Tips for Making the Most of Summation Realtime

What The Attorney Will Need To Use Summation Realtime

• Pentium PC-compatible computer with 32MB RAM and Windows95/98 or Windows NT 4.0 (or higher)
• Summation Blaze 5.2 or higher (single user version)
• Available serial port

What The Court Reporter Will Need To Use Summation Realtime

• CAT (Computer Aided Transcription software) system with Realtime software
• Standard Realtime cable configurations
• Ability to send live text using a CaseView serial output setting
• 9 pin serial port connectors
• A digital sharing device (if you have multiple Realtime users)

1. Connect your notebook PC to the Court Reporter's Realtime PC using 9-pin serial port realtime cables.
2. Launch Summation and click on the Realtime icon at the top left of your screen.
3. You'll be prompted to name your Realtime transcript. After the transcript has been named, click OK and a Wizard will walk you through the remainder of the set-up process.
4. Select the first option - I want to connect locally to the Court Reporter's Realtime Computer -- from the Setup Options screen, and click Next.
5. The Connect Locally dialog will appear. Select COM port 1, and have the Court Reporter key in some text. If no text appears on your screen, select the next port. When several lines of text feed across your screen, click Next.
6. When the You Are Connected screen appears, you are connected. Wait until all other attorneys present are connected, and the Court Reporter is On The Record, then click on Finish. Sample text will disappear when the Finish button is clicked.

Some Basic Functions You Can Perform With Summation Realtime

Quick-Marking

You can quickly mark a line of testimony during the live text feed by pressing the spacebar on your keyboard. When you Quick Mark testimony, you create an empty note tablet. You can return to Quick Marked testimony at any time to add your own notes, or other coding information. You can easily revisit quick-marked points by clicking on the Previous Notes icon.

Scrolling Through Testimony, Paging Up/Down

By returning to earlier testimony, you'll be able to review what the deponent said earlier in the day. More important, you'll be able to see exactly how you phrased an earlier question, and how the witness phrased their answer, so that you can pose more effective follow-up questions. You can return to earlier portions of testimony by clicking on the Page Up key on your keyboard, or by using the Scroll bar on the right. You can return to the current point in the proceedings by clicking on the Scroll icon on your toolbar, or pressing the End key on your keyboard.

Annotating Realtime Testimony

You can annotate Realtime testimony just as you annotate a transcript in Summation. Just place your cursor to the left of line you wish to annotate and double-click. A note tablet will appear. You can add notes/issues at the time annotations are made, or later in the session.

Revisiting Marked Testimony -- Displaying A Report

The Transcript Report displays three different types of notes contained in your transcript: Quick Marks, issue-coded notes, and "regular" notes. You can display all notes or any combination of the three types by clicking on the Quick Mark, Issues, and/or Notes buttons in the toolbar. Notes can be sorted by page-line or issue.

1. Click on the Report icon on the far left of the Realtime toolbar.
2. Click on the icon representing the type of marked testimony you'd like to view - Quick Marks, Issues (issue-coded notes), and/or Notes (regular notes).

Searching The Session

Your Realtime deposition can be full-text searched at any time to find references to a person, event, or any other information you might wish to locate.

1. Click the cursor in the Quick Search Box.
2. Type the term you'd like to search for.
3. Click on the Search Binoculars. Summation will take you to the first occurrence of your search term, which will appear highlighted.
4. You can go to subsequent hits in your transcript by clicking on the Search Binoculars.
5. Click on the Scroll icon on your toolbar, or press the End key on your keyboard to return to the current point in the proceedings.

Disconnecting & Re-connecting within a Session

In certain situations, you may need to disconnect from the Realtime session temporarily. Disconnecting from the session can be done by simply clicking on the Disconnect button on the toolbar. You can re-connect: 1) after leaving the realtime transcript open for the period you disconnected for; 2) after exiting Summation or shutting down your computer (e.g., during a lunch break) and returning to the session later on that day.

Re-connecting after Leaving the Transcript Open

Re-connect this way if you did not close the transcript (or transport your laptop anywhere), and are resuming your Realtime deposition with the same witness.

1. Click on the Connect button on the toolbar.
2. Summation Realtime asks if you want to connect to a new session. Click on No to resume your previous session.

Re-connecting the Same Day after Exiting the Transcript

Re-connect this way if you exit Summation and shut down your computer for any extended period of time (lunch, for example).

1. Run Summation. If necessary, open the case containing the realtime transcript to which you want to re-connect.
2. Click on the Realtime icon.
3. Click on the Resume Session button to reconnect to the live text feed with the same witness from earlier in the day.

Updating the Draft

When the Court Reporter sends you the official transcript, you can easily update the draft copy created during the Realtime session, with notes intact.

1. Open the case with the Realtime transcript you want to update.
2. Right click on the transcript you want to update and select Update Transcript from the context menu.
3. The Transcript Update dialog appears, indicating the name of the Realtime transcript and the filename it will be renamed to after the update.
4. Place the disk containing your final transcript in your floppy disk drive. Click on the Browse button and browse to the location of the final transcript file (usually on the a:drive). Click on the filename to select it, then click on OK.
5. The path and filename you selected in step #4 are now displayed on the "With" line. Verify that this information is correct.
6. Click on Update. Realtime analyzes the two transcripts, backs up the rough draft transcript, then updates final transcript with the notes from the draft.
7. When the update is complete, a dialog appears indicating the number of notes updated. Click on OK to continue.
8. Click on Close to exit the Transcript Update dialog.
9. You now have a copy of the final transcript that includes any notes you made in the draft. The draft is saved should you want to review it.