Pinchord

Pinchord (pronounced PIN-CHORD) is an orthographic steno theory designed to be much simpler and easier to learn and master than traditional steno.

To start using Pinchord, see Setting up Pinchord.

I'm currently learning Pinchord, but practice is hard.

Rationale

Steno theories today are extremely complex, which makes them much harder to learn and master.

I'm writing a whole page about theory complexity (Theory in Practice), but for now, this is what has come of that.

I wanted a very simple orthographic steno theory that I can use to code, write, and control my computer. This is my best attempt at that.

I think phonetic steno makes a lot of sense when transcribing spoken word, but does not suit my needs well.

Trade-offs

Speling

Pinchord is orthographic, meaning words are written based on how they are spelled, rather than how they sound. If you mostly use steno to write what you hear, this is definitely a mismatch.

If spelling is not your strong suit, you may also want to look at a phonetic theory.

Ergonomics and Comfort

Fully orthographic theories are potentially less ergonomic than phonetic theories since there are more ways a word could be spelled than ways it could sound, and because sounds can be cleverly merged in ways that do not cause conflicts. All of this means you need more keys, which means you need to move your fingers more in order to write most words. While Pinchord is still more ergonomic than any other alternative text input method, phonetic steno beats it out at least slightly.

I can say that I don't find Pinchord to be uncomfortable in any way.

Speed

An orthospelling theory may not be able to reach the same speeds as a phonetic theory.

While no one has reached professional speeds using an orthospelling theory, I do believe there is nothing stopping you from doing so.

Most words take the exact same number of strokes as a write-out in most phonetic theories. Beyond that, just like phonetic theories, you can brief to your hearts content, and get as fast as you'd like.

I do not believe speed will be any more of a barrier in Pinchord until you are beyond 200wpm, but again, nobody has gotten this fast (yet).

Benefits

Conflicts

Pinchord does not have conflicts.

I'm not sure if I could really put into words the importance of this point, so I won't even bother.

Ease of Learning

I believe that Pinchord is handily the easiest theory to learn and reach your qwerty typing speed.

Learning Pinchord is much more comparable to learning an alternate keyboard layout. Phonetic theories impose a ludicrous amount of complexity that a fully orthographic theory simply does not have.

Once you know all the chords (there are maybe 100?), there is literally nothing else to learn.

Those ~100 chord encompass everything* you would ever need in order to use a computer.

Getting fast with those chords is obviously a different story.

Obscure words

Pinchord has the capability to write any word that could ever possible exist.