Just connect your external keyboard and you won't know the difference.

You may want to attach an external monitor (I don't) or use a box of some kind to elevate the computer.  They have boxes at the office supply store in the computer area that have trays for storage or a place to put your keyboard and that is about the right height.  I would also suggest an external mouse.   If you need a new keyboard/mouse I'd go wireless.  If you want to be somewhat mobile, like sitting in the backyard in the shade unhooking and hooking everything up gets to be a pain and if you just want to diddle and not work you can use the laptop keyboard and not have to take the other keyboard and mouse. 

If you are used to a large monitor that is probably your biggest adjustment, the rest is fairly easy and may take some trial and error to get everything worked out. 

• Considering buying a Dell notebook to transcribe. How easy is it? - anon
  • I love my Dell notebook (sm) - Colorado MT
  • you might want to peruse my3cents.com first. nm - dell?
    • thanks for the useful link.nm - grd
  • Just connect your external keyboard and you won't know the difference. - I have used 1 for 5 years now

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bigger the monitor the better, but I have a 14" one and have been using it for 6 years.  Absolutely get as much RAM as you can, no less than 512.  You don't need a supersize hard drive unless you want to store music/pictures, but you should have a backup of them because computers have been known to crash and you wouldn't want to lose them.   Most everything now is USB and I would say get a minimum of 2 ports.  You can buy a hub for under $30.00 (saw a 4 port hub today on sale for $10.00) to add USB ports.   I would get one that had wireless capability.   I would also get one that has at least a DVD player if not a recorder.  Usually if they have DVD they have a CD recorder so you can burn songs/pictures.  I suggest the DVD in case you need some down time from caretaking and you want to watch a movie.

I have a Dell and an HP.  My Dell has been a piece of junk from day one.   I've had my HP for 3-1/2 years without any problems other than a software glitch, which wasn't an equipment problem. 

When buying a computer consider repair issues.  With my Dell I had to send the computer to them so I was without a computer for approximately 2 weeks, plus shipping charges of about $30.00.   You can buy an in-home repair policy though.  With my HP I bought it from a local electronics store and I could get in-store service. 

I also would not get a Celeron processor - get either a Pentium or a Centrino  (which is supposed to be really good).  The Celeron is not as good of quality and is usually found in the lower end computers.

I got a catalog from Dell today and I just glimpsed at it, but they had a laptop on the cover for $649 (I think). 

although you need to purchase all the components. DocShuttle Administrator will let you set up separate accounts for your dictators, and set privileges for which MT's work on which accounts and do they have QA privileges. Also allows you to upload templates to the FTP site for use by all transcribers. So you have to buy Administrator for sure. DocShuttle Client is for anyone who transcribes (including yourself), it lets you download files from the ftp site. When you click on the voice file, it brings up templates that you choose from. DocShuttle Dictator is for the docs. What I like about Dictator is you can set it to work with the Olympus recorder so that when the doc docks the recorder, it automatically imports to the Olympus program, and erases the file from the recorder. Then DocShuttle Dictator can be set up to automatically, say every 4 hours, import from the Olympus program and upload new files to the ftp site and download finished files. I have found that the front desk girls can sink your account by not being able to figure out how to upload or download files. I just did an install with DocShuttle and you should have seen the doc's eyes light up when he docked his recorder and it all went automatically. Also the files stay in the local box and get uploaded to the ftp site so there's always a copy at the doc's office for back up. It also marks the files with a coded number that includes the date, dictator, etc. And at the end of the month, you can run reports that will give you MSWord data such as characters or lines to you can do a line count without opening every single file. Files can be encrypted if you want.

This program is ideal if you have more than one MT working with you. If you are working alone, they just came out with an email program that would work for just an independent contractor working at home for a doc.

Scott and his crew have worked hard on making DS very user friendly, which as I said, is a must because of the front office ladies. Their support is excellent. Just get past the first lady because she usually doesn't know what she is talking about.

one more word - MAKE SURE you purchase the Dongle. You get unlimited installs with the dongle - otherwise three installs and they want you to buy another license. email me with any more questions - I've been using DS for a few years now and am very happy with it

and they cant have any tabs in the report or it wont convert.

but thank you so much

I used them for years. I didn't pay any attention to their rate, above -- but it doesn't matter how fast you type. You could sit there and NOT type, and you're still paying $1.80 for every hour you're hooked up.

And by the way, there are several dictators I'm 1:1 on. Not many though!

Basically, you need to have an available network (also called hot spot) that will allow you to connect to the Internet. The card is only hardware, not the actual network.

stick I have a menu come up that asks what I want to do, view, copy to  a file, etc.    Once they are in a folder you can send pictures as an attachment or copy the picture to the e-mail.   If you send as attachment when you request attachment it will ask you to search for whatever it is you want to attach, if you want to include a picture in the e-mail  right click on the picture and one of the options that comes up is to e-mail picture.  Just follow the directions. 

I'm not sure what the name of it is, but you connect to it via USB.  It costs $50.00 and says the sound quality is significantly better than standard sound cards,  you can transfer cassettes and LPs to MP3 files, ....  My main concern is I want an increase in sound quality of my wav files. 

Just wondering if the sound quality is really that much better.  I have notebook computers and the PC cards are $100.00.  I was thinking this might be a substitute for the PC card. 

I am using a wired PC with a DSL connection.  Last night I set up a new wireless router and a laptop.  I had to have Linksys help me so I know we did it how they told me.  Both computers can connect to the internet, but now on my wired PC I cannot connect to my clients.  I have one I connect to with VPN and another over the internet through Citrix.  That one I can connect to initially, but it keeps disconnecting itself.  Help anyone?

When you're there, let the computer search for the network and when it is recognized, connect to it. You will need to enter a passcode if it is a secured network (which it should be). You can save that confirguration to your laptop for future visits. It's really the same process as with a wireless router at home.

Now, if neither router is wireless, you can get a cable from places like Staples that will connect directly into your laptop and the back of the router. You will still need to set up the laptop as described above but, again, that configuration can be saved.

I live in a small town and we don't have Starbucks, Panera, etc., close by but the public library has a wireless network that I can connect to for free; you might want to check into that option as well.

The biggest thing you should be concerned with is that you are operating on a secure network and that information going across the network is at the very least encrypted according to HIPAA standards.