INSIDE WORD PROCESSING

all you gotta do is push the little button but it'll give you time to do some fall for spotting my best words at the time at the office you spend now follow us and we'll show you the way sir every sentence has an automatic space ran better than ever need an eraser and my friend can you comprehend that people landed I worked in nan de city making life a little bit better for tied to knock back that those letters and words you know we got it made by secretary tom my name people are missing one [Music] dictation equipment has come a long way Thomas Edison's executive at a phone was the new dictating machine of the 1920s his machine and its competitor the dictaphone used wax cylinders old dictation had to be shaved from the cylinder to be ready for a new dictation the Edda phone and dictaphone were offered in special colors to blend with modern office fittings including maroon which was apparently the in color for witted offices in the 20s and even though the in colors for the office have changed since the 20s the benefits of dictation have not today we might use those old ads word for word advertisements for the elephant' old how a dictating machine could help an executive get out snappy straight to the point and grammatical letters at the time needed for shorthand this obliging device enables the executive to dictate whenever he pleases the ad said so that it's not necessary for him to sit and impatiently wait the coming of a stenographer while his most incisive and effective thoughts slip away make dictation like telephony well today the most modern dictation equipment isn't like telephoning it is telephony you see this it's a telephone right well you're wrong it's really a dictation machine I know it doesn't look like it there are no record stop buttons to push no belts cassettes to play with all I have to do is to pick up this phone i dial the word processing number here that beep that means that everything I say from now on will be recorded at the word processing recorder to playback and correct I dial another number simple isn't it some people use handsets that are just like telephones except they're not wired through ma bells Lyons they're privately wired I used to have a little stage fright about dictation you know you get a little uptight at first about talking to a machine but now I just pick up the phone [Applause] dictation equipment is still helping more executives get more done but in addition today it's doing a lot more and there are a lot of other kinds of equipment to help in many dictating jobs dictation is helping fight crime one Police Department the use of dictation equipment gave the police 18 percent more time to patrol the streets it's helping doctors get more complete more accurate medical records into patient's files faster like in this pathology department it's helping traveling salesmen get reports into the home office and still stay on the road selling it's helping a lot of secretaries get more work done because they don't have to sit through long tedious shorthand sessions and because machine transcription is faster than shorthand and it's helping many people not only save a lot of time but also a lot of money an administrative management Society study found that communication costs drop almost two-thirds when a company uses dictation equipment effectively so you have to decide what kind of dictation equipment to get well California systems aren't the only kind of consider once I got used to them I began to like traditional dictating equipment to the kinds that used belts cassettes discs and then there are the portables that come in so handy you can dictate on them anytime anywhere and at your convenience but even these so-called traditional dictating machines aren't so traditional anymore all of them are highly reliable pieces of equipment with high quality sound for instance PBX systems have what is called voice-activated relay that means that the recording device is controlled by your voice when there is a pause and dictation machine ways so the transcriptionist doesn't have to wait through the pauses your voice comes through continuously and smoothly the features of today's dictating devices are innumerable the microphones and many of these sophisticated machines mask out background noises so you can always get sharp recording they can record conferences they can record phone calls they have remote control mics they have automatic indexing they also have automatic voice control and speed control so the transcriber can control the rate of transcribing and they come and convenient sizes from the pocket-sized portables with these mini cassettes to the beautiful desk models you see here sorry no mareun though in central dictation systems like my telephone system there's a feature called automatic lockout so no-one can listen to my dictation or accidentally erase it what if dictating has become easier for the dictator wait'll you see the advances made on the transcription side of dictation many word processing centers need dictation systems that can handle long unattended dictation day or night and they need the dictation wired directly into the center in order to provide fast turnaround time three modern types of transcription equipment have solved these problems endless loop continuous cassette and the cartridge of disks endless loops are magnetic tape which continuously revolved within a tank to record dictation endless loop transcribers can pick up right off the loop to transcribe the secretary simply presses foot control and listens there are no recording devices to handle recording and transcribing can be done at the same time so a transcriber can be typing seconds after dictation begins especially helpful in rush jobs but only one or two operators can transcribe from an endless loop recorder at any one time so where the need is to divide long documents up among a number of operators endless loop may not be the answer continuous cassette systems automatically load new cassettes into the system as they are needed cartridges of disks do the same thing automatically positioning new disks is needed the cassettes and disks can be distributed among a number of transcribers for faster turnaround time and to balance the workload another kind of dictation equipment that helps transcribers modern control devices these let secretaries and word processors know when and how much dictation is coming in they can be as simple as this signal which lights up when there is a dictation ready or these index lips or as sophisticated as these monitoring panels these show at a glance the amount of dictation in each recorder important considerations in choosing dictation equipment in a word processing system are unique characteristics of your organization the volume of dictation the length of the documents dictated the number of originators or authors the number of word processors ease of use whether or not you need long hours of unattended dictation the number of rushed jobs the kind of messenger system you'll have to get dictation and finished copy in and out of the word processing area the control process that is planned both for continuing operation and quick response in critical situations study your needs carefully and then decide on your equipment dictating equipment today can seem bewildering with its many sophisticated features and models but it's really simply a matter of knowing your needs and with so much to choose from there's not a dictating need in the world that can't be met with today's equipment