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 :)

• Which is better, 10 cpl 65 ccl, or 7.5 cpl gross line? sm - confused
  • Here is the best way...open any document you have typed for anything and count the lines both ways. - TNMT
  • So much depends... - ebbie
    • I make out a whole lot better on - luv2type

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My company is now tracking our "typed time" versus the hours we put on our time sheets.  In other words.  The exact amount of time that we are actually typing rather than doing other things that might be related to the job.   If there is too much of a discrepancy between what we put on our time cards and the "typed time" we get warnings.  Is anyone else experiencing this? 

I apologize if this posts twice.  I've never posted before.

You can do a comparrison on gross lines versus 65 character line count by opening any document you have and counting lines both ways. 

I have almost always been paid the gross line and still am right now.  No matter what the margins or font is, all documents are converted to 1 inch margins and 12 Courier font.  You do not count blank lines.  I make an average of 0.08 a gross line, which the way I am paid would average out to about 11-12 cents a 65 character line.

Hope this helps!

I know this has been talked about a lot, but I was offered a chance to test for an IC job, and I'm required to type between 2,500-5,000 lines per week.  Since I'm an employee and haven't been paid by the line for about five years, approximately how many hours does it usually take for some of you to type 2,500 lines per week?   

TIA.

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?

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.

XX

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. 

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.  

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

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 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.