on the cheap and sleazy side (www.cheapandsleazy.net)

By G.D. Warner

A Match Made in Heaven

Use the Drill Machine, Speed Teacher, and Ace Reader Together With Your CAT Software ... and "Feed the Need"

 

Computers and steno ... what a combination!

No, I'm not (just) talking about realtime ... I'm talking about software that works with your CAT software to help you increase your speed!

In this article, I tell you about some of those programs ... and offer some suggestions for using them to feed your "need for speed."

-o0o-

Do You Feel The Need?

If you are a court reporting student, chances are good that you do indeed "feel the need."

"What need?" you ask?

I'm talking about that same need that Tom ("I married (and later divorced) Joey from Dawson's Creek!") Cruise and Anthony (Dr. Greene forever to ER fans) Edwards mentioned once or twice in a movie back in the day: The Need for Speed.

The Need for Speed

They Feel the Need.

If you've seen any of my posts on any of the (now gone) forums I (used to) frequent, you're probably already familiar with my comments on building speed. If not, those comments usually go something like this:

"Blah blah blah Speed Teacher, blah blah blah Ultimate Speed Teacher Drill, blah blah blah Drill Machine, blah blah blah, make your own drills, blah blah blah Ace Reader, blah, blah, blah!!"

You've seen one (or two ... or three ...) of these posts, right?

If not, great ...! Here's your chance -- but this time with words and pictures. For those of you who have seen those posts ... well, did I mention the pictures?

What You'll Need

Those of you who didn't miss "Hasta la Vista Thursday," actually upgraded to Windows 7 and are looking for the Windows 7 version of The Speed Teacher should try here.

For those of you that were forced to "upgrade" to Windows 10, I don't know for sure if either The Speed Teacher or The Drill Machine will work, but according to this article, they should ... but on the off-chance they don't, that article also includes a few tricks you can try to get them to work again.

Since you're reading this, we can assume you have a computer, or perhaps someone printed a copy of this for you. If that's the case, it goes without saying you can't run the software without a computer, so I'm not going to say it.

You're welcome.

It also should go without saying that you're going to need a writer that will connect to your computer, and can be recognized by the various CAT software out there.

If you don't have a realtime-capable writer or any CAT software, I highly recommend what I'm using -- the ProCAT Flash writer, and digitalCAT ... but, should you want to see what your other options are beyond Case Catalyst and Eclipse (you did know there were other CAT programs out there, right?), take a look at "The Good Stuff."

-o0o-


01DEC20 Update

Since I am doing a (kinda-sorta) update to this article some (*mumble-mumble*) years after the fact, you just *KNOW* I had to mention Plover, right?

It should also go without saying that if you don't know what Plover is, or plain just don't have any CAT software at all, you're going to want to download and install it, ASAP!!

... and yes, it works on Windows, Linux, and the Mac -- much to the delight of this Mac user! Yes, that's right ... I NO LONGER HAVE TO RUN WINDOWS TO USE MY WRITER!! Mu-hu-hu-ha-ha-ha!!!!!

... and don't forget to acquire an RTF copy of all of your dictionaries so you can import them into Plover!

-o0o-


To be sure, you can use these programs without having a realtime setup, but I think the realtime setup is best, for that "instant feedback" we you young whipper-snappers are so fond of.

Since it's free, we'll look at the Drill Machine first.

The Drill Machine

The Drill Machine, from Steven "Da Man Hisself" Shastay over at Court Reporting Help stenodrills.com, allows you to use any text file to drill with, at any speed up to 300 words per minute.

Well, okay, so the actual top speed is 600 wpm (listed as "As Fast as Heck"), as you can see here:

Drill Machine:  As Fast as Heck

"As Fast as Heck" Menu Item

Alas, there's a rather serious bug which puts up an alert that tells you you're stroking away at 600 wpm, each time the Drill Machine moves from one word to the next, as shown here:

Drill Machine Error

Drill Machine Error Message

Bottom line: stick to the 300 wpm maximum speed.

When you use the Drill Machine, you first have to (with your desired drill open, of course) make the text you're going to drill on easy to see. I usually select a color and click the Bold button, then select a speed, and click the mouse to the left of the first word in the drill. This way, when you click Start, your eyes shouldn't have any problem following the cursor as it goes down the screen!

As for using the Drill Machine, there's the easy way, a less easy way ... and the (cheap and sleazy) way.

The Drill Machine: The Easy Way

The easy way, as you might guess, involves downloading and installing a few of the ready-made drills I've collected from several archived versions of the Drills page at this archived version of CourtReportingHelp.com, which you can download here.

Warning ...!

When I tried to install one of the drills from the archived version of courtreportinghelp.com at the Way Back Machine, I got an error about how the application wasn't a 32-bit application, and my copy of Windows XP Pro wouldn't install it.

Fortunately, this is easy to get around: Decompress the file with either Stuffit Expander or -- well, any of the decompression programs you find on this page at Softonic.com.

As an aside, I don't know why, but the way the Mac version of Stuffit Expander works is a bit different than the Windows version.

With the Mac version, you drop your compressed file on to the Stuffit Expander icon or alias -- which is what Mac-folk call a "shortcut" -- and the file decompresses, the original is deleted and replaced with the decompressed file, then the program quits.

With the Windows version, Stuffit Expander starts, decompresses the file ... and sits there waiting for another file to be dropped on it instead of quitting.

Hopefully they'll fix that in a later version.

That said, these drills should install themselves in the C:/My Documents/Drill Machine folder, so watch for those that do not ... and move them to the appropriate folder.

The other Easy Way is a bit easier: Find some web page with some interesting text, select it, copy it, and paste it into either Jarte or WordPad (you know, Start --> Run, type "WordPad.exe," and hit Enter).

If you're not a fan of WordPad, check out (the aforementioned) Jarte, which has been described as "WordPad on steroids." I would recommend getting the "portable" version, which can be run from a flash drive or wherever you put it -- though you might have to download an extra file to make it work that way (Windows will tell you if that's the case).

One of the things I liked about Jarte was you could have multiple documents open -- in tabs! I don't think WordPad does that (yet), but then again, the most recent version of Windows I have is Windows 7.

Jarte and Wine on the Mac:

Unfortunately, Jarte doesn't seem to work very well with Wine, for some odd reason.

As for Windows 10, my plan is to stick with my Mac for as long as I can ... and considering that Macs tend to last a good long time (he says, while using the Mac version of Plover on this 24 inch 2008 iMac) for as long as I can -- though I have to admit I have been feeling a wee bit of technolust for one of those 27 inch 2009 iMacs ...! That would come in very handy to help feed my TV watching habits -- but so far, that 24 inch iMac has been working just fine for that.

So. For best results, you'll have to go through the drill line by line, and make sure each line ends with a space by physically hitting the space bar; otherwise, the Drill Machine will skip right over that last word, and you'll fall behind -- through no fault of your own, of course.

Once you've gone through all of the lines in the drill and made the appropriate corrections (if I recall correctly, you have to do that even for those lines that end in a period), simply save the file to your hard drive and close it -- ideally to a specific folder just for your drills -- then use the Drill Machine to open that drill.

Next, arrange the Drill Machine and your CAT software -- or whatever you're using Plover to write into -- so that you can see both the Drill Machine and your translations. Here's how I do that in digitalCAT:

The Drill Machine and digitalCAT

The Drill Machine and digitalCAT: Singed Fingers drill

It's a bit tough to see, but below the Drill Machine window, you can just make out the buffer (an area where your strokes are stored before being sent to the transcript) in digitalCAT there at the bottom.

Alas, Case Catalyst has no buffer (at least, not that I've discovered) ... but things can be arranged appropriately simply by adjusting the size of the Drill Machine's window:

Case Catalyst and the Drill Machine

Case Catalyst and the Drill Machine

(Pardon the crappy outlines; that's me, on someone else's writer (thanks, Kelly Ann!) and a seven month layoff of steno.)

The Drill Machine: The Less Easy Way

If you read my article Gold, in which I talk about the value of old JCRs and state CR association newsletters, chances are you have a few of either one or the other of these stashed away somewhere. If so, go grab your stack of JCRs and/or your state's newsletters. Look through them for any speed contest transcripts.

Got one? Good ...! Fire up your CAT software of choice, prop up that old JCR or newsletter, and steno the speed contest drill. You can go as quickly or as slowly as you like, just as long as you get all of it, accurately.

Once you're done, go over it and make sure everything is correct. If it is, copy it and paste it into a blank WordPad document, then go through and add the extra spaces at the end of each line.

See any phrases? Change them so that each of the words are separated by an underline, like so:

Ladies_and_gentlemen_of_the_jury

... and for those of you using Plover, my outline and definition to make those words appear like that are as follows:

STPHA*-EUBG

And I have that one defined like so:

{MODE:SNAKE}

... and of course, it should go without saying you have to follow that up with the "Clear" stroke, for which I have come up with the KHRAO*-ER outline, which is defined like so:

{MODE:CLEAR}

Hopefully those of you using regular CAT software can do something similar within your CAT of choice!

So. All done? Save and close the WordPad/Jarte/Whatever You're Using document, and open it in the Drill Machine. Pick your speed and your color preference, and drill, drill, drill ...!

Warning!!

Normally, I would recommend using the .rtf format to save your documents for the Drill Machine. Instead, I suggest using the .txt format.

Why?

Because coming up here shortly, I will be talking about a speed reading program called Ace Reader, which only takes .txt files ... and, while it is good practice, I would prefer not to have you duplicate any of your previous efforts.

Unfortunately, they no longer make a Mac version -- I was told that the computer that had the Mac version on it died a few years back, and apparently there were no backups of that drive.

Oops.

So for my fellow Mac users, you might find something similar on Alternative To. I don't plan on doing that myself because -- well. You'll see in a bit.

The Drill Machine: The Cheap and Sleazy Way

Use the same (or another) drill from the same (or another) JCR, open your CAT software and a blank WordPad Jarte document ... then follow these instructions for setting up your CAT software for Realtime Coach ... and instead of just copying and pasting that speed contest drill into WordPad, you'll use your CAT software and steno machine and steno it into WordPad Jarte.

Of course, it goes without saying that those of you using Plover can skip that step, so I won't say it.

As before, you can do it as quickly or as slowly as you wish, because your goal is a 100 percent accurate translation -- so feel free to use that asterisk key to delete stuff from time to time.

Once you've got everything ... uh, stenoed, do the following:

Or three.

Take that list of errors, open another WordPad document, set your CAT software up to talk to WordPad, and steno the paragraphs that contain your errors. Save, fix, save again, and close the WordPad document, and open it in the Drill Machine.

This time, go through those paragraphs at a speed that's lower than your normal speed -- say, half your normal speed.

Each time you complete the problem paragraphs (as in, with no errors), increase the speed by 10 words per minute. Keep drilling on those problem paragraphs and increasing the speed until you get to your goal speed ... then open the original drill in the Drill Machine, set it at a comfortable speed, and go all the way through it.

Hopefully, you didn't stumble over the same paragraphs this time ...!

If these drills didn't tire you out, repeat these instructions -- except this time, select a different category of test. If you had a Q&A, try drilling on a Jury Charge, or a Lit. If you have progressed far enough in your training, throw in some medical.

Dealing With Problem Strokes

Keep a running list of your problem strokes -- whether they be from the drills suggested here, or from tests or drills from your court reporting school. Use the Drill Machine to practice these strokes in one (or both!!) of two ways:

Problem Stroke Drill Numba One: The Pyramid

I found this method over on the (now gone) StenoLife Practice Forum ... which, incidentally, is the same method used in the "Mastering Machine Shorthand" book.

Basically, this method has you stroke a sentence like "Is this thing on?" like so:

Is
Is this
Is this thing
Is this thing on?

If you mess up at any time while stroking this sentence, you get to start over.

Fun, huh? :o) This particular drill is great for numbers, too.

Problem Stroke Drill Numba Two: Cynthia Berry's "Sammich" Technique

In her book, "Practice With a Purpose," Cynthia Berry revealed this interesting practicing method.

Basically, what you do is you pick a word that you can stroke correctly, every time ... like, say, "the." Put that word in a new WordPad Jarte document.

Follow that word with a word or a stroke that gives you fits ... like, say, "someday" ... then end the trio with the same first word.

If you wish to use a phrase as the "meat" of your sammich, like, say, "perponderance of the evidence," that's fine -- but first ....

Warning Warning Warning --!

Remember that in order for The Drill Machine to properly see a phrase as a phrase, it has to be typed like so:

preponderance_of_the_evidence

The underscores prevent the Drill Machine from Stopping. On. Each. Word. Instead. Of. Treating. The. Phrase. As. One. Stroke.

Don't forget the extra space at the end of each line! (Yes, I know I already warned you about both of these potential problems ... but they BOTH bear repeating!)

Now do a Select All (Control - A, remember?), then do a Copy (Control - C, remember?), and a Paste (Control - V, remember?). Do this three or four times. Eventually, you will end up with a LOT of lines of your sammich.

Next, do as Cynthia says in her book: "Switch your bread."

Say what?!?

You know ... switch your bread -- the outer two words around your trouble word. Swap those outer words for other easily stroked words ... then repeat the above instructions.

What you'll eventually end up with is a few sets of something like this:

the
someday
the

the
someday
the

she
someday
she

she
someday
she
(etc.).

If you're using a phrase, it would look like so:

recall
will_be
recall

recall
will_be
recall

that
will_be
that

that
will_be
that
(etc.).

Don't forget to insert a space after each line!

I'm sure you know what's next ... but just in case you don't, here it is:

Save the file (don't forget to save it to the Drill Machine folder!), close it, then open the file from within the Drill Machine ... and practice.

Ms. Berry recommends working on three to five trouble words at a time (every day). The next day, pick one or two new trouble words, and add them into the mix. When you are no longer having trouble with a particular word, get rid of it ... and replace it with a new trouble word.

Ms. Berry also assures her readers that your trouble words will soon be a thing of the past.

Note:

Ms. Berry recommends practicing your briefs and phrases in a list form -- that is, take five briefs/phrases, go through them forward and backwards, then mix up the order a bit. This is fine, but I think adopting her "Sammich" technique to the mix should work as well ... so why not do both?!

... and by that, I mean build that list of "trouble words" whenever a new one comes up, and instead of just deleting those old trouble words, keep them on there and practice those as well! Think of it as "accidental reinforcement."

The Speed Teacher

The Speed Teacher, for those of you who have not heard of it, is the steno student's best friend.

You can use it for finger drills, help with hesitation, concentration, and accuracy ... and it will even (no, really!) help you build speed -- sort of.

There are a bunch of files that I downloaded from Court Reporting Help over the years, that I have converted to .rtf files and slapped into an archive. That archive includes a few documents that talk about using the Speed Teacher. You can get that archive here:

http://www.cheapandsleazy.net/filez/rtf_files.zip

Inside that archive are the following Speed Teacher-related documents:

  1. How to Kill Hesitation Now
  2. The Hesitation Drill
  3. Q&A
  4. Speed Teacher Drills
  5. Speed Building
  6. The Ultimate Speed Teacher Drill

Note:

Don't forget to take a look at Barb DeWitt's newsletters (22FEB02, 1MAR02, 8MAR02, and 26JAN02); she has some techniques in there for working with the Drill Machine that are not addressed here!

Also note that some of the newsletters refer to something called "The Drill Maker." That program is no longer available (crashed a lot anyway ... and was basically Speed Teacher 1.0), so ignore any references to it in those newsletters!

"How to Kill Hesitation Now" has you set the Speed Teacher so it displays 14 three-letter words, set it to work at half your normal speed, and finish the 14 words before the screen changes.

"The Hesitation Drill" has you do the same thing -- except instead of three-letter words, you work with the Top 100 words, then the Top 1000 words -- still beginning at half your normal speed.

"Q&A" consists of a question from a student: "How do I use the Speed Teacher to cure my Q&A woes? As the document is rather short, I won't spoil the surprise for you ...!

"Speed Teacher Drills" talks about ... well, everything you can do with the Speed Teacher -- more or less. It's 12 pages long, so ....

"The Ultimate Speed Teacher Drill" is the one I usually use when I'm drilling (or warming up, for that matter), and it consists of three steps.

Note that the version of the Ultimate Speed Teacher Drill that I downloaded (and included in the archive) differs a bit from the version that's online at Court Reporting Help.com these days ... but the differences are (relatively) minor. You can see each step by clicking these links:

Step One For Clarity

Step Two For Rhythm and Quick Response

Step Three For Speed

As for how it looks in action, here it is with Case Catalyst 4.x from my (now former) school's lab:

Speed Teacher and Case Catalyst 4.x

Speed Teacher (Step One) and Case Catalyst 4.x in Action!!

As you can see, the lack of a buffer appears to be a bit of a problem ... BUT (he said, a day late and a dollar shorter) the enterprising court reporting student should probably adjust both Case Catalyst and Speed Teacher so that they take up the top and bottom halves of the screen, respectively; this way, you get "full" views of both programs!

Sure would've been nice to have thought of that before I took the above screenshot, though ....

Now, then ... for those of you who were too lazy -- er, who neglected to click on the links for the various Speed Teacher drills, Step One (basically) says the following:

Step Two is exactly the same -- except instead of increasing your speed, you decrease the number of words (you know ... from 5 words to 4) ... then, once you get down to one word, you steno until you've stenoed 20 words correctly ... and THEN you increase the speed, and go back to 5 words.

Step Three is a little different. Set things up as in the first three steps above, then --

Setting the Stair Stepper to six seconds like that will increase the speed of the drill by 10 wpm every six seconds -- which is why it's a good idea to start at a low speed.

For this particular drill, you're writing for control.

Yoda and Luke Skywalker

"Control, control, you must learn control!"

.... so, as you might guess, when doing this drill, at the first sign that you're having trouble keeping up, stop! Set the speed back to your original level, and try again.

For best results, do this one twice a day, for, say, 20 minutes at a time.

Oh, Yeah ....

Don't forget to download the rtf files and read "The Ultimate Speed Teacher Drill" ...! I have a Question at the end -- the answer to which might just help you a wee bit more.

Ace Reader

Like The Drill Machine, Ace Reader allows you to drill on any text file you can feed it.

Unlike The Drill Machine, Ace Reader is not free ... but when registered, its top speed is about 2500 wpm.

Sure, no one stenos that fast ...! But if you're trying to pass your final 225 test and want to follow Mark Kislingbury's advice on building speed by practicing material 20 percent faster than you normally practice (if you haven't already, read this for more on Mark's recommendations), this program will definitely allow you to do this.

Now, as those of you who have been reading ol' Cheap and Sleazy for some time now already know, I think Stephen Shastay, of Court Reporting Help.com fame, is Da Man ...!

Those of you who have been reading his words on developing speed probably know that Da Man does not agree with Mark's idea of practicing faster than your normal speed ... but, as I said once (or twice) on this site, I also am a big believer in Bruce Lee's philosophy of learning martial arts: "Absorb what is useful."

I would suggest using *every* practicing technique you can find ...! What may work for some, may not work for you; you have to find the one (or two ... or ...) practice technique that works -- for you. If Mark's technique works for you, then great! Put it to use! If it doesn't work for you as-is, try modifying the speed percentage ... say, 5 percent faster than your normal speed instead of 25 percent faster ... then add in that nifty Speed Teacher technique, where you increase that lower percentage just a little higher each time you successfully complete whatever you're working on ... but I digress. I'm supposed to be talking about Ace Reader here ...!

Running Ace Reader

Once you download, install, and start Ace Reader, you will see something like this screen:

Ace Reader Pro Startup Screen

Ace Reader Pro Startup Screen

Click the Start button on that screen, and you will get to this screen:

Ace Reader Pro Wizard

Ace Reader Pro's Wizard

While you might be (as I was) inclined to click the "Exit" button because it's located where the "Okay" button normally is, don't! It will close Ace Reader Pro. Instead, click the "Expert Mode" tab. You will then see this screen:

Ace Reader Pro's Expert Mode Overview Screen

Ace Reader Pro's Expert Mode Overview Screen

Click the "Enter Expert Mode" button. That will get you to this screen:

Ace Reader Pro Daily Tip

Ace Reader Pro's Daily Tip

Click the "OK" button to dismiss this tip (say ... did you actually read that tip? If not, you should do so!), then uncheck the "Show Tips" checkbox when you get tired of seeing the tips.

Once the tip is gone, you can configure Ace Reader Pro to perform the same functions as either the Drill Machine or Speed Teacher's Ultimate Drill (steps one and two)!

Let's try setting it up for Step One.

Getting Ace Reader Pro to do Speed Teacher's Step One

Click the Options menu and select Set Display Mode. Set it so it matches the following picture:

Ace Reader Pro's Set Display Mode

Ace Reader Pro's Set Display Mode Screen

If your screen doesn't match the picture there, select "Center Text," "Words on Single Line," and set the number of words to 5. Once everything matches, click the OK button.

If you haven't already done so, load a drill using the File --> Load File menu item.

Loading the Magic Drill

Loading the Magic Drill

Here we have the Magic Drill loaded and ready for action:

Magic Drill Loaded

Magic Drill Loaded

Setting The Speed

Click the Options menu, and select the "Set Speed Options ..." menu item. This window should appear:

Speed Options

Ace Reader Pro's Speed Options

Double-click whatever is in the Low Speed window to select it, and type in what you want to be your lowest speed. If you're at 100 wpm, set that low speed to 50. If you're at 80, set it to 40 -- in short, half your normal speed.

Next, double-click whatever is in the High Speed window to select it, and type in your desired high speed. If you're following Mark Kislingbury's method, set the speed 25 to 30 percent above your current high speed -- or your most recent test pass.

Click the OK button to accept your settings.

Warning!

The labeling of the "Set to Default" button is deceptive. From the wording, one would think that you set your speed preferences, then when you click the Set to Default button, you are going to set your chosen settings to the default setting.

Not so much. Pushing that button changes your settings to match the above image -- that is, it puts everything the way it was when you started.

Now you should be able to adjust your speed by clicking the graph on the left side of the screen, or using the slider bar below it.

To start the file going, press the "Play" button (the green button on the left, under the text).

I have loaded a copy of The Magic Drill ... and, through the magic of copy-and-paste, have extended it by pasting it in twice (did you notice the underline?). Here it is at 60 WPM:

Ace Reader Pro, digitalCAT and the Magic Drill

Ace Reader Pro, digitalCAT, and the Magic Drill

"Ch-ch-ch-Changes ..."

As you might recall, I mentioned earlier in this article that the Mac version of Ace Reader is no more. Fortunately, I have a registered version that runs on my Graphite iMac, so I grabbed the registered version of Ace Reader Pro from that iMac -- which still works, by the way, though the speakers are are pretty much dead -- and loaded it into a disk image, which I then used via this program called Chubby Bunny, which allows you to run Mac OS 9 on newer Macs that don't really support Mac OS 9.

The long version of that story is too long to be in here, but suffice to say I got it working ... but soon found out that Plover doesn't seem to like working with Mac OS 9 programs ... like that copy of WordPerfect I installed a few years back and forgot about.

Let's just say it didn't get along with Plover very well.

In other words, I would capitalize a word at the start of a sentence, and that word may or may not appear capitalized, which pretty much killed off any requests for transcription work to be done via WordPerfect.

... which means that instead of using a Mac OS 9 program to write what was being displayed in Ace Reader Pro, I just use a text editor that is running under Mac OSX 10 -- the very same text editor I used to use to write Cheap and Sleazy, in fact -- like so:

Chubby Bunny Running Ace Reader Pro

Ace Reader Pro Running Under Mac OS 9 in Emulation via Chubby Bunny

I have reduced the size of the picture for viewing purposes, but if you're not on a phone, feel free to open the image in another tab.

Hmm. I appear to have messed up my stroke for "first of all" there!

... and for the curious, I left out the A.

For those of you who are feeling a bit of "technolust" for that desktop picture up there, you can download a zipped copy of the original picture here.

Other Speed Reading Programs

Should you find that Ace Reader is too spendy for your bank account, I managed to find two -- yes, that's right ... I said *TWO* -- *FREE* speed reading programs that might be a better fit for your wallet/purse, thanks to the folks at alternativeto.net in the form of FastReader for those of you using Windows, and for my fellow Mac users, there's IReadFast.

Note that FastReader will only allow you to see one word at a time ... and it runs just fine under Wine.

As for IReadFast, it also will only display one word at a time. Hmm ....

Maybe these two aren't really good substitutes after all, but since they're free, it can't hurt to take a look ... just in case.

Okay, that's about all ...! Have fun!

-o0o-