By Lynette Mueller
Court reporters love brief forms to help us write short. Creating briefs on the fly is an acquired skill, for sure. The My Brief It feature in my CAT software is an integral and valuable resource and helps immeasurably with my high translation rate, even though the proceedings could be a fast-paced deposition. It takes focus and dedication to be able to look at the screen during the proceedings and capture those suggested briefs. During a recess is a good time to take a few minutes to go over the suggested briefs. With my software, the phrases I stroke out the most (with a suggested brief) are highlighted in a bolded color. Genius! Therefore, it’s easy to concentrate on the strongest colors and make a note of the suggestions.
With the above in mind, I thought it was a great idea to share some keyboard shortcuts for the editing process too. Keyboard shortcuts have the same great benefits of using brief forms:
- You work faster
- You improve your efficiency
- You improve your productivity
- You experience health benefits (i.e., help reduce risk of Repetitive Strain Injury – RSI)
I love my Mac for tasks outside of my CAT software. There are several court reporters who love using the Mac for their CAT software, too. Computerworld.com has some keyboard shortcuts for those Mac lovers.
The one I found fascinating and didn’t know about was the following:
Command – Comma (,)
This is one of the least-known keyboard commands on a Mac, but it’s super useful. It works like this: You are working in an app, and you want to open the application’s Preferences. You can navigate to the Menu bar if you like and scroll through to access the Preferences. Or you can simply press Command – Comma (,) to get to them in the fastest possible time.
For us Windows users, laptopmag.com writes about their favorite keyboard shortcuts.
If you’ve upgraded to Windows 11, check out cnet.com’s Ultimate Guide to Windows 11 Keyboard Shortcuts.
The following shortcut is super helpful for those Zoom/remote depositions to take a quick screenshot. Windows 11 also has several ways to take a screenshot, including three different keyboard shortcuts:
- PrtScn: Take a screenshot of your entire screen and save it to your clipboard.
- Windows key + PrtScn: Take a screenshot of your entire desktop and save it to a folder on your computer.
- Windows key + Shift + S: Open Snipping Tool menu to take a screenshot of only a section of your screen.
Lynette Mueller, FAPR, RDR, CRR, is a freelance court reporter based in Memphis, Tenn., and Chair of the NCRA Technology Committee. She can be reached at lynette@omegareporting.com.
