spaces equal 22% of the report. That is a lot! nm
Posted By: sis on 2005-12-29
In Reply to: how big of a difference is with spaces and without...in pay? - brandy
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My line including spaces is 65 characters. I've heard that not counting spaces
takes away over 35% of your line count. I believe it too because you have at least 15 or so spaces on each line that you type. Use your first sentence up top as an example; you had 77 char and 21 spaces - in that line that would be a little less than 30% of your characters that you didn't get paid for. I don't think it's worth it and wouldn't want to work without getting credit for my spaces.
this is equal to a very old formula
Back when documents were produced on typewriters, formulas were created to define the average length of a line. It was defined as 10 words with spaces, with the average word being 5 characters - thus 55 printed characters per line.
All the ad your reading is saying is that they will take all the visible characters you produce and divide it by 55 to decide your final production at the end of the day. It does not include bolding, underlining, hard returns, spaces, etc., as had been defined by the old AAMT.
The new AAMT/MTIA whatever it is called monster is redefining a line as only characters you see and this ad is embracing the new definition and defining 55 visible characters as a line. A 55 visible character line is approximately equal to a 65 line that includes spaces - but I bet they are not going to compensate for thespacesyouneedtoinsertintotthelinetomakeitreadable.
They used to not pay for spaces, but a poster here said they are getting spaces paid. Are there 2
s
Is a Celeron M (1.5 GHz) processor equal to a
nm
How many bytes equal a line?
I need to find out how many bytes equals a line. Any advice would be helpful.
One character or key Stroke is equal
... to one byte (including spaces or anyother character, remember one KEY STROKE regardless of the input). If you ever want to calculate your bytes for certain amount of text -> paste it on NotePad and save it as text file. Later you can right click on the file to get it's properties to see it's exact size.
Not all QA people are created equal
If you absolutely love it, you really must have an aptitude for the job. Many of the QA people were once MTs themselves and could not keep up the pace nor did they have the necessary aptitude it takes so they became QA. So you are dealing with this scenario. Think about it.
Slow speaker does not equal big $$
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how many lines does 90K characters equal out to roughly?
I'm thinking 1300 or so! That would be 90K divided by 65 characters = roughly 1300. Am I correct on this? 
Not sure if they are equal in power, but the Celeron is inferior to the Pentium.
If you're getting a desktop may be no big deal since desktops are cheaper and you tend to replace then every 2 to 3 years, but if getting a laptop/notebook, definitely get the Pentium or the Centrino and not the Celeron.
If you try caffeinated drinks, make sure to use Equal or Splenda.
nm
Not all 8 cents a line situations are created equal sm
I am coming off a job using Extext and going into one using ChartNet. I have used Smart Type for over a decade and for Chartnet I have to go to Instant Text. I am able to do over 200 lines an hour after about a week at the new job. I will get to 300 again in a month or so. I say again because I have not done that much in a long time.
Extext...I loved it when I first used it, but after 18 months I can't get above 170 lph and that is with echoes and normals with lots of free lines, and that includes dozens of normals and report shells I have made myself. It won't get better and that is poor pay at the 8.5 cpl base rate, but then again I always have bonuses of a couple of kinds and shift differentials...but I can't do better than 1200 lines a day with any consistency, not in 8 hours a day.
I work a job in MedRite. Like Extext, it is a Word client and rather similar. Top rate for MedRite is close to 300 lines an hour on a horrid account with 80% PLUS ESLs. It is just a faster platform.
Enter ChartNet...never used it. Had to switch to Instant Text...never used it. I have been working about 5 days on it and I can do 200 lph and only one doctor so far who throws me for a loop when I can't do that. She is not an ESL, but a slurring motor mouth who skips around and forgets what she is doing on the phone in the first place.
The Extext work has been 90% OP notes, my specialty. The others are all the basic 4, and I have to say that I went from clinic for many years to OP notes, skipping the rest in between. I have very little experience in DS, CN and H&P notes, VERY little time with those. I'd be faster with them if I had done more of them before.
Part of speed is the expander, part is the platform and part is you. It doesn't matter how great you are as a typist and how perfect your expander, if the platform isn't very good you can't make money at any line rate. If the platform is good, but you are not Expander savvy, you won't you make it either. You can, however, be like me and a poor typist with a great expander and a decent platform...and STILL make money. LOL
In MY experience, the largest problem with making more money is the expander GLOSSARY, not which program you choose. I have heard some of the craziest stories about how to use an expander while on this board...ridiculous, wonky, time wasting, counter intuitive toro pu pu!!!! If you are struggling with an expander FEEL FREE TO EMAIL ME. I am happy to spend my time helping anyone who will genuinely give my methods a shot.
It's Maalox and Benadryl, equal parts, swish and swallow. nm
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One of my employers told me to just add a 0, i.e. 30 minutes would roughly equal 300 lines. sm
Of course, if someone talks fast, you'd get more lines, and if you get one of those guys who stops and turns pages and/or talks slow, the lines would be less. Seems to be a pretty good rule of thumb for me.
As for the length taken, when I started doing MT work 30-some years ago (back in the days of the vinyl belts and carbon paper -- eek!), the quota was that you should be able to 15 minutes of dictation in 1 hour. However, I think anyone with experience would probably do it in much less time.
Hope this helps. 
Two jobs don't equal one when it comes to making money and not wasting time. sm
Recommend looking for one good job.
You do not need the 1099. You just need to report the income. Report the company/person ...sm
to the IRS for not sending out the 1099.
All things being equal, do you prefer to work with a C-phone or use WAV files over the internet? sm
What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of each. I have only ever used a c-phone but think I may bet getting ready to use WAV files and foot pedal for an account and am a little anxious! TIA
Cook in equal parts BBQ and grape jelly. Crock pot if time. Yum! nm
I charge the same amount for a "normal" report as for any other report.
You still have to listen to the dictation and change anything that's different. I had one woman try to pull this on me. She'd dictate, "Just pull up my normal, but change this, change that, switch that around, move that, add this, delete that, and change the other." Then she'd only want to pay me what equated to $.03 per line. She wanted 1:1 on her dictation to transcription ratios. I told her to take her cheap account down the road because I'm worth more than that.
Pay No Spaces, Type No Spaces nm
nm
without spaces compared to with spaces
10 cpl without spaces equals to how many cpl with spaces?
Spaces versus no spaces....
Can someone tell me how big of a difference it makes if a company pays for spaces versus no spaces. I have only every been paid without spaces. I have been offered a position that pays for spaces, but the cpl is less than I am making now. I am not sure if getting paid for spaces will make up for the pay cut. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Oh, a report just came in. A report actually just slid in, can you believe it. Hip Hip Hooray. I
had better get that sucker typed before it gets out of ONE MINUTE TAT.
If you are careful with putting the correct report in the correct report shell and patient, you will
not have any problems. I only take away this option when someone is careless. There can be NO room for error on this. One mistake can be very serious. Many do it well though, so just double check and you will be fine.
DQS no spaces? Are you sure?
Are you sure DQS does not count spaces? When I first started, I took a report and manually counted each and every character, space, return, etc, and found that the lines count I was given for the report matched (rounded up) my manual count. Even now, I copy and past every single report to Word Perfect (which does not count spaces on my version), and DQS always exceeds my Word Perfect character count by a bunch, so I figure I am not being cheated. Take a medium size report, print it, and try counting manually and see what you think.
I know they don't pay for spaces
So tell me why when one day I did 800 lines and then 3 days later it shows I did 670 lines when I actually did 800 lines. The 800 lines is without spaces, headers, footers. So did those lines magically disappear? This happens to me weekly.
spaces
LOL. I think we need to transcribe a few reports without spaces..heck, let those being paid hourly fill the spaces in.
spaces
LOL. You just made my whole day.
iwoudn'tmindtypingaletterwithnospacestoday.
BTW that is really hard to do.
spaces
anycompanypettyenoughtonotcountspacesisacompanytostayawayfrom. Who'spocketdoyouthinkthe$forthespacesislining? Quite frankly, I've been a med trans for nearly 30 years and I'm so damned tired of watching big business cut into our means of living. How did all this start anyways? Used to be in the old days that we were all just ICers looking to make a living, and we did in fact make a decent living. Then came the introduction of nationals and everyone ran to them thinking they'd be making BIG money.......Now the nationals are in place and their CEOs are making the bucks we thought we'd get a piece of. Wish there were a way of reversing this.
Spaces
She's lying. MQ does NOT PAY FOR SPACES. They treat their transcriptionists like crap. I found this out and left them. I found it out for a fact.... They do NOT PAY FOR SPACES. They have started this "trend" and other companies have begun to follow suit. They make me physically ill.
Spaces
Been there 2-1/2 months. Love it. Plenty of work.
Issue: Spaces. Recruiter said no spaces. Trainer said no spaces.
On the line count screen, clicked on one of my reports, then had an option to look at payroll stuff on it, so I did. It added up not only every single character I typed but spaces AND carriage returns (I had 719 spaces and 56 carriage returns) and used that number divided by 65 for my line count. NO KIDDING. I am surprised.
Who knew?! I'm excited! 
spaces
Was this on DQS? And could you give more detail on how you did this (i.e., what exactly did you click on to get this info?). Thanks!
spaces
I was told years ago that I was not paid for spaces on the account that I was on, but some accounts were. It depended upon how it was set up when they won the account. I think that's why there are some who are and some who are not, thus the confusion. The only way to know is to manually count your lines and compare them to what the system counts.
10 cpl with spaces. nm
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What about spaces?
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no spaces
I kind of messed up my original post. I meant to say that spaces are not included. Thanks.
I think w/o spaces is 30% less than with spaces. nm
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They do pay for spaces
At one time they did not pay for spaces but they do now. They are fine to work for- I have worked there 3 years and have never had a problem. They do not lie to us and they don't make anyone work 7 days. They are a stickler for quality.
Pay me for your spaces or else...
If they don't want to pay for them they must not feel they're important...just don't type them and then see what they say. : )
Spaces vs not
Take one of your old documents and figure it out both ways, even if you don't have a line counting program, do it in MS word and that will figure both ways and then you can see the difference and divide and see what percentage you are losing for no spaces. At least that will show you the difference between the two.
2 spaces
client probable couldn't care less.....but correct way is 2.
I would take 17 cpl with no spaces any day
Geez what do you people want?
spaces vs no spaces
Take a document and count with and without spaces and times it by your cpl rate to see what the difference is. Very easy to do. If you don't have a document, type a page or even a paragraph and even using microsoft word count, do the same. It shows you with and without spaces and you can see the difference.
Curious how do you make any money as it sounds like your doctor's office only pay 9 cpl (they are cheap and I can only charge 9 cpl) or did you mean you pay your IC 9 cpl and are not stating what you charge your accounts?
Pay with no spaces
Would some of the MTs who work with no spaces but do get headers mind sharing what their pay actually is? For me, I always break it down to what I am averaging an hour. After 15 years this just keeps going down , along with less benefits, and I am also starting to reevaluate my "career" choice.
Spaces vs. non - sm
When the company I worked for was going to IC status for everyone, and changing to not paying for spaces, I worked out the difference between several documents - it amounted to about a 28% difference - in other words, the line count was 28% less if they didn't pay for spaces. Pretty big chunk of change, so I left that company.
2 spaces
In WORD - tools, options, spelling and grammar - setting bottom right - change to 2 spaces after period - top right of the window that opens up
Spaces vs no spaces
What do you think of getting paid 12 cents a line/65 cpl, no hard returns or spaces?
Spaces vs no spaces
IC.
Spaces vs no spaces
Thanks for all the input! I will see when I get my first check. I will keep you posted!
I do 2 spaces
I have always done two spaces because that was the way I was taught, and I think it looks better and is easier on the eyes too. I do agree though that if you are not getting paid for spaces, then just do a single space.
Well, I use 2 spaces.....
...but that may be because I learned to type way back in the dark ages before computers were in wide use.
According to the AAMT Book of Style for Medical Transcription (2nd edition), page 66:
"When using a proportional-spaced font it is customary to mark the end of the sentence with a single space; however, double-spacing is still widely used, especially with non-proportional fonts, such as Courier. The choice is usually determined by departmental or company policy."
That would seem to indicate that the single space is now the preferred method; however, it depends on the company.
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