krnotley

What's still unclear, including on the Scribe webpage, is the difference between unlicensed, Basic and Pro. These really are pretty fundamental questions that should be answered clearly and made clear on the webpage.

Josh from NCH replied to me that Basic is for Home, uncommercial use, whereas Pro is "unrestricted"; he wasn't any more forthcoming than that about what "unrestricted" means in terms of how many PCs you can install one license on. My understanding is that you can basically install it on your PC and a backup unit, like your laptop, but you can't use them both at the same time. I've been using ExpressScribe for something in the range of 20 years, satisfactorily. It's more or less the gold standard for what it does. That said, NCH's care for its clients is indifferent to lousy. I can't complain of having been ripped off, as some other complaints may be, but the lack of cooperation or concern is outstanding. Its latest email promoting V6.06 Scribe is typical, saying it has lots of improvements and features, and to "learn more" at such and such a link. The link is only the Scribe webpage, and says nothing different about the new version. Still, Scribe, at least, allows you quite some time to test out their full Pro version before deciding whether to go with the unlicensed version--audio only and that restricted--or Pro, which includes a wide range of audio formats (if you're going to be using those) and video, which can be very useful if the speaker is using a slideshow.

ExpressScribe shows two different prices, one for Pro "unrestricted license" and a slightly less expensive one for "Basic" but nowhere can I find an explanation of the difference in what I would be buying. The only difference I've understood before this is Pro and free. Please explain before I purchase. Also, I want to purchase ExpressScribe for a third party--that is, they download and install the professional version, and use the register the license as theirs. KRN

When you load an audio file into ExpressScribe it does not copy the original file per se, but converts and loads into an uncompressed version of wav called "DCT"; I make a habit of using control delete within the ExpressScribe window when I am finished with my transcription, which will completely delete that dct/wav file, and ensure that the files don't accumulate and eat up my hard drive, even if there's little threat of that. Of course, the larger the original compressed file-- mp3, mp4, wmv, etc.-- the proportionately larger the uncompressed file will be. . Otherwise, you should be able to find those files in Windows at C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\NCH Software\Scribe\Current if you just press "Done" the files are not deleted from the hdd unless you specify a number of days in the Scribe settings. You should be able to find those undeleted files in C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\NCH Software\Scribe\Done Hope that helps explain a bit more. KRN

did you disable the setting for the foot pedal? I'm unable to use a foot pedal, and I've been transcribing with Express Scribe's hot keys into Word and Open Office for a long time, and the only guess I can make is the problem is in your settings. In Options, there's a tab labeled "Control": make sure the foot pedal is disabled, and in the next tab, Hot Keys, make sure that the "Enable Hot Keys" box is checked. I'm using Vista, but I've been using Scribe since at least (gulp) Windows 98, with both Word and Open Office, and occasionally Notepad.

If you don't want Scribe to keep trying to load the last file you asked it to, you have to move the file from its present location. Is the file very large? When Scribe loads these, among other things it converts the audio into a kind of wav file, which can get quite large, and there may be a limit... perhaps a couple GB... which might account for its crashing. If it's possible to divide the mov file into 2 smaller files, and load one, transcribe it, delete it, and load the second, etc. Or, if you don't need the video, extract the audio (you can do this with Switch, but you need to get the Pro version.) If you do divide it and there's something in the mov file causing ES to hang, you'll know pretty quickly, I should think. --KRN

There can be various problems with proprietary formats like DSS(Olympus) and DVF (Sony), but the easiest fix for this is to get NCH's Switch sound file converter. Yes you have to pay for it, if you want to convert Olympus or Sony, or Windows Media files, but as far as I know, NCH is unique in being the only company to include these in its transcription and conversion software. In the meantime, you can do a quick check to see if, when Scribe loaded the files in question, whether the wav file in Application Data pathway shows up. That's C:\Users\[yourname]\AppData\Roaming\NCH Swift Sound\Scribe\Current (I'm using Vista, but Windows is probably not too different). If the full wav file is there, just load and transcribe that. --KRN

The first question is whether, when you upgraded to version 4.36, did you save the program itself, not just install it? If you saved the program, all you need to do is copy it from the old pc to some medium like a flash drive, and then copy the program from the flash drive to your new pc, and then run (install) it, and you're fine. If you did not save the program, I suspect you'll have to purchase the new Pro version 5.40, and this time, SAVE the program and then install it. The privacy regulations that doctors adhere to usually means their audio files have codings that are outside of ExpressScribe's free version, which is pretty limited. Like you, I've been using Scribe for 15 or so years, and I learned the hard way, to always save programs older than the newest version being issued in case the latest has bugs or problems that make it necessary to reinstall the previous version. Since they always have the same name, you want to save it as something unique, such as the date and version number. If you do have to purchase this latest version, make sure you also save your documentation, invoice #, activation code, license, and key. This is the proverbial ounce of prevention... take two and call me in the morning. KRN

I signed up for the Newsletter because it used to have release notes, when there was an upgrade. Now, Scribe is up to v 5.06, and I still can't find release notes. Very annoying. KRN

Although the Scribe page says it works with VOB, when I tried to load files from a DVD, it loaded each--however slowly, not too surprisingly, given that each chapter was ca. 1 GB--but only one of the chapters would play out of the four on the DVD! They each showed the appropriate time length, but nothing played, no audio, no video, nuthin'. As a not too satisfactory workaround, I loaded the wav files generated in (for Vista) C:\users\[myid]\AppData\Roaming\NCH Swift Sound\Scribe\Current. But of course, without video, the transcriber can't identify speakers as well, graphics, etc. How can I load from DVD and transcribe the video? krn

I'm delighted with the new version that works with videos. I'd like to know if I can load the video from a DVD?

Your best bet is to try NCH's sound converter program, Switch, which converts DSS to wav or mp3 (since Scribe converts to wav anyhow, you may as well do the former). You may have to purchase Switch in the future to convert DSS, but it's worth the price anyway. I make a habit of saving the previous version of a program, in order to go back if I have to, precisely because the constant upgrades tend to introduce these buggie type problems. Otherwise, if you have the Olympus CD-rom that comes with the digital recorder, it may have the ability to convert the DSS to mp3 or wav, in the same way that Sony does. I agree, the new Scribe does load ESS slowly, but at least it does load it all right.

I'm not sure you can, unless you saved the previous version on your hard drive. Because programmers have to keep up with Windows and other new operating systems all the time, and their new versions may be buggy in the haste to keep up, I've made a habit of saving the previous version of any program I have to use a lot, so I can bail out of the new version if I have to. An alternative, however, is to use the hot keys. I'm physically unable to use a foot pedal, and have been using hot keys on Express Scribe and other transcriber programs for over a decade now. While the best of all possible world would be for Express Scribe to have a toggle play/pause/backstep/play key rather than 2-3 keys, they have developed a key called "play with pausing" which plays a segment, pauses automatically, and then plays the next segment while you catch up in the pause. The amount of time played and paused are both fixed, not user programmable, but it can be useful at times. Good luck, KRN

Remember the stop hotkey doesn't merely stop, but is also set to back step. While I have only used the hot keys (I started using ExpressScribe ca. 2000, or earlier), many if not most individuals, especially professionals, are using foot pedals. There are other programs with a play/pause/backstep/play toggle, but they have far, far fewer compatibilities with other audio formats than Scribe. And they cost. I can suggest a workaround, which will not be exactly a toggle but use the same key, which is to change a particular function key, let's say F9 for argument's sake, to play, and Ctrl F9, or some other combination of keys with F9, as your stop. I tried doing that, but I was too used to the F9/F4 combo to change to a different pattern. You may have better luck.

First, if you were able to use an older version to load your file, you can uninstall the older version, and reinstall the newer one, and your file should migrate. In any case, as Gutsy said, it should still be there, as a wav file in either the Current or Done folders (probably Current). If it doesn't migrate, you can still load that file quickly (since ES doesn't have to uncompress it to wav which it's already done), into the new version, which will accept your foot pedal, and voila, you should be off and running. It seems that if you had problems ripping the CD on an older computer but not a newer one, you may have problems with your CD reader/burner. You can get inexpensive cleaners--they look like a CD--that clean the lasers. Otherwise, you might try getting an external DVD burner, which reads and writes all the other formats and media. I would ask why rip a .cda to mp3, rather than rip to .wav; when ES loads the file, it's going to uncompress it to a .wav file anyway. If the foot pedal issue isn't resolved, try the hot keys; they work extremely well. I've been using them for a decade. KRN