My throbbing wrists

Should you ever undertake the unhappy task of transcribing an interview, as I am doing now, may I commend to you the software program Express Scribe, from the Australian company NCH Swift Sound.

Express Scribe plays audio files, as iTunes, Windows Media Player and Winamp do. But those applications are mostly for playing music, whereas the designers of Express Scribe had the transcriptionist in mind: the program assigns commands to function keys -- play, stop, rewind, and so forth -- and makes them available from any Windows program. So as I type and listen to a digital file of an interview, I can stop and start the playback without having to switch out of Word, or even move my fingers from the good old home row. That may not seem like a big deal, but transcribing is so dreadfully boring (I never do it unless I must) that I welcome anything to streamline the process.

Express Scribe is free for the downloading. That is the right price.