot of time learning a program, Shorthand is definitely what you’re going to want to go for. If you have the patience and will do the hard work to dig deeper and learn a lot more, Instant Text will give you tons more in the long run, although it is definitely frustrating in the beginning. It’s up to you in what you want.
Speaking of all these expanders and saving time, my next blog will cover a question everyone seems to have: How fast do I have to type to be a medical transcriptionist? You may be surprised.