TechnoLawyer: Automation/Document Assembly/Macros

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Create Legal Documents Without Excel or a Calculator

When ATMs started accepting deposits, it freed law firms and small businesses from having to rush to the bank. But the experience wasn't 100% automated because you had to place your checks into an envelope, stick the envelope into the machine, and hope for the best. Nowadays, ATMs scan your checks and print the images on your receipt. Full automation plus peace of mind. Document assembly programs suffer from a similar problem. They can automate the entry of variable words and clauses into your documents, but they can't crunch numbers. A new product aims to make document assembly fully automated.

TheFormTool PRO 2.0 … in One Sentence
Your Dollar Matters' TheFormTool PRO 2.0 automates the creation of legal documents in Microsoft Word, including math calculations.

The Killer Feature
A growing number of enterprising law firms use document assembly software to create complex legal documents quickly so they can charge clients a flat fee yet still earn more than if they charged an hourly fee.

However, many documents require math calculations that document assembly programs can't handle, forcing you to switch back into manual mode to use Microsoft Excel or a calculator. This slows you down, reducing your profit per document. It's also error-prone.

TheFormTool PRO 2.0's new math functions enable you to automate both the words and the math all in the same document template.

"Cutting and pasting numbers from a spreadsheet into a contract, or worse, from scratch paper, is fraught with risk," TheFormTool's creator Scott Campbell told us. "Including the variables and the computations within the document they support is a best practice. Any other approach is just an invitation for trouble."

Other Notable Features
TheFormTool PRO 2.0 offers five types of math functions -- finance, basic, descriptive, logical, and time.

The PMT finance function can determine periodic payments for a wide range of common documents such as alimony, promissory notes, real estate transactions, and settlement agreements to name a few.

Basic math functions include Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, and Division. Thanks to the ability to nest these functions, you can perform complex calculations in your documents. For example, in a trust or will you could calculate distributions depending on variable factors at the time of death such as the number of beneficiaries and/or their ages. Corporate lawyers can use these functions to determine the voting rights of each shareholder in a company.

Descriptive math functions include Integer, Round, Absolute, Logarithm, Remainder, Exponentiation, Root, and Constant. Patent lawyers often need these functions in scientific patents. Also, environmental lawyers use them in assessments.

Logical functions include List, Sum, Max, Min, Multiply, Item, and Count. These functions often play a role in SEC filings, wills and trusts (oldest/youngest), real estate transactions (maximum/minimum value), and inventory agreements.

Finally, the time functions such as Now, Days, First Date, Last Date, Months, Years, and Fixed and Variable Offsets play a role in transactions (e.g., amortization), employment agreements, wills and trusts, etc.

What Else Should You Know?
TheFormTool PRO 2.0 costs $89. It works with Microsoft Word on Windows PCs. Learn more about TheFormTool PRO 2.0.

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Review of gDoc Binder for Creating Electronic Binders

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Janis Cross, What We Learned From Creating Our Law Firm Web Site

Jeff Stouse, My Three Monitor Setup: Equipment, Reflections, And Regrets

Anthony White, Review Of DataPrompter For Document Assembly

Dave Culbertson, Review: Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500

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Today's issue of TL NewsWire covers document assembly software (see article below), an iPad practice management system, and iPad scanner, a cloud application for discovery document review, and a sound capture program for Macs. Don't miss the next issue.

Document Assembly Breaks the $100 Price Barrier

Some lawyers misunderstand document automation technology. They worry that producing documents faster will reduce their billable hours. On the contrary, it enables lawyers to earn more. With document automation software, you can set a flat fee per document type. The more efficient your document automation software, the more documents you can create without hiring additional employees. Still, lawyers have one legitimate concern — making a large investment in document assembly software that fails to pay off. This explains why one legal vendor has decided to dramatically undercut its competitors on price and complexity.

TheFormTool PRO … in One Sentence
Your Dollar Matters' TheFormTool PRO is a document automation program that integrates with Microsoft Word.

The Killer Feature
TheFormTool PRO doesn't require any programming knowledge to use. You can create a basic form (template) in a few minutes. Templates exist in Word format with TheFormTool PRO's tools above in the toolbar or ribbon.

Creating a form works as follows. At the end of a model document, TheFormTool PRO inserts a table with three columns — Label, Question, and Answer. For all the variable blanks in your document, you fill in the first two columns (e.g., Testator / Who is the testator?). With just a few clicks, you then connect each Label to the appropriate blank(s) in your document. When you need to create that document, you just enter your answers into the table. TheFormTool PRO inserts your answers (such as the testator's name) into the appropriate blanks.

"I specifically designed TheFormTool as third-generation document automation software," TheFormTool's creator Scott Campbell told us. "It's easily mastered by anyone, whether in a large firm or solo practice. There's no need to hire expensive consultants. Customers say it's fun to use."

Other Notable Features
Smart Answers enable you to fill in templates faster by eliminating typing. For example, a securities lawyer could create a list of shareholders from which to choose.

The Fields tool enables you to further save time by automatically having TheFormTool PRO take care of verb agreement, pronouns, and plurals (e.g., indicate that a person is female and your document will use "her," "she," etc. along with singular verbs). The Lists and Master Lists tools work similarly for entering boilerplate information like signature blocks.

Conditional relationships make your forms dynamic by adding or deleting words, phrases, sentences, or entire sections depending on an answer to a single question. For example, you can include a section only if the person is married. You can also take advantage of Boolean logic driven by multiple choice or yes/no answers.

Other features include date precedents to automatically calculate forward or reverse due dates for actions or events, summary edit pages listing all the changes made to a document, the ability to save answers to use across different forms, and network support for sharing forms, documents, and data throughout your office.

What Else Should You Know?
TheFormTool PRO costs $89, and works with Word 2007 and later. Your Dollar Matters also offers a free product called TheFormTool, which lacks some of the more advanced features. On the flip-side, for $350 you'll receive TheFormTool PRO plus the company will set up five forms for you. Learn more about TheFormTool PRO.

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Eamon Wall, Let's Not Forget Android's Advantage In The GPS Navigation World

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Question Of The Week: Please Share Your Top Technology Tip

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Mark Deal, Thoughts About Document Assembly Software and Consultants

Kevin Maloney, Review: Safesync for Cloud Document Storage and Syncing

Henry Murphy, Thoughts About Timeslips and New Versions

Manning Huske, Tip: Kodak SCANMATE I920

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Today's issue of TL NewsWire covers a new document assembly program (see article below), an iPad practice management system, a cloud-based document syncing and sharing service, an iPad note-taking app, and an iOS printing utility. Don't miss the next issue.

Simple Assembly of Complex Legal Documents

Legal documents are among the world's most complex. They often require specific layouts, paragraph numbering, tables of contents, etc. And that's just the formatting. The content is equally complex (that's why you get paid the big bucks). This fact explains why so many companies offer document automation software. Ironically, many of these expert systems are complex in their own right, making the adoption rate lower than that of other types of legal software such as practice management systems. One company has attempted to buck the complexity trend while simultaneously rolling out new versions at a furious pace.

Pathagoras 2012 … in One Sentence
Pathagoras 2012 is a document assembly program that works with Microsoft Word.

The Killer Feature
Pathagoras has escaped much of the complexity of its competitors by using Plain Text Variables that you can see within each template rather than hidden fields, and by not requiring a heavy duty database.

That said, databases serve a purpose — for example mail merges. Whether you store such information in a simple Excel spreadsheet or a relational database, Pathagoras 2012's new Instant Database module can connect to just about any database so that you can populate documents automatically.

Other Notable Features
Another new feature — Document Packages — enables you to generate a collection of related documents for a task that you often perform. The templates in these packages behave like other Pathagoras templates for document assembly purposes except that you can fill all the variables across the documents simultaneously.

"Recently, a user wanted a way to select a package of documents that would be automatically saved in a client's folder," President and Chief Programmer of Pathagoras Roy Lasris told us. "We didn't yet have that feature, but we liked it. So we programmed it."

Now officially out of beta, Pathagoras' bar code scanning enables you to insert clauses into documents using bar codes, which you may prefer if you're not a proficient typist.

Other new features include improved search technology, improved table controls, faster access to Pathagoras' major functions thanks to a new navigation system, and resizable screens.

What Else Should You Know?
Pathagoras 2012 sells for $379 for the first license and $250 per license thereafter. Volume discounts are available (e.g., $799 for a three-pack). Alternatively, you can pay $25 per month or $125 for six months rather than license the software if you prefer the software subscription model, which includes all new versions. Learn more about Pathagoras 2012.

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Coming today to TechnoFeature: In this issue of TechnoFeature, New Jersey lawyer Edward Zohn reviews two products — Snapdone and Snapnumbers — geared at the majority of law firms. Law firms that write their own software or on the flipside are considering upgrading from Windows 98 to XP can stop reading here. The rest of you may find Ed's thoughts on these two tools that add document assembly and document management to Microsoft Office of interest. After jumping on a hard drive a few months ago to test the manufacturer's durability claims, Ed has earned a well-deserved reputation for pushing the products he reviews to their limits. Don't skip his entertaining and informative review of Snapdone and Snapnumbers.

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