3D Uni Layout Key Display

Not a huge update today, but check out this incredibly cool 3D key display by gfixler, created with Maya and Inkscape for the SVG Layout Display Plover plugin. Wow!! I'm not sure if this is available anywhere or if it's just for private use, but I have to say it impressed the stenopants off me!

Uni V4 Open for Pre-Orders!

The Uni, a beautiful little machine that I bought with my own money (though I'm always honest in my hobbyist machine reviews, even when given complimentary units!), and which has sold out multiple times since its kickstarted inception, is open yet again for pre-orders in its new improved v4 version! Excellent design and manufacture. Highly recommended!

AlleyCAT!

Making yet another appearance on this blog after two recent posts on her work, the amazing SKWREPB is at it again, this time with an open source CAT system that's compatible with Plover: AlleyCAT!

As SKWREPB says:

AlleyCAT is a free, open-source computer-aided transcription (CAT) system for stenographers. It lets you write and edit documents such as court transcripts and translation dictionaries on both web and desktop. AlleyCAT originated as a free alternative to professional CAT software, which is proprietary and very expensive.

CAT software allows you to write documents, usually court transcripts, using stenography. Each steno stroke is stored in the document alongside the text it translates to. The CAT system also lets you modify the document's layout, fix spelling errors or mistranslations, create cover pages and indexes, and more.

When you write into a CAT system with a steno writer, the steno notes are immutably linked with the translations, so that even when you go back and edit the document, the original steno notes remain intact. This is especially important for court reporters, since the steno notes are considered the primary source of truth.

While CAT software is primarily used by court reporters, some of these features could still be useful to students and hobbyists: for example, having all of your notes in one document linked to the original steno is great for identifying areas of improvement after a practice session.

Plover Resources at ReadTheDocs

SKWREPB aka Sammi (of Steno Explainers fame and a recent guest poster on this blog, as well as an all-around beloved community booster and contributor) has a great resource guide over at ReadTheDocs, both for people Learning Steno and for people who want to contribute to the development of the Open Steno Project. It's really thorough and well organized. I can highly recommend it, especially as a first link to send to people who are entirely new the project!

Plover Ninja!

Plover Ninja is a new Plover Plugin by Jladd that can give you specific custom information about your steno habits and give you ideas on how you might improve them!

From the plugin description:

Plover Ninja notes the words that you steno and how long it takes to write these words. Based on this information, it is able to do some neat analysis. The plugin can:

Determine which words take the longest to write on average

Determine which words you haven't ever written before

Based on this kind of information, Plover Ninja can make some practice recommendations. In order for its suggestions to be useful, Plover Ninja keeps in mind which words are used most frequently (based on this data). With this information in mind, the plugin can suggest:

Words that are worth practicing, because they are both slow and are fairly common

The most common words that you have never written before

While there are several tools that can help you practice steno, Plover Ninja is unique in that all of its feedback is based on the things you actually write. If you write an email and hit a tricky word, Plover Ninja will see that and be able to point that out later. If you've never used a common word, Plover Ninja will let you know so that you can grow your vocabulary with useful words.