Return to Documentation

Dictate Tab

A great feature for your clients: Dictation with no cost of a recorder or long-distance dictation tanks!

When ScriptWave was developed, we realized that web-based services had a number of limitations when integrating to typist and physician computers and networks.  Other services required digital recorder files to be imported and copied to web sites through a manual process.

With ScriptWave, developers saw the need to create direct services to the physician and typists, and one of the most desirable services was direct dictation.  In some services, physicians are asked to call a long-distance number and dictate work over phone.  Others require digital dictation devices but exclude tape.  ScriptWave can operate with digital dictation recorders (See Dictation Import Screen), but will also accept direct dictation through a microphone or a direct connection to a tape player.

Step 1: Testing audio import

Connect a microphone to a microphone jack or a tape player to the auxiliary jack on the computer.   In order to make sure your connection is working properly, click on the button below and speak (or play the tape) for 3 seconds in order to test the audio level and quality. 

After 3 seconds, your audio will play back the same way a typist would hear it.  You will need to make sure the sound level reaches the Volume Low line.

If the sound level is too low, you will see an error window.  Check all of your connections and make sure your Microphone or Auxiliary (line-in) volume is not set to low or on mute.  For Microphones, we suggest using “Microphone Boost” if it is available.

Step 2: Dictating or Importing an Audio Tape

If the audio level of the test is good, you will receive the following screen:

You are ready for a full recording session.  You will see additional components on the Dictation tab.  To start recording, click the Record button and begin speaking or play the attached tape.  Watch the audio level and equalizer to see that sound is getting through to ScriptWave.

ScriptWave can record and transmit dictation or tapes in 1-hour (or smaller) chunks.  There is no limit to the number of 1-hour files that can be sent in a day.  You are able to stop the recording at any time and perform basic editing or playback what you have recorded.

In order to stop the recording, click on Stop.

To listen to part of your recording, drag the progress bar back and select playback.

If you wish to delete the portion of the recording AFTER the progress bar (in other words, remove a mistake at the end of the recording), click on CUT – Delete all voice after this point.

Warning: Once CUT is selected, SpriptWave cannot recover the audio – it is permanently deleted.

Once all recording is complete, the voice file will be compressed and sent through to the ScriptWave import routines.  Click Save this file and send to ScriptWave.  To discard all dictation (WARNING: this is permanently deleting the dictation), click on Cancel recording and discard.

NOTE: Large files may take up to 2 minutes to encode and compress into an MP3 file.  ScriptWave uses the free tool L.A.M.E. to encode the file.  More details on the L.A.M.E. tool and the open source project are available at www.mp3dev.org.

If you do not have the L.A.M.E. encoder, ScriptWave will prompt you to download it:

Once the file is compressed, you will see the ScriptWave import dialog:

The file now follows all workflow processes in ScriptWave as if the MP3 file was imported from a digital recorder.

Recovering dictation after a crash

If for some reason, you are dictating or recording a tape in ScriptWave and your personal computer crashes (power failures, Windows problems or ScriptWave problems), ScriptWave’s recorder keeps 2 additional backup copies while you are recording.  These backups are refreshed every 2 minutes and will prevent an unexpected crash from losing a large amount of work.

See the buttons at the bottom of the Dictate tab.

IMPORTANT – As soon as you restart ScriptWave after a crash, return to the Dictate tab and run the audio test.  DO NOT START A NEW RECORDING.  If you do, both backups will be overwritten by the new recording session.

Instead, click on either of the EMERGENCY buttons to see which one has a more complete backup of your prior dictation.  Once you have found the one with the best backup copy, click Record to continue dictation.

After you are recording, follow the normal ScriptWave process to complete the file.