Auto-Indexing in Eclipse

Having covered the basics of auto-indexing in both the largely popular Case CATalyst and the less popular, but relatively inexpensive, DigitalCAT, I felt that it was now time to cover those basics in the other most popular CAT program, Advantage’s Eclipse.

Like Case, Eclipse uses files which are included during writing, with details filled in during editing/scoping, for auto-indexing. These included files are called Block files in Eclipse, so I will use that term throughout this post. As in my other auto-indexing tutorials, this post will focus only on creating the necessary parenthetical block file and showing how to build the index properly. Auto-indexing multiple exhibits and creating the Block files/templates which will bring in the necessary headers for each index will be covered in a later post.

Telling Eclipse where to put each index.

As in Case CATalyst, in Eclipse, you have the ability to set the place where an index should be before you build that index. Like DigitalCAT, however, in Eclipse, you must build each index separately, instead of including tables in the same Block file for all indices. In order to tell Eclipse where to put these various indices, you must go to the end of your Appearances page Block file (usually kept in the same file as your title/caption page).

1. Show codes by pressing CTRL+Shift+F10. You can hide them again by pressing the same key combination later, if you like. They will not show up in the documents when printed or saved to PDF, txt, or other formats.
2. Insert an index command by pressing Alt+N, then the letter I, and then Enter. You will see “In:” in a space between line numbers. After the colon, type the name of your index. If you already have a Block file with the headers for this index in it, the name of your index should match the filename (minus the .ecl) for this header Block file.
3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 for any indices you may wish to include in a transcript. Examination and exhibit indices are the most common, and there are also objection indices as well as indices of questions that were either certified or that a witness was instructed not to answer. Below is an example of a two-index placement code.

Notice the comment lines (they start with “Co:”). The first is just an instruction about how to build an index. The second was added by Eclipse itself after this particular file was used to build an index.

The next two lines are indices to be placed. The first, WitIndex, is this particular user’s name for an examination index, and ExhbtIndex is their exhibit index. See the “|NUMSORT” after “ExhbtIndex”? That is telling Eclipse that the ExhbtIndex should be sorted numerically by exhibit number, instead of page order, or even alphabetical order by the first letter of the exhibit descriptions.

Creating the Examination Header and Codes

If you need to have the witness’s name in your examination index, there is a code to add for that, but I will not go into that here. However, before I can get into how to create the examination headers and exhibit marking parentheticals, I will need to explain the “anatomy” of an Eclipse indexing code.

We already know that “In:” tells Eclipse that what follows pertains to an index. There are five parts of an index code, with each part separated by a pipe (|), which is Shift+\ on the keyboard, just above the Enter key:

1. The name of the index: This can be whatever you want to call it. This particular user just called the examination index they created “WitIndex,” but I have seen users who have an “x” at the beginning of all index names, probably to help them distinguish between index header Block files and other Block files, since index header files are kept in the same computer file as other Block files, unlike in Case CATalyst, which has a specific folder for Index Templates.
2. The text to be included in the index: You can type this information every time, making sure to stay between the first two pipes, but there are codes that will pull text from the next line or from fill-in fields for indices as well. “M:*” is the code for “Write ‘EXAMINATION’ and include all text on the line below this code.” As long as your next line is a BY-line, your index will copy that BY-line to your examination index.
3. The paragraph style to be used within the index: We will get into this more when we learn how to make index header Block files, but it’s a good idea to have a different paragraph style (Eclipse has many to choose from) for each index, especially if those indices have different tab stop needs. It is also a good idea not to use any of the paragraph styles specific to BY-lines, colloquy, question/answer paragraphs, etc. This particular index code uses the 8 Style paragraph style.
4. Index text: Now, we have come to two pipes together with nothing between them. This is for the text that you want to appear in the index for this item. If you don’t want any other text to appear besides what you have in the second part, just leave the pipes where they are. Truly, an examination index doesn’t typically use this part of the index, but the pipes still have to be there for the auto-indexing to work properly.
5. Positioning information regarding page/line numbers: This is where the page numbers come into the index (and line numbers, if necessary). “{TR:1}” tells Eclipse that you want something at the first tab stop, and you want it to be right-justified from that tab stop. “{P}” says that that something at tab stop 1 is the page number, and “{S}” tells Eclipse to single-space everything in this index entry. Replacing TR with TL will make it left-justified, and TC will center it, making the page number “straddle” the tab stop.

Now that we know that, we can create our examination header Block file. First, we need a blank document.

But wait! Eclipse doesn’t have a File–>New command. How do we create a blank document? Easy, try to open a document with a file name that doesn’t exist.

1. Press Ctrl+E.
2. In the box that pops up, click “BLOCK” on the left-hand side, and then click into the field next to “Name:” and type a file name that you will remember is your examination header. I recommend something like newexam.ecl (you don’t have to include the .ecl though) or examination.ecl, or something equally descriptive.
3. When the box pops up that says “____.ecl does not exist. Do you want to create it?” click “Yes,” and you’ll have your new, blank file.

Now, create your new examination header paragraph(s). For this example, I will only use the word “EXAMINATION,” but you can create a fill-in or menu field before that if you believe you will need direct, cross-, redirect, recross-, and so on examination headers as well. Fill-in/menu fields will be covered in a later tutorial.

Ignore the red text on green background in the above image. That is one of my personal settings that I use for my scoping clients so that they will know if I have made a change.

For this examination, I used a simple Centered paragraph for the word “EXAMINATION,” and then a Fixed paragraph for the BY-line. As I am not going to cover fill-in fields today, I have used
“[ATTORNEY]” as a placeholder for where a fill-in field for the attorney’s name could go. You could also just mark and overtype the “[ATTORNEY]” while editing with the proper name.

Now, we add the code, but we need to make sure we are on the BY-line before we do, so that the code will be positioned above it. To add an index code, we do as before with the positioning codes and press Alt+N+I+Enter.

Next, type the name you’ve chosen for your examination index. I like the “x before index names” idea, so I will name mine xExam. Type a pipe after that, followed by an asterisk and another pipe.

Third is the name of the paragraph style you will be using for the examination index. There is an Index paragraph, or you can create a specific paragraph style yourself called ExamIndex (or similar) if you wish. I’m just going to use the 0 Style paragraph for this example though, since I do not have custom paragraph styles created for indexing. We will get into that a little bit when we discuss the creation of index header Block files. Note that the name of the paragraph style has to be formatted exactly as it shows up in the paragraph styles dialog box when you insert or modify paragraphs.

This is the part of the code that is not necessary for examination indices, so we will now type two pipes and follow up with our page number information, {TR:1}{P}{S}. Below is how you want it to look when you’re finished.

Eclipse auto-saves every few seconds, so you just need to close the file, and you’re done creating that block file. On to the exhibit marking Block file!

Creating the Exhibit Marking Parenthetical Block File

Exhibit index coding is a little more involved, but not by much.

First, create your blank file. I’ll call this one ExhibitMarked, just for ease of remembrance.

Once you have your new file up, create a new paragraph in the Parenthetical paragraph style and type out your exhibit marked parenthetical as you wish/need to have it appear in your transcripts. I will go for a simple (Exhibit # marked for identification.) for the purposes of this tutorial. You can also make where I have the # into a fill-in field, but that is not absolutely necessary, just easier to edit.

Once you have your parenthetical, add your index code by pressing Alt+N+I+Enter again, and type in the name you want for your exhibit index. I will use ExhibitMarked. Next, type your pipe.

Now, you remember that this is where we had the code for bringing in the BY-line for the examination index before. This is also the place where you will put the name of the exhibit (Deposition, Plaintiff’s, Defendant’s, etc.) and the exhibit number, or just the exhibit number. Since I didn’t leave space for an exhibit name before the word “exhibit” in the parenthetical, I’m just going to put the exhibit number there. As with the parenthetical itself, you can just put a # (or leave a space) so you know where to put the exhibit number. You can also use a fill-in field instead. Don’t forget to add your second pipe after that.

The next code is for your paragraph style. I’ll use 1 Style for this tutorial.

Oops! As soon as I tried to type “1,” it pulled up something different. That’s because Eclipse uses the numbers 0-9 as sort of quick keys for common commands that might be used at any given point in the transcript. In order to type a numeral directly into the file, press Ctrl+N. Don’t forget to press Enter again when you’re done typing numbers though! Add your third pipe after your paragraph style name.

This is where the exhibit description goes, before the last pipe. You can use a fill-in field, or just type it between the last two pipes of your code as you edit. I’m going to type the word “DESCRIPTION” here for demonstration purposes.

Finally, you add your page number code. Here is what the Block file will look like once you’ve finished adding the index code:

Bringing in the Block Files While Writing

Eclipse has a great dictionary feature: You can create dictionary entries with steno without having to have a writer connected. Here is how you define the strokes you want to use (as in Case, I recommend /KPAPL /KPAPL /KPAPL for your examination headers and /PHARBG /PHARBG /PHARBG for your exhibit marked parenthetical.

1. Open your main dictionary. Mine is called DSDragon because that’s the username I use in Eclipse. (File–>Open Dictionary or F9 will open a dialog box for you to choose your dictionary.)
2. Press the number 2 or Ctrl+D to add a new dictionary entry. You will see the dialog popup below.

Notice the steno keyboard image on the left? Click each of the letters for the strokes you want to define. To get multiple strokes, which you’ll need to define the triple /KPAM and triple /PHARBG, click “New Stroke” after you finish the first and second strokes. Here is what the examination header stroke will look like (ignore the -D on the last stroke–that was created when I pressed Ctrl+Alt+PrtScn to make my screen shot).

Click OK, and you will see another dialog box in which you will define the strokes you just made. In the bottom right of that box, there is a drop-down menu from which you should choose the option “Autoinclude {<x}.” This will bring up a dialog box in which you can choose your previously created Block file. Since we are defining /KPAPL /KPAPL /KPAPL, we will choose the examination header block file here.

As you can see, the x has been replaced with the file name. Click OK, and repeat the same steps for the exhibit marked parenthetical, defining the stroke you have chosen for that, and then close the dictionary to save.

Building the Indices

Building the index is the easy part. Inside your transcript, once all of your editing is done and you’re certain you have all of your index items coded properly, press Ctrl+I.

You will be asked which volumes you want to index. The default is “all.” Indexing multiple volumes is beyond the scope of this post, so just click “Next >>” here and leave the radio button at “Index the current document” in the next box before clicking “Next >>” again. One final OK, and you will be given a preview of your indices with a popup dialog in which you can either accept or reject the indices.

As you can see, there are no headers. Creating the Block files for the index headers will be in another tutorial post. For now, click “Accept,” and you will be able to add those headers–and extra blank lines between indices–by typing them manually.

And there you go, auto-indexing in Eclipse.

Next time, we will cover auto-indexing with multiple exhibits in the same parenthetical.