Switching CAT software feels risky for one reason: your dictionary and your formats are your livelihood, and moving them wrong could cost you a job. The good news — done methodically, a migration is safe. Here’s the checklist.

Signs it’s time to switch

You don’t change tools for fun. You change when the current one is costing you:

It crashes — especially in realtime, when a crash is a professional emergency.
The UX is dated and slows down editing you do every single day.
The cost (license, upgrades, add-ons, support tiers) no longer matches the value.
It’s missing realtime or delivery features clients now expect.
Support is slow, or upgrades break your workflow.

If two or more of those are true, it’s worth a serious look.

Export your dictionary and briefs safely

Your dictionary is non-negotiable. Before anything:

Back up your current dictionaries (main job dictionary, personal, and any case/specialty dictionaries) in your software’s native format.
Export to a portable format — RTF/CRE (the industry interchange format for steno dictionaries) is designed exactly for moving between CAT programs.
Verify the export — spot-check that outlines, definitions, and conflicts came across, not just the word list.
Keep your briefs and phrases with the dictionary; they’re part of how you write fast.

If a tool can’t import RTF/CRE or won’t let you export yours, treat that as a red flag about lock-in.

Preserve your job and transcript formats

Your transcripts have to keep looking like yours:

Page layout (25-line pages, margins, line numbering)
Title pages, appearances, certificate pages, and your signature/seal
Indexing, Q&A formatting, and parenthetical styles

Rebuild a couple of your standard formats in the new tool and print them side by side with the old output before you trust it on a real job.

Parallel-run before you commit

Don’t flip overnight. Run the new software alongside the old for a few non-urgent jobs:

Write or import a job, edit it to final, and produce every deliverable (PDF, ASCII, e-transcript).
Test realtime in a low-stakes setting before you stream it to attorneys.
Confirm exhibits, audio sync, and backups all behave.

Only switch your deadline work once the new tool has handled real work flawlessly.

The copy-paste migration checklist

Back up all dictionaries in native format
Export dictionaries + briefs to RTF/CRE; verify the export
Recreate your standard transcript formats; compare side by side
Import a finished job and reproduce every deliverable
Test realtime privately
Parallel-run on 2–3 non-urgent jobs
Confirm backups and exports work out of the new tool
Switch deadline work last

Migration shouldn’t be a hostage situation

The healthiest tools make leaving easy — because they’re confident you’ll stay. DepoStack is being built around a simple principle: your data is yours — portable, with no lock-in. Join the founding-member waitlist to follow along.