TechnoLawyer: Graphic Design/Photography/Video

SmartDraw.com's SmartDraw Legal Solution enables legal professionals without any design expertise to create professional-looking illustrations to persuade clients, judges, juries and even opposing counsel. The SmartDraw Legal Solution comes with more than 1,000 templates and 50,000 images for accident reconstructions, crime scenes, maps, medical diagrams, Gantt charts, organizational charts, timelines, and more. For this review, we interviewed four SmartDraw Legal Solution users who rated it and discussed its use in their practice as well as its pros and cons. What did they think? Read this TechnoFeature to find out.

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Recently, AOL acquired Weblogs Inc., a Mark Cuban-financed startup company that operates dozens of enthusiast blogs, but which is best-known for Engadget.

Those of us in the online media business read MediaPost's Just an Online Minute, an e-mail newsletter about our little world. Naturally, the newsletter covered this deal, writing:

"America Online's decision to purchase Weblogs for $25 million is the latest example of the if-you-can't-beat-em-join-em attitude that, these days, established media companies exhibit toward consumer-generated sites.... These moves also suggest that the dichotomy between mainstream media ands [sic] user-generated content is breaking down. Perhaps the large corporate media companies are no longer as wary as in the past of giving citizen journalists and other consumers a platform."

The above characterization of Weblogs Inc.'s content as "user-generated content" (what we call "peer-written content" here at TechnoLawyer) is not correct. Weblogs Inc.'s pays freelance writers to write its blogs. That's not user-generated content, it's traditional content. The content just happens to reside in a blog with fewer layers of editing (or perhaps no editing). The only user-generated content Weblogs Inc. publishes consists of the reader comments below each article — no different than what you'd find in a mainstream media publication.

By contrast, here at TechnoLawyer, we not only publish user-generated content, we place it in the spotlight. For example, our Answers to Questions and Fat Friday newsletters consist of your contributions. If we have anything to say, we place our comments BELOW your Post, not above. Perhaps an even better example, our TechnoFeature newsletter consists of an article written by an expert in the subject matter, not by someone who earns their living writing.

Just to be clear, I'm not criticizing Weblogs Inc. We ourselves publish a newsletter — TechnoLawyer NewsWire — written by a freelance journalist. I've always felt that you need a mix of the two. Instead, I'm just pointing out an error in the use of the term "user-generated content." I have requested that MediaPost publish a correction, but it has not yet done so.

About TechnoEditorials
A TechnoEditorial is the vehicle through which we opine and provide tips of interest to managing partners, law firm administrators, and others in the legal profession. TechnoEditorials appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.

Coming October 21, 2005 to Fat Friday: Dean Kirby discusses his impression of CaseSoft's DepPrep, Faith Drewry offers her take on the CSS in RSS issue, Kikis Talarides reviews Time Matters (and pleads for a Greek version), Peter Pike chastises the Delaware government, and Brad Jensen takes another look at 9/11 from a technology perspective. Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Fridays, Fat Friday is a weekly newsletter that features a grab bag full of genuinely useful product reviews and tips on a wide variety of topics. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

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

An Innovative Approach to Managed Network Security
By Jill Bauerle
New document management system? Case management upgrade? Forget about it. Most likely, your IT staff is swamped with network security issues ranging from tracking intrusion attacks to cleaning spam to rooting out spyware to stopping worms (to name just a few). To deal with these problems at the network level, they likely manage a rack of different boxes, each of which can handle a specific type of security threat, but together cannot handle new complex and "blended" threats. To get your IT staff focused back on what your firm really needs to practice law, look no further than Network Box, which provides "outsourced unified threat management" via a single network security appliance and an accompanying off-site 24/7 security management service. In other words, just one "box" managed by the security professionals at Network Box's Operations Centers handles all your network security needs no matter how complex, and keeps your IT staff fully apprised of your network's health. The appliance also provides your firm with a VPN for secure remote access. Best of all, Network Box includes its appliance free of charge with your surprisingly low monthly subscription fee. When Network Box detects an intrusion or suspicious traffic behavior, it can repel it immediately. With everything in one appliance, no time is wasted communicating among multiple devices, and more importantly your IT staff need not read through reams of log files trying to figure it out by hand. Just as impressively, Network Box updates every security appliance it monitors worldwide within 45 seconds on average after learning about a new threat, such as the latest worm. You can choose the level of on-site control that you want to maintain, plus you'll have access to a plethora of reports -- securely online from anywhere. For law firms, Network Box has several appliance options depending on the size and complexity of your network, such as the SME-250, which supports 10-75 users, or the RG-400, which supports hundreds of users. Network Box's security services include anti-virus, anti-spam, anti-spyware, content filtering, intrusion detection and prevention, firewall, and VPN services. Learn more about Network Box.

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.

I recently purchased my first camera — ever. Previously, I had used either hand-me-downs (first a Pentax SLR and then an Olympus SLR) or disposable film cameras. I would have gone digital earlier, but as often happens, my expectations exceeded the marketplace.

What I've long wanted is an ultra-compact 5 megapixel camera with a 5x optical zoom that takes high-quality photos and unlimited-length movies.

I ended up settling for the Canon PowerShot SD500 (recently replaced by the nearly identical SD550), an ultra-compact 7 megapixel camera with a 3x optical zoom that takes high-quality photos and unlimited-length movies.

I paid $499 at Crutchfield, and also purchased a 1GB Lexar 40x SD memory card for about $100. Tip: Crutchfield gives you a $25 gift card when you buy this digital camera so buy the camera first, and then use the gift card to buy the memory. Also, you can haggle on prices and on shipping charges if you order by phone (ask for Bo). You might find the camera for less money elsewhere, but Crutchfield provides much better service than Amazon or the big box stores.

If you plan to take still photos only, you may not need 1GB of memory, but the camera features a terrific movie mode. I recently shot some footage that will make its way into a short TechnoLawyer-related video that we plan to release soon (stay tuned). You can shoot video at 640x480 pixels 30 fps in MPEG-2 until your memory card fills up — perfect for Web video projects. My 1GB SD card holds about 8 minutes of video. The quality is terrific. However, I would advise against relying on the built-in microphone as it tends to pick up camera sounds. For our upcoming video, we plan to replace the sound that the camera captured with post-production voice-overs, music, and sound effects.

Tip: The SD500 shoots video in 640x480 AVI, but most video editing software (we use iMovie HD) requires 720x480 DV footage. After trying various conversion maneuvers, I discovered one that does not harm the quality of the video. Just open the SD500 footage in QuickTime Pro (available from Apple for $29), export to DV, and then import the DV version into your editing software.

Video aside, most people buy cameras like the SD500 for still shots. The SD500 performs as well as you could hope for such a small camera. What do I mean? As long as you work around the SD500's limitations, you'll get amazing photos. For example, I quickly learned not to use the flash for close-ups because it's too close to the lens.

Like any gadget, the SD500 has more features than you'll ever use. Thus far, I've made use of the following for my still shots: optical zoom (3x), manual mode (especially ISO settings), burst mode (for capturing a series of action shots), macro mode (for extreme close-ups), My Colors (for photos that highlight just one color with everything else in black and white), AiAF (nine-point auto-focus — criticized in some reviews, but it has worked flawlessly for me), and Scene Modes (for specific situations, such as beach, indoor, etc.).

I've had so much fun using my SD500 that I recently volunteered to take some photos for AppleInsider, a fellow independent online technology publication.

Highly recommended — and not surprising that Canon now has the largest market share among digital camera makers.

About TechnoEditorials
A TechnoEditorial is the vehicle through which we opine and provide tips of interest to managing partners, law firm administrators, and others in the legal profession. TechnoEditorials appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.

Coming September 6, 2005 to TechnoGuide:

Katrina; Canon PowerShot SD500/SD550; Blogging Woes -- 5 New Blog Posts, 6 New Questions
By Neil Squillante & Sara Skiff
In this issue of TechnoGuide, we wonder whether technology could have prevented New Orleans from flooding. In addition, you'll find a review of the Canon PowerShot SD500/SD550 (including an in-depth discussion of the movie mode), a cautionary tale about blogging, Quips about satellite radio and WordPerfect, and six new Questions that run the gamut from law firm extranets to network scanners to translation software. All that plus the Question of the Week.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Mondays, TechnoGuide is a biweekly newsletter that features Quips, TechnoEditorials, Industry News, Real-Life Questions submitted by your peers in the legal profession, and the Question of the Week. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. You can subscribe here.

In Answers to Questions, we recently reviewed several tools capable of being used to create an online legal treatise. TechnoLawyer member Alex Petrovic writes in with another possible option: "You could take a look at dtSearch Web. It is not too expensive either. Good luck."

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.

Coming July 18, 2005 to Answers to Questions: Diane Bowers explains how to integrate Hummingbird DM5 with Outlook, Douglas Folk and Tim Palmer respectively suggest possible solutions for publishing a legal treatise online, Sean Tierney reviews Google Desktop Search's PDF capabilities, and Warren Knowles reviews Hummingbird DM5's integration with GroupWise. Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, Answers to Questions is a thrice 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.

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

Do-It-Yourself Legal Graphics and Trial Exhibits
By Brett Burney

Juries and even clients have difficulty understanding legal jargon, and often find verbal testimony boring. To more effectively communicate legal concepts, you could hire an artist to create snazzy, professional graphics and demonstrative evidence. Or you could save a lot of money by using SmartDraw Legal Solution instead.

If you can "drag-n-drop" with a mouse, you can use SmartDraw Legal to create accident diagrams, calendars, crimes scenes, evidence charts, family trees, floor plans, flowcharts, forensic diagrams, Gantt charts, maps, medical diagrams, organizational charts, patent diagrams and illustrations, storyboards, and the always-popular timelines. Simply select the shapes you need and drop them where they belong. You can add text into a variety of shapes that will automatically expand as you type.

SmartDraw Legal Solution bundles thousands of ready-to-use symbols, templates, shapes, lines, and arrow styles. Additionally, it integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Office and other applications. For example, you can convert images (such as photos) from other programs into a SmartDraw graphic, and you can copy and paste completed SmartDraw graphics into Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and even Visio. SmartDraw also works with leading litigation support software, such as Sanction, Summation, and TrialDirector

If you lack artistic talent, SmartDraw Legal Solution will take you by the hand with step-by-step tutorials, tips, and wizards. If that's not enough, SmartDraw offers 100% free live technical support. When you perfect your masterpiece, SmartDraw Legal Solution gives you the option of printing it in poster size for mounting on foam board. If you don't have a large-format printer handy, SmartDraw has partnerships with AlphaGraphics and Sir Speedy — you can send your job to your local branch directly from SmartDraw Legal Solution's print dialog box.

SmartDraw Legal Solution works with Windows 98 and later. A single license sells for $449, but has an introductory price of $297 with volume discounts available. You can also download a free 30-day trial version. Learn more about SmartDraw Legal Solution.

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.

Coming June 15, 2005 to TechnoLawyer NewsWire: In this issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire, you'll learn about a new software program for creating litigation-oriented graphics, a Web-based collaboration and project management tool, the world's smallest Windows PC (think palmtop, not laptop), a scheduling solution for your firm and its conference rooms and other shared facilities, and a new PDF-friendly document management system.

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.