I like to consider myself an early adopter. I bought a CD player for $500 in 1986, a choice which necessitated my dining on ramen noodle soup for the entirety of my freshman year at the University of Texas; I splurge on a new laptop every 18 months whether I need one or not, and I always want the newest, most up-to-date software I can get my hands on. That said, I sat on the fence for most of the rollout of caseCATalyst4, waiting for an ebb in the tide of profanity levied by my truly early-adopting wife at the early cuts of the software.

I'm happy to say that the later releases of "4" do constitute an improvement over my heretofore favorite version, 3.1, so if you've been suffering from CPS (CATalyst Paperweight Syndrome, the condition when your software update sits shrinkwrapped on a corner of your desk for more than six months), you can and should migrate to at least the first fully updated release of CAT4 at a minimum...

But given the alternative, go right to the head of the class with caseCATalyst4 version 5. With this newest version, they've fixed everything I hated about 4 and even invented some new timesavers I couldn't have imagined. The AudioSync is always spot on with the text, the conflict resolution is smarter than I am, and the medical spellcheck dictionaries have kept my copy of Dorland's collecting dustbunnies on my bookshelf. My absolute favorite feature of version 5 is the Fill-In-Fields. The appearance page has always been my nemesis, but with this new bell and/or whistle, I can throw in attorney apps with one click, minimizing the likelihood that I'm gonna botch something major.

Will caseCATalyst4 version 5 make you a realtime writer overnight, as certain other CAT vendors claim? Hell no. To be honest, any claim that software will make you a realtimer is specious at best and downright bulls#%t at its worst. The best conflict-resolving AI in the world ain't gonna fix what you can't write. It took me and every other realtimer in the world years to hone our skills, and I'd wager they'd all agree that, other than accurately tranning the strokes sent from their machine, their software had little to do with it.

Is CAT4 v.5 the best, most stable software on the market right now? Absolutely. Will the time savings of migrating outweigh any learning curve? With all the improvements, it has to. I know changing software ranks between Pakistani neurologists and hemorrhoids on the master list of court reporters' favorite things, but suck it up, quit whining, play through the pain, (insert sports cliche here), and just do it!

"Technology: No Place for Wimps!" -- Scott Adams, Dilbert