http://community.businessballs.com Use the search box for several articles on shorthand and exam technique.

Pitman for Geeks
www.shorthand.mkz.com/default.html General points on the system, a simplified and entertaining introduction to the general principles before you start your Pitman's Shorthand course in earnest. Writer based in Ontario, Canada.

Shorthand Untangled
www.shorthand-untangled.co.uk
Web forum, articles and shop.

Shorthand Shorthand Shorthand
http://shorthandshorthandshorthand.com
Devoted to pen shorthand, mainly Gregg but everyone welcome. History, tips and good advice from a shorthand enthusiast, and an especially interesting page comparing shorthand writer versus tape recorder.

ShorthandTracey
http://shorthandtracey.co.uk & http://shorthandtranscription.co.uk  Offers Pitman's New Era Shorthand transcription service for those intriguing undeciphered texts or old journals you may have lying around. Based in UK.

Shorthand Translation Services
http://shorthandtranslations.com Translations from Gregg by Ms Letha Sanders and staff, based in Colorado USA. Their related website www.shorthandclasses.com is aimed at encouraging learners and contributors, to promote interest in shorthand of all types.

Ford Shorthand
www.fordshorthand.com An alphabet replacement, based on the same character-shortening principles as Teeline. There are no rules, it is 100% legible and accurate, with negligible learning time. You can double your writing speed almost instantly. Journalists without shorthand and students of all ages would benefit hugely. Worth a try by those with hand problems e.g. stiffness, cramp, as there is less to write and neatness can be maintained. It may also possibly help those with poor sight, as the characters are plainer. Free to use but please see website for terms of use.

Ford Shorthand sample. I wish I had known something like this in my schooldays!

Polish Shorthand
www.stenografia.pl and blog.stenografia.pl All aspects of shorthand - description, history, current uses, and an invitation to help the author create an efficient shorthand system for the Polish language. Written in Polish but accessible through Google's translate option.

Hindi Shorthand
http://shorthandhouse.com Author has devised his own shorthand, based on Pitman's, both in English and Hindi, and is active in promoting the learning of shorthand and associated office skills, to create and increase employment prospects. He aims to further develop Sanskrit shorthand. Self-learning books offered for those who are unable to take advantage of other forms of instruction. Writer based in New Delhi, India.

www.archive.org/details/hindishorthandma005141mbp Adaptation of Pitman's Shorthand to Hindi language, published in 1925, but bear in mind it may be based on pre-New Era Pitman's. Introduction in English and remainder in Hindi characters. Read on-screen or download as PDF or other formats. Archive Terms of Use – generally scholarship and research purposes only http://www.archive.org/about/terms.php

The are many shorthand sites and articles to be found but no website alone can replace professional tuition and graded instruction books – the best route to gaining a good working skill in shorthand. If you come across a less-than-encouraging blog about the "difficulties" of shorthand, please remember that the initial frustrations do pass as you work through the lessons and build your skill, and they should not be allowed to deflect you from your goal. You can easily learn in months, not "years" as is often quoted, if you apply yourself to it methodically. Demolish the distractions and share the victories, rather than the other way around!

SHORTHAND ARTICLES

Teeline Shorthand's Blog by holdthefrontpage staff
www.ipernity.com/blog/38906/home  Many interesting shorthand articles with good advice on learning and exam technique, useful for students of all systems.

Hold The Front Page
www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk Everything of interest to the would-be journalist, with an occasional shorthand article.

Up To Speed Journalism
http://uptospeedjournalism.co.uk/find-out-more/shorthand NCTJ accredited journalism training and fast-track Teeline shorthand courses, based in Bournemouth UK – students' accomplishments are always an encouragement to learners of all shorthand systems, and a reminder that the skill is still valued and necessary.

Wannabehacks
http://wannabehacks.co.uk/student/2011/04/11/the-unconfined-joy-of-passing-100wpm-shorthand-and-why-everyone-can-do-it Encouraging short article by a Teeliner with tips for success.

Shorthand Sue Teaches Teeline
www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB5606B7DCFF8668E
or http://jmu-journalism.org.uk/shorthand-sues-video-masterclass/
Six informative YouTube videos on Teeline basics, produced for Journalism course at Liverpool John Moores University.

Computerised shorthand
http://home.tu-clausthal.de/~rzsjs/steno/Pitman.php Created by Stanislav Sarman of TU Clausthal University, Germany. This converts samples of your text into Pitman 2000 on screen. Further description: www.tug.org/tugboat/tb30-3/tb96sarman.pdf

Please note that it is not 100% accurate, and therefore should not be used to actually learn the system, as the learner will not know which are the incorrect outlines. Outlines that it cannot produce are displayed as a shorthand question mark.

DICTATION

See Dictation page for notes on how you can make use of fast speaking for practice.

Online Stopwatch
www.online-stopwatch.com Stopwatch, countdown, metronome and various timers. If you count down for one minute and repeat a line-length sentence of shorthand down the page, you can find out your speed with minimal amount of calculating - words in sentence times lines completed. Create a sentence with all your favourite flowing outlines and phrases to get maximum confidence-boosting wpm!

Incorporated Phonographic Society
www.the-ips.org.uk "The world's oldest society of shorthand writers" This society has been going since 1898 and meets at the Bishopsgate Institute in London. They offer live weekly dictation, speed examinations for both typewriting and shorthand (any system, from 50 wpm to 280 wpm), and a quarterly IPS Journal. Writers of all shorthand systems are welcome, and membership and visitor's fees are minimal. When you visit their website, I am quite sure you will like the (Pitman's) shorthand in their logo, as it will help you add to your list of useful contractions!

Listen-To-English
www.listen-to-english.com "The podcast website for people learning English" Learning combined with enjoyment in a non-commercial Ipod-friendly site dedicated to improving English comprehension. Points of language are illustrated within interesting, informative and topical articles, along with photograph, some of the words linked to a dictionary, and some linked to other websites for further exploration of the subject matter. You can also listen online (3 to 5 minutes each) or download MP3. There is an archive of past articles and if you save both the text and the MP3s, you will have a huge store of good quality dictation material and you can improve speed and speech simultaneously. The conversational tone will provide plenty of practice on the most common words, but not letting you off some shorthand dictionary work. The voice is English male and is clearly spoken. The average speed of the podcasts is approximately 120 wpm. Author: Peter Carter of Birmingham, UK. See the Help page for terms of use.

TED
www.ted.com "TED is a non-profit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading"
This stands for Technology, Entertainment & Design. The website has videos of on-stage one-person talks at their conferences, up to 18 minutes, on many subjects in depth. The contributors seem well-used to public speaking, with clear enunciation. Some videos give the choice to display subtitles, and some have an interactive transcript which you can use to prepare and look up outlines. The videos can be downloaded in a choice of formats. These talks are more suited to the faster shorthand writer, but the occasional pause for audience effect or when pointing to pictures is of course greatly appreciated!

BBC World Service
www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish Lots of varied articles to read and listen to, as well as download, in crisp clear BBC English. General interest articles as well as explanations on points of language.

Stenospeed
www.stenospeed.com Free dictation sounds files to use online or download, speeds 40wpm to 230 wpm, plus word lists, for all keyboarders, typists and shorthand writers, to help improve speed, skill and vocabulary. American voices.

Steno Stream
http://stenostream.blogspot.com Lots of audio from 80 to 225 wpm. American female voice.

Stenocourtreporting
http://stenocourtreporting.blogspot.com Steno (machine) shorthand site full of further links to dictation material in a wide range of speeds, all with steno in mind but useful to pen shorthand writers, as the speeds are stated, and common words/word groups can be practised. Well worth following all the links. American voices.

Internet Archive
www.archive.org/details/ActualBusinessLettersDictatedAtVariousSpeeds Ten dictations from 1 to 4 mins, downloadable individually or zipped. Very clear American male voice. The Archive Community Audio section is worth investigating – radio talks, news items, speeches, etc – but they are unlikely to be spoken slowly.

Teeline Online
http://teelineshorthand.org/dictationpractice.aspx Six dictations from 50 to 100 wpm, to enable you to gauge your existing speed capability, plus links to other dictation possibilities. English female voice.

Pitman Training
www.pitmanlondon.co.uk/shorthandspeed Page contains 223 audio tracks at speeds 40 to 130 wpm, all can be downloaded individually using "Save Link As...". There is also a PDF giving excellent and extensive advice on speed training techniques, well worth reading by learners of any system. English male and female voices.

Pitman Training Audio Library
www.pitmantrainingaudio.com/movie.htm Lots of dictations of isolated words, short sentences/letters/passages at very slow speeds (30-50 wpm).  Lessons 1 & 2 suitable for Teeliners only (they list the Teeline characters), Lessons 3 to 14 useful for anyone. Each Lesson consists of several dictations. I suggest you use the Pause/Play button for typing out the passages, in order to look up and drill outlines, and not for when you practise the dictations! English male voice.

www.nctj.com/resources/shorthand.html National Council for the Training of Journalists shorthand resources section contains seven MP3 dictation downloads, one each at 60 to 120 wpm, plus seven PDFs giving the text. More available from their shop. English female voice.

www.dictationsonline.com Very short passages from English literature, aimed at those learning to write English correctly, but slow enough to practise your shorthand on. The sentences are read at normal speed for comprehension, again very slowly twice for students to write in longhand, followed by a link to the text. Prepare the texts in shorthand beforehand to get maximum benefit. English male voice.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/machine-speed-shorthand/id281584492 300 dictations of various lengths, from 100 to 180 wpm, aimed primarily at machine stenographers. Australian female voice. Resource is provided by TAFE NSW Sydney Australia.

www.learnamericanenglishonline.com Excellent free website to help students learn English as a second language. The straightforward explanations are each accompanied by YouTube videos, spoken clearly and not too fast – practise your shorthand and improve your English at the same time. Vocabulary lists with pictures, to enable you to target the gaps in your knowledge of everyday words. The advantage of this site is that the words and phrases are the simplest and commonest ones, and sight and sound are used together to teach. The Links page gives many further sites where you can listen to spoken English. Author is an ESL (=EFL) teacher based in Minnesota, USA.

http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org Has a variety of audio and video files scattered through the sections that you can use for dictation. Even the standard short introductions to the items need not be wasted, write them down as well! Audio files can be downloaded, and some also have a PDF of the text of the talk, ideal for preparing your shorthand vocab beforehand.

http://www.eslfast.com Aimed at those learning English as a second language. There are audios throughout the site, from single sentences to whole passages, at reasonable speeds. As the text is on screen, you can prepare your outlines in advance. The single sentence audios could probably each fit on one line of the shorthand pad, so are good for drills, if you keep your non-writing hand on the mouse and click the play button repeatedly. See their resources page for links to similar sites. American male and female voices. Based in Pasadena USA.

www.spokenword.org "Find and Share Spoken Word programs" The site links to broadcasts/conversations on every topic, therefore the voices are endlessly varied, as they can come from any country. You search and play the items through their website, and save your own playlists. Based in California, USA.

http://www.biblesociety.org.uk/support-us/ygtt-2010/ "You've Got The Time" The New Testament (Contemporary English Version) can be downloaded free in 40 half-hour mp3 files. Multi-voice reading by 31 members of the Riding Lights Theatre Company, York, UK. Listen to a taster in their 4-minute Christmas Story video which I have embedded on the Shorthand Reading Christmas Carols page.  "The Bible Society exists because millions lack the Bible in a language they can understand, in a form they can use or at a price they can afford."

www.audio-bible.com The whole King James Bible in audio for you to listen to online. The website is in large font to aid the visually impaired. Please note that the sound files may not be copied or used commercially in any way, but versions are available for purchase. The reading is by Stephen Johnston, a professional American narrator. I have timed the first chapter of Genesis at 170wpm, which is slow for listening but fast for shorthand writing. At this speed, it may be more useful to prepare the passage and write lightly in pencil over the top of your ink outlines. You can halve the speed by writing every alternate sentence. Proverbs is a good chapter to start with, as the sentences are mostly quite short and do not contain unusual vocabulary or names.

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TYPING / DICTATION SOFTWARE

"Express Dictate & Express Scribe Transcription Playback"
www.nch.com.au/scribe/index.html The Dictate programme is designed to replace the dictaphone. The Scribe programme is for typing back the resultant audio files or any WAV or MP3. You can both make and take your own shorthand dictation. At bottom right of the Scribe screen there is a slider that enables you to vary the speed of speech, with pitch maintained, from 25% to 225%. You can easily halve the speed of a file but below 50% hearing the words becomes a strain and the resultant drawl may send you to sleep. The functions can also be operated via the keyboard.

The Express Dictate programme is offered as 14-day trial download before purchase, but Express Scribe is completely FREE and unrestricted, as confirmed on their page www.nch.com.au/scribe/kb/free.html.

Audacity
http://audacity.download-latest.com This simple FREE sound editing program can be used to dictate WAV or MP3 sound files, and edit or insert silences to slow the speed.

Keyblaze Typing Tutor
www.nchsoftware.com/typingtutor/index.html A very simple FREE programme for learning to touch type* which enables you see the keys layout and and be prompted for correct fingers without ever looking away from the screen. If you have to look at your fingers when typing, it is very easy to miss out a line or whole chunk of your shorthand or text copy, reducing accuracy as well as speed. It is well worth the effort learning to touch type, especially the numbers row which is often not learned as thoroughly as the others. I can assure you that, once learned, you never have to think about where the keys are, it all happens automatically at lightning speed, while you concern yourself with the subject matter. When your eyes are tired from too much screen work, you can dictate your notes to audio and then type them with your eyes shut!

*Definition: using correct finger for each key and not looking at the keyboard.

ASETNIOP Keyboard for Touchscreens
www.asetniop.com Typing on the 8 home keys only, using chording for the less frequent letters, and two other keys for shift and space. Proposed as a visible/invisible keyboard for touchscreen devices. Although still under development, you can learn and practise it, using your normal keyboard, via the easy tutorial which also introduces advanced features, such as autosuggest/complete and stenographic substitution. This is simple, neat, great fun to play with, and I shall be following progress with interest.

(In the tutorial, for the "previous" key, I had to press ESC instead to get back a page)

Screenshot of demo video

Typing to Music
http://chinstrapmusic.blogspot.com/2011/04/chin20-pitmans-gramophone-course-of.html This may bring back memories for those who learned typing to music – six recordings at approximately 3 minutes each, of music combined with metronome at increasing speeds, taken from "Pitman's Gramophone Course" 78 rpm vinyls from the beginning of the 20th century. The sixth one is more conducive to Scottish dancing and you may find your feet tapping as well as your fingers!

SHORTHAND INTEREST

Shorthand Dates This link www.gracesguide.co.uk/wiki/Sir_Isaac_Pitman_and_Sons gives a list of dates of various shorthand systems from 16th century and Pitman historical dates up to present.

Google Books: Popular Mechanics November 1914, Shorthand advertisement on page 17 A very effusive advertisement to encourage the learning of shorthand and promising huge salaries for little outlay, as do most of the advertisements in the magazine.A cartoon portrait drawn with Pitman's Shorthand outlines from 1891 at the British Library: www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/evancoll/a/largeimage73120.html

Reminiscences www.sagazone.co.uk/forums/thread/13419/?start=0 Older shorthanders and typists reminiscing on experiences of learning their skills, and the quirks of the office machinery of their time. In pre-computer days, typing and paperwork had to be got right first time, as the typewriter ribbon ink was going immediately onto the paper, and so instant accuracy was the essential – no backspacing on a screen or auto-correct, and no saving to disk of what you have typed, but only the prospect of stopping to correct multiple carbon copies for every typo. Younger learners today need to strive for typing accuracy more by willpower than mechanical necessity, a praiseworthy achievement as it develops the quality of self-determination and "stickability", and I am sure we older shorthanders are cheering them on every step of the way!

DECIPHER HISTORICAL SHORTHAND

Mount Desert Island (Maine, USA) Historical Society has some historical shorthand they would like deciphered.  “During the American Civil War, James M. Parker of Mount Desert, Maine served in the First Maine Heavy Artillery Regiment from 1861 to 1864. During the course of his service, the 23-year-old soldier wrote many letters to his 20-year-old sister Letitia. But only one two-page letter, written in October 1863, is written in shorthand.”

It is Pitman’s, seems to be one of the US variants, and it also appears that the young man was still learning the system, using full strokes for nearly everything. Scans of the shorthand are on their Facebook page, and you can also contact them via their website:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mount-Desert-Island-Historical-Society/293338594265?fref=ts

www.mdihistory.org

University of Alberta, Canada  Here is a historical piece of Pitman's Shorthand that you might like to have a go at deciphering, from the Sir Samuel Steele Collection at the University of Alberta in Canada, found scribbled on the back of one of his memoir sheets, with a request from the conservators for "any ideas?". Steele was a North West Mounted Police officer in Canada in the 19th century. I have posted my own effort at reading it, but you may be able to see instantly what I have not. http://steele.library.ualberta.ca/?p=247

LANGUAGE

Deciphering other writings
If you enjoy squiggles other than Pitman's, and languages other than English, this site www.omniglot.com/puzzles.htm has a page showing good definition photos of puzzling inscriptions, marks, writings, various shorthands and languages that the contributors would like deciphered and which you may be able to help with. The site is about languages and writing systems.

"More Words" Word game word finder
www.morewords.com Word searches for all or part of words, and much more, for word games, puzzles, crosswords, anagrams etc. It is also very useful for finding words containing the same groupings of letters, to help practise points of shorthand theory and build up vocabulary.

Apostrophe Protection Society
www.apostrophe.org.uk "The little apostrophe deserves our protection. It is indeed a threatened species!" Run by John Richards, retired reporter/sub-editor. Straightforward help to use the apostrophe correctly.

Pronunciation

www.howjsay.com Free online talking dictionary of English pronunciation with 130,000 entries.

www.soundcomparisons.com  This website from The University of Edinburgh gives "Accents of English from Around the World – hear and compare online". You choose a word from the list and a tabulation is displayed where you can hover over each regional variation to hear it spoken. This gives you some idea of the difficulties faced by any creator of a phonetic shorthand, and why your particular accent may not be faithfully recorded in Pitman's Shorthand. Fortunately our brains recognise that they are all variations on the same word, and we all end up writing Hay with Circle S for house, as below.

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MUSEUMS & PUB

Trowbridge Museum
www.trowbridgemuseum.co.uk
According to www.localauthoritypublishing.co.uk/councils/trowbridge/museum.html and http://www.widecow.com/trowbridge-museum-troutbeck the museum has a display and a book for sale about Sir Isaac Pitman's years spent in Trowbridge. Should I ever travel that way, I shall certainly go in and check it out.

Gallery of Shorthand
www.galleryofshorthand.org Museum illustrating the role of pen and machine shorthand, both pen and machine, throughout history. Located in Federal Court Central Islip, New York, USA. The links Part I, II and III on home page refer to Youtubes of interview with its director.

Early Office Museum
www.officemuseum.com  This is a website (not a physical museum) showing antique office illustrations and photographs of American offices, equipment, business training, typewriting and stenography from the 19th and early 20th century. Fascinating to view our predecessors in the art – our shorthand brothers and sisters, and fellow typists — and a great encouragement to keep this valuable skill going in our own time. Never again will you complain of having an ancient computer.

Sir Isaac Pitman Pub
in Trowbridge Wiltshire, UK, the great man's birthplace. I have not visited it, but you may wish to have your photograph taken there for your Shorthand Brag Book.
www.jdwetherspoon.co.uk/pubs/pub-details.php?PubNumber=706

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MISCELLANEOUS

Pay attention to ... what?
Throughout this website I encourage thinking of shorthand while you are out and about, looking at adverts, road and shop signs etc, and taking shorthand study material with you on your Ipod or similar device. This 32-second YouTube from www.stoptextsstopwrecks.org on the dangers of texting while walking or driving is a reminder of what can happen to the incautious:

Creative Writing
www.articlesbase.com/writing-articles/writing-fast-how-to-write-10-times-faster-guaranteed-133442.html Here is a very short article on how to focus your efforts for creative writing and authoring, using the "F.A.S.T." method to break up the process into manageable sections. Of course, all your inspired output will be done in shorthand as well, so you can get your thoughts and ideas on the page extra rapidly, and will be streets ahead of anyone else using the method! Author Jeff Bollow.

Cloud Appreciation Society
http://cloudappreciationsociety.org You used to see pictures in the clouds, and now you see clouds that look like shorthand outlines. This website has amazing and very beautiful photos of "Clouds that look like things" from contributors worldwide, a good place to spend some of your relaxing time between practice sessions.

The Hunger Site
http://www.thehungersite.com and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osE_0s5OjUA
"The Hunger Site was founded to focus the power of the Internet on a specific humanitarian need: the eradication of world hunger." Every time you click the button on their site, their site sponsors pay for cups of food.

Smile International
www.smileinternational.org and http://uk.youtube.com/smileinternational
Registered charity No. 1079730

Smile International is a humanitarian aid charity whose aims are "to relieve suffering and poverty through the distribution of humanitarian aid and long-term development projects." They have volunteering opportunities in the UK and around the world – a use for every skill you can name, from IT consultants and builders, to blanket knitters, all equally valued and valuable.

Smile provides education, literacy and job skills programmes to enable people in poor areas to join the working world and support themselves. Imagine that every piece of writing in the world was in a shorthand you couldn't read, you would need urgent help from those in a more privileged position. Smile is doing this and much more.

Check them out at www.charity-commission.gov.uk

Weathercharts
www.weathercharts.org

Comprehensive set of links to a huge number of weathercharts, ideal for professionals, hobbyists, students and travel arrangements.

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