Paul Zuckerman's Workshop

Eclipse Tips - #3

Version 3.1.0.5

The Odyssey Begins
You are Not Alone

ECLIPSE TIPS

By Paul Zuckerman

 If you haven’t downloaded and installed Version 3.1.0.5 from the Advantage Software website, www.eclipsecat.com, you’re missing dozens of new features that will enhance your transcript production and make your reporting life easier.  Chief among these are two features found in User Settings’ Translation Tab:

 The first, shown checked above, is Insert Missing BY lines.  When this feature is checked, as long as you have correctly caused a By Line to appear during translation at some point during an examination by writing SPEAKER ID followed by a Question Symbol, or Question symbol followed by a SPEAKER ID, then Eclipse will automatically insert By Lines whenever your write a Question Symbol after colloquy, keeping track by itself of who the examining attorney is.  This means you need only write, for example, the first By Line of an examination and Eclipse will do the rest of the By Line Creation for you!

The other new feature is the Speaker Table button, also in the Translation Tab.  This feature is designed for users who write generic Speaker IDs, like STPHAO and SKWRAO.  Clicking this button results in the following display:

 There are two ways to use the table: 

 Click on the first blank on the left to highlight it and then click on the Steno Button, repeating the process by filling in only the left-hand entries with different generic steno strokes, using the Steno button for each new entry after creating a new column on the left-hand column using the Enter key.  Your table might look like this:

 Click on the OK button.  From now on, whenever you begin a translation, the speaker table will appear as soon as you begin to translate.  Fill in the right-hand column with the speaker names of the attorneys for that transcript.  Simply hit Enter key to advance from one blank to the next.  Your filled-in table might look like this:

 If you want the entries to be retained in the job dictionary for that transcript, before clicking on OK, check the Save in Job Dictionary box.  If you don’t (because you might use this job dictionary for a subsequent hearing or deposition but the speaker identifications are apt to change) simply click OK.

 Tip:  In your main dictionary, enter misstrokes for your generic speaker identifications as slop strokes, so that STPAO and SPHAO, etc., are defined not as words but as {=STPHAO}.  This syntax makes Eclipse translate such misstrokes as the same English it would use for the steno outline after the equals sign, meaning that once you designate the speaker for STPHAO, all the misstrokes for STPHAO you’ve entered in your main dictionary will also translate as that speaker.

 If you’ve entered generic speakers in your main dictionary such that STPHAO={S:ATTORNEY1}, or STPHAO={S:MR. LEFT}, or some other variation, in the Translation Tab Speaker Table, using the Insert button, enter your generic English speaker identifications instead of steno.  (You can still use the slop stroke for misstrokes, or you can define each misstroke as the same generic speaker, such as STPAO={S:ATTORNEY1}.  Your table might look like this:

 Of, course, you can have steno and English in the left-hand columns if you need both.  In any case, click on OK to save the table.  When you begin translating, fill in the right-hand column with the correct names of the attorneys, using the Enter key to advance through the fields.  Your table might look like this:

 The same instruction about saving in the job dictionary apply here as well.  This feature when correctly used should eliminate a substantial amount of editing.  Once again, Eclipse gives you your life back!