transcribe play
A Macro for Macro5 and EPOC

• What it Does
• What You Need
• What You Do
• Other Information

What it Does

I love the external recording buttons on my Series 5 -- they're one of the big reasons I'd never go back to a Newton. I dictate important information after I see each patient, and then transcribe the notes later.

I type pretty fast, but there's no way I can keep up with my dictations. Transcribe play is a simple macro that backs up the "tape" about two seconds, then plays about eight seconds of it. I keep it assigned to an easy-to-hit hotkey (Fn+h). I open a patient progress note template, name it using name note, then invoke transcribe play and start typing. After I finish with each eight-second bit, I hit the hotkey again. I find that the two-second overlap is usually enough to cover details I miss if I get behind, though I have another macro to rewind about eight seconds in case a really stumble.

What You Need

• An EPOC device.
• Macro5 by Pascal Nicolas.
• The transcribe play package. It contains this documentation, the source (transcribe play.opl) and object (transcribe play.opo) files.
• Stuffit Expander to expand the package.

What You Do

• Place transcribe play.opo in your macros directory.
• Assign a hotkey to it using Macro5.

Other Information

When you're dictating using the external buttons, Psion keeps track of where you start and stop in the file. It then treats a rewind command differently if these markers are present, which confuses the heck out of transcribe play. To get around this, you have to exit from the Record application and then re-open the Voice Notes file before you can use it with transcribe play.

If you have comments, problems, or suggestions, please feel free to email me. I'll answer as soon as I can.

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Date created: August 29, 1999
Last modified: September 8, 1999
Copyright © 1999 Ron Risley