Dictionaries in Connection Magic: A Fresh Approach

© BrenDeBev (all publication rights reserved)

One of the more important aspects of working with editing teams in Connection Magic is ensuring that the globals made by team members go into the proper dictionary so that the realtime translation consistently improves.  One of the more tedious aspects of working with multiple dictionaries is analyzing and combining them for the next day’s session.

25023767 - 3d man thinking with red question marks over white backgroundCommon wisdom and recommendation would suggest putting the carefully built case-specific dictionary into Slot 1, leaving the Job slot open for the Eclipse-generated filename dictionary, where conflicts and Auto-Briefs are stored – conflicts for use by scopists and ABs to be reviewed later by the reporter.

While working in Connection Magic jobs, however, dictionaries are shared.  As the reporter uses Auto-Briefs and team members make globals and choose conflicts, all of that data is updated and combined in realtime and can be pointed to one case dictionary, negating the need for the reporter to comb through and combine dictionaries at the end of a long day or use multiple job dictionaries with possible redundant entries.

Here are a few steps to easily streamline this process for greatest efficiency:

Reporters:

  • Send both main and case dictionaries to all editing team members.
  • Load the case dictionary in the Job slot in Dictionaries (F9).  For day-to-day matters, do this in the master user settings (Alt+U, Dictionaries) so it loads automatically when a new file is opened.

Editing team:

  • Direct all globals to the Job dictionary in the Edit tab of user settings.
  • Put both dictionaries in the reporter-specific user. Load the main dictionary in the Main slot.  The job dictionary will load with the Connection Magic file.   

With the case dictionary in the Job slot and globals and conflict info pointing to that dictionary and flowing to all team members, the reporter’s translation will steadily improve from day to day, making the realtime feed cleaner and impressing the end user – your client.

Perfect Partners Transcript Brigade understands the importance of dictionary building during Connection Magic jobs. Let us help you make your realtime sparkle!

Leave a Reply