TechnoLawyer: Business Productivity/Word Processing

Today's issue of TL Serendipity contains these articles:

Sara Austin, The Gear I Use in My Law Practice and Why I Use It

Dean Surkin, Making PCLaw Bills More Presentable

Michael Schwartz, Why the Surface Pro 4 Beats the iPad

Davide Migliaccio, Knowbrainer a No Brainer for Dragon Users

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Today's issue of TL NewsWire covers a Microsoft Word add-in that automates document creation and ensures their consistency with firm-wide rules (see article below). In addition, you'll find links to the previous 11 TL NewsWire features, including our coverage of a redesigned international arbitration research service with tools such as Visual Connectors for Boolean searches, a Windows application designed to handle your OCR, PDF, and document comparison needs in one product, and much more. Don't miss the next issue.

Lawyers spend a lot of time in Microsoft Word — too much of it unbillable. Tasks such as creating paragraph-numbering schemes, tables of contents, and formatting styles involve a seemingly endless number of tweaks. Even after all this formatting, documents often lack consistency across your firm.

Word LX Professional … in One Sentence

Launched recently, Infoware's Word LX Professional is a Microsoft Word add-in for law firms that enforces firm-wide standards for documents and provides timesaving automation tools.

The Killer Feature

Infoware has helped law firms with document automation for more than 30 years. Word LX Professional is its first product specifically created for small law firms. "Word LX Professional provides the editing tools and document customization that only large firms can afford, and makes these available to the solo and small law firm market," says Dan Sharp, CEO and President of Infoware. "It allows for document consistency and formatting efficiencies."

Document consistency begins with Word LX Professional's Template Designer. This administrator tool walks you through a series of steps — uploading your firm's logo, entering the names of every user at your firm, importing clients and others from Outlook or another source, and creating document templates.

Document templates include letter, memo, fax, envelope, and address label. You can also create your own custom templates for other types of documents. For each template, you can tweak settings for logo placement, margins, font, text alignment, and page numbers. Other settings give you granular control over the layout of a template such as placement of your firm's address, contact information, and author and assistant details. You can also omit specific items. For example, if you use preprinted letterhead, you can omit the logo from the letter template.

These Template Designer settings reside in a file that you install on everyone's PC. You can create multiple settings files such as for different practice groups with specific preferences. Users access the document templates from the Word LX Ribbon in Microsoft Word.

Other Notable Features

The Word LX Ribbon also contains a number of important Word functions frequently used in legal documents. Infoware configures these functions to make them foolproof versus using Word's native equivalents. According to Infoware, the ribbon saves users one hour per day on average.

Perhaps most importantly, the Word LX Ribbon enables you to create documents with multilevel numbered paragraphs without having to understand Word's numbering intricacies. Similarly, another tool automates table of contents creation. Other tools enable you to create tables, sign documents, add a document ID, apply watermarks, use firm-approved paragraph styles, and insert contact information from Outlook.

Advanced users or those who work with an administrator can create model templates (e.g., pleadings, leases, wills) that conform to your firm's formatting requirements and which contain placeholders for data. The toolbar's Prompt function walks users through each data field in the document. This eliminates the risk of reusing a document and forgetting to remove another client's data.

What Else Should You Know?

Word LX Professional costs $250 per user per year. "Word LX Professional provides us with the tools to significantly raise the consistency and quality of our documents as well as improve the efficiency of those responsible for creating them," says Elia Associates law clerk Franca Russouw. "Firm branded templates can be easily created and accessed, and documents are now being numbered and styled consistently by users across our firm. We love Word LX Professional." Learn more about Word LX Professional.

How to Receive TL NewsWire
So many products, so little time. In each issue of TL NewsWire, you'll learn about five new products for the legal profession. Pressed for time? The newsletter's innovative articles enable lawyers and law office administrators to quickly understand the function of a product, and zero in on its most important features. The TL NewsWire newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of TL Serendipity contains these articles:

Brett Burney, The Many Ways to Use Your iPad in Litigation

Steven Brower, The Gear I Use in My Law Practice and Why

Bill White, Tips on Moving a Dropbox Folder Plus Reviews of Macrium and Carbon Copy Cloner

Christian Onsager, Tips on Being Productive With Dragon

Don't miss this issue — or any future issues.

How to Receive TL Serendipity
Our most serendipitous offering (hence its name), TL Serendipity consists of contributions by TechnoLawyer members who have important information to share. You'll no doubt enjoy it because of its mix of interesting topics and genuinely useful knowledge, including brutally honest product reviews and informative how-tos. The TL Serendipity newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of TL NewsWire covers a Windows application designed to handle your OCR, PDF, and document comparison needs in one product (see article below). In addition, you'll find links to the previous 11 TL NewsWire features, including our coverage of practice management software with a growing library of forms and templates, and built-in document assembly and e-filing, an Outlook add-in that addresses attachment headaches and reduces the risk of career-threatening errors, and much more. Don't miss the next issue.

Every field has "professional" tools designed to improve overall performance. Golfers use "pro" clubs, musicians "pro" instruments, doctors "pro" diagnostic equipment, etc. Because lawyers create and review documents, many of which exist on paper, they need "pro" OCR, PDF, and document comparison tools — ideally in one product.

ABBYY FineReader 14 … in One Sentence

Launched recently, ABBYY FineReader 14 is all-in-one software for OCR, PDF, and document comparison.

The Killer Feature

A longtime leader in OCR — software that makes scans editable and searchable — ABBYY identified several inefficiencies in law firms. For example, because accurate OCR is essential for redlines, many firms use FineReader for OCR and then switch to a different product for the comparison. Also, up to 30% of PDF documents are effectively invisible because they don't undergo OCR when scanned.

The new version of FineReader addresses these problems by adding PDF and comparison tools alongside its popular OCR tools. "With the latest version of ABBYY FineReader, we help legal professionals easily manage and accomplish all kinds of daily tasks — editing, converting, commenting, and comparing documents, as well as making them searchable for easier access to information — using one, intuitive application," says Kristin Wagener, Director Business Unit Application Software.

Other Notable Features

FineReader prevents documents from falling through the cracks. The Hot Folder technology monitors folders connected to your scanners, performing OCR and naming documents in accordance with your rules. Also, Background Recognition automatically makes image PDF documents you open searchable.

FineReader includes what used to be sold separately as PDF Transformer, which means the PDF tools are mature. You can combine PDF files, reorganize pages, straighten and rotate pages, add bookmarks, apply stamps, and add or edit text. Annotation and commenting tools include the ability to accept/reject changes or reply. Other tools include digital signatures, redaction, and document security settings.

When accuracy is essential such as a document you want to edit, FineReader's OCR environment displays the original image on the left and the recognized document on the right with text in green, tables in blue, and images in red. Thanks to text recognition support for 192 languages plus dictionary support for 48 of them, the Verification tool enables you to review words FineReader is uncertain about and make corrections. When finished, you can export to Microsoft Word and other popular formats.

Rounding out the trio of technologies, FineReader's Comparator technology compares documents in any format (e.g., PDF to Word). The documents appear side by side with their differences highlighted. A hyperlinked index along the right side lists each change and its location. You can share a redline by exporting it as a PDF with the changes displayed as comments.

"ABBYY FineReader has enabled our department to achieve greater efficiencies in our day to day work, and helps us to better support our lawyers and their clients," says Tim Connop, IT Manager, Eversheds. "We have been impressed with the accuracy and reliability of this forward thinking product."

What Else Should You Know?

FineReader requires Windows 7 or later. The Corporate Edition ($399.99) includes all functionality and Hot Folder processing of 5,000 scanned pages per month. The Enterprise Edition ($599.99) doubles Hot Folder processing to 10,000 pages per month. The Standard Edition ($199.99) doesn't include the Hot Folder or redlining tools. ABBYY offers volume discounts. Learn more about ABBYY FineReader 14.

How to Receive TL NewsWire
So many products, so little time. In each issue of TL NewsWire, you'll learn about five new products for the legal profession. Pressed for time? The newsletter's innovative articles enable lawyers and law office administrators to quickly understand the function of a product, and zero in on its most important features. The TL NewsWire newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Coming today to SmallLaw: ABA TECHSHOW 2017 took place from March 15-18. We asked conference Chair Adriana Linares as well as 18 exhibitors to share their product discoveries, tips, and other observations from the perspective of small law firms. The result is our largest ever micro-symposium with everything from brand new 1.0 products to insights on new legal technology trends. Also, don't miss the SmallLaw Pick of the Week to learn why why SEO requires a long-term commitment.

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Small firm, big dreams. Written by practicing lawyers who manage successful small firms and legal technology and practice management experts who have achieved rock star status, SmallLaw provides practical advice on management, marketing, and technology issues in small law firms, as well as comprehensive legal product reviews with accompanying TechnoScore ratings. SmallLaw also ensures that you won't miss anything published elsewhere by linking to helpful articles (and podcasts and videos) about solo practices and small law firms. The SmallLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of TL Serendipity contains these articles:

Neil Squillante, How Many Calendars Does a Lawyer Need?

Paul Pinkerton, Shopping for a New Phone System? Use This Seven Step Checklist

Ken Laska, Review: TextMap v. TranscriptPad

Donald Lowrey, Review of Dragon Legal Individual 15

Ruth Curcuru, Review: NitroPDF v. PDF XChange Editor (Acrobat Replacements)

Don't miss this issue — or any future issues.

How to Receive TL Serendipity
Our most serendipitous offering (hence its name), TL Serendipity consists of contributions by TechnoLawyer members who have important information to share. You'll no doubt enjoy it because of its mix of interesting topics and genuinely useful knowledge, including brutally honest product reviews and informative how-tos. The TL Serendipity newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of TL Serendipity contains these articles:

Blair Clark, The Key Products in Use at Our Law Firm

Douglass Morrison, Review of Ergotech Freedom Arm and Samsung 32-Inch Monitor

Caren Schwartz, How to Run Old Software on a High-Resolution Display

Larry Allen, Dragon Fix for Extra Lines in Word Documents

Don't miss this issue — or any future issues.

How to Receive TL Serendipity
Our most serendipitous offering (hence its name), TL Serendipity consists of contributions by TechnoLawyer members who have important information to share. You'll no doubt enjoy it because of its mix of interesting topics and genuinely useful knowledge, including brutally honest product reviews and informative how-tos. The TL Serendipity newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of TL Serendipity contains these articles:

Neil Squillante, My Legaltech Discoveries: Lexis for Microsoft Office, PhraseWizard, Centerbase, Litify, Symphony OCR

Jeff Stouse, Straight Talk About Legal Software Upgrades and Annual Maintenance Plans

Roy Greenberg, Best Places to Get Help With Dragon

Michael Schwartz, Why I'm a Cloud Skeptic

Danny McDonald, Why I'm a Legal Technology Cynic

Don't miss this issue — or any future issues.

How to Receive TL Serendipity
Our most serendipitous offering (hence its name), TL Serendipity consists of contributions by TechnoLawyer members who have important information to share. You'll no doubt enjoy it because of its mix of interesting topics and genuinely useful knowledge, including brutally honest product reviews and informative how-tos. The TL Serendipity newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Coming today to SmallLaw: Legaltech 2017 (a.k.a. Legalweek) is now in the history books — thanks this issue of SmallLaw. We asked 11 exhibitors and other legal technology experts who attended — Robert Ambrogi, Michael Barrons, Mary Ellen Bellusci, Jesus Maria Boccio, Brett Burney, Shawn Gaines, Nehal Madhani, Ian O'Flaherty, Jeff Pfeifer, Benjamin Snipes, and Deborah Tesser — to share their product discoveries, tips, trends, and other observations from the perspective of small law firms. Also, don't miss the SmallLaw Pick of the Week to learn why solos need employees and how to hire them.

How to Receive SmallLaw
Small firm, big dreams. Written by practicing lawyers who manage successful small firms and legal technology and practice management experts who have achieved rock star status, SmallLaw provides practical advice on management, marketing, and technology issues in small law firms, as well as comprehensive legal product reviews with accompanying TechnoScore ratings. SmallLaw also ensures that you won't miss anything published elsewhere by linking to helpful articles (and podcasts and videos) about solo practices and small law firms. The SmallLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Coming today to BlawgWorld: Our editorial team has selected the 51 best legal technology articles, podcasts, and videos from the past week. Below you'll find a sampling from today's issue, including our BlawgWorld Pick of the Week. BlawgWorld is free so don't miss the next issue — sign up now.

Congratulations to Tony Hoffman of PCMag.com on winning our BlawgWorld Pick of the Week award: The Best Laser Printers of 2017

PowerPoint Tips From Duarte's Five Rules Presentation

Simple Things We Do That Waste a Lot of Time Part 2

Review: Libratone Q Adapt On-Ear

How Microsoft Can Improve Surface Book for 2017

Forgotten Audio Formats: 8-Track Tapes

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