# Do people still use shorthand? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 6, 2007, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-still-use-shorthand/386891 "2007-01-06T01:51:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2007, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-still-use-shorthand/386891/21 "2007-01-07T00:28:51Z")
When I was in school I thought shorthand would have been a great skill to use. Of course, fast touch typing would be even more useful, and I haven’t learned that, either. How would one learn shorthand anyway? ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2007, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-still-use-shorthand/386891/22 "2007-01-07T01:49:03Z")
You could easily teach yourself shorthand. Get a Gregg Shorthand manual and do the lessons in the book. Live teacher not needed at all. ---
**Author:** ![tashabot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tashabot/32/6250_2.png) [@tashabot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tashabot)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2007, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-still-use-shorthand/386891/23 "2007-01-07T01:50:36Z")
[QUOTE=Alan Smithee] When I was in school I thought shorthand would have been a great skill to use. Of course, fast touch typing would be even more useful, and I haven’t learned that, either. How would one learn shorthand anyway? [/QUOTE] Some colleges offer courses in office skills and shorthand is taught. You can also google shorthand -css and get a lot of good primers with links to better primers, like this: [A Guide to Alternative Handwriting and Shorthand Systems](http://www.alysion.org/handy/althandwriting.htm). You can also get books on it at your local library and on [amazon.com](http://amazon.com). ~Tasha ---
**Author:** ![Caridwen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c89c15/32.png) [@Caridwen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caridwen)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2007, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-still-use-shorthand/386891/24 "2007-01-07T01:53:22Z")
[QUOTE=Alan Smithee] When I was in school I thought shorthand would have been a great skill to use. Of course, fast touch typing would be even more useful, and I haven’t learned that, either. How would one learn shorthand anyway? [/QUOTE] I love it! Like Sonia, no one ever had better notes than I did because you don’t miss a word. They still had it when I was in H.S. (I’m 43) and I just fell in love with it. It’s like learning a new language. There’s something very elegant about it with all the curves and loops. Very easy to learn if you practice. Even if you use it for simple phrases, it saves time. We used Gregg shorthand > **[Shorthand (Pitman, Gregg, Teeline)](https://www.omniglot.com/writing/shorthand.htm)** > > Information about the history of shorthand with illustrations of Pitman, Gregg and Teeline shorthand ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2007, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-still-use-shorthand/386891/25 "2007-01-07T06:02:11Z")
I still use it from time to time (Pitman) but not for work, just if I need to take notes quickly. I used it a fair bit when I was at Uni but I found I’d got quite rusty since I hadn’t worked in an office in decades so I had to transcribe it the same day or I could fathom what I’d written. ---
**Author:** ![AngelicGemma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/439d5e/32.png) [@AngelicGemma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AngelicGemma)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2007, 9:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-still-use-shorthand/386891/26 "2007-01-07T09:12:16Z")
Can I hijack the thread to ask what type of shorthand everyone has learned? I know TeeLine. ---
**Author:** ![KSO](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@KSO](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KSO)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2007, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-still-use-shorthand/386891/27 "2007-01-07T13:07:21Z")
No but I wish I did. My office stocks “Gregg Ruled” shorthand notebooks though so maybe I should teach myself. ---
**Author:** ![jeffreyhughesnc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b3f665/32.png) [@jeffreyhughesnc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jeffreyhughesnc)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2014, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-still-use-shorthand/386891/28 "2014-01-22T14:58:12Z")
I took it in High School during the 80’s and was OK at it. I’m a terrible note taker in any method. I did use it quite a bit during college. I moved to France for a few years and lost my efficiency. I’ve tried to revive it several times with an old Gregg Centennial text book to no avail. I remember my mom having the steno notebooks with Gregg Shorthand lessons on the back cover…Does anyone remember the note paper was a greenish yellow? I think it’s still a relevant skill and should still be taught today. ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2014, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-still-use-shorthand/386891/29 "2014-01-22T15:04:39Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > Wasn’t early dictation equipment pretty bulky? I never saw one of the things that you’d talk into, but the transcribing machine we learned on was as big as a typewriter, and the plastic (?) tubey things couldn’t have been easy to store. > > I wonder if there’s an office machine museum somewhere, with spirit duplicators, mimeograph machines, switchboards, and those big clunky floor model adding machines they used in banks. Anecdote: When looking through the various memos and such that I got at my first firm, I noticed that they still had dictaphones available on request. I should’ve requested one at some point, just for shits and giggles. 😛 One of my secretaries at the same firm knew shorthand; I’d very occasionally dictate a short cover letter or similar to her. Handy and quick. It might conceivably serve me to pick up shorthand for taking notes on phone calls and the like; I write in block lettering, a habit I picked up in a high school drafting class (and a good one; my cursive was always horrible). It’s quite legible, but slow. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2014, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-still-use-shorthand/386891/30 "2014-01-22T20:36:02Z")
My mother (83) still uses Pitman shorthand on the occasions when she has to take minutes at a meeting or dictation. She also taught it at college at one time. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-still-use-shorthand/386891.md?page=1)