Express Scribe Pro for Mac

Following the September announcement of the new professional version of Express Scribe, we are pleased to say that now the Mac version of our extremely popular transcription software has followed suit and now there are both free and professional versions of Express Scribe available for Mac OS X as well. Features of the professional version include video playback and support for proprietary audio file formats including dss, ds2 and mvf for those professionals working in legal or medical transcription.

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HIPAA Compliant Dictation Software

With HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, in effect, medical dictators and transcriptionists have to be wary with the use or exchange of patients' Protected Health Information (PHI) in their dictation transmissions. As a medical transcriptionist (MT), they have to maintain the privacy of every patient record being transcribed.

To protect patient confidentiality, it is recommended that your computer comes with at least the following:

• Firewall protection with solid password protection for user accounts
• Regular Windows or MAC updates for computer security
• Up-to-date antivirus software
• File encryption software (e.g., Dial Dictate, Web Dictate, or Express Dictate)

The recent stimulus plan (or American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009) included a specific act — called the HITECH Act (or the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act) which has specific requirements for the electronic transmission of patients' health information. For this reason, NCH Software has created a medical user version for its dictation software applications which integrate seemlessly with Express Scribe on the transcription side to maintain patient privacy through the transcription process.

Dial Dictate: HIPAA-compliant encryption to secure medical patient data when recording as .dct files.
Express Dictate: Supports HIPAA-compliant encryption, perfect to secure patient or client data for transmission over the Internet.
Web Dictate: Recording can be HIPAA-compliant encrypted for privacy and security.

Given that medical transcriptionists receive, send, and store confidential patient data, it's vital they recognize and adhere to HIPAA rules on privacy, security, and confidentiality. If this is accomplished, patient records are secured, data efficiency is obtained, and more importantly customer confidence is increased.

HIPAA offers a set of strict guidelines for protecting patients' privacy and information. Seeing as a lot of health organizations utilize NCH Software for dictating and transcribing medical records, we have carefully considered the best way to sustain these guidelines. MTs can rest assured that NCH Software will assist them in paving the way to a HIPAA-compliant future.

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Growing A Quality Transcription Business With Express Scribe

Guest Post by Annalisa Holmes, Director of The Transcription People

We have been using Express Scribe transcription software in our Australian-based outsource transcription business for years and we love it. Why? I have a list, so here goes:

Cost Effective

You can't get more cost effective than free software. For as long as I can remember Express Scribe has been free. This continues to be the case with a free version still being offered alongside a new paid Pro version.

In my business I employ a mix of transcriptionists; we have some work onsite in our office but the majority are work-from-home micro-businesses. Included in that mix are a wealth of "old school" typists and "wannabe" transcriptionists. Old school typists are used to the cassette tape days of micro and mini cassette dictation and are very experienced at transcription. Wannabe typists have time on their hands, want to learn a new job skill and possibly work from home or for an employer.

Express Scribe is perfect for both these dynamics, experienced typists can very quickly switch their mindset to the digital way of doing things and with the option of a USB foot control, can make the transition very quickly from tape to digital transcription with a free download and a low-cost foot pedal. Those new to transcription can have the software installed in minutes and have the flexibility of training themselves using the configurable control keys. For a zero dollar outlay Express Scribe is a very attractive tool to those looking to start a career in transcription.

Multiple Use Scenario

Most people think of Express Scribe as just a tool for transcription typists. That is true for the majority of people, but in my business we also utilise Express Scribe for our proofreading team. My company is renowned for producing high quality, accurate transcription and the way that we do that is with a two-step quality assurance process. Step one is the traditional transcription typist who listens and transcribes. Step two is where the quality and consistency across clients is provided by our proof-reading team. The proofreaders do not transcribe, their role is to apply customer-specific formatting and act as a second set of eyes over the transcript, ensuring the highest quality.

My proofreading team use Express Scribe to play back audio whilst reading through the transcripts. Typically they prefer the control key functionality and love the variable speed playback, one of the many features in Express Scribe.

Very Easy To Set Up, Install and Use

Express Scribe can be installed and up and running in minutes. For users of all technical levels we have found Express Scribe to be a breeze to get working and get used to. People of all transcription abilities get used to Express Scribe very quickly. As we all use the same software throughout my business, we have a pool of experts within our own teams who can help each other out with any questions.

From a business point of view, all my staff are on the same page when it comes to transcription and proofreading software. We don't need to waste time supporting various vendors' software. Consistency across the team makes for a smoother transcription and proofreading workflow.

The Future

I really can't see my business moving away from Express Scribe, there is no need. It has served us well for years and will continue to do so for years to come. We are particularly excited about the new Pro version of Express Scribe which can now process the DSS Pro audio files created on the latest Olympus and Philips digital dictaphones. Before the Pro version came along we had to include an extra file conversion step from .ds2 to .dss. Now NCH has that covered.

Thank you NCH for your excellent software, which has helped my business get to where it is today.

Annalisa Holmes is the director of The Transcription People Pty Ltd, one of Australia's largest outsource transcription services. Annalisa started as a transcription typist in the early years of forming her business and now oversees a large team of transcription typists across Australia and New Zealand. The Transcription People service clients from across Australia, the USA and the UK and boasts AMP, Holden, Ernst & Young as some of her clients.

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Scribe Excels at Thesis Transcription

Guest post by Clara Bianchini

I was transcribing the interviews for my master thesis and, like every student in this situation, I didn’t have enough time! I was using the software that my teacher recommended, but it was still taking too long and it wasn’t pleasant to use. To listen and type at the same time I had to reduce the speed, but the voice got distorted to the point that some of the transcribed sentences didn’t make any sense when you read them back. I had already transcribed two interviews and I had 17 more to go. Since quality and timing were crucial to my work, I decided to ask Google about better software.

On the first organic result that Google gave to me I came across a comment that caught my attention. I am normally the type of person that is a little sceptical and will investigate at least three options, but when I read the comment that essentially said, "Express Scribe made my transcribing work 5 times faster, without distorting voices. You should try!" I stopped. It was later than 10 P.M.; I was tired and frustrated with my teacher’s software so I decided to give it a try.

I Googled for where I could download Express Scribe, and in few short seconds, it was in my computer. I opened it, and the first impression was already better: it looked MUCH better than the other software. I opened one of my audio files there, changed the speed from 100% to 50%, crossed my fingers and waited to hear what the sound would be like. To my surprise, the voice was totally clear, almost without distortions, and there was a typing box right there, almost smiling at me and waiting for me to have fun.

The next day alone I transcribed two more interviews, at an incredibly fast pace. I was so happy that I shared my discovery with all my classmates. I am pretty sure that without Express Scribe I would be still transcribing interviews right now. It really made all my work much faster and easier.

Clara Bianchini is a student of Imagineering, a Master's degree in Strategic Business Innovation from the experience perspective, a new program about how to design companies towards co-creation of value. In a more participatory approach, business is done together with stakeholders and value and experience are co-created. Some people might say that this is the next stage of Marketing. In order to understand how to design the participation of stakeholders during her thesis research, Bianchini conducted qualitative research which included one-on-one interviews that were transcribed for analysis.

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New Express Scribe Professional Edition

Express Scribe, one of NCH's most successful products and a favorite among transcriptionists worldwide, is going Pro. With the extreme popularity of the program, we have decided to offer some of the functionality in a professional version for a nominal fee that will help us better support users, fix problems, and implement new features and improvements. The free version of this popular transcription software isn't going away, but advanced features like video playback and support for proprietary audio file formats (e.g., dss, ds2, mvf) will now be supported in the professional version.

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Transcription Foot Pedal or Hotkeys?

One of our programs popular with transcriptionists worldwide is Express Scribe Free Transcription Software. Express Scribe, an invaluable tool to transcriptionists, helps control the playback of audio or video files during transcription with extremely helpful features, including variable speed playback, and can be controlled either with a transcription foot pedal or with assigned 'hotkeys' on the keyboard. Most transcriptionists rave about foot pedals, but have you ever wondered if they really make transcription more efficient or if their use is really just a matter of preference?

Well here's your answer. Chris Beamish at HoT Virtual Assistant Resources recently crunched the numbers on if you should use hot keys or a foot pedal for transcription and, based on his estimates, you could potentially save yourself over 11 hours-worth of typing in a week by using a foot pedal instead of hotkeys where he has found the potential for hitting the wrong command to be much more likely.

What do you think? Do you use a foot pedal or hotkeys with Express Scribe? And if you invested in a foot pedal did you see an increase in your productivity once you got into the swing of things?

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Practice Typing from Audio Dictation

Last year we added a great resource for transcriptionists in training by posting several practice transcription audio files for use with Express Scribe transcription software so you could practice typing and using your foot pedal or hotkeys to control the audio with sample dictations that were provided to us by Accuro Transcription Services.

To add another tier of options to practicing typing from audio or dictation files, we have now also added several audio samples as dictation exercises in another NCH typing software, KeyBlaze typing tutor (version 1.22). This new addition allows you to listen to a dictation file and practice typing along. You can pause the recording at any time and compare your typing to the completed transcription side-by-side, so you can check for formatting, spelling, and other elements inherent to the dictation process. So, if you are looking for training to be a transcriptionist or know someone who is, you'll want to try KeyBlaze for practice transcription and typing from audio files.

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Express Scribe Gets DS2 Support

Express Scribe users rejoice! One of your most requested features has arrived: support for .ds2 (DSS Pro Voice) audio dictation files. Express Scribe Transcription Software Version 5.30 for Windows is the first version to include support for both dss and ds2 dictation file formats, so the time of workarounds and training your clients to back-save is now a thing of the past. And ds2 support for the Mac version of Express Scribe will be on the way soon.

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Express Scribe Transcription Using Voice Recognition

We stumbled upon a great article this week by Ryan Dube on makeuseof.com teaching readers how to use Express Scribe with voice recognition to optimize dictation.

In order to use this feature, you'll need to begin by turning speech recognition on both in Express Scribe and in your PC's control panel. To do this, begin by clicking on the Ease of Access button in your control panel and then select Speech Recognition. From there you can start the speech recognition engine and begin to familiarize your computer with your voice. Note that it can take time to train your computer to the ranges and pitches in your voice, so you may need to do this multiple times, being sure to speak clearly.

After that, open up Express Scribe and go to the Options menu and click on the Speech to Text tab. The default speech profile should show up in the drop-down menu, select this and click the Add button to begin using it.

To make a live recording, plug in your microphone and click Dock and choose the Audio Cable option. There will be a screen that appears titled Dock (Audio Cable). This shows you your microphone's audio levels – you can now begin dictating.

You can also do the same thing with a recording of your voice. Just follow the same steps, but instead of connecting your microphone you'll connect your recording device to the microphone input.

Learn more about Express Scribe Transcription Software and our other Dictation software. You can also check out Dube's full article How To Use Voice To Text Dictation With Express Scribe and we'll keep our eyes open for more new and interesting ways to our software to share with you in the future.

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Kinks in the Transcription Flow

We read comments from transcriptionists all the time about how much they love Express Scribe transcription playback software. It gives them complete control over the transcription process: slowing down dictation playback to a speed transcriptionists can keep up with, system-wide hotkeys so convenient shortcuts (such as timestamp) are only a couple of keystrokes away, a convenient file-management system to help keep track of which transcriptions are priority, and much more. Oh, and did we mention it’s free?

A few years ago, Olympus introduced the proprietary file format ds2. The move put a kink in many a transcriptionist’s work flow. In order to use the ds2 format freely, one has to be in possession of Olympus software: either with their transcription kit (but you already have a transcription kit—headphones, pedal, software, right?), or with their software that can convert the files (about $100).

The least expensive solution takes the control out of the hands of the transcriptionist, by simply asking the person making the recording to set their recorder to ‘Classic Mode.’ This will ensure the recordings are saved in dss format, a format recognized by Express Scribe. To assist the person creating dictations, DictateAustralia put together the following video tutorial: How To Set Classic Mode For The Olympus DS-5000 & DS-5000iD Digital Dictaphones. This should work for all DS-3400, DS-5000, and DS-5000iD dictation recorders.

Recording in classic mode is the ideal solution, but might not always be possible. For the times a transcriptionist receives dictations in ds2 format, they will need to convert the file to a format recognized by Express Scribe. There are ds2 converters available (not through NCH software, sadly), and many come with a free trial so you can test the software on your files before you commit to buy.

Unfortunately, at the moment we can't say for sure whether we will be able to add support for the ds2 format. But we do hope you continue to take advantage of Express Scribe in the meantime, whenever you possibly can. Additionally, we have other typing tools to help speed your transcription process along. Some are free, and all are useful.

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Dictation & Transcription Software–A Powerful Duo

If you are a lawyer where the law is on the line, or have any other reason why you just can't rely on an automated speech-to-text system guessing at your speech there are still ways you can use technology to help streamline and improve the dictation/transcription process in your office.

Choose from a variety of ways to record dictations: record straight into your computer, dock a portable digital recording device to your computer, or record dictations on the go from your iPhone, pocket PC or palm PDA and transfer completed dictations directly to your typist when you're done. See our complete range of dictation software options to find the solution that works best for you.

On the other side of the coin, we also provide Express Scribe free transcription software. Express Scribe allows transcriptionists to easily manage the files sent from any of the many dictation software options, and provides valuable time saving features for completing transcriptions efficiently, including variable speed playback and optional foot pedal control. Also be sure to check out our other software tools for typists.

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Transcription Made Easy: an Express Scribe Tutorial

You've heard us say it before, and we'll continue to say it until everyone knows: Express Scribe makes transcription easy. Why is that? Is it because it has variable speed playback? Yes. What about efficient file management? Of course. Can you use it with a foot pedal? Absolutely. Will it do all the typing for you while you run to the grocery store? Well...not quite, but there are many time-saving features built in so you can get to those errands (or plow through that long list of files quickly).

Thankfully, Express Scribe users out there are sharing their knowledge of the ins and outs of efficient Express Scribe transcription. The most recent example is a post at makeuseof.com entitled How to Transcribe Audio & Video Files Into Text with the Help of Express Scribe. With this blog-style tutorial, you'll learn how to:

• use the basic features of Express Scribe such as loading and playing files
  
• use the variable speed playback feature
  
• set up hot-keys so you can use Express Scribe while in other programs
  
• configure a default word processor to work with Express Scribe
  
• and more

Download Express Scribe for free and use the tutorial to see how easy transcribing can be. You can practice using our free practice transcription files. Then, when you're ready to go pro, use our other typing utilities to save you even more time: FastFox text expander will insert frequently used words, phrases and paragraphs so you don't have to type them over and over; TexTally word counter will make billing and invoicing a breeze; and see our other Dictation and Trascription software for more valuable tools.

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New Practice Transcription Audio Files

One of the questions I have seen asked several times in transcription forums in the past is from people new to the field looking for audio files to practice transcribing. I've always thought it would be great to provide some practice files to the next generation of Express Scribe transcriptionists to use as they are learning and gaining experience in transcription. Half the battle at the start of a transcriptionist’s career is getting fully acquainted with transcription playback software or practicing using a transcription foot pedal for that extra edge of hands-free audio control that can be such a huge efficiency boost.

With that said, I am really excited that, with the help of our friends at Accuro Transcription Services, we have pooled together a new resource for transcription students, providing several sample audio files to use with Express Scribe transcription playback software to practice your transcribing skills. In addition to the audio files, we have also included final transcribed PDFs that you can check your work against after you've finished typing out the sample.

So if you are looking for some practice transcription files, or know someone else just starting out in transcription, be sure to check out this new Practice Transcription Resource available at NCH Software, and maybe stick around and look at some of our other software for typists while you're there.

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Transcription - A Flexible Work At Home Option

Accuro Transcription Services is an outsourced digital transcription solution for a range of specialized professions including the legal and medical sectors. Transcription is completed by a panel of independent professional transcribers.

A recent story posted on the Accuro website talks about how transcription software and technology allow transcribers to benefit from a flexible working schedule, working from home and managing their own workload.

Christine Miller joined the Accuro team of typists in 2008 as a way to supplement her income. Christine found it very easy to start working at home. With her medical secretary skills, the only things she needed to get started was a computer with a broadband internet connection and Express Scribe transcription playback software. Express Scribe allows a typist to control playback of the digital dictation audio with keyboard hotkeys or a transcription foot pedal for hands free audio control, improving transcription efficiency.

Read the entire Technology Helping Firms to Embrace Flexible Working article for more about how Christine is enjoying the benefits of working from home and information about Accuro's services and professional panel of transcribers.

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Update: Video File Transcription for Express Scribe Mac

We thought you'd like a follow up on our post from November announcing the long awaited video file support for Express Scribe.

Today we released version 5.02 of Express Scribe for Mac OS X, so now the Mac version of our popular free transcription software, Express Scribe, can load video files to be transcribed in addition to all of the audio files we have always supported.

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Video File Transcription Support in Express Scribe is Ready for Primetime

I am happy to say Express Scribe version 5.00 has been released. Express Scribe now has full video file support so you can load both audio or video files for transcription. And best of all it is still completely free.

Lately, I've seen requests for transcription programs with video support on twitter, in transcription forums and other places. So I’m wondering what types of videos people are transcribing. Share the ways in which you are using, or would like to use, video in transcription tasks.

With Express Scribe transcription software installed on their computer, a typist can control audio and video playback using a transcription keyboard with 'hot' keys, or a foot pedal for hands free control. This computer transcriber application has long offered typists features such as variable speed playback, multi-channel control, file management and more. The main thing is that now video now works just as seamlessly as digital audio always has.

We are keeping Scribe free in the hopes that you will also try and recommend our digital dictation software to your transcription customers. Our entire dictation Suite is designed to work seamlessly with Express Scribe, improving efficiency of the entire transcription process.

Two other great utilities that NCH offers for typists and transcriptionists that complement Express Scribe are FastFox Typing Expander and TexTally Word and Line Counter. FastFox brings new meaning to the phrase speed-typing. FastFox is a dynamic text expansion program with shortcut keys that expand to phrases, sentences, paragraphs, or even entire documents. Then when it comes to billing, TexTally can be used to count lines, words, or characters, and you can enter a formula to calculate the billing amount of typing job for you.

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