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Do 1 space and count lines and then do 2

Posted By: and count lines. sm on 2008-02-17
In Reply to: Few cents here, few cents there stolen from you by - company, soon adds up to $ stolen from you. nm

It really doesn't affect the line count that much to do the 1 space after punctuation. I agree 100% that they are trying to whittle our wages away wherever, but I don't think this particular issue is a big one. I get virtually the same lines whether 1 space or 2 after sentences. I'm more concerned about the virtual black line that would eliminate ALL spaces like AAMT (or whatever it's called now) is pushing than just a few spaces per report. This is why it's so important for all MTs to know and understand every crazy line-count method out there!


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55 count space
I had a PT job that used 55. At the end of my day, I would divide total characters done by 55 and that gave me my line space and then I was paid 9 cents per line which was good for my PT job which I lost due to hospital keeping it all in-house and not outsourcing anything. I miss that money too.
How does one count one's lines on DQS to make sure one's

can DQS be set up to count gross lines? nm
x
If I could count lines, I would know if they were cheating
:+
Depends on how you count lines

If you count the lines via Extext software, right away. If you use ichart it can take up to 1 hour, it says on the instructions. Depends how your company counts ExText software lines. Hope this helps.


Is it lines = character count/65 maybe?
me
Yes, but do you have an accurate way to count those lines? Has TT fixed
nm
You best not count those chickens (lines) before they hatch. You may end up editing

You may be backing up on saying you can do 2400 in an 8 hour day.


A steady diet of bad dictation I can bet won't afford you 2400 lines in an 8 hour day.


Think twice about Transcend. Overhire and not so great lines count
As far as the hospital job goes, that would be a better,stable choice. I know in our area the clerks obviously make less than the MTs, but it is way above minimum wage, not to mention you get shift/weekend/holiday differential. Find a company is this business that does that. NONE, at least that I have found. Best wishes on your job search.
You know, I never actually counted my lines myself, I just always figured my company's line count
Boy was I wrong!  I just went through and totaled all of my lines, then compared them to the line counter, and guess what!  It's wrong!  Can you guess who I work for?  SOFTSCRIPT!!! 
Puleeze! I heard that monthly for 2 years. I will believe it when I can count lines on it. nm
:+
Medware's IT dept. obviously doesn't work weekends.No lines count for 2 days. nm
not surprised
Is this a live count of lines paid for or same as CTRL I that we do not get paid for ?? nm
m
DQS to use only one space soon

They are going to have the DQS people put in only one space soon..email this morning stated they are going from account to account and will notify the employee when the account is ready to use only one space after periods and colons..If we do get paid for spaces, as I have been told we do, that means we will get a cut in pay because the second space after each sentence will not be counted in our line count.


1 less space
well, imagine that!! they're on a rolllll -- 20% less on line rate for ME work -- makes ya wonder what's next!!! i think i'm getting about ready to get the heck out of Dodge before the bullets start flying!!
no space pay
the bottom line is that they SHOULD be charging the client because it is still a keystroke and this will continue to happen where we are not getting paid for what we are doing. We hit the spacebar, it is a keystroke, we should be compensated for it. Period.

Otherwiseifwearenotbeingcompensatedforspacestheytheydonotgetspaces!!!!

My opinion, of course, but I am sure that many agree.
MY Space
Oh just an FYI. Robin Hall happens to have a My Space page. You can go to it by going to my space.com and just entering /robin_hall. If that doesn't work, try doing a search for Four Seasons Transcription. Maybe we can all go there and leave a message letting her know we as MTs are tired of putting up with people like her. I am 4 paychecks behind myself and Christmas is coming.
space pay

Compensation on one of the jobs on the jobs board says:


You get paid for a 65-character line PLUS spaces! 


Wow!  I am sure glad they invented the exclamation point!  It really makes me excited to hear stuff like this, especially when so vehemently punctuated!  It's exciting to get paid for spaces, especially when they are so necessary for clarity! 


!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


 


 


 


Pay for space
I work for a company that does not pay for spaces and it takes forever to get line count required, but I needed the job and the benefits at the time.  It seems like MTs are going backward in pay per line instead of forwards.  Everyone wants a good MT with years and years of experience, but no one wants to pay for our knowledge.     I have seen some pay as low as 6 to 7 cents a line for a seasoned MT.  One company told me they like to make the money, but only offered me 7 cents a line for 30 years experience.   I like to make the money too.  I turned it down.    I went from hourly pay down to pay per line.   Devastating too.  Only make half of what I used to, but at least what I am making is paying some bills and buying food, but nothing left for anything else anymore like I used to.  Very depressing.
It has been 1 space after periods
since the new Style Guidelines took effect or affect, Ha Ha and make sure you do not use your expansions. If they say COPD you cannot expand it; and what about making lists of everything from meds to past history, etc. etc. Anything to not pay you for those lines.

Oh and don't forget it is x2 not the word "times". That would be too many characters on the line and we cannot pay you for that.

What horse will you be traveling on. I'll be going with ya.
Why cant we use expander with one less space?
We havent gone to one space yet but I got the email this morning that they are working on the accounts and will notify us when our accounts are changed over.  Why cant you use the Expander with one space?  I dont know what I will do without my expander.  When you switched over, did you take a big cut in pay with the one less space?
For elimination of one space in DQS

For eliminating one space in DQS.


Ctrl + Shift + F, 2 spaces, tab, 1 space


We do not have space for job-wanted ads. (SM)
Please feel free to post your resume on our free resume bank. As well, you can search our Job Seeker's board. The job advertisements there are very descriptive and you should be able to find something there.

Goldbird

If MTSO does want 1 space its because that 1
x
one space between words
I have always only had 1 space between words, and I have been typing for over 25 years. I do have 2 spaces after periods and colons, but 2 spaces between words seems a bit excessive to me.
one space - who makes up these rules?
What I would like to know who makes these new rules up?  The email said new national standard, something like that.  I mean, how can someone change Americas punctuation and English rules?  I was taught way back when, when I first was taught typing in high school..two spaces..who changed the rules?  Is there a *standards judge*, LOL..A *spacer judge*..Who thinks these things up and if it is national standard, do the other MTSO's know about it?
I love Office Space...
Is it pathetic I've probably seen it 20 times and still laugh every time I watch it?

I seriously should expand my movie horizons, huh?

:D
which IC positions use 1 space after periods?
My FT job requires 1 space after periods, which took me a long time to adjust to. Now I would like to get a 2nd job as well but I don't want to mess up my typing trying to go back and forth between 1 and 2 spaces at jobs?  TIA
Have you compared line counts with 1 space vs. 2?
NM
Thanks for the information..I'm with you.. Not enough desk space or desire to pay a deposit
Probably pass too..
I have 2002, here is how mine is set to double space after sentences --sm
Open word.

Type a mispelled word, then press F7 to spellcheck.

Click on options. In the writing style box, mine says grammar only. Click on settings below that. Then you can select 2 spaces after a period in sentences.

Does that work for you?
All compaines count lines different--with spaces, without spaces, headers or no headers, 65 characte
a line, 75 characters, etc. I would ask each of them how they count their lines. Sometimes the way lines are counted does not make a company worth working for.
HINT: Program only "reads" 1 space, no matter how many spaces you type.

They have you coming and going.


Mostly they have us by the pocketbooks because they REFUSE to share how the program counts.  THIS SHOULD BE ILLEGAL since that is how we are paid.


Would you work HOURLY for a company when they will not show you what kind of clock they are using to count what an hour is?


We are paid by production!  PRODUCTION.  It should not be a mystery how to count our PRODUCTION.


In my Extext experience count was about 10% less than the Word count. nm
X
It means to double check what THEY say your count it. Count
uj
Are you aware of how they count your time?.. or don't count it i should say
nm
1800 lines is easily achieved. I average 300-340 lines per hour. nm
x
10 lines per minute = 1500 lines for 150 minutes - average. nm
x
I average 1200-1400 lines per day with a national, and am only getting around 600-800 lines per day.
It's been this way since the day before Thanksgiving. I've been doing this for almost 30 years now, and more often than from Thanksgiving until the new year is the slowest time of the year. I have some months where I am swamped with up to 2000 lines per day. I stash that little extra money, and take advantage of a handful of extremely slow days this time of the year to actually cook dinner, decorate for Christmas, or do Christmas shopping. I actually anticipate this slow time every year and have grown to enjoy the breathing time. Any time I have attempted to pick up extra work with another company to supplement these slow times, the minute I get adjusted to the new accounts, etc. I have no time to finish all of my work because my full time job with national gets slammed again. Hang in there if you can, and hopefully your work will pick up significantly around New Years.
They work with you to make sure you get the lines required or the amount of lines you want...
I have never had a problem getting more work
I just dont want to hit that extra space if I dont get paid for it, ya know. No message.
nmnmnm
Minimum lines for FT used to be 60,000 keystrokes a day, about 925 lines. Pay was good. Just not a
s
Yes it is possible to double your lines. I cant type 460 lines an hour but I can get those with VR
x
WMX - line count. Was working along and noted line count accumulation (sm)

signed off the report I was typing.  Those lines didn't add immediately, but sometimes they do that.  What concerns me is that when I signed that job off and the next one came up, not only were the other lines not added in but they were LESS than they were before I signed off previous job.


I thought I noticed this happening the other day, but figured I just wasn't paying attention.  Today I definitely noticed it.  For some reason it changed it's mind and took 8 lines off my line count.  What the heck? 


Am not really ecstatic with the way things are going anyway  and then this confuses me. 


Please, someone have a realistic explanation so I don't feel paranoid and cheated here. 


Regular lines, not weighted lines
was what I got paid for....
12K lines payperiod is 6K lines a week.
nm
0.8 x 1000 lines = $80.00 - 0.8 x 1500 lines = $120.

Then company should set line count per day with incentives for above that. If get line count done
:[
It's not 1600 lines -- it's 16,000 lines...and
I've got my contract right here and have already gotten 2 checks and YES, I am getting 9.5 cpl base rate.

I don't know what other people are getting. Don't really care. I work for MY paycheck. Gosh.
Why would they "fix" lines? The more lines you
transcribe, the more you make, the more you make, the more you make. It wouldn't profit any company to put a lid on line counts.
MP Count
Can anybody tell me where I can download MP Count?  I cannot find it anywhere on the internet.  I need to start billing the client and they want me to use MP Count.  Any help would greatly be appreciated.