training and test preparation products

CATapult CDs have assisted thousands of students and court reporters to increase speed and advance their skills. Now it’s your turn!

The only one of its kind, CATapult Your Dictionary CDs will absolutely change the way you work and advance in your career and schooling for court reporting and captioning, and will help you earn NCRA and state certifications.

CRR Books & CDs has proven solutions for court reporters, court reporting students, captioners, teachers and professionals: Books, CDs, tutoring, free articles to advance skills for national and state test prep certification material, real-time writing, captioning, BEEDs and CATapult software, dictionary building software programs and vocabulary preparation.

Compare Real-Time Dictionary Building Software

Before You Buy

Each ’CATapult’ ™ CD  software program is not a one-trick pony -- Dictionary building is only one feature. CATapult dictionary building CD series has multiple uses, many free features, and applications for broadcast captioners, court reporters, CART providers and students.

CATapult CDs have many features, which include dictionary building as a free feature.

CATapult: The only software program where you open your CAT translation software and write words against your dictionary, so you can detect problems/potential conflicts AS YOU BUILD.

Monette Benoit’s materials, www.CRRbooks.com, and CATapult CD series are wonderful for dictionary building and test prep, too. They are highly recommended by captioning companies for transitioning reporters and have been a tremendous help to me. Suzanne Small, RDR, RMR, CRR, CBC, CPE, CSR

CATapult Program Features Include:

• Ability to select from three different modes of practice

  * Flash the material on the screen in sequential order * Flash the material on the screen in random order * Dictate the material for practice

  • Ability to adjust speed, volume, and font presentation

    Ability to write words into your personal or job dictionary using your realtime software as it is open and running

    Ability to practice the words once you write them

    Ability to create and practice your own drill material - (unlimited)

Before You Buy Dictionary Software Ask Eight Questions:

Will you be asked to ’import’ words?

1. Can you create/build your own lists of words? Is so, are there limits?

2. Can you adjust the speed of presentation for each word, each term to three modes - listen, see and jumble? (Can you adjust the fonts, colors, too?)

3. Can you realtime with your CAT software OPEN while you are working with any list of words? Avoid and eliminate problems, duplications, hesitations, frustrations.

4. Are you limited to the number of times you can work with a specific list, specific computers?

5. Is it text-to-voice? Can you hear how each word is pronounced without taking time to go to an additional site to listen to each word? This is tedious and time-consuming.

6. When you merge/import your words from a list, will they overwrite previous entries that you want to keep?

7. When you need names for any event, can you cut-and-paste words with one keystroke to insert those names into a category so you can write the names?

** You should not have to purchase names from any rosters, teams -- names with unusual spellings -- *** This is all available on the Internet; you should be able to take this information and use it FREE in a custom feature within your dictionary building software to help you with court reporting training.

8. Do you have a money-back guarantee?

Kathy DiLorenzo, RDR-CRR-CBC, As you’re beginning to undertake this huge, but rewarding endeavor...while theory, speed and accuracy are the foundation to becoming a successful captioner, equally important to the process is your strategy to reach your goal and keeping the bigger picture in view. I’ve had a long history in training captioners, and it is my belief that the strongest captioners are those who are strong writers. Seems simplistic, I know, but the reason that they’re strong writers is not because they’ve got perfect fingers on perfect hands (There are successful men in our profession whose hands barely fit on the keyboard!). The reason that they’re strong writers is because they can process information at a very rapid pace. And they can process information quickly because they ’know’ what they’re writing. You can’t write well what you don’t know and what you don’t understand. In the end, it’s all about words, but you’ve got to know the words and the subjects.

Toward that end, I want to recommend to any newbies out there that the materials that you are using to prepare to caption are equally important as the actual writing skills. One product that I would highly recommend is the ’CATapult Your Dictionary’ CD Series.

Monette Benoit has a long and illustrious career in developing materials that give captioners and captioner-wannabes the ’knowledge’ that they need to caption well. The CD Series includes a realtime dictionary builder that is compatible with any CAT system, and it even allows you to import your own lists or lists that are shared on this forum and others. CATapult contains over a half a million words among 420 categories ...You can find out more about CATapult by visiting www.CATapultdix.com.
Kathy DiLorenzo, RDR-CRR-CBC

A great word-building program, especially when it comes to sports, is the "Sports CATapult" CD by Monette Benoit.  Monette has a whole host of wonderful CDs that are great for building your dictionary! Lynne Marie Zakrzewski, RMR, CRR CBC, CPE, CSR, Realtime Broadcast Captioner

I am working with the CATapult dictionary building CDs each night after I get off air. It’s amazing how quickly you can get through a CD that way.  I had tried (another dictionary building software) and found that I was overwriting outlines already in my dictionary, and I did not like the results. Writing the words in a realtime file works for me. It’s hard to believe that I’ve been captioning seven years. I’ve been in this field of court reporting over 28 years now and still feel like a beginner now and then. Broadcast Captioner, RPR, CRR, CBC, CSR

When I started using the CATapult BEEDs CD I was smiling - as compared to another product -- because it does so much more because I am practicing words I want to practice, not what others want me to write.  I am able to adjust the practice modes, to enter words, to refine my skills. I can change the speed in the BEEDs CD, and it is so great! I have the hang now, and I am very excited about this CD software program now.

Plus with your tutoring I am not bogged down, and I realize this is not far out of reach.  I can do this!

BEEDs has given me results I can see.  The more I see results the better I feel, and that is a real plus for me! It is a really very helpful CD for students and court reporters.  I am now able to put in what I want and what I want to clean.  When I look at my dictionary and my errors, now I stick the word in BEEDs. My fingers are getting stronger writing all the words more accurately.  I feel so good about what I am doing, and my accuracy is going up.

No one has ever taught me this before.  I am very excited.  I am achieving what I wanted to achieve.  I used to sit and practice; I was not paying attention.  It was not taking me anywhere. I was going to school and not putting in as much as I should have.  Now I run to do this, and I do not make excuses.  I have come a long way with this CATapult BEEDs software program! Now I pay so much more attention.  I focus.  Thank you for helping me to increase accuracy, decrease errors and to have fun while I am working on this CATapult BEEDs CD. Claire Jonnes

Additional Reviews, Testimonials

CATapult BEEDs CD

CATapult Series CD

Experts and leaders who recommend Court Reporter Reference Books & CDs:

Mary Smith Agren; Deanna Baker; Martin H. Block; Jack Boenau; Judith Brentano; Robert Clark, NCRA Librarian-Historian; Kevin Wm. Daniel, author, "Writing Naked;" Kathy DiLorenzo, VITAC; Kevin Donnelly; Steven Edmondson, author, "Literary Moments;" Pamela Giardina, Director, Baton Rouge School of Court Reporting; Gayl Hardeman, author, "DePuzzLer;" Mary Knapp, author, "Complete Court Reporter’s Handbook;" Judy Larson; Richard Lederer, NCRA language columnist; Robert W. McCormick, co-author, "The Complete Court Reporter’s Handbook, Third Edition;’ Jean Melone, President, StenoTech Career Institute; SueLynn Morgan; Pauletta Morse, NCRA Journal contributing editor; Nancy Patterson, author, "NCRA, Preparing For The RPR, RMR Written Knowledge Test;" Anita Paul; Sara Prince; Kathy Robson; Jennifer Sati, Program Advisor, Anoka Technical Center; Marcia Simmons; Sheryl Stapp; Carol Thomas; J. Edward Varallo, author, "The Real-Time Writer’s Manual" and Rhonda M. Zacharias, TextStream Institute of Court Reporting

Since 1990, Court Reporter Reference Books, CRR Books & CDs, is assisting people within 17 countries. Monette Benoit and Robert McCormick will assist you to set new goals and to take action, ensuring greater success with each new day. We are committed to helping you.

www.CRRbooks.com -- * National and state WKT preparation -- Written Certification Materials for RPR, RMR, RDR, CSR  * Textbook, Workbook, Study Guide, CD Tutorial; Material expands upon previous test questions and answers to assist you to pass the first time. Learn how to take a test; how to find the d/a, distracting answer.

www.CATapultdix.com -- Dictionary Building Software; BEEDs CD and CATapult CD series for CRR, CBC, CCP, RPR, RMR skills portion.

Since 1990, www.CRRBooks.com offers court reporting and captioning books and CDs, test prep materials and tutoring/coaching services for court reporters, captioners and CART providers. Plus, CATapult Your Dictionary offers interactive, real-time dictionary building CDs for multiple industries, including financial, legal/business, medical, politics, religions, sports, auto technology and weather/science.