DICT8 Plus (new November 2022)

[Whitestar55]

Hi, Here we go again, anyone else set up a new thread yet? Hope to find everyone 🙂

Don't let the feedback get you down, we've all had it and they can be vicious sometimes. It can really dent your confidence. I just skim over whatever ridiculous thing it is they're moaning about and then delete. It lessens over time. When you're new they check every single file and will always find something to complain about. Eventually they leave you alone apart from the occasional thing. Most of it is totally trivial and like a previous poster said the checkers have to justify their existence.

@nomadchild @Lovemydaxie

Thanks for the advice. I always thought it was nonsense, my typing is up to scratch - it’s a skill you hone and I haven’t lost it! My letters were fine. It makes so much sense that they are waged/salaried and need to justify it! Picky to the extreme.

The feedback means nothing to me as they do not allow you access to the letter. For all I know they could be making it up and believe me I have had some random feedback that I have queried and got some even more random rubbish thrown back at me (viciously) !!!

It takes some time to understand exactly what they want regarding their template format, and some dictations don't fit into the template easily. I've been with Dict8 well over 10 years and still get feedback, we all do, and it still pees me off. Another thing that those of you new to Dict8 need to also be aware of is that anything that's typed in the notes box is not added to our line count. You might have noticed that in their information for clients they state that office instructions/notes to their secretaries can will be transcribed into this note box, meaning the client doesn't have to pay for it, but we the transcribers have to spend our time and effort typing it for nothing, and while they may only pop up occasionally they are getting more frequent and some are a few lines long. Over the course of the month this can add up to a few lost pounds for us. This isn't stated in our contracts and is only briefly mentioned in the transcribers manual. I think this is so wrong in principle, as we are providing a free pa/messaging service and even though we have the choice to type tasks containing these messages, Dict8 are obviously expecting someone to type it eventually.

Sorry for the errors, I'm using my phone. That should say ....and even though we have the choice to type tasks containing these messages or not.....

Haha well. I’ve just spoken to my husband who works for a trade union and knows employment law inside out - no legal avenue other than for us to unionise and use collective bargaining to demand better conditions… of course he’d say that! 😅

When I started I thought highlighting a note was all that was needed !! Having to type many lines of unpaid text is one reason why I will be applying to T-Pro. Being asked to state the reason why you have added a not i.e. spelling of names etc. would be obvious to anyone wouldn't it ?

@Staralfur that may not be too bad an idea - if its the only way to stop being ripped off it's definitely a route worth looking into

@nomadchild thanks very much for both your input. I did say I'd covered two specialities and been typing two others when work had dried up for us in our department at the time. Strange about references when Dict8 would only take me on with one.

I'll sit back and see what happens then :)

Why do you think, I chose my forum name? Because of the feedback, these wonderful people kept me sane albeit I'm still frazzled. Yeah it keeps coming, I think I got a month free of no feedback and thought I was doing well. they much have all had covid or something.

I've been cheesed off lately due to emails telling me to relisten to the dictation, do they not have a camera on me? Of course, I listen back and listen back on uber slow if the dictation is dire which is why I type what I hear and twice over.. have they not heard the comedy sketches where people hear and sing the wrong lyrics, its that subtle but with bad quality and a foreign accent it can be far worse, though sometimes I have better speaking foreign accents than English at 100mph.

I know I've sent the email to Tpro, but I'm seriously rethinking my income streams!

Wondered if someone could give advice please. In Dict8 in User Guide it says 67 characters per line. I have been doing Dict8 for 3 years now and am averaging 99 characters per line (without counting the spaces). I contacted Dict8 not too long after I started working for them outlining this issue but in my opinion was blinded by science with the reply and did not at that time feel confident enough to challenge the reply.

I always check the line count to see if these extra characters are culminating in extra lines, but that is not the case.

I have gone into my settings to alter text size to 150% but this makes no difference to the Dict8 template when typing. I have also altered my Microsoft Word text size, just in case Dict8 template is picking this up, but this makes no difference.

I have once again contacted Dict8 to again explain this issue to them and am just awaiting their reply. Does anyone else have the same issue?

@Furnessgal Hi, they pay you 8 pence for every 65 (I don't think it's 67) characters you type (in the main transcript box), regardless of how many characters are in an actual line on the screen as that doesn't matter and will vary from line to line anyway. I think if the overall character count in the task doesn't divide equally into 65, we are paid 8 pence for the remaining characters that total an amount less than 65, but I'm not certain about that. I'm not certain I've understood your question properly, so apologise if not.

I have an email saying it is 8p per 67 characters

Thanks, I could be wrong, I'll dig out my old contract and see what it says.

Yes I was wrong, just found this....The system uses an aggregate line count with a 67 character line, ignoring carriage returns.......

It's still a mystery what happens to the characters that add up less than 67, you would think the line count is taken from the tasks typed collectively since the last invoice, but it shows the line count for individual tasks in that list of completed tasks, which I assume are totalled up for the overall line count for the next invoice. Whatever though, I wish we were paid more.

Thank you all for your replies.

Not sure whether I’ve explained this properly. I feel that I am typing equivalent of 1 1/2 lines every time I’m typing a line seeing as Dict8 format says 67 characters per line and I am typing circa 99 characters per line. I have actually asked if they can amend their template font as I think it is set at 10 instead of 12.

I’m quite interested what the reply will be from Dict8

@Furnessgal - as far as I understand it we are paid per line, with each line made up of 67 characters. If you type 67 characters that = one line = 8p. If you type a letter of 69 characters or 85 characters or 101 characters it still = one line =8p, if you type 134 characters = two lines = 16p. Characters are not held over to the next letter if they equal a line and a bit. I believe spaces do count as a character (but not sure about the two spaces at the end of each sentence, that might still count as one character as it does with TPro).

@Gally123 that's a terrible deal isn't it, not only are we typing in the notes box for free, but we are also not being paid for all the characters in the main box. Also, do Dict8 actually add spaces to the character count? I thought they didn't.

Its all very confusing.
I always thought it was type 67 characters and that equaled a line. I thought it was at the end where the whole document was counted up so say if the whole document you had typed had 1000 characters in it regardless of some lines being over 67 the characters of the whole document was counted and then divided by 67 to get the amount of lines done and any surplus was either rounded up to either count a line or we lost them. Its all very confusing

@carosel2 It's all so very vague in the manual and the contract. I think we deserve an explanation as to how the pay is worked out exactly.

@Whitestar55 - yep I agree! 👍

@Furnessgal The font size doesn't matter. The line count of 67 characters will be the same whether the font size is set at 10 or 12 or any other figure. It doesn't matter how many characters are on a physical line, but just the how many characters overall split into groups of 67 (making up the lines). What matters is that you'll be paid 8 pence for 67 characters. However, no none seems to know what happens to any extra characters that don't add up to 67, are they rounded up to make a line anyway or are they discarded?

The way I had it explained to me is that all the characters once document is complete are divided by 67 and any surplus rounded up to make another line.....if that makes sense.

@Chrissols Thanks, that makes sense. Did they say whether we are paid for spaces, and for markers e.g. [1] [2], and the characters in the notes (ALT N) box?