Express Scribe is great

Well, I've taken the plunge and made the switch to Express Scribe – undoubtedly the best transcription tool out there for the Mac. I used to have to use the Olympuss DSS Player software for transcription and to make my life easier, I typed on my iMac, using my PowerBook for playback. But with Express Scribe's hotkeys, I can control playback while I'm typing in Word, so I only have to use my PowerBook.

I have only a few gripes: compared with the Windows version, the number of supported audio codecs is very small; I have to convert all my DSS files into AIF files before I can use them in Express Scribe, something which increases their size ten times and takes some time as well. It's also hard to get Express Scribe to recognise files with drag and drop: it only appears to load files if you double click on them - I suspect it has type/creator code issues. Lastly, there have been a couple of AIF files that played fine in QuickTime Player and DSS Player but broke up completely in Express Scribe, which suggests there's something slightly buggy with the import procedure.

Otherwise though, it's great and I'd thoroughly recommend it.

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