Here is one of the PowerPoint presentations I created for my last seminar at GCCRA, just one of the segments of the OHT seminar. It is very helpful information for court reporters on how to control and manage the flow of information.

1. Effective Management

2.  For OHT, every second counts.
 Effective spelling list management is essential to
OHT.
 Every time the scopist lifts his or her finger off the
audio, those seconds and minutes add up fast.
 Therefore, there is literally no time to be wasted on
research.
 One of the key elements to spelling list
management is to have everything related to a
case in one place that is searchable, easily
accessed, and easily shared.

3. INTRODUCING ONENOTE
 OneNote is a program that comes standard with Microsoft Office.

4.  If you do not have the Microsoft Office program, you can get
OneNote free by signing up for a free SkyDrive account by
Windows Live.

5.  Think of OneNote as a junk drawer. Anything related to a case
can be thrown into a OneNote notebook: Web pages, e-mail,
notices, word lists, copies of exhibits, ASCII’s, etcetera.

6.  OneNote is a collection of notebooks with individual sections like
we were required to have in school, except now it’s in electronic
form.
.

7.  For instance, if I click on my Grammar notebook, I can see across
the top all of the chapters in my Grammar notebook. This
Grammar notebook is a collection of information gathered from
various sources and is completely searchable. Either the entire
Grammar notebook can be shared with my scopist or just a page.

8.  The blue column below represents notebooks. The tabs across
the top indicate the sections within each notebook.
 Create a notebook for an entire case, i.e., the case below is called
ABC Company Litigation. Inside that notebook is a listing of all
the witnesses who have testified in that case.

9.  Print a word index to the OneNote folder straight from your CAT
system just as easily as sending to a printer.

10.  The John Doe notebook now has a word list that is completely
searchable.

11.  Another for instance, one company sends me an e-mail for job
notifications with all attachments needed for the job. In one click,
I can attach the e-mail and all related documents to my OneNote.

12.  A copy of the deposition notice will print out in the Jane Doe
section as follows:

13.  Anchor the OneNote program to your computer screen, and you
can have the full viewing of the transcript, the word index, and the
OneNote research window up on the screen at the same time.
Never waste time flipping screens again.

14.  Can’t remember if face-to-face should be hyphenated? Search in
the dictionary without flipping screens.

15.  Can’t remember if Weight Watchers should have an apostrophe s
or not? Cut-n-paste the word from your transcript in the search
bar. You can select all available references available, such as
dictionaries, thesauruses, encyclopedias, Internet, etc.

16.  Other reference sources available with the OneNote research
screen are:

17.  For particularly tricky words
like “resume,” copy the word
to the notepad. When that
word comes up again, just
copy-n-paste into the
transcript.

18.  The box in red is a window view.
This window view of OneNote
allows you to flip screens via
these arrows. Let’s say that the
screen before has the caption.
Push the back arrow to get to
the caption view. Just that
window view changes. All else
on the screen remains constant.
Or say the following section has
the exhibits. Click on the right
arrow above to flip to that
screen.

19.  Cannot remember how to handle certain comma placements?
Search for “comma” in the search bar, and every instance of
“comma” appears.
 OneNote will show results for files that have the word “comma” as
a title and those in the body of the section itself.
 Click on any entry, and OneNote takes you straight to that section.

20.  Never let that due date sneak up on you ever again. Select
“Outlook Tasks” in OneNote and set the computer to remind you
via a pop-up window on your screen that your due date is
looming.
 Or say that you are waiting on certain items to be completed, such
as a scopist/proofer due date or exhibits. Set OneNote to remind
you.

21.  Create audio snippets by
simply clicking on the “Record
Audio” tab.
 Useful for recording attorney
orders and sending in an e-
mail if verification is needed.
 Or the scopist/proofer can
leave a quick voice memo for
the reporter or vice versa.
 Or record a quick snippet of a
particularly troublesome word
quickly and easily and e-mail
it to a friend to get a second
opinion.

22.  There are many ways to share either entire notebooks or just an
individual page in OneNote, by the Internet or by clicking e-mail page.
 Sharing by Internet
 the changes are
 synced on reporter
 and scopist screens
 in realtime.

23.  Dictionaries are the best tool to use for gathering ongoing
spellings. It is important to keep spellings in one dictionary, not
several. Several dictionaries cause confusion, which costs
valuable time.
 At the end of each day, the scopist and proofer must send the
day’s job dictionary to the reporter.
 The court reporter is to then merge those dictionaries in to one
dictionary. That dictionary is then sent out to the scopist and
proofer before the next day’s proceeding begins.

24.  As spellings are confirmed, add comments in the job dictionary so that
research efforts are not doubled.

25.  Unconfirmed spellings need to be globalled with a caret symbol into
the job dictionary so that the reporter can be reminded to ask for the
spelling.

26.  At a break, the reporter will ask the scopist(s) and/or proofer(s) for their
unconfirmed spellings. The search function of the dictionary pulls up a
quick listing of all caret marks in the job dictionary. The scopist takes a
quick screen shot like the following and sends that to the reporter, making
the most effective use of time management.

27.  Consistency in spellings is vital while reporting and scoping an OHT.
 Many CAT system dictionaries will follow the cursor, meaning if the
cursor is on one word in the transcript, the job dictionary automatically
locates and shows that entry in the dictionary. This is a tremendous
aid for consistency in spellings.
 The condensed view of the job dictionary should be up on the screen
and viewable at all times, alongside the transcript view.

29.  Court Reporter uses division intervals and adds entries to the job
dictionary throughout the day. That’s one job dictionary.
 Scopist adds entries to the job dictionary of the 10:00 interval.
This is another job dictionary that is different from the first.
 The 10:00 section is sent to the proofer who adds entries to the
job dictionary. This is another job dictionary that is different from
the others.
 The 11:00 section is sent out. A whole new job dictionary is
created for the scopist that does not have the same entries as the
scopist’s other job dictionary.
 For a seven hour job, nine job dictionaries were created.

30.  At the end of the day, the reporter calls for job dictionaries but
forgets to get the proofer’s job dictionary, and the scopist only
sends one incomplete job dictionary because she lost track of all
the dictionaries and/or just didn’t want to go through finding all the
job dictionaries and incorporating them all in to one.
 The reporter does not know that not all the entries are there.
 That equals up to six hours of job dictionary entries lost for good.
 This is why effective job dictionary management is essential.
 Do not think the scopist and proofer are getting the job
dictionaries to you. Know that they are getting the job dictionaries
to you.
 (Turn to the Daily Dictionary Management in the OHT Manual.)