# Why this book

Hi, I'm Ted. I'm a self-taught hobbyist stenographer. I learned everything I know from the Internet and the Open Steno community, including websites like QWERTYSteno (opens new window), Learn Plover! (opens new window), and many other learning resources (opens new window). However, the lessons I found online felt dense and lacked real-world utility for me. I read through Learn Plover! three or four times, trying to grasp every subtle line, but while it teaches core theory very well, it just dumps on a bunch of briefs for common words, punctuation, and affixes as an afterthought. You don't end up writing coherent sentences in Learn Plover! until the end of the book. In this book, you are writing sentences as soon as you learn your first set of keys.

My goal is to make a textbook that can be read cover to cover, with or without steno hardware or Plover running, that teaches you everything from where the keys are on the steno keyboard, to basic theory and word forming, to real-world briefs, to advanced techniques to help you squeeze the most out of stenography.

The book is incomplete; I'm writing it and reworking it all the time. I'm not a writer; I'm a software developer, so feedback and corrections are appreciated, though I might not get back to you as I'm reworking the format of the lessons over and over again. You can mail me at morinted@gmail.com

I'm writing this entire book exclusively using stenography.

All the best,

Ted Morin