Tech & Tribulations - Express Scribe

Sorry buddy, digital recorders and Express Scribe make you obsolete. Courtesy of MCT Campus.

How many of you purchased a shiny new MacBook Pro or a powerhouse Windows 7 laptop before you started your studies at Kent State University? And answer me this: do you feel like you lack the knowledge to maximize your productivity through software or knowledge of your machine?

If you answered yes to both of the questions above, you are in luck. I present to you my weekly column, Tech & Tribulations. Keep your eyes on this spot for your weekly dose of technology advice, guidance and entertainment.

I start off with a spotlight on a piece of software I recently started utilizing in my journalistic pursuits. Express Scribe, a free download, is a piece of software available for Mac and Windows machines designed to help with audio transcription.

So, journalists who favor the voice recorder for interviews can play back the audio in this application and use keyboard hot keys to control playback. For example, on my set up, I use F5 for play, F6 for stop and F7 for rewind. This is extremely convenient as you listen to an interview and want to either A. Take down what was said verbatim or B. Take notes.

Not only do you have these playback hot keys, but there is also an area attached to each file from your voice recorder to take notes directly in the application. No need to constantly switch between audio playback and a word processor. You can save the notations and email them to anyone else within Express Scribe.

I can see this application proving extremely useful for individuals who record lectures. Now, you can take your recorder back home with you, dock it to your laptop, fire up Express Scribe, relive the riveting lecture and take notes, all within the same application.

So, whether you are a journalism student using a dedicated voice recorder in your work or you use your iPhone to record your Microeconomics lecture while you sleep off a hangover, check out Express Scribe. This is one application that makes too much sense to not use.