When it comes to transcription one of the more popular questions is:
“If I wanted to start doing transcription from home, what kind of equipment would I need to buy?”
Thanks to technology the answer to that question is a lot less than it would have been ten or more years ago. Today all you need to buy is the foot pedal (which controls the speed of the audio as well as letting you rewind and fast-forward without taking your hands off of the keyboard), a good headset and perhaps some software. And for those who are interested in medical and legal transcription you’ll probably want to buy the various plug-in dictionaries that will check terms peculiar to your discipline.
You’ll need audio transcription software and there are many different types on the market. However, I like FREE software and there is a great software called Express Scribe that does the trick quite well. To thank them for the free software, you might want to buy your headset and foot pedal from them. 
Audio Transcription Requirements
- Download and install the free transcription software called Express Scribe.
- Express Scribe can be controlled with a USB Foot Pedal, preferably the Infinity IN-USB-1 USB Foot Pedal for PC Transcription (available for sale at NCH and PCDictate.com). Or if a foot pedal isn’t in your budget just yet you can use keystrokes, but I don’t recommend it because it slows down the ttranscription process considerably.
- A headset is helpful if you have one — helps to block out the rest of the family’s noise. You can, of course, use your computer’s speakers, but I’ve found the headphones to provide a clearer audio than the computer speakers alone.
- After you setup Express Scribe you’ll be able to choose where to upload your audio files so create a folder to hold all of your ranscription audios.
- Having trouble with the setup process. Then check out this video on setting up Express Scribe: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mo56Ywi1C00
- If you prefer reading instructions, here’s the the link to downloadable PDF http://www.execommsys.com/Express%20Scribe%20Manual.pdf
Video Transcription Requirements
- Download and install the free program VLC. This program will play all audios and video formats. Really cool player.
- Download and install the free RealPlayer. If you are given a link to a video that is already online, RealPlayer will (in most cases) allow you to download the video so that you can watch it in your VLC player for transcribing.
- There’s a free 30 day trial called VLC Foot Pedal Software you can download. It’s about $50 after the trial.
Note: I have a friend who is also doing video transcription, but she and her son have figured out how to get the audio to run through their Express Scribe setup. I haven’t figured out how to do this yet, but you’re a computer whiz you might be able to save yourself $50.
Other Software You Should Consider:
- Microsoft Word is usually preferred, but if your client primarily wants PDFs then you can use OpenOffice’s Write program or Google Docs.
- Software to convert the transcripts into Adobe PDFs. There are some free ones on the Internet such as www.FreePDFConvert.com.
- Internet Explorer/Google Chrome: I download the ttranscription audios from Internet server links my clients provide me. IE/Chrome lets you save the file directly to your hard drive. Firefox automatically starts to play the files for you.
- Abbreviation Expander: This is a software that saves you keystrokes. For example if you want to add the word “laughter” into the expander you could type “lol” and in the next column put the word “laughter”. Now whenever you type “lol” it will automatically change to “laughter” saving you five keystrokes. There are lots of them on the market. I prefer ShortKeys, but if you do medical transcription you might want to look into a software called Speedtype designed for the medical profession. Most software companies give you at least a 30 day trial, so play around with them until you find the software that’s most comfortable for you.
If you’re thinking of making video transcription your focus, you might benefit from DVD Transcription Kit that I saw at PC Dictate. You get the VLC Media Player Foot Pedal Software, Headset and Foot Pedal for $119. Considering a USB foot pedal can cost about $80 by itself, this is a good deal.
So, even starting from scratch, if you want to work from home doing transcription you’ll be able to do so for under $150. Not a bad start-up cost, huh?
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