COURT REPORTERS – BACKUP YOUR NOTES
COURT REPORTERS STENOGRAPHIC NOTES – THE IMPORTANCE OF BACKING UP:
There have been some alarming stories in the news lately about court reporters who have lost their notes. There was one recent story dated 1-2-12, entitled “Stenographer Error Gives Convicted Florida Murderer New Trial.” A lot of court reporters are using paperless steno machines. Some of us have really cool machines, but unfortunately, they are more complex than what we are used to. If there is a lot of cool stuff on the machine, but we don’t know how to use it, it puts us in a scary position. That’s why it is a great idea to attend seminars and attend classes and learn about your machine.
I must admit that I never really knew how to back up my steno notes. Of course, I am a freelance reporter who types up the majority of my work; however, if you are an official reporter or a freelance reporter who has notes which you are saving because they’ve never been transcribed, you must know how to back things up.
My machine is a Mira A3. I have three cards on the back of my machine. One of them is a Data SD card. This blog is going to tell you how to get your notes off of your Data SD Card and onto your computer. First of all, you need to make sure that your Mira writer is set to Date/Time Directory and File Structure. You need to be on Case CATalyst 6 or higher, in order to do this. Go to your Mira writer. Press the button Setup, then Directory. Make sure it says Date/Time/Directory and not Classic. You don’t want Classic because when you back up the notes, they all say 001, 002, etc. If you ever need any notes, it will be very difficult to find them this way. After you have made the changes on your machine, just click okay, and you are all set to backup your Data SD Card.
First, you must take the Data SD Card out of your writer and put it into your computer. Some computers have a special slot for data cards. If not, then you need a card reader. You insert the card into your card reader and then insert it into your computer. A box will pop up. Highlight the info. Hit Control A. Highlight. You can copy or cut. I prefer to cut, so that I will have a fresh SD card for future work, so I hit Control X. If you want to Copy, then hit Control C. Minimize this window. Right click on your desktop. Click new, then click folder, and name it. Double click. Open it. Hold down the Control key. Press V. Everything will move into the folder. Put the data card back into your writer. You will now have a fresh, clean card to use. You don’t want to be in the middle of a job and have your data card fill up. It can be rather stressful!
Now you can put the folder with the notes in a special place. If you’re organized and label things well, you won’t be involved in a nightmare situation where you’ve lost your notes and can’t get them back. It might also be a good idea to back up the notes file on a CD, in case your computer ever crashes. I hate to be negative, but ………
Take the time to get into good habits!
Jane M. Jones, RMR, CRR
