TechnoLawyer: Networking/Operating Systems

Today's issue of TL Serendipity contains these articles:

Patrick Stiehm, Review: CaseManager

Neil Squillante, Review of Scannable and the Future of Portable Hardware Scanners

Thomas Stirewalt, Why Law Firms Should Avoid Windows 10

Danny McDonald, Why WordPerfect on DOS Ruled (And How I Still Kind of Use It)

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 BlawgWorld: Our editorial team has selected and linked to 57 articles from the past week worthy of your attention. Below you'll find a sample article from each section of today's issue, including our BlawgWorld Pick of the Week.

Three Cloud Storage Alternatives

Review: Windows 10

Best Smartphones (August 2015)

The Story of Windows 10 From Inside Microsoft

Congratulations to Sean Doherty of Above the Law on winning our BlawgWorld Pick of the Week award: Review of IBM Verse as an Outlook Replacement

How to Receive BlawgWorld
Our newsletters provide the most comprehensive coverage of both legal technology and mainstream technology of interest to the legal profession (e.g., monitors, smartphones, scanners, the iPad, and more). But not the only coverage. BlawgWorld enables you to stay on top of all the noteworthy legal and mainstream technology articles (and podcasts and videos) published elsewhere without having to hire a research assistant. Even when you're busy, you won't want to miss each issue's Pick of the Week. Please subscribe now.

Coming today to BlawgWorld: Our editorial team has selected and linked to 61 articles from the past week worthy of your attention. Below you'll find a sample article from each section of today's issue, including our BlawgWorld Pick of the Week.

How to Prevent the Windows 10 Upgrade

How to Determine Your Free Windows 10 Upgrade

Split-Screen Multitasking en Route for iPad

Delete All Your iPhone Alarms Simultaneously

IBM PC Revival

Congratulations to Paul Thurrott of Thurrott on winning our BlawgWorld Pick of the Week award: Should You Upgrade to Windows 10?

How to Receive BlawgWorld
Our newsletters provide the most comprehensive coverage of both legal technology and mainstream technology of interest to the legal profession (e.g., monitors, smartphones, scanners, the iPad, and more). But not the only coverage. BlawgWorld enables you to stay on top of all the noteworthy legal and mainstream technology articles (and podcasts and videos) published elsewhere without having to hire a research assistant. Even when you're busy, you won't want to miss each issue's Pick of the Week. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of TL Answers contains these articles:

Ken Laska, Review: PracticeMaster and Tabs3

Brian Peterson, Windows Desktop Search Tips

Colleen Heine, Review: Cleanup Duplicate Contacts

Scott Collins, Acrobat and Outlook No Longer Integrate

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

How to Receive TL Answers
Do you believe in the wisdom of crowds? In TL Answers, TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers. This newsletter's popularity stems from the relevance of the questions and answers to virtually everyone in the legal profession. The TL Answers newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of TL NewsWire covers a private cloud service designed for law firms on which you can run any desktop software (see article below), a gadget of sorts for voir dire, a Bluetooth iPad stylus, and a hybrid Windows tablet. Don't miss the next issue.

TAKE YOUR DESKTOP SOFTWARE TO THE CLOUD

Servers are selling like hotcakes — but not to law firms. With the growth of the cloud, data centers can't get enough of them. Meanwhile, law firms don't want to manage servers anymore. There's no joy in it, just headaches and heartache. Fortunately, you can run your favorite desktop applications in the cloud nowadays. Because of ethical considerations, you need to choose your provider carefully.

Uptime Practice … in One Sentence

Uptime Legal's Uptime Practice is a private cloud designed specifically for law firms on which you can run any Windows or Mac client/server and desktop software.

The Killer Feature

Uptime Legal coined the term "Law Practice as a Service" or LPaaS to refer to its service. This terms underscores two differentiators vis-a-vis other hosting options.

First, Uptime Legal uses multiple data centers, all of which reside in the United States. Second, while Uptime Practice accommodates any software, the company has expertise with popular legal-specific products such as Amicus Attorney, Needles, PCLaw, PracticeMaster, ProLaw, Tabs3, Time Matters, and WorldDox.

"Uptime Practice is designed exclusively for law firms to ensure business continuity, practice efficiency, and reduce out-of-pocket costs," Uptime Legal CEO Dennis Dimka tells us. "Eliminating the burden of acquiring, maintaining, monitoring, and replacing hardware while retaining the software needed to run their law firm helps legal professionals provide better service to their clients."

Other Notable Features

Uptime Practice works on any desktop or mobile computer, including Mac, Windows PC, iPad, iPhone, and Android tablets and smartphones. After you login, your virtual desktop becomes indistinguishable from your local desktop.

Uptime Practice integrates with your existing printers and scanners. Both attached and network devices appear within your virtual desktop as if your software were running locally. This means you can scan to a local or virtual folder, local or virtual desktop, and email.

You won't need to bring everything with you. Uptime Practice includes the current version of Microsoft Office and Microsoft Exchange for your email with unlimited calendars, storage, and technical support. Uptime Practice also includes Uptime Lync, a secure instant messaging system based on Skype for Business. This trio of Microsoft products eliminates the hassle of buying a license or navigating Microsoft's Office 365 offerings.

What Else Should You Know?

Uptime Practice costs $189 per user per month for 3-5 users, $149 per user per month for 6-14 users, and $129 per user per month for 15 or more users. Learn more about Uptime Practice.

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 NewsWire The feature article of today's issue of TL NewsWire covers a Windows utility that automates common law office document tasks. The Roundup section covers an online store for interactive legal forms, a virtual legal consultation and lawyer referral service, and a social news app. Also, if you missed last week's TL NewsWire feature article, you'll find an excerpt and link below.

NINE TIMESAVERS FOR COMMON LAW OFFICE DOCUMENT TASKS

Many small law firms suffer from a variety of document-related collaboration problems. For example, you email your colleague a Word document to review. Your colleague doesn't know where the original document resides on your firm's file server (or shared hard drive) so the final version ends up trapped in email instead of in its proper place.

Synergy Tools 1.0 … in One Sentence

Launched this month, Legal Matters Software's Synergy Tools 1.0 is a Windows Explorer companion utility that automates common law office document tasks.

The Killer Feature

Synergy Tools uses your existing file structure so it resembles Windows Explorer and even contains a button that takes you to the same location in Windows Explorer.

The Email Document Link button addresses the above email collaboration issue. Instead of attaching one or more documents to an email message, you email a link to the document. When your colleague clicks the link, the original document opens. Your colleague can work on the document without needing to know its location, and can reply to your email message when finished.

Other Notable Features

Lawyers of course also need to email documents to clients and others. This means leaving Windows Explorer to start an email message, and then returning to Windows Explorer to drag the document into the email message. In Synergy Tools, you select one or more documents, and then click the Email Document button. This automatically creates an email message with the documents appended as attachments.

The PDF format has become ubiquitous in law firms. Synergy Tools contains three PDF-related features. Convert to PDF converts any documents you select into PDF format using the same file name. Merge as PDF enables you to combine all selected documents into a single PDF file in the order you specify such as for deal books and ebriefs. Number PDF Pages enables you to apply a stamp to every page in a PDF file. You can use it for Bates stamping as it accommodates any combination of letters, numbers, and other symbols in sequential order.

Lawyers often need to efile PDF documents. Instead of navigating your firm's file structure, the Copy File Path button in Synergy Tools copies a document's file path to your clipboard that you can paste into your web browser's document upload window. The similar Copy Folder Path takes your web browser to the folder with documents you want to upload.

You'll also find two document management technologies in Synergy Tools. Document Date places the creation date at the beginning of the file name for all selected documents. This enables you bulk name documents created prior to adopting this best practice. New Version creates a new version of a document with a sequential number in its file name.

Finally, Synergy Tools includes Synergy Signature, which also exists as a standalone product. Synergy Signature enables you to apply your scanned signature in a Word or PDF document.

What Else Should You Know?

"After visiting with many law firms over the years, we found that most suffer from the same document-related inefficiencies," Legal Matters Software CEO John Ryan told us. "Synergy Tools eliminates each of these, dramatically improving productivity at a pay-once price any law firm can afford." Synergy Tools runs on Windows Vista and later. It costs $24.95. Learn more about Synergy Tools 1.0.

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:

Brad Smith, The Undocumented Cost of a DIY Document Management System

Neil Squillante, The Holy Grail of Cloud Practice Management Apps

Thomas Stirewalt, How to Run Old DOS Software Safely

Blair Clark, Defending WordPerfect; Review of Perfect Authority

Michele Ballagh, Tip: Create, Assign, and Track Tasks in Outlook

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:

Dave Culbertson, Why Windows Is No Match for ActiveWords

Steve Buchwalter, Review: WUNoAutoReboot

Mark Unger, Why Lit Software Is a Force for Good

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 Answers contains these articles:

Spencer Stromberg, Document Naming Policy; Review of Directory Opus

Christian Onsager, Review: Surface Pro 3 Weight and Keyboard

Brent Blanchard, Android, PDF, and Other Mobile Musings

Jerry Gonzalez, Review: SherWeb for Hosted Exchange

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

How to Receive TL Answers
Do you believe in the wisdom of crowds? In TL Answers, TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers. This newsletter's popularity stems from the relevance of the questions and answers to virtually everyone in the legal profession. The TL Answers newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of Fat Friday contains these articles:

Karl M. Rowe, Dispelling Myths About Today's WordPerfect

Neil Squillante, Review: Bose SoundLink On-Ear Bluetooth Headphones

Bertrand Paiement, Three Non-Apple Apps That Earned a Spot on My Dock

David O'Connell, Tip: Built-In Automation in Windows

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

How to Receive Fat Friday
Our most serendipitous offering, Fat Friday consists of unsolicited contributions by TechnoLawyer members. 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 Fat Friday newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.