Mixing the Old and the New
Sharon, Many good points: In retrospect to the transition to IT, I think the most overwhelming fear is financial. When an MT is paid strictly by the line, the fear of not getting a paycheck clouds openness to a new way of doing things. For me, transitioning to MS Word was scary enough, so having IT function like PRD for a time was very reassuring. Then as I said in my column, Marianne's excellent support was probably the thing that kept me persevering. The financial fear is quite legitimate. Expanders are productivity tools and the goal is therefore to expand :) productivity in as short a time as possible. This is an area where IT has evolved version after version, allowing a simpler transition. I think also that we know better now what transition plan to recommend depending on what people did before. Marianne compiled a set of recommendations for PRD users, based on her experience with a number of users. This set of recommendations is now integrated in the Manual, in Chapter 3 - Setting the Stage. Probably the second reason I was so determined to preserve my PRD file was the hours I had spent over three years building that file. I was not going to give that up without a fight! More than the time spent to build the file, it is the time spent to develop a familiarity with it. If you have memorized 2000 entries (or more) you will always be fastest with these entries. Of course, nobody can memorize 20,000 or 30,000 entries and having these additional ones can produce an increase in productivity. So the best solution is to mix the Old — the memorized entries — and the New — the compiled entries. Understanding this was one of the reasons we added "Includes," to make it easy to use the memorized entries as a base in which you "include" other glossaries compiled for different doctors. Jean Ichbiah
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