Post by beachlovingmom on Oct 8, 2004 9:19:21 GMT -5
I have just finished my second week with Instant Text. Wow- How to begin? I think this program has HUGE potential but… I have had a few problems getting started. Hopefully forums like this, Harrie’s productivity board, and the IT board itself will help others avoid some pitfalls. I also want to also comment about the great help from the IT staff.
At the very beginning, I inadvertently imported the (DQ*) expander file twice. Not sure how, I just did! When I would try to expand my normal abbreviations/short cuts, I was getting weird { and numbers and other stuff. After calling the support staff, someone recognized what I had done and walked me through deleting the improper stuff.
I also was used to expanding with the space bar but from the beginning, I am trying to learn to use the ; key for the phrase expansions and the / key for the word expansions. It actually is not as impossible as I imagined. Yes, it slows me down some. But from all the info I read ahead of time, it is best to expand with the ; in order to add continuations.
One of the first things I did was put red nail polish on my ALT and +/= key so I can quickly find them when adding phrases to IT. (I have a white keyboard. For a black keyboard, use White-Out) I also glued a small rubber page marker to my ; key to find it easily, to help train myself to use this key to expand.
My other major problem was for word or single expansions, I use the letter “w” for “with”. IT’s default was the word “was”. This created mega-problems for me. I had to closely proofread and correct my work. Finally, I gave in and called Marianne at tech support, who immediately walked me thru the steps to “edit” the single glossary. (I love the single letter idea, I have each letter of the alphabet set up to represent 3 words I then pick out of the word section; imagine “approximately” and “bilaterally” spelled out with 1 letter!!!! )
TEXT
I did try the idea of using IT for about 10 minutes each hour for the first week. Production initially took a nose-dive, but now at the end of the second week, I am getting about 80-90% of normal and I am a slow typist.
A great deal of my excitement comes from the lists so FREELY shared on Harrie’s productivity board. I have been copying them into Word documents, trying to label by section, (renal, back, right/left, respiratory) etc. Since there are occasionally several contributors, I take the whole list, and put it in Excel to alphabetize it to get rid of duplicates. I scan to see if they conflict with my abbreviations from DQ* , clean them up, then import them into the IT glossary. I have added about 6 new glossaries, and now contemplate the advantage of “includes” versus “merge glossaries”. Have not done any merging yet. I only work on one account so I do not need to set up different glossaries at this point.
I am very excited about the potential!! I have barely scratched the surface, now I hear about Active Text?? I have to take this in small batches. There is a lot to absorb.
Last but not least, I want to report that Joi’s suggestion to put our doctor “normals” in folders on the task bar was a huge gain in production. I do mostly discharges, consults, ER, and some clinic work, and most of my Normals are basically headers and some occasional physical examination info. I am surprised how much this small amount of info can quickly be imported into a report to boost production. However, I no sooner got it started when I received an email from CSC not to “cut and paste” from Word documents into DQ*. I sent a copy of my “normals” back to editor of email to show her there was no identifying data that would violate HIPPA and I am still awaiting an answer whether this will be allowed to be used.
To sum it all up, I really think the cost of IT will pay for itself in less than 6 months! I hope this helps!
At the very beginning, I inadvertently imported the (DQ*) expander file twice. Not sure how, I just did! When I would try to expand my normal abbreviations/short cuts, I was getting weird { and numbers and other stuff. After calling the support staff, someone recognized what I had done and walked me through deleting the improper stuff.
I also was used to expanding with the space bar but from the beginning, I am trying to learn to use the ; key for the phrase expansions and the / key for the word expansions. It actually is not as impossible as I imagined. Yes, it slows me down some. But from all the info I read ahead of time, it is best to expand with the ; in order to add continuations.
One of the first things I did was put red nail polish on my ALT and +/= key so I can quickly find them when adding phrases to IT. (I have a white keyboard. For a black keyboard, use White-Out) I also glued a small rubber page marker to my ; key to find it easily, to help train myself to use this key to expand.
My other major problem was for word or single expansions, I use the letter “w” for “with”. IT’s default was the word “was”. This created mega-problems for me. I had to closely proofread and correct my work. Finally, I gave in and called Marianne at tech support, who immediately walked me thru the steps to “edit” the single glossary. (I love the single letter idea, I have each letter of the alphabet set up to represent 3 words I then pick out of the word section; imagine “approximately” and “bilaterally” spelled out with 1 letter!!!! )
TEXT
I did try the idea of using IT for about 10 minutes each hour for the first week. Production initially took a nose-dive, but now at the end of the second week, I am getting about 80-90% of normal and I am a slow typist.
A great deal of my excitement comes from the lists so FREELY shared on Harrie’s productivity board. I have been copying them into Word documents, trying to label by section, (renal, back, right/left, respiratory) etc. Since there are occasionally several contributors, I take the whole list, and put it in Excel to alphabetize it to get rid of duplicates. I scan to see if they conflict with my abbreviations from DQ* , clean them up, then import them into the IT glossary. I have added about 6 new glossaries, and now contemplate the advantage of “includes” versus “merge glossaries”. Have not done any merging yet. I only work on one account so I do not need to set up different glossaries at this point.
I am very excited about the potential!! I have barely scratched the surface, now I hear about Active Text?? I have to take this in small batches. There is a lot to absorb.
Last but not least, I want to report that Joi’s suggestion to put our doctor “normals” in folders on the task bar was a huge gain in production. I do mostly discharges, consults, ER, and some clinic work, and most of my Normals are basically headers and some occasional physical examination info. I am surprised how much this small amount of info can quickly be imported into a report to boost production. However, I no sooner got it started when I received an email from CSC not to “cut and paste” from Word documents into DQ*. I sent a copy of my “normals” back to editor of email to show her there was no identifying data that would violate HIPPA and I am still awaiting an answer whether this will be allowed to be used.
To sum it all up, I really think the cost of IT will pay for itself in less than 6 months! I hope this helps!