Hi
All,
Key
Combination of the Day
Esc
while typing a word
Pressing Esc
while typing a word in many
applications immediately displays a pop-up list of suggestions to
complete the word for you.
Shareware
of the
Day:
Transcriva -
Make transcription tasks simple.
Lose
the Dictaphone
Dictaphones
are yesterday's news. Transcriva turns the mechanical chore of
transcribing audio recordings into a natural, fluid process with the
simplicity only a Mac application can offer. The unique chat-like
interface produces a clean, concise transcript whether you're
transcribing a single speaker's dictation or the Board's meeting
minutes. Transcriva works with most any audio format supported by Apple
QuickTime. Add a clip, press play, and start typing - the only thing
easier is making someone else do it for you!
Comfortable
Control
Transcriva
goes the extra mile, giving form and function equal treatment. All the
features reserved for the 'Cadillacs' of Dictaphones are present in
Transcriva - with a Mac twist.
An adjustable playback speed lets
you work more slowly for fast talkers and more quickly for slow ones,
while the backtrack-on-pause feature lets you easily pick up where you
left off without the guesswork.
The Follow-Along feature keeps
the transcript view synchronized with the playhead during playback and
while moving the playhead with the mouse. It works the other way, too -
click an entry anywhere in the transcript and the playhead
automatically jumps to the start time of that entry.
Transcriva's
most common controls are keyboard-driven, allowing you to control audio
playback as well as entry creation and navigation without constantly
reaching for the mouse. The fully programmable keyboard shortcuts let
you define and work within your own comfort zone.
Transcriva also works with USB foot pedals for even easier control.
Please see the foot pedal fact sheet for more information.
Neat-Freak
Transcriva
takes a "speakers and entries" approach to transcripts. Rather than
treat the entire transcript as one large text document, your transcript
is broken into 'entries' (whether you have multiple speakers or not).
This keeps your transcript well-organized so finding specific segments
of your transcript is fast and easy. Markers indicate the position of
each entry in the audio track and the playhead changes color to
indicate the speaker of the current entry (when using color-coded
speakers) as it moves across the track.
Beyond
Transcription
Transcriva's
usefulness doesn't end when you've completed your transcript. A
Transcriva transcript document is easily used as a valuable reference
tool. With the "speaker/entry" approach, searching and navigating your
transcript is fast and easy. Tiger users can even use Spotlight to
search their transcripts.
When you're ready to use a word
processor or page layout tool to polish up your transcript for
presentation, use the Export feature. Transcriva can export to standard
Rich Text Format (rtf) or plain text (txt), which any word processor or
layout application (such as Microsoft Word, or Apple Pages, TextEdit,
and even CopyWrite) can read. Transcriva will not lock you in!
Who
It's Meant For
Transcriva
strikes a balance between automation and pricing. Other software
applications can turn live or recorded speech directly into text
automatically using voice recognition, but that added convenience costs
an arm and a leg and computer voice recognition itself is still nowhere
near as accurate as the human ear. What's more, a computer can't easily
distinguish between different speakers - a human is still required.
Transcriva does require you to do the listening and typing but it gives
you maximum flexibility, a beautiful, easy-to-use interface, simple
multiple speaker support, and plenty of polish. The result is a
powerful tool with a low price tag. If you need a transcription tool
without the added expense or accuracy problems of voice recognition
packages, Transcriva is exactly what you've been looking for.
Try It
Free
Transcriva
is completely free to try with some limitations. Unregistered users can
only have two audio clips in a transcript and only two speakers. The
audio controls are disabled after twenty minutes of use (but can be
reset by exiting and restarting Transcriva). Exported transcripts are
also 'watermarked'. All of these limitations can be removed by
purchasing a license and registering. This allows anybody to try
Transcriva as long as they like, completely free.
More
info and
download link here:
<http://www.bartastechnologies.com/products/transcriva/>
Freeware
of the
Day:
ProVoc -
Easily repeat your vocabulary.
ProVoc is a free and easy-to-use
vocabulary trainer that will
help you quickly learn and efficiently train your vocabulary. Behind
its simple and user-friendly interface, ProVoc offers a rich variety of
unique features that will greatly help you improve your knowledge of
any foreign language or technical terminology.
Features
Discover how ProVoc will transform your Mac and your favorite
accessories into a set of stunning educational tools:
Add sound to your world
ProVoc
not only helps you learn reading and writing a foreign language, but
also allows to improve your pronunciation and oral understanding.
Sounds like perfect to be used with your iPod, isn't it?
You
can easily record audio for each word in any language (e.g. by using
the built-in microphone of your Mac, or just by dragging an existing
sound file). And during training, ProVoc can automatically play the
recorded sounds for you. And for English, you don't even have to record
any sound: ProVoc can speak words for you!
If
a picture is worth thousand words...
Soon,
almost any Mac will be equipped with an iSight: it's time to take
advantage of it! With ProVoc, you can easily capture images, record
video clips and include them into your vocabulary. Ideal to train your
visual memory, to learn sign languages or assimilate some technical
terminology.
Spotlight
any word
Use
Spotlight to find words across all ProVoc files on your computer,
instantenously. Also, ProVoc automatically displays the result of your
search when you open a file with Spotlight.
Enjoy
your screen
ProVoc
not only comes up with a great looking Aqua user interface, but also
offers several beautiful and relaxing animated backgrounds during full
screen training. And because the backgrounds are just Quartz
compositions, you can easily add different effects or even create your
own stunning animations without writing a single line of code!
Vocabulary
on your Dashboard
The
most difficult thing about learning a language is certainly to find
time for it, isn't it? With the ProVoc widget, you can now use any
spare minute to quickly repeat a bit of your vocabulary! Whenever you
feel like, just hit F12 and train a couple a words... The ideal short
break to take at any time!
Intelligent
and efficient training
ProVoc
offers various methods to learn your vocabulary quickly and
efficiently: multiple-choice questions, continuous mode of variable
difficulty (where more difficult words are asked more often), etc.
Also, you don't remember whether you entered "apple", "an apple", "the
apple" or a synonym of it? Don't worry, ProVoc let you enter various
synonyms, discard determinants or other facultative words, punctuation,
case or accents.
Rediscover
your iPod as an amazing learning tool
1,000
words in your pocket: with ProVoc, you can easily send your vocabulary
to your iPod and take it with you wherever you go, whenever you want...
You can use your iPod as vocabulary trainer (convenient for any
travel), or as bilingual glossary (very useful abroad for instance). Or
both, of course.
Easily
create two-sided flash cards
With
ProVoc, you can not only easily print your vocabulary as lists, but
also on custom-sized, double-sided flash cards. Ideal to take with you
(for instance in your wallet) and to repeat virtually anywhere! And
don't worry if your printer cannot print on both sides of the paper:
ProVoc still offers a way to create double-sided cards...
Share
your vocabulary across the Internet
ProVoc
offers an ever increasing number of vocabulary files for download. They
come in various languages and are created by users all over the world.
Contribute too and submit instantly your vocabulary!
And
much more... for free!
Behind
its simple interface, ProVoc offers many more features. During training
for instance, press the Option key to unveil more useful features, such
as correcting typos, giving a hint, etc. ProVoc even offers a
translation service available from any other application.
More
info
and download link
here:
<http://www.arizona-software.ch/provoc/>
Regards...
Gordon |
