The Typed Competition: EasyScript and NoteScript

My son is starting to use an AlphaSmart in school because of his handwriting. (Cheap laptop, well-designed for the school market.) Naturally, I went to the library and looked into shorthand that can be used for the computer.

Question: Has anyone adapted Gregg for a keyboard? I looked at the font in documents here, but I'm not sure if all of the frequent shapes are easy to type. Has anyone tried it at any speed? He and I would be the only two who could read it, but making a system so transparent that teachers could read it might defeat the purpose.

++++

EasyScript, using book EasyScript Express. There are also 3 books in a series, but the Express book doesn't give any indication that they exist. The website is really big on "only five rules!" Heavily copyrighted.

Blech!!! It really is only five rules and some brief forms / prefixes / suffixes. It can be summarized on one essay-style page, complete with brief forms, prefixes and suffixes. There's no difference between written and typed.

They let you use brief forms from another system, if it comes naturally to you. They also recommend you get your entire company to use it, so you can all share notes. Am I alone in seeing a problem?

They sell dictation tapes up to 120 wpm, but I question its readability if you're reading outside your field. E.g. "chc" is "choice", "chp" is "chip". I know that advanced Gregg leaves out a lot of letters, but Gregg begins with rules, so you know which letters are safest to leave out, and you can go through the rules to see which one you might have used. (E.g. M could mean M or MENT.) I can see new users of EasyScript, after their half-day course, leaving out way too much, with no feel for how difficult it will be to read later.

Also, you can't always tell whether a letter is a pre/suffix, or part of the root. More complexity.

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NoteScript, from NoteScript, 1966 . Only two titles on AbeBooks, both old, same author. Meaning either he held on to the copyright, or no one wanted it.

Blech, but not as bad as EasyScript.

He starts with the 100 most common words, and a simplified alphabet. Maybe a dozen blends. About the same level of simplification as Forkner, but different letters. Not nearly as simplified as TeeLine.

Very few changes between written and typed.

Coming from Forkner, I see places he could have saved strokes. "SH" is two separate, full letters. "TH" is the bar of the T and a full H. A feature is that capitals don't mean anything different from the lower-case, since systems where they do are as difficult as symbol shorthand to learn. Retain silent letters where they give the word a distinctive shape. Yeah, faster to learn, but...

He has good advice about research notes, where you have to be very exact, to the point of repeating mis-spellings. If using initials in your notes, but they're spelled out in the text, circle them. Squiggly underline words mis-spelled in the original text.

He allows some customization, but recommends you decide on them early. (I'm against free-form customization before you know the system -- too much chance of a conflict with later chapters.)

100 brief forms for the 100 most common words, maybe 50 pre/suffixes. Use a period after several abbreviations, so you know they're abbreviations.

I only spent a few hours on it, compared to years with Forkner, so I may be biased, but I think Forkner is a stronger system for personal notes. The extra freedom in NoteScript may make sharing notes difficult.

Cheers!






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