Count several lines both ways and see the difference
Posted By: Patti on 2007-01-21
In Reply to: Difference in pay with spaces/without... - LookingMT
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Here is the best way...open any document you have typed for anything and count the lines both ways.
I have pretty much always been paid by the gross line...occasionally I will take a job with a company that pays by characters and I never make as money. Remember...with gross lines, a line is a line is a line....that means anything on the lines be it one character or 65 is a line. For instance....today I type a normal file for a client I have worked on for years...if I counted the lines at 65-cpl I got 398 lines, but counting gross lines I got 641 lines. This is a 38% difference in pay between the two, so you would be making approximately 5 cents a line less on the character count. Hope this helps :)
Word count: 824 lines. DocuCount count: 897 lines.
I just counted the same file in Word and then in DocuCount, and DocuCount was higher than Word.
Just as an aside.
let me count the ways
Terrific money! Set my own hours, take off when I want to(obviously I am IC), satisfies my interest in medicine and keeping my mind actively learning every day..
it does not count gross lines...I count 37 and it counts 67.
x
see, there's the difference . . . some of my templates have 50 lines already in them(sm)
that we have to scroll through. The patient demo info is a matter of six lines. The rest is all headings. I don't mind inputting the patient info, it's the scrolling up and down the page and adjusting the pre-filled headers that takes up so much time.
I count my own lines and would not think of doing otherwise SM
Yes, you may have to spend money on a counting program, but isn't it important to have everyone on the same page, so to speak?
I'm so old that I don't know how to count by lines...(SM)
No, that's not a "I'm so old joke" - wish it were! I've only worked for myself in the past and now I'm helping someone else out. I agreed at a fairly low page rate (certainly lower than I used to charge) but I now think I'm cheating myself! When you count a 65 character line is that 65 spaces from left margin to right? Is that a gross line? What is the standard? I've been counting my characters (including spaces) in each line and they're at least 75 to 80. So, each page is like 1-1/2! My margins are one inch all around and the font size is 11. Am I wrong in thinking that a 65 character line means 65 spaces across the page? And, if so, is 9 cents per line out of the norm? Thanks for "teaching an old 'dinosaur' a new trick"!!
How do you count your lines? m
When you're not using a program like BayScribe that does it for you. For example, if you transcribe letters or reports in Word, how do you calculate the lines you bill to your client? Any help is appreciated!
ES does count lines.
It is one of the most user-friendly platforms I have worked on. I have 2 accounts that the speech rec is very good on and 1 account with lousy dictators that require more editing, but it is often entertaining. The sound quality is very good, and there is little to no distortion when you speed up the audio file.
Yes. They count the lines as set up
in the contract with the client. Each account can be different.
How can you count your lines in Word, I used
to use the word count in Word and then divide it by something to get a standard line count for that report. Has anyone done this before? I forgot the way to calculate when working in Word.
You can count your lines and characters yourself sm
even if you have no counting program. You can copy and paste into a word document or clipboard and count the characters in Word. At least you will have some idea of what you are being paid for. I have done this many times and if it doesn't add up to what the company's count has, I was right on the horn and sometimes even quit because of it. I will not be cheated in any way by any one.
Count lines in courier 12 - nm
XX
and I count gross lines
I do not cheat, I count gross lines and from top to bottom but I make sure that it is fair so my price per line is lower and it all equals out in the end. On chart notes, it is the total amount of lines which includes 2 spaces between patients which then helps to pay for the cutting apart, sticky paper and delivery. But my accounts are aware of this and again it shows in my per line charge.
The way MTSOs count lines
Does anyone know if some MTSOs calculate lines on various accounts differently? One of my accounts is very difficult to get a decent line count. While it is more tedious and does not have "normals," it just seems like often I have a shift full of fairly long reports (and a fair number of them), and by feel seems like my line count should be higher. - I can't help but wonder if lines are calculated differently for this account.
Does anyone know of MTSOs doing that? Sadly, I am afraid to ask my employer. 
Need to count gross lines only w/o spaces, sm
Used Sylcount free download but it expired. Any alternatives. Did not like Practicount. Need to count gross lines only. How do I do that using MS Word?
How did you count lines before the PC, or were you paid hourly then? nm
As an IC you invoice the company, count your own lines, and receive a paycheck.
First Choice, JLG, QT Medical, Metro in Atlanta, just to name a few.
Most use SylCount or something similar. I used Abacus - free line counting software.
Word Macro to count Lines Strict inside
Hi,
The solutions others gave are good, but if I just needed to get the number of lines with typing (and don't need an invoice or a report), I'd use a Word macro.
The other solutions offered have this drawback: If the body of your document contains tables, the count Word gives you is vastly inflated, for Word counts each cell in that table as a line. This is not what the eye sees, and becomes problematic when you try to justify such to your client.
Below is a macro for counting what we at Emmaus call Lines Strict. (i.e. Lines with typing on them, vs Lines Extended that includes the blank lines).
To use it, copy from Public Sub through End Sub, and paste it into your macros along with your other macros. Easiest way of doing this is (after you have copied the appropriate lines):
1. Click Tools | Macros, and select an existing macro.
2. Click the Edit button.
3. Once the Visual Basic Editor opens, press Ctrl+End to move to the bottom.
4. Paste the clipboard contents.
5. Click File | Compile Normal. (If you've pasted things that don't belong, it won't compile.)
6. Click File | Close and Return to MS Word.
Merry Christmas!
vJoe
http://www.mpword.com
OOPS! I looked at the HTML code after I pasted the code into the editor on this board, and it added things that when pasted into the Visual Basic Editor in Word will not compile. Here's the code if you want to retype it, but pasting won't work. If you send me an email, I'll attach the code into a .txt document, and you won't have any problems. vjoet@attglobal.net
Public Sub GetLinesStrictCount()
Dim CharsStrict As Long
Dim Count As Long
Dim ParaswBlanks As Long
Dim ParasWOBlanks As Long
Dim LineswBlanks As Long
Dim BlankLines As Long
Dim LinesWOBlanks As Long
Dim NumOfTables As Long
Dim NumOfRows As Long
Dim TableRowCount As Long
Dim x As Integer
TableRowCount = 0
NumOfTables = 0
NumOfRows = 0
ActiveDocument.ComputeStatistics (wdStatisticCharacters)
ActiveDocument.ComputeStatistics (wdStatisticLines)
CharsStrict = ActiveDocument.BuiltInDocumentProperties(wdPropertyCharacters)
ParasWOBlanks = ActiveDocument.BuiltInDocumentProperties(wdPropertyParas)
LineswBlanks = ActiveDocument.BuiltInDocumentProperties(wdPropertyLines)
NumOfTables = ActiveDocument.Content.Tables.Count
If NumOfTables > 0 Then
For x = 1 To NumOfTables
With ActiveDocument.Content.Tables.Item(x)
NumOfRows = NumOfRows + .Rows.Count
End With
Next
TableRowCount = NumOfRows
End If
If CharsStrict > 0 Then
ParaswBlanks = ActiveDocument.Range(wdMainTextStory).Paragraphs.Count
Else
ParaswBlanks = 1
End If
If LineswBlanks > 1 Then
LineswBlanks = LineswBlanks + 1
End If
If ParaswBlanks = 1 And ParasWOBlanks = 1 Then
BlankLines = 0
Else
BlankLines = ParaswBlanks - ParasWOBlanks
End If
LinesWOBlanks = LineswBlanks - BlankLines
Count = LinesWOBlanks
MsgBox "Lines Strict (with typing) = " & CStr(Count + TableRowCount)
End Sub
Does Quick Books/Quicken count the lines or do you use a separate program for that?
nm
You can set Word to not count blank lines by changing your paragraph style
to automatically double space after the paragraph.
Ask for a sample report. Count the gross lines on a full page. Then
figure out the line rate you want to make. For example, if there are 30 lines on the page and you would want to charge $0.15 per line, then that would be $4.50 per page. If they would like your hourly rate, figure out how many pages you think you can transcribe in an hour. Using the above example, if you can transcribe 4 pages per hour, then charge $18.00 per hour. In California the going transcription rates are approximately $22-$25 per hour.
Work for 1 hour, then count your lines of the completed work - sm
either check you total characters in word (with spaces) then total them all up and divide by 65, and you get your total lines per hour. 10,000/65 is 153 lines. Or if you have a line counting program us that to figure you count, either way will work quite well. Maybe do it a few times and then figure an average over 3 hours or something like that, it will vary with the ease/difficulty of the work you are doing.
Calculating lines using Word Count in Word
I have recently started a job where lines are calculated using the Microsoft Word word count tool. I think I read that you get cheated out of lines if a company counts this way. Is this true?
Take the character count divded by 65 and that will give you your line count.
x
Nope, not a higher count. Actually, the count is the same...
I use a word count and not a line count, but because you mentioned it, I ran a few documents using line count, and the count is exactly the same. However, Flashcount has a lot of nifty features. I like it. :)
Aaahhhh, now I get it. Gross lines vs. Character lines. I guess I've just been conditioned to
think in terms of character lines. One of the perils of working as an IC for somebody who defines what a line is versus owning your own company and defining it yourself. After working for someone else for 15 years, maybe it's time to bust out on my own.
I believe there are many ways
we have benefited from others coming to America. We have a specialist at our Children's Hospital, that is world renowned for rebuidling throats and trachea's for kids after haveing had a trach tube...guess he should have stayed in Africa, in your way of thinking?
That goes both ways, though.
I don't know how many times I set aside an entire day because the company told me there would be work only to sit there all day long checking in every 15-30 minutes for nothing. There are days when I make $5 and days when I make $200. If I don't have work within an hour or two of my shift starting, I turn off the computer and leave for the day. I'm not going to be on call for free just because the companies decided to call us ICs for their own tax break purposes. The same goes for the cherry picked leftovers. I'm not working for $7 an hour while someone else is cranking out the lines by taking all the good reports and dictators.
Sometimes you can have it both ways.
I used to work for a Jewish lawyer and received Jewish holidays off (paid), along with all other paid holidays (including Christmas.)
The difference is that Christmas is a FEDERAL holiday, in fact, the ONLY religious FEDERAL holiday where most people are paid regardless of their religious beliefs. So people of other religious beliefs celebrate the *secular* Christmas, which is supposed to mean happiness, charity, gift-giving and especially tolerance. Your post gives me the impression that you want to investigate and judge every American's religious beliefs and deprive them of the holiday if their beliefs don't match yours. This is a pretty scary thought, especially because of the recently discovered practice of the government's illegal wire-tapping and spying of Americans under the guise of terrorism.
So maybe this issue isn't really about Christmas at all. Maybe it's just about personal freedom, and personally, I find what's happening in this country to Americans almost as terrifying as the terrorists themselves.
I don't think we can have it both ways.
I didn't see Frontline but have read and discussed the WalMart issue in depth over the years.
As I understand it, what separates WalMart from other large department and grocery stores is their business practices. WalMart dictates the price they're going to pay manufacturers for the goods going on the WalMart shelf. If the manufacturer doesn't cut his price to meet WalMart's demands, the store will just move on and stock a different company's brand. (So maybe Bounty cut a deal to get their product distributed thru WalMart but Marcal paper towels couldn't, for example.) The manufacturer is then faced with having to trim his margins while producing more to meet the higher distribution of having WalMart's business. Some companies are much more able and willing to do that than others.
But there is a mentality there that I just personally have a problem with.
To me it's like the hospital telling the MTSO that they're only going to pay 10 cents a line, period. The MTSO will have to slash her profits and likely the rates she's giving to her ICs or employees in order to keep the work coming in. OR, the MTSO may decide it makes more sense for her to get ICs that are willing to work at a much lesser rate (like those in India) so she can keep her business profits steady. This forces the MTSO's hand in a way that I feel is unjust, as her options are quite limited. No business owner or worker wants to go backward income-wise as the years pass, but this is the kind of thing that WalMart is doing to business people. It sounds to me like many hospitals and physician practices do business the WalMart way, and I think we need to walk the talk. If you shop at WalMart to save a few cents, do so knowing that you're supporting a company policy in the process. I do shop there on occassion, I admit, but I keep it to a minimum because I don't want to contribute to WalMart's success.
Good opportunity, while I have the soapbox, is to share something that has been on my mind for years as this offshoring issue has snowballed. I think the saddest outcome of all this is the illwill that has been fostered among so many us. Some of us get on a high horse about where we shop and don't shop, others resent that they have to run from to store to store, cutting coupons, just to get by every month and they last thing they want is to be preached at. Often there seems that there's not enough compassion or understanding, and to me, this devisiveness among people is just a horrible outcome as the loss of American jobs.
I also cringe when I read posts that just reek of bigotry toward Indians, Pakistanis, Canadians, etc. who wind up with work because a company thousounds of miles away made a business decision. Everyday working people, whether they're in Bangalore, Ontario, or Erie PA, do what's best for themselves and their families. I hope that no matter where we each stand on this complex issue that we don't allow ourselves to become mean-spirited and bitter people over it.
My DH is nothing like my dad, wish he was in a few ways though - sm
but for the most part I have a pretty good guy, just needs to learn to let the little stuff roll off his back. Both my dad and I are Scorpios and born 1 day apart so we are a bit alike, so I kind of went for the opposite of me which at times can drive you nuts but we have the same fundamental values and goals and that is important.
oh there's ways to get out of it....nm
2 ways
If you can go into Control I, that will show you the number of jobs (not the job numbers), but I don't write mine down with that function, I check frequently and would know if I missed a job.
on the other hand, if you have to go to the Dictaphone site, write down every job #, not that it does you any good because you have a lump dictation #, but if you do 40 reports (that you have written down) you should have at least 1000 lines and if it shows (as commonly does) 700 to 800 lines, then something is wrong, but how you prove it beats me.
Two ways. SM
1. Alt insert to add a shortcut. type in the keyword. Go to the text to type box. Hit Ctrl-K. (The next keys you hit will be assigned the shortcut). Hit Ctrl-B (for bold). Then type the text you want bolded. Do it again to turn off bold - hit Ctrl-K, then Ctrl-B.
2. After you name the macro and go to the text to type box, click on "Record" on the right side of the box. Then type your shortcut exactly like you want it, using Ctrl-B as in Word to start and stop the bold function. When finished, click "stop" on the recorder box. It will close and the shortcut will be saved.
You can do this with any Word function - italics, etc.
There are a few ways to do this. sm
Under Settings, Incoming you can specify the location where you want the files to be loaded from. Hit Add and chose either the folder on your computer or the FTP location. Check the file types you want and how you want them to load (manually or automatically). If you choose automatically, you can specific how often you want the program to check for new files. If you choose manually, you can use the Load Now button in the toolbar. This method will only load file types ES provides for selection(.dct, .wav, .mp3, and .aif file types). This will not work if you're working with .dss files (and is very frustrating to me).
The alternative method is to click on the Load button in the toolbar and go to the folder where you files are located. Hold down the Shift key, click on the first file, then scroll to the last file and click on it, while still holding down the Shift key. This will select all the files. Hit load.
Are you going to be looking for ways
If DH could "claim the income and I could be his "employee"? Really! You just want to type unlimited, have the money go to DH and then he just pay you the limit of $900. And you dont see how this is wrong? I would not want to hire you, would be afraid you would always be looking for way to cheat me, too.
two ways
I work part time and in one of my jobs we use VPN which is easy and fine.
On the other we use DocShuttle which is also very easy. These are both pretty small operations.
There are ways
without having to depend on the employer to give you a raise - we all know that's getting harder, if not impossible. But someone asked about actual salaries below, so here's mine - I get 1.10/report for radiology, employee status, transcribe about 140 reports per day, work Monday-Friday and cover on Sunday afternoons for about 80-100 jobs on the understanding that I get to it when I get to it! (I do this so that they don't have to hire another person to cover this, thus possibly having us run out of work during the week.) So this comes to $3400-3500 a month.
When I first started on the account, though, I despaired of ever producing enough to pay my mortgage and car payment - UNTIL one day I kept careful track of how much was actually nose-to-the-grindstone transcribing and how much was getting up and down for snacks, coffee, water, restroom, laundry, meals, and other countless distractions. I was quite shocked!
So I made it a point to sit down and type for 1 hour. Then I signed off, went and did whatever I needed - a 3 to 5 minute break that could include a quick phone call, restroom, water, etc, etc. Then I sat down for another hour and repeated throughout the day. My productivity zoomed! In addition to the obvious reason of only allowing one distraction an hour, that 3 to 5 minute break also cleared my head, was guilt-free, and made me ready for another hour of productive transcribing.
The other point that I wanted to make was that I make it a point to actively think about what repetitive motions I make, like between every job or shortcuts within the job, that could be done faster or more easily.
For instance, since I work off a C-phone and have to log the job #, physician ID, etc, I have an Excel spreadsheet that I set up with columns for Doctor, Patient ID, Job #, and Time (in the order that the "voice" reads them - those of you who do this know what I mean). At the top is a freeze pane that has today's date, today's job count, today's money made (job count multiplied by rate of pay), and then total made for the pay period (a running total). Then, although it seems so obvious now, I discovered ALT+tab so that I didn't have to lift my hand from the keyboard to go from the job log to the platform - back and forth with minimal motion.
Little time-savers like that really add up when you're talking 140 reports a day.
And there there is your Expander program. I still add to mine on a daily basis. I have 1 or 2 doctors (bless their pea-picking hearts) that say the same thing over and over, and those are the ones I build normals for. The others aren't worth it - too much editing. But I do make shortcuts for their favorite phrases (for instance, *no fracture, dislocation, or subluxation*, and another one for *no fracture, subluxation, or dislocation*). Any words that aren't caught by autocorrect and which I continually misspell gets either an abbreviation or a spelling correction.
So anyway, even if your boss doesn't cooperate and give you a raise, keep an eye out for more productive, faster ways to maximize each keystroke, each hand movement, each report, and you may find your income growing (my own personal estimate is by about 40%).
Two ways
I copied this from the Instant Text MS Word board. The link no longer works there so I think it's okay to copy it here.
Adding "-year-old" and "cc:" in AutoCorrect
The method for adding "-year-old" depends on your version of Word.
In Word 97, enter -year-old in the With box, enter yo (or whatever short form you choose) in the Replace box. Type 4yo to expand to 4-year-old.
In Word 2000/2002/2003, enter -year-old in the With box and precede your short form in the Replace box with a punctuation mark, such as a semicolon. Type 4;yo to expand. The punctuation mark backs up and replaces the default space AutoCorrect inserts in later versions of Word.
To keep Word from capitalizing cc:
Put cc: in the With box and type ;c (semicolon c) in the Replace box as your short form. The punctuation mark backs up and replaces the space (or letter) with the first letter of your expansion. In this case, it also tricks Word into not capitalizing the first letter of a sentence when you have that option turned on.
A punctuation mark after the Replace entry eliminates the space at the end of the expansion.
You can use other punctuation marks, however, the semicolon keeps your fingers on the home row keys.
This method also works for symbols (such as the degree sign).
Sleeping......no two ways about it! NM
:)
Have heard it both ways! - nm
x
Loyalty goes both ways
How loyal is the company to you if they pay you peanuts, and how hard would they cry if they decided to "down size" and let you go?
set in their ways, not with God complexes...nm
x
It can be done both ways. There are platforms out there
that you can download the sound files, transcribe them, then upload the documents. This would be like an FTP site for upload/download and Word/Express Scribe (or another wav player) to type/listen.
There are also platforms that work "realtime" over the Internet with servers. Some places have you log into their secure system to listen to the sound files and type in a Word-based platform.
By putting up with him and his ways
you are just enabling him. Sounds like not only are you doing most of the housework, you're providing most of the financial support. I think he has got it pretty good and as long as you don't give him an ultimatum why should he change. You're young yet and there sure is better out there. I'd cut my loses. I'd rather be alone than with someone like your SO.
Sorry in lots of ways.
Through the crystal vision of hindsight, I now shout at the top of my lungs to any newbie even CONSIDERING getting into this field to run, fast and far!!! The flexibility you get does not, in my opinion, outweight the mediocre pay and the total lack of respect that are given to someone who has achieved a certain level of expertise. People who have attained their own levels of expertise in other fields do get a commensurate amount of pay and a certain level of respect; we, on the whole, simply do not. No, girlfriend, I am pursuing leaving this dead-end field and I tell everyone I know how crummy it is and not to even CONSIDER doing this work for a living. That is just my life experience opinion.
Blessed in many ways here as well.
If we sit back and count the many good things that have come I would have to agree they far outweight the "bad" things. My kids were off all this week from school. I went to pick-up work and the office manager says to me "Your children are off all week from school?" I said, "Yes due to the holiday on Monday and then conferences all week." She says, "Well I guess that's okay for you since you DON'T WORK" as she's handing me a stack of "work". She goes on to say "But what about all of the other mother's who have to work?" What do they do for daycare?" I said, "Well, I guess it puts those mother's in a very tight spot?" Hmmmmm..... Funny the perceptions people have of us work-at-home transcriptionists. It is almost like if you do it from home it cannot possibly be work. Let it be known that I love what I do, but I still consider it very much contributing to society. By the way, thanks to your sister that factory stays doing what it should be doing, and thank your sister for ME personally for putting in the time and showing that she cares by going to work each and every day no matter how tired she gets! Thank you for sharing....
There are 2 ways, see inside.
Unless they have been deleted by error, you can go to programs and look for the program folder and find it there. For example, if you have Yahoo IM, go to the program folder for Yahoo messenger and look for the little happy face icon, drag on drop on the desktop and you will get your icon back. You can look also in the remove/restore desktop icon in the desktop manager as below and restore them.
To remove unused desktop icons
- Open
tshared.chm::/shortcutCold.gif>Display in Control Panel.
- On the Desktop tab, click Customize Desktop.
- Under Desktop cleanup, click Clean Desktop Now.
- Follow the directions in the Desktop Cleanup Wizard.
tshared.chm::/note.gif> Notes
- To open Display, click Start, click Control Panel, click Appearance and Themes, and then click Display.
- The Desktop Cleanup Wizard displays a list of the icons that have not been used for 60 days or more, enabling you to remove those icons that you don't want on your desktop. You can retrieve icons you have removed by opening the Unused Desktop Shortcuts folder on your desktop.
- Clear the Run Desktop Cleanup Wizard every 60 days check box if you don't want the wizard to run automatically every two months.
- You can remove an individual desktop icon by right-clicking the icon and then clicking Delete.
- To add or remove the icons for My Documents, My Computer, My Network Places, or Internet Explorer, select or clear those items under Desktop icons.
Two ways to find it. sm
The quick way is hold down the Window key on your keyboard and type E.
The second is to open it from the Start, Programs menu. The icon looks like a blue lower case e.
After plugging in the recorder and waiting until the computer recognizes it, open Explorer and locate the recorder. Double click on the recorder and it should show you the files that are in there. Highlight them and drag them to the folder where you want them to be.
A couple of ways...sm
Most of time, I use a pedal bar that my husband constructed for me -- I use my ankle to start/stop the pedal. Sometimes, I use a foot pedal and place it on an angle so I use my foot. Just play around with it -- it is really worth it.
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