CATalyst Check It, one of our newest products, acts as a second set of eyes during editing while also saving an average of 45 minutes of editing time per job. Don’t just take our word for it, hear what one of your colleagues has to say about Check It.

Charles Coleman – Illinois CSR, Official Court Reporter IV in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois

I find Check It to be a useful tool, an extra piece of equipment for our job. It’s certainly not a replacement for our job by any means. I find it to be a timesaver with the editing changes we make in our transcripts. I’ve experienced it picking up things I misheard or omitted.

I think it has a very good “ear,” if you will, especially with contractions and English idioms such as “gonna” and “wanna.” Now I’ve never put “gonna” or “wanna” in a transcript. Check It actually picks up when someone says “gonna/wanna” and I always write “going to/want to” in my transcript. You have the option of putting the “going to/want to” suggestions into a Personal Ignore List either by the specific job or Case or by User. It suggested dropped words or sentences, things I intentionally didn’t write because it wasn’t necessarily part of the case. I can add it to the transcript if I want with one keystroke. You can also add the Check It suggestion AND modify it if necessary.

It’s great at picking up contractions. Now I’m lazy when it comes to writing contractions. I do write “it’s/its” of course, but rarely do I write I’m/you’re/you’ll/we’ll/he’s/she’s/they’re, etc. I use my phrasing for the full word: I am/you are/you will/he is/she is/they are. Check It will stop on the full word and offer the correct contraction version. So, if I want to be super verbatim, I can change a “you are” to “you’re” in one keystroke in a split second. Very convenient and I’ve been using it now because it’s done for me.

Another feature I like is the ability to use just the keyboard to make changes. I’ve been using keyboard commands since I started reporting in 1986 on my first system with Xscribe. Xscribe had spacebar commands. Hold down the spacebar and hit the letter R will invoke the replace command. Your hands never left the home row of the main keyboard. I’ve used those same commands with XEC-2001, Catalyst 3 and EZ Keys and present-day Case Catalyst. I have my scan options to stop on the Check It suggestions. I hit the “scan to” keyboard key and the Check It box pops up, the audio plays for that spot and you have your list of suggestions. With just one keystroke of the appropriate letter command, you can execute whatever functions are listed. I find this very convenient and efficient because I’m not taking my hands off the keyboard and going to the mouse. A definite time saver.

My usual practice is to run Check It after I’ve done a scan edit and cleaned up untranslates. It depends, however, on the material, how difficult it was; basically, how sloppy it was. If it was tough and messy, I want to clean it up as much as possible and then run Check It. If it was clean and easy, I’ll run Check It first, go through the suggestions and then do a final edit.

By no means should Check It be used as your final method of proofreading. I still and always will go through my transcripts thoroughly. And with Spell Check combined with Check It, it’s a THIRD set of eyes that goes through your transcript to ensure its accuracy and be error free.

So, fret not. Our jobs are safe. This is just another tool in our software to produce the most verbatim and accurate transcript that AI can never do.

If you are interested in trying Check it for yourself, contact Stenograph Sales at 800-323-4247.