How do we type so fast (a few of our secrets)
Our customers come back again, and again because we are on time, accurate, and affordable. To be 99.9% accurate on each transcript, we use a combination of tools, skills, and a good ear. On average, our team of highly skilled transcriptionists type 80 to 100 words per minute. Their hands wouldn’t be flying across the keyboard without help from the following tools.
Text expanders
Text expanders make it so that you don’t have to type the same word or phrase over and over again. With text expanders, our team can type in their 2, 3, 4, or 5-letter code for a word or phrase and it will expand out to their corresponding term.
Unlike your phone’s autocorrect, transcriptionists need to come up with codes to use versus having them already provided. Once assigned a project, a transcriptionist will learn what words and names are used frequently for that particular client. To cut their total number of keystrokes down, they’ll set up text expanders for items like people’s names, streets, places, or terms and phrases commonly used in their industry.
Using text expanders helps us guarantee 99% accuracy, because we won’t misspell those hard to spell names or places. Text expanders also allow us to accept academic transcription services work from all kinds of different colleges and subject matters.
Foot pedals
In transcription, there is the complication of pausing and rewinding audio. Transcriptionist wouldn’t be able to type as fast as they do without the help of a foot pedal. A foot pedal allows a transcriptionist to control the audio hands-free. Transcriptionists use the foot pedal to rewind the audio so that they can keep up with it as they type, and re-listen to troublesome spots. Transcriptionists can also set a predetermined backup of anywhere from half a second to three seconds to suit their preference. This acts as an “insurance” factor to be sure that everything that was spoken is there. It makes the job easier and more enjoyable as well.
Software
Our teams have had their share of tough audio to transcribe. No matter how bad the audio is, we have the software to make it easier to listen to. Certain software can help reduce a transcriptionist’s type time by cutting out some background noises that can be distracting. Some of the audio we get has more than one channel. This could be a bit confusing to keep on point at who is saying what, and could potentially lead to errors. The software our teams use makes it so that we can isolate the different channels and then transcribe the audio with 99% accuracy.
The one software that we advise our transcriptionist to NOT use are speak to type. This type of software actually slows you down and increases the number of errors. Senior scientist at Microsoft Xuedong Huang says, “If you put all the systems together—IBM and Google and Microsoft and all the best combined—amazingly the error rate will be around 8 percent.” 8 percent in a medical report or legal hearing will drastically change the outcome.
Voice recognition software hasn’t yet been built to fully stand up to the accuracy of humans. That is why so many of our customers continue to use our transcription services. Our expert staff and independent contractors use all of these tools, making for error-free transcripts with a fast turnaround time. Want to learn more about the best type of transcription jobs? Click here.
Interested in independent contractor transcription work? Awesome! We’re always on the lookout for new transcriptionists!!
Check out, and fill out, our work with us page here: Work with us
