TechnoLawyer: Copiers/Scanners/Printers

Coming April 21, 2005 to Answers to Questions: William Egger provides the most comprehensive review of CompuLaw we've ever seen (he also reviews Amicus Attorney for good measure); James Covington reports that he has found a replacement for HP's beloved but star-crossed CapShare handheld scanner, Mark Klarich explains why he uses two computers and which ones he chose, and Brent Riggs notes the distinction between Reveal Codes and Reveal Formatting while Alan Garber explains why both have become passe — relics of a bygone era. Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published Mondays and Thursdays, Answers to Questions is a twice weekly newsletter in which TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers (including you if you join TechnoLawyer). Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Coming April 18, 2005 to Answers to Questions: Paul Waldron reviews a new product that eliminates the need to "babysit" your scanner, Roger Boyell explains what to look for in the new crop of digital audio recorders (for dictation), Howard Raab discusses why he disagrees with my recent advice about Dell, Hugh Tedder reviews a useful accessory that raises your laptop to an ergonomically appropriate height, and Jeanetta Stewart compares Word's "Reveal Formatting" to WordPerfect's "Reveal Codes." Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published Mondays and Thursdays, Answers to Questions is a twice weekly newsletter in which TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers (including you if you join TechnoLawyer). Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Coming April 14, 2005 to Answers to Questions: Sean Tierney reviews an alternative to extranets for collaborating with clients, John Heckman discusses the pros and cons of using CompuLaw, David Silverman explains how to get more out of your digital copier with software add-ons, Susan Rosenberg provides an easy way to track trust accounts with QuickBooks, and Nick Kaczun discusses products that can automatically route your scanned documents to your document management system and to clients, colleagues, and others. Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published Mondays and Thursdays, Answers to Questions is a twice weekly newsletter in which TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers (including you if you join TechnoLawyer). Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

We've distributed several in-depth reviews of the Fujitsu ScanSnap in our Answers to Questions newsletter. TechnoLawyer member Grace Lidia Suarez offers this quick take: "I'm a huge fan of the Fujitsu ScanSnap. Comes with the full Adobe Acrobat, and does a great job of one-button scanning."

About Quips
A Quip is a brief member contribution for which we don't have room in our Answers to Questions or Fat Friday newsletters. Instead, Quips appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.

Looking for a new scanner? TechnoLawyer member Richard Haeussler writes: "I am in the process of buying a Visioneer 510 Scanner, which seemed to have better stats than the HP 5550C. Price is close: Visioneer 510 at about $330 after discount. HP is $279 after discount. Both have Automatic Document Feeds with about the same rate [10 ppm for Visioneer and 8 ppm for HP]. Will report later on how the Visioneer works. It comes with PaperPort." When Richard checks in with his promised review, we'll distribute it in our Fat Friday newsletter.

About Quips
A Quip is a brief member contribution for which we don't have room in our Answers to Questions or Fat Friday newsletters. Instead, Quips appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.

Below you'll find one of the five articles from today's edition of TechnoLawyer NewsWire:

Small Firms Get Their Wish
By Neil Squillante
The lost city of Atlantis. King Arthur and the knights of the round table. The paperless office. Affordable document management for small firms. Until recently, the stuff of legend. But thanks to Authoritative.net's FileCenter 1.5, firms with 1-20 lawyers can now employ a "simple yet powerful" document management system with paperless office capabilities. With FileCenter, you can store, find, and route via e-mail or fax both electronic and paper documents. Regarding the former, FileCenter's integration with Microsoft Office and other popular applications makes it easy to store electronic documents in their native file format. Regarding the latter, FileCenter features "integrated scanning software" with OCR capabilities that works with most popular scanners and digital copiers. FileCenter's "FileFind" full-text search technology makes it easy to retrieve all the documents you've stored. When it comes time to work outside of the office, you can use FileCenter's "FolderShare" on-the-fly VPN technology to synchronize your files across any number of computers, including your laptop. When you plug your laptop back into your network, FileCenter seamlessly synchronizes all the files that have changed. No longer will you need to use kludges like e-mailing files to yourself, copying files to a flash drive, or using remote control software. FileCenter also eliminates the need for separate backup software thanks to its built-in "FileBackup" technology, which can backup your files to a secure off-site data center. Locally, FileBackup keeps the last ten versions of every document. FileCenter requires Windows 2000/XP. Pricing starts at $299 for a single user. Learn more about FileCenter.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Wednesdays, TechnoLawyer NewsWire is a weekly newsletter that enables you to learn about new technology products and services of interest to legal professionals. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

In a recent issue of Answers to Questions, TechnoLawyer member Gregory Jones asked about the disadvantages of the ScanSnap, which apparently does not support the TWAIn standard.  In response, TechnoLawyer member Roy Jordan writes: "I have many applications that use the twain interface to import scanned images. I can use the scanner to fax from my desktop using WinFax Pro, scan photos to photoshop or into a PowerPoint presentation, scan directly into PDF format through PaperPort Office 9. I don't want to lose the functionality of all these programs which can use the twain driver to import the images."

About Quips
A Quip is a brief member contribution for which we don't have room in our Answers to Questions or Fat Friday newsletters. Instead, Quips appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.

TechnoLawyer member Kunle Oyegbola writes: "I have been reading your newsletters on [scanning], and no one has made mention of the HP digital sender. I work with it and recommended it to law firms down here in Nigeria by virtue that I provide IT solutions for the legal practice here in Nigeria. I work in conjunction with a company located in Boston in the US call LANCOR and they have developed an electronic case management solution using the digital sender, and it works perfectly to achieve a paperless office."

About Quips
A Quip is a brief member contribution for which we don't have room in our Answers to Questions or Fat Friday newsletters. Instead, Quips appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.

TechnoLawyer member Martin Dean recently asked how to scan and OCR pleadings without the line numbers.  TechnoLawyer member Brad Jensen writes: "Most scanning software will allow you to set ocr zones. Typically, on a preview of the image, you draw a "rubber band" box over the part of the text you want to scan. This excludes vertical bars, etc. My favorite consumer OCR software right now is AABBYY FineReader. Go to the Web site and buy it cheap as an "upgrade" from the often worthless software that came with your scanner. I write commercial document image systems for a living."

About Quips
A Quip is a brief member contribution for which we don't have room in our Answers to Questions or Fat Friday newsletters. Instead, Quips appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.

In a previous TechnoLawyer Blog Post, Grace Suarez warned that Windows XP does not support TWAIN, a popular interface used by virtually all scanners.  Predictably, we've received several responses.

TechnoLawyer member Sam Brenner offers this clarification: "To be more precise when you upgrade from Windows 98, ME, or 2000 to Windows XP your TWAIN drivers are removed and WIA drivers are installed. You can reload your TWAIN drivers at this time. Windows will then use the TWAIN interface. If you have software that relies on the TWAIN API make sure to re-load your twain drivers."

TechnoLawyer Mike Millen added the following: "I don't think [Grace] is correct. I went to Microsoft's Web site and found the following: 'The TWAIN Data Source Manager (DSM) is an industry-standard software library used to abstract TWAIN applications from still image devices. WIA uses the TWAIN DSM implementation in Microsoft Windows XP together with the TWAIN compatibility driver to provide a compatibility layer for applications that support TWAIN version 1.7 or later, but don't yet support WIA."

Finally, TechnoLawyer member Michael Vorel writes: "I am not sure what problems Grace has experienced with TWAIN and XP. I regularly use TWAIN enabled equipment with all versions of XP, Professional and Home. I will affirm that some vendors have not certified their TWAIN implementation to prevent the XP squawk of driver support. I use scanners and cameras from many vendors with no problems to date on our systems. Connectivity is via serial ports, USB, SCSI and network connections. Support is available for the Adobe CS products, Canon, Ricoh, Kodak, eCopy, IPROTech and many others. WIA is becoming available as new tools reach the marketplace. Could Grace share some of her pains with this community? BTW ... TWAIN often times is less functional then those features developed under ISIS, but has gained significant market share."

About Quips
A Quip is a brief member contribution for which we don't have room in our Answers to Questions or Fat Friday newsletters. Instead, Quips appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.