Linecounts

Introduction

The Scribe MT platform provides total flexibility in determining separate character/line counts for payment purposes for transcriptionists vs. billing purposes for customers.   Formulas for payment and billing can be set down to the individual group level.

Counting Characters and Lines

The MT Platform provides the ability count several distinct types of elements within documents produced by transcriptionists – from bold and underscore to graphics and images.  These elements include:

Items with "Range" after them indicate that the formula includes credit for the keystrokes necessary to turn on and off again the formatting for a range of text.

Items with "Number" after them indicate that the formula issues a credit for each item.

Characters are counted throughout an entire document including, headers, footers, text boxes, notes, and tables.  For each of these elements a different weight can be given to derive a total number of characters.  In the example below, for each bold range a weight of 2 has been given to account for the two keystrokes to begin and end bold.

The total counts for each of these elements in the document are multiplied by the weights and then combined into a formula to achieve a total number of characters for a given document.  Formulas for calculating characters and lines can be set down to the individual group level on the platform.  This total character count is then divided by the number of characters per line (default of 65) to come up with a line count for the document.

This is the formula by which the system finds the line count for each document typed:

(characters * character multiplier) + (bold ranges * bold multiplier) + (underline ranges * underline multiplier) + (italic ranges * italic multiplier) + (caps range * caps multiplier) + (symbols * symbol multiplier) DIVIDED BY (chars/line) – (template lines * template multiplier)

In the example above, note that the Rounding is set to "Ceiling" which means that if the count of all the line in the template is less than a whole number, that the number of lines will be adjusted up to the next whole number of lines. Other choices in the drop down menu include "Floor" whic will adjust the line count down to the next whole number of lines, and "Round" which will round the line count in the document to the nearest number of lines.

Documents created from templates have the ability to have an initial character/line count set for each of these categories.  This count can be manually adjusted by the MT administrator.  This allows for the system to figure out how much work was actually produced by the MT.

Paying Transcriptionists

Each individual MT Group has its own formula to determine the total character/line counts.  As each MT finishes their work on a document, the character and line counts are updated for that document so that they can understand their productivity.  The line count displayed for the MT includes the net total of any initial character/line count associated with the template, as determined by the formula by which template lines are credited the MT (see Setting Line Count Items for a detailed description of how to properly set these credits and or deductions).  All reports in the MT platform administrative section See Running MT Administrative Reports) report statistics based on the “net” character counts that result from their individual formulas.

Billing Customers

Each individual customer group has its own formula to determine the total character/line counts for their documents.  These formulas can either be gross with no deduction for templates or net of template counts.   Pricing for lines can also be set at the individual group level.  All customer reports shown on the MD platform will reflect the character/line count formula for that customer as well as their individual price.

Summary

For more information on the Scribe MT Platform and its capabilities please call Scribe sales at 866-SCRIBE-2 or email sales@scribe.com

Symbols/Special Characters Information

Anything other than the following characters are counted as symbols:

\ A-Za-z0-9 , - . / [ ] spaces, ' = `  and line breaks (paragraphs)

Which basically any keyboard character that requires a “shift” key to be pressed and other symbols that have to be uniquely inserted.

Shapes

Shapes are images, drawings, autoshapes, and other “image-related” items.