TechnoLawyer: Post

Thomas Daly, Remote Desktop Mythbusters (Static IP Address)

TechnoLawyer Benjamin Edwards asks:
"I am interested in accessing my computer when I am away from the office. I have tried various programs for that purpose, including LapLink, but none seems to work. Are there any suggestions?"

Caren Schwartz responded:
"In response to Mr. Edwards I would suggest GoToMYPC...."

Howard Raab wrote:
"The Remote Desktop Access program built into Windows XP (both Professional and Home) has worked very well for me, with no fee at all...."

Andrew Willinger responded:
"There are two significant problems with using Windows XP's built-in Remote Desktop Access over an Internet connection.... The cost of a static IP address from most ISPs is not minimal in most cases. In fact, many large DSL and Cable providers — especially those at the low end of the price range — do not offer a static IP at all...."

I respectfully point out in response to Mr. Willinger's comments about Remote Desktop concerning a static IP address, that you can use a free redirection service that gives you a static IP address even if you have a dynamic IP address. I use www.No-IP.com and it has worked very well. No-IP.com gives me a static address which I use for Remote Desktop.

Also, I have never used GoToMyPC and do not know about its effectiveness, but you can print remotely and transfer files with Remote Desktop by setting the level of control of the host machine before activating Remote Desktop. I transfer files and print remotely all the time.

Attorney Thomas J. Daly
North Haven, CT

About Answers to Questions
Posts like the one above appear exclusively in Answers to Questions, a 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. You can subscribe here.

Elise Nolan, Review: Microsoft's Redaction Tool for Word (Plus PDF Resource)

TechnoLawyer member Barbara A. DiFranza asks:
"I scanned documents for client A in Adobe 7 as a graphic. A few years later, these documents became of interest to client B's counsel and I sent them to her after redacting Client A's name. I used a text box and made A's name and identifying information totally black and opaque. I then put a security setting on the document so that it could not be changed. I e-mailed it to Counsel for B thinking I had whipped the problem. Alas, Counsel B was able to print the document free of my little black boxes because, under the "Comments and Forms" drop down menu in the Print Dialog box, she simply chose "Document" as opposed to "Documents and Markups." Luckily, Counsel B manually redacted the documents before making use of them.

"I've searched the Adobe manual and Carl Young's Adobe Acrobat 6.0 for a solution. Unfortunately, I cannot find a solution. I was unable to mark up a document in Adobe and print to Adobe in order to eliminate the underlying document. If any of you has a solution short of printing, manually blacking out and re-scanning, I will be most appreciative."

My firm has recently begun using Microsoft's free redaction tool for Word. It's extremely easy to use and you can either print to .pdf or save your document as a protected file so that the redactions cannot be removed. The add-in can be downloaded here.

I don't have experience with redacting documents that are already in .pdf form, but you could try some of the suggestions in this article from Planet PDF.

E. Nolan
Cohen & Grigsby, P.C.

About Answers to Questions
Posts like the one above appear exclusively in Answers to Questions, a 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. You can subscribe here.

Jesse Farr, Review: Time & Chaos (Including One Gripe)

TechnoLawyer member Isaac Steinfeld asks:
"Our office does not currently have any shared calendar and contact list (Rolodex type) for all personnel. Do you have any recommendations for a simple, economical network based shared calendar and contact list. We are currently using Outlook Express so Outlook is not an option at this time. Thanks."

Thomas E. Stirewalt Jr. responded:
"In my experience, the best thing out there is a program called Time & Chaos which gives you a fully functional 30-day evaluation copy to download, and then if you decide to buy for $49 you get an unlock code and all the data you have entered from the trial period is still there...."

We in my office have used Time & Chaos for many years. Just about all you have already been told is absolutely true and if anything doesn't do it justice. My only gripes about it is that the notes section will not run on forever; so, we have to store all over a lot (some 20 or 30 pages, maybe even 50, I don't even know how many characters large) in some other word processing file and then go on with later model notes. It also doesn't allow for automatic time chain construction. Other than that, it is pretty much a lawyer's dream. Every time I go and look at some other high dollar case management solution, I quickly come back to Time & Chaos as it is quicker and easier, while doing almost everything we want.

(I don't own any of it or get any benefit of this totally unsolicited endorsement, either; darn it!)

Go look at it, play with it and you'll like it.

Jesse Farr
Soddy, TN

About Answers to Questions
Posts like the one above appear exclusively in Answers to Questions, a 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. You can subscribe here.

Recently, we've published a number of hands-on reviews of Stamps.com in Answers to Questions. TechnoLawyer member Grace Lidia Suarez adds her two cents: "I am a home-office-based appellate lawyer. Before Stamps.com, I wasted time adding up stamps, and then had to take the packages to the post office when they weighed more than 16 ounces. Now I print out exactly the postage I need, and I can drop the packages into the nearest mailbox or hand them to my carrier. I love it!"

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.

Earlier this year in Answers to Questions, we published Gerard Stubbert's Post Using PaperPort as a Discovery Tool. In response to that Post, TechnoLawyer member Arthur von Kursell writes: "Gerard, I enjoyed reading your Post on PaperPort. Currently I am involved in a corporate matter involving tens of thousands of documents and am in the planning stages on how to manage them. Your Post was both timely and informative. I appreciate the insight."

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 our continuing coverage of courts that prevent lawyers from carrying their cell phones, TechnoLawyer member Darren Cantor writes: "Colorado's Federal District Court has a local rule barring anything that can take a photograph. Thus, almost all newer generation cell phones, carried by attorney or otherwise, are barred. I have approached the Court Clerk, and "they are working" on some fix for this, but for now, those of us with multi-function devices (phone/PDA) do without. I just tell judges that I cannot set anything as the Marshall seized my calendar upon entry to the building. Maybe eventually one will figure out that this seizure is silly and we ought to join at least the 20th century, if not the 21st!"

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 our TechnoGuide newsletter, TechnoLawyer member Christopher Simmons recently asked: "Word and DeltaView can generate redline comparisons of Word documents. Is there a way to generate a redline comparison of PDF documents that have been OCR'd?" TechnoLawyer member Barry Ansbacher responds: "This feature is built into Acrobat 7, or at least the professional version. It does only a fair job of comparison; however, Adobe seems to be pretty good about constantly improving its products and features."

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.

Regarding the discussion of spyware removal tools in recent issues of Answers to Questions, TechnoLawyer member Gabrielle Dowling writes: "While Ad-Aware is a useful tool, it's important to note that Ad-Aware Personal SE is not free to use on a computer used for business purposes — you must purchase Ad-Aware Plus or Professional for use in a business environment."

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.

Regarding the two formal reviews of Adobe Acrobat 7 in TechnoFeature, and the many informal reviews in Fat Friday, TechnoLawyer member William Yates writes: "I purchased and installed version 7 about three-four months ago. I discovered that it did not integrate well with PaperPort, and it appears to have not updated the registry, because I have to keep "right clicking" and specify "open with" in order to get a PDF files to open. The previously installed programs do not recognize that I have the new version and try to open the PDF files with the old Acrobat, which is no longer on my computer. Once I realized the problem, I've been able to "work around it." Has anyone else encountered this problem?

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.

Regarding the recent reviews of WordPerfect 12 in Fat Friday, TechnoLawyer member Peter Pike writes: "Yes, but the only problem is that all of our clients use Word, send us e-mail documents in Word and expect us to return them documents in Word. I hate it. The program is awful, but, everyone outside of the legal world uses it. Converting back and forth between the two formats works the first couple of times. After that, so much formatting gets lost or mixed up that I have found it is just not worth it." In related news, TechnoLawyer member John Gordon responds to Barron Henley's recent rant in defense of Microsoft Word as follows: "I could not agree more with every thing Mr. Henley says. I want to thank him for taking the time to get it off my chest." Wow, what a great line — gotta remember that one!

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.