TechnoLawyer

Originally published on July 12, 2010 in our free SmallLaw newsletter.

In my previous SmallLaw column, I explained how to use Styles in Word 2007. This week let's talk document assembly, which represents the holy grail that every lawyer has sought for decades, whether acknowledged consciously or just the subject of quiet fantasy. However, the creation of document assembly systems to build documents for areas of practice such as contracting, real estate, estate planning, and even litigation rarely comes to fruition. Why?

The Problem With Document Assembly Systems

The biggest impediment to document assembly success is the very nature of document assembly tools. Powerhouse document assembly engines such as Capsoft's venerable HotDocs offer extensive (and impressive) "smart" logic, including conditional branching and selection of optional paragraphs based on how prior questions are answered.

However, it's complex to build such systems — they usually have to be outsourced. While the upfront cost tends to pay for itself, it's a daunting wall to scale. Most firms never start the climb, and end up with a simplistic document assembly system that just fills in the blanks to routinize documents. These templates can certainly be helpful for documents that require nothing more than being personalized to a specific case or client, but it's not useful for most contracts and agreements.

Using Word 2007's Quickparts as a Document Assembly Tool

Law firms really need some type of clause-based document assembly. Clause-based document assembly? What the heck is that? Imagine this — slice and dice your best contracts into their independent, individual clauses. A hierarchical organizational system enables you to organize the clauses first by area of practice area, such as "Real Estate," then a sub-classification, such as "Commercial Leases," then another sub-sub-type, such as "Escalation Clauses."

Next imagine that you could pull up your clause library, click on the clauses you need and insert as little as a sentence to as much as several pages of content with only a cursor point anywhere in a document you're building. Would that be useful? When you pick yourself up from the floor after momentarily lapsing into bliss-induced unconsciousness, you'll find you have such a system already.

It's called Word 2007 (or 2010) and its QuickParts feature, or what my now-14 year old daughter once referred to as "Lego," building blocks upon which you build documents.

QuickParts really couldn't be simpler. Go to the Insert Ribbon in Word and you'll see the QuickParts item in the "Text" subsection on the right side of the ribbon area. Pull down the button to see the menu of options, just to familiarize yourself with the landscape, especially the Building Blocks Organizer. It's the hierarchical repository I mentioned. Be sure to scroll through all the standard building blocks included with Word — great ways to spruce up documents and call attention to specific language.

To create a QuickPart (a "building block"), highlight any range of text you wish to save as an independent clause. Then from the QuickParts button, select the option that says "Save Selection to QuickParts Gallery." Add a "Name" (i.e. Merger Clause), pick a "Gallery" (top-level organization), then create or select an existing category (i.e. Commercial Leases). Save it and it will be available to pick from the Building Block Organizer, which has selections sortable by column headers including Name, Gallery and Category.

With Word's QuickParts, what you will amass over time is nothing short of a powerhouse clause-based document assembly system — the kind of document assembly most lawyers have fantasized about, but never thought they could achieve without buying any specialized software.

Written by Ross Kodner of MicroLaw.

How to Receive SmallLaw
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Originally published on May 24, 2010 in our free SmallLaw newsletter.

With shiny new gadgets like the iPad commanding so much attention, it's easy to forget that the bread and butter of small firms remains document creation. This means mastering Microsoft Word 2007 (and its forthcoming successor, 2010) beyond just manhandling it as a glorified typewriter or misusing it as if it were WordPerfect.

I give a CLE program called "Tightwad Technology: How to Better Use Microsoft Word 2007 in Your Practice." I've presented this session over 50 times across North America over the last three years. I'm consistently stunned how few members of the audience know how to use three of the most powerful legal-specific features of Word. Let's change this situation at least here in TechnoLawyer starting today.

Word 2007 Tip: Stop Manually Formatting Documents and Use Styles Instead

Styles are nothing more than simple "macros" that modify the formatting of one or more paragraphs with one click. They're that simple — really. Hardly terrifying or even mystifying, you literally position your cursor anywhere in a paragraph, and then click the appropriate Style button on the Word 2007 home ribbon and have the entire paragraph's appearance altered correctly. Or if the desired change would span multiple paragraphs, just select them first.

Why do so few small law firms use Styles? I think the answer lies in WordPerfect lore. In our WordPerfect past, we used codes to format and lay out our client documents. Originally, Styles didn't exist in WordPerfect (they do now).

There is no better way to ensure the consistent "firm" appearance of all documents than to standardize on a few "official" Styles for correspondence, pleadings, section headings for contracts, etc. And yes, you can dispense with the included "sample" Styles that come with Word 2007 and replace them with the smaller, select group you decide on to represent your firm's documents' look and feel.

You can easily create new Styles on the fly via the QuickStyles function in Word 2007. Modify a chunk of text the way you'd want the style to appear. For example, it might be bold, underlined, and 16 point Arial Black text for agreement section headings. Highlight and right click the altered section. Select Styles, then Save Selection as a New QuickStyle. Name the style — perhaps Ross' Preferred Arial Black 16 pt Section Headings — something so obvious you'll later know how and when to use it.

The new Style will then appear on your Styles block on the Home ribbon (which you can later rearrange so it's in the always visible primary row along with your small group of other QuickStyles.) It's really that simple. So get over whatever issues you have about Styles and embrace them — you'll really love them (and probably feel like a dope for not trying them sooner).

Word 2007 Add-On Tip: Numbering Assistant Takes the Insanity Out of Automatic Paragraph Numbering

I know it's not just me. Whenever I ask my CLE audiences about who has issues using Word's automatic paragraph numbering, I hear a collective groan and see heads nodding in frustrated agreement. Automatic paragraph numbering in Word doesn't seem to work the way any normal human would expect. Sometimes the numbering sequences are wrong. Sometimes an indent to another section level causes the cursor to crash headlong into the far left edge of the page beyond the left margin and apparently look as irreparable as an oil spill.

So to return to some semblance of Word auto-numbering sanity, run, don't walk to deploy Payne Group's Numbering Assistant. From the legendary team that produces the necessary Metadata Assistant metadata scrubbing tool, Numbering Assistant replaces the brain-dead Word numbering Styles (yes, they are just Styles) with a dedicated ribbon section that provides a logical range of numbering choices. You can also apply different numbering schemes in the same document, modify the many included schemes, and more. At $78 per seat for small firms, Numbering Assistant costs a mere pittance compared to the sudden rush of enhanced sanity it will bring to your daily use of Word 2007.

Written by Ross Kodner of MicroLaw.

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Originally published on April 28, 2010 in our free SmallLaw newsletter.

We've all heard that bad things happen in three's. I'm tired of negativity. Why not focus on the positive? With today's column, I'm kicking off a series of monthly columns, each of which will offer three tips to help your small firm tackle a technology hurdle. Today, let's explore whether it makes sense to move to Windows 7. Is it safe? Should you upset your reasonably stable Windows XP apple cart? Can you avoid the nightmare otherwise known as Vista?

Vista Be Gone

I have written extensively about the product I quickly came to refer to as Windows Vista or MOPH (My Own Personal Hell), and the time it wasted, the angst it engendered, and the outpouring of public vitriol at the sheer callous offensiveness of the product.

Continuing to berate Vista serves no practical purpose, largely since with the release of Windows 7 in October 2009, Microsoft seems to have made a comprehensive mea culpa for the errors of its previous operating system ways. These included:

• Incompatibility With Peripherals: The inability to reliably use even relatively recent vintage printers, scanners, and other devices confounded more than a few Vista victims.


• Unreliability: Vista was so bloated with running services and its own clumsy applications that its raison d'etre as an operating system was short-circuited. It just didn't really … operate.


• False Security: Absurd and thinly veiled attempts to create a false sense of digital security through a series of marketing-driven warnings and notifications in the form of the dreaded UACs (User Account Control) messages. Some users could literally see 50+ of these permission requests in an hour of work. And the technology behind the "warnings"? Often nothing more than a fraudulent intent to create a sense of security where none really existed.

We could go on, but to what end? Microsoft effectively acknowledged its colossal mistake by continuously extending the life of Windows XP. Enterprise buyers refused to drink whatever minimalist Vista Kool-Aid Microsoft offered and stayed away in droves. To its credit, Microsoft routinely indirectly acknowledged Vista's inadequacy, largely by rapidly accelerating the development and release of its successor, Windows 7. After perhaps the largest and longest public beta testing process this side of Google's products, Windows 7 rolled out after months of positive reviews of its surprisingly stable "release candidate" versions.

Tip One: Windows 7 Actually Works

Let's explore the conclusion first. Yes, Windows 7 is reliable and worth the upgrade/migration process. It works. Finally an operating system from Microsoft that does in fact … operate.

It's safe. Safer to use earlier in its life than any Microsoft operating system in memory. It's actually good enough to draw semi-positive comments from Mac users (i.e., "It's actually not that bad" — yes, that's high praise from any Mac user when referencing a Microsoft operating system).

Tip Two: The Best Things About Windows 7 Are Substantive

Vista, may it not rest in peace, supplanted substance for fluff — silly eye candy that was both superfluous and insulting in its utter lack of respect for a user's ability to accomplish anything of functional value.

Windows 7, however, excels in several distinct areas including the following, all of which could be said to be the virtual opposite of corresponding Vista functions:

• Reliable access and exploitation of systems with more than 2 GB of RAM courtesy of a more compatible 64-bit version than Vista offered.


• Less intrusive sub-applications and less menu clutter.


• Feels more "XP-like." That it is a compliment of the first order, referring to the perception of workmanlike operability of XP.


• Peripheral compatibility is dramatically improved. Windows 7 also benefits from years of driver automation and refinement.


• Performance — Windows 7 is smart enough to know when to get out of its own way. About time Microsoft — and frankly, nicely done.

Tip Three: Best Practices for Windows 7 Upgrades

The best approach is to move your practice to Windows 7 by buying it pre-installed on new, Windows 7-certified/compatible/friendly PC systems. If you're a Windows XP user, just wait out the lifecycle of those systems and retire them. If you're a Vista victim, by all means, rescue yourself as soon as you can. However, going the upgrade route is possible.

Upgrading to Windows 7 for most law practices will involve a "bare metal" process on an existing Windows XP system. Windows 7 cannot perform a direct upgrade from Windows versions earlier than Vista — a fresh installation is required. However, as part of the process, the prior Windows system is saved under a Windows.Old file structure — the older files can still be accessed, although the older version of Windows cannot run (unless of course the system's drive is partitioned and the prior version of Windows is maintained, with a dual-boot structure being created).

As always, performing an operating system upgrade is cleaner and much less problematic when a fresh installation is involved. The process of overwriting a prior operating system with "in place" upgrades has virtually always yielded a digital mess — the detritus of the old operating system tainting the reliability of the new. So even Vista users — the few out there in a law practice situation — should serious consider clean installations rather than in-place upgrades.

Windows uberguru Paul Thurott recommends a three step process for a Windows 7 upgrade on non-Vista systems.

1. Backup your crucial data and settings using Windows Easy Transfer (it's on the Windows 7 Setup DVD). Make note of the applications that are installed, because you'll have to manually reinstall them again after the fact.


2. Perform a clean install of Windows 7 using the upgrade media.


3. Restore your crucial data and settings using Windows Easy Transfer (part of Windows 7) and then reinstall your applications.

Microsoft has a helpful online resource to help small businesses through the upgrade consideration process. You'll find un-Microsoft-like simple explanations of the volume license process when five or more systems are involved, and learn about the upgrade compatibility/compliance testing to determine the success likelihood based on your present hardware platforms.

Written by Ross Kodner of MicroLaw.

How to Receive SmallLaw
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Originally published on March 29, 2010 in our free SmallLaw newsletter.

In my last SmallLaw column, I explored (okay, ranted) about moving past the objections to software as a service (SaaS), and instead shifting the focus to functionality and suitability for daily law practice use. At ABA TECHSHOW last week in Chicago, it was impossible not to get caught up in the buzz that continues to build around cloud computing. With practice management SaaS leaders Clio and Rocket Matter both announcing feature expansions and five full quarters of business operations under their collective belts, the market felt oddly "mature." In short, I detected a paradigm shift. Let me explain.

Small Firm Lawyers Receptive To SaaS but Concerns Remain

I had the pleasure of participating in the "Meet the Authors" series with Jim Calloway and Sharon Nelson, co-authors of my ABA book, How Good Lawyers Survive Bad Times. We hosted a suiteful of attendees for a free-wheeling, wide-ranging discussion of legal technology topics. The subject of the viability, suitability, and practicality of SaaS dominated the lively and interactive conversation.

What struck my co-authors and me perhaps the most was the acceptance of cloud computing as an accepted, standardized, institutionalized option that merited equal consideration along with Ground Computing (okay, we really do need a phrase to describe traditional, installed applications).

The idea that the holy trinity of legal technology — case/practice information management, document management, and billing/financial management — could entail both traditional locally installed programs such as Tabs3/PracticeMaster, Amicus Attorney, PCLaw, Time Matters, etc. and SaaS products is huge.

The discussion seemed to be a reasonable microcosm of small firm life, with lawyers from across North America actively involved, and spanning the entire range of ages as well. While hardly scientific and not rising to the level of being empirically sound, it felt representative of the buying marketplace. Below I recap the two most interesting discussion points to emerge from this discussion.

1. Hey You, Get Off of My Cloud

Yes, it's the increasingly tiresome and hollow "Connection Objection" — the inevitable objection raised early in a cloud computing discussion is "what happens if I lose my Internet connection and can't access all my stuff?"

Absolutely a critical point, but as attendee and ABA TECHSHOW faculty member, Nicole Garton-Jones of Vancouver's Heritage Law so succinctly put it, "the Internet connection issue is a red herring." She explained that her office has it's own virtual server and is its own cloud computing provider, delivering apps via the Web, controlling access and leveraging a dual failover pair of Internet connections, much in the same manner as a larger corporation would.

Someone else said, "fine, go across the street to a Starbucks for a few minutes" or "take out your wireless broadband card or your MiFi and share a wireless connection until your regular connection is back up again."

The point is that this objection just rings hollow today — you can find a way to nearly always stay connected, which leads us to a different angle on the connectivity issue.

2. Keep Me Working No Matter What

The other takeaway point is that cloud computing vendors need to take the idea of offline access seriously. Multiple attendees echoed this concern. It's not "I can't get online because my Internet connection is down, but more that sometimes I'm not somewhere I can stay connected." For example, when traveling sometimes wireless broadband coverage can be iffy and slower, and even in the middle of Manhattan's concrete jungle, laptop-wireless access can be spotty.

So to the cloud computing folks, give us some real offline access! That means the ability to have a scheduled or real-time time mirror of our practice/document/billing management data to an applet of some sort that will let us actually keep working (not just an exported CSV file that no one can really use immediately in any meaningful way). Then provide some type of smart syncing to return our offline-entered data to the mother ship when we're able to reconnect. Seriously guys, it's time.

Get to Work SaaS Vendors

So in my continued examination of cloud computing for solo and small firms, the answers sort of exist — just finish the puzzle guys, deliver on offline access, educate us about the fallback connection approaches, and of course provide the features law firms need. Then, welcome to the mainstream … but truly, not until then.

Written by Ross Kodner of MicroLaw.

How to Receive SmallLaw
Small firm, big dreams. Published first via email newsletter and later here on our blog, SmallLaw provides you with a mix of practical advice that you can use today, and insight about what it will take for small law firms like yours to thrive in the future. The SmallLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Originally published on March 8, 2010 in our free SmallLaw newsletter.

Warning — a rant is headed your way. A well-reasoned and situationally warranted one I believe, but definitely a rant. If I hear one more debate about whether lawyers should use software as a service (SaaS) (aka cloud computing systems), my head might explode. This debate is perpetually mired in concerns about accessibility, ethics, and security. It's time to move past these nonissues and focus on more relevant issues that will enable SaaS products to mature into mainstream small firm products.

The Two Most Hotly Debated SaaS Issues Are Nonissues

Like many others, I've consistently sounded the dual alarms of SaaS: caution about newer technology, and of professional responsibility. These cautionary points do not revolve around functionality, necessarily, because there is much to be said about the "less is more" design approach embodied by SaaS products (especially practice management systems).

Rather, reasonable prudence from a best practices perspective focuses in part on continuity — availability of practice-critical data such as docketing and deadline information, documents, and core matter information. Small firms still need to reckon with access issues such as a data outage or slowdown anywhere in the digital pipeline, or vendor insolvency complicated by a predictably recalcitrant bankruptcy trustee.

It is relatively easy to address potential continuity issues. Eventually, legal SaaS system providers will build the local system mirroring/syncing/replication tools to ensure the same offline accessibility that enterprise corporate products have had for years. Why haven't the small-firm oriented legal SaaS providers built workable, immediately usable offline capability yet? Beats me — they know it's an issue and they must be tired of the constant pundit criticism.

The reality, however, is that continuity issues need to be balanced against the possibility of internally-maintained software becoming inaccessible because of a panoply of technology troubles. Digital bad days blacken all doorsteps — both externally and internally hosted applications fall prey to disrupted access.

Other concerns continue to swirl, especially vague ethical rules regarding surrender of control of confidential client information to third parties. The confidentiality issue ties into data transmission and encryption issues as well as the disposition of confidential information in the event of vendor insolvency and dissolution.

The reality, in the absence of inevitable ethical opinions and updated rules of professional responsibility, is that the ethics issues are largely a red herring. There is a long tradition of permitting third party data access and control to confidential client information. The obvious example is using third parties to retrieve and maintain archived client files, or to process electronic discovery files. Even online data backup, with multiple state bar associations having vetted and endorsed various services, has become informally accepted.

So let's just all get over it — SaaS makes sense. The above issues will be resolved, likely sooner rather than later. If the world's largest corporations can place their trust in wildly successful and field-proven SaaS products such as Salesforce.com, legal SaaS systems will become just as trustworthy. Outside of the small firm sphere, we already see very successful examples of SaaS legal applications, including mission critical systems such as financial management products. Rippe & Kingston's LMS+ is a sound example.

It's the Functionality, Stupid

In a world where universal access across multiple devices is rapidly becoming a necessity — PCs, Macs, iPhones, BlackBerrys, and now iPads — the browser interface is inevitable. The faster traditional software vendors realize that users prefer simpler, consistent browser-centric interfaces, the more likely they'll survive and thrive in the long run.

So what should we focus on when it comes to SaaS? How about functionality? How about shifting the debate to what really matters to users. Whether financial, document, litigation, or practice management, how well do the various products perform? Does this shift in focus mean that SaaS providers should be given a free pass when it comes to continuity and ethical issues? Of course not. Law firms must do their homework in this regard, but they must also evaluate the features.

Only by focusing on the needs of small law firms can we improve existing SaaS products and encourage new entrants into the marketplace. For example, there's no reason that Rippe & Kingston can produce a fully-featured, hosted financial system, but not produce a functional equivalent for smaller firms, scaled down to a lower hosted price point. The point is that the models are there for SaaS success. Further, Rippe & Kingston offers a particularly intelligent choice for its customers — hosted or self-hosted (so-called "iSaaS" or "internal software as a service"). I expect similar offerings from the providers of traditional software if and when they enter the SaaS market.

The small firm legal SaaS world can most certainly succeed. SaaS vendors should focus on promoting functionality first, while methodically shoring up their services' perceived and/or real weaknesses in the two fundamental areas of platform criticism. Address and end the current stalemate and grow up SaaS — the small firm market is ready for and needs you.

Lawyer Ross L. Kodner is the founder and principal of MicroLaw, a legal technology and law practice management consultancy renowned for its work with small law firms (as well as larger firms and corporate/government legal departments of all sizes). Though based in Milwaukee, MicroLaw serves small firms and other clients around the world. The recipient of many industry awards (including five Technolawyer Awards), Ross speaks at many events and blogs at Ross Ipsa Loquitur, finalist in the ABA's 2008 Blawg 100. If your firm is ready to practice smart and seeks to thrive in spite of these tough times, we suggest you contact Ross.

Written by Ross Kodner of MicroLaw.

How to Receive SmallLaw
Small firm, big dreams. Published first via email newsletter and later here on our blog, SmallLaw provides you with a mix of practical advice that you can use today, and insight about what it will take for small law firms like yours to thrive in the future. The SmallLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Originally published on January 11, 2010 in our free SmallLaw newsletter.

Thank you for all the feedback on my series of SmallLaw columns about Adobe Acrobat. Previously, I've discussed how to create deal books, make your PDF files searchable, and archive your Outlook email. This fourth installment focuses on a jaw-dropping function known as "Typewriter."

Does your firm still have one lonely little typewriter? Do your Generation Y lawyers even know what a typewriter is? Why do you still have one? Struggling and tussling with fill-in-the-blank government forms perhaps? Filling in UCC filing statements? Typing up HUD forms for real estate closings? How much time do you waste just trying to find ribbons for that old, absurdly analog beast?

And why do you bother? Probably because you think it would be too involved to spend the time to automate the pre-printed form in Word or in Acrobat. Whatever the reason for dragging out your ancient typewriter to fill in forms, it's not necessary. There's a much better way using Adobe Acrobat's well-hidden and not-nearly-promoted-enough Typewriter function.

How to Make the Switch to Acrobat's Typewriter

Here's the idea in a nutshell. Scan any pre-printed paper form or take any "dumb" form you find online or receive from someone (with "dumb" defined as an inability to have its data fields filled in on-screen). With a PDF version of the form now on-screen, make the file searchable. Re-save the now searchable PDF file. For example, suppose you scan an IRS W9 form to report professional service fees received.

Now comes the PDF magic. In Acrobat Standard, Professional or the less common Professional Extended edition, go to the Tools menu, select Typewriter, and select "Show Typewriter Toolbar." A new toolbar will be added that includes the Typewriter functions:

• A button to turn on the Typewriter function and insert text at any point in your document.


• Buttons to increase or decrease the font size typed.


• Buttons to increase or decrease the line spacing of the typed text.


• A button to change the color of the typed text.


• Pull-down selections to choose fonts and their point size.

To insert text at any point in the document, presumably to "fill in a blank," click the Typewriter button (easily identified for everyone over the age of 40 by a typewriter). Doing so will change your cursor into one that looks more like what ancient Wordstar devotees from the early 80's will remember as their "insertion pointer."

Position the typewriter cursor wherever you want to "type" text onto the document and click. Then type away. The default font, nostalgically, is a Courier-like font that harkens back to the days of the IBM Selectric and the "typewriter look" of yesteryear. You can change it, but initially it's just plain fun to think of your completed form looking as if you had used some clanking old Underwood. When you finish the entry, press ESC and you'll switch off Typewriter mode. Move to the next blank and repeat until your form is fully filled.

Typewriter Tips

You have extensive ability to later modify your entries. You can click on the "typed" text to select it. You can then double-click into the selected text to return to Typewriter mode and edit to your heart's content (no more white-out). If you want to change the appearance of the text, highlight it once you've "double-click selected" it and then choose any of the text appearance change options on the Typewriter toolbar: graduated font size increases/decreases, line spacing to better fit the blanks, color changes, or standard font and point size changes. Click away from the selected text to lock in the changes.

Sometimes you'll need to reposition the "typed" text — placement of the typewriter cursor isn't entirely obvious and can take a bit of practice. To reposition your text, click on it to select the entire typed segment. Then position the "arrow" cursor on the selected text border and drag and drop where needed. For finer repositioning, first zoom into the PDF using the standard Acrobat zoom controls.

When you finish, save the PDF file to lock in your changes, and then distribute away. You'll find endless daily uses for the Acrobat Typewriter. Sometimes it can be as simple as filling in a "date signed" line in a contract after inserting your scanned signature or before inserting your digital signature. Other times, you may use it to fill out a multiple page government agency form.

Old Keystrokes Home

Once you begin using Acrobat's Typewriter tool, one more task awaits you — sending your Brother, IBM Selectric, Olivetti, Royal, Underwood, or whatever typewriter your firms uses to an analog assisted living facility to live out its remaining days.

Written by Ross Kodner of MicroLaw.

How to Receive SmallLaw
Small firm, big dreams. Published first via email newsletter and later here on our blog, SmallLaw provides you with a mix of practical advice that you can use today, and insight about what it will take for small law firms like yours to thrive in the future. The SmallLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Originally published on December 14, 2009 in our free SmallLaw newsletter.

Continuing with the theme of my last two columns, let's explore another enormously useful Acrobat feature — email archiving. Who isn't awash in an endless swirling sea of email that conspires to digitally drown you daily? Yes, that's clearly a rhetorical question because the answer is: all of us.

How often have you heard that shrill siren call emanating from your IT people: "Delete old email — you're taking up too much space — or we'll do it for you!" Microsoft Outlook users have never had a particularly useful or satisfying way to cull email. Outlook's archiving functions are effectively brain-dead. Either auto-delete or manually delete your messages. Or "archive" them, a seemingly pointless process that moves older email into an "archives" email folder structure, which serves only to make the email less accessible and less convenient, doing nothing to reduce the size of the stored data Outlook and its Exchange Server engine must track.

How to Archive Outlook Email Using Adobe Acrobat

Forget archiving in Outlook. Instead, look to the potent abilities of Acrobat and the PDF format as the panacea for your email pain.

Adobe Acrobat offers a special portfolio that includes Microsoft Outlook email and your attachments. A surprising number of people seem unaware of this powerhouse feature's existence. In some respects, you may find the ability to efficiently archive Outlook email and attachments even more powerful than Acrobat's core PDF making capabilities.

Adobe Acrobat adds a a PDFMaker ribbon or toolbar to Microsoft Outlook that features two useful buttons:

1. Create Adobe PDF from Selected Messages
2. Create Adobe PDF from Selected Folders

Let's assume you want to archive the contents of an Outlook "matter" folder you've created for "ABC Trucking v. Smith Corp." Select the Outlook folder in the folder pane, and then click the second Acrobat button. Let's further assume that the "matter" folder contains more than 200 email messages, many with one or more attachments. A progress indicator will appear as Acrobat "processes" all the email in the folder. The end result is a PDF Portfolio containing all the email within the matter folder.

When the process is complete, the PDF Portfolio consisting of all 200+ email messages and their attachments via live links appears. The Acrobat Bookmark panel shows each email message listed, sortable by subject, sender and date. Each email message maintains its live attachment links — the attachments also reside the PDF Portfolio. Click on an attachment "link" in an included email and the file will appear — a Word document loads in Word, etc.

This method is far superior to saving 200+ email messages and perhaps as many individual attachments. No one would ever be dedicated enough, or for that matter, have a long enough attention span, to torture themselves with those manual saves.

You can save the PDF Portfolio containing the Outlook matter folder's email and attachments in the regular folder location containing the rest of the matter's documents. As part of an initiative to build complete and contiguous electronic case files, there is no more effective way to incorporate email from Outlook in a fully searchable format. If you wish, you can delete the contents of the email folder in Outlook, thereby keeping Outlook lean and efficient.

Overall, Adobe Acrobat's PDF Portfolios offers a clever streamlined approach to email archiving. The best approach for small law firms that use Microsoft Outlook? For now, the answer is an emphatic yes.

Written by Ross Kodner of MicroLaw.

How to Receive SmallLaw
Small firm, big dreams. Published first via email newsletter and later here on our blog, SmallLaw provides you with a mix of practical advice that you can use today, and insight about what it will take for small law firms like yours to thrive in the future. The SmallLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Originally published on December 7, 2009 in our free SmallLaw newsletter.

Another SmallLaw column, another Acrobat tip. Below you'll learn how to transform a piece of paper into a fully searchable, text-based PDF file. You can then search through these files using any desktop search software, litigation review software, or document management system, including many practice management systems with DMS capabilities. Also, you can copy and paste text from these documents into any other application. Both of these functions rely on OCR — optical character recognition.

Acrobat's Succeeds Through a Less Is More Approach …

The process of OCRing documents is hardly a new concept, yet it remains one dreaded by most legal staffers, often requiring a lot of manual labor. Even today, in an era of significant hardware horsepower and versions of OCR software well into the "teens," results are often mixed — after an aggravatingly slow process.

The reason is simple — recognizing the text itself isn't especially technically challenging any longer — all OCR products handle this function with aplomb. But the process of recognizing all those little black marks on a page and then having to create a Word document that matches the layout and formatting of the source document remains elusive.

Since version 7, Acrobat has included built-in text recognition. Acrobat is much more efficient than dedicated OCR software. It only needs to recognize text — the easier part of the equation. Acrobat recognizes the text, and then stores a list of words in an index "beneath" the visual surface layer of the PDF file. This indexed word list is then accessible and searchable by desktop search and document management tools. Acrobat isn't encumbered with the task of creating a word processing file so the process is faster and yields copy-able and paste-able text, ready to insert into any other application. After all, most of the time, the need is limited to leveraging the text from the source document, not the formatting.

When scanning paper, the resulting PDF is an "image": essentially a digital photograph of the source paper. There is no useable or selectable text in an image PDF. Some scanning software has the ability to both scan and convert documents into searchable PDF files in a single step. In most situations, however, this approach isn't desirable, at least when applied to every document. The reason is efficiency — conversion of an image PDF takes much more time than merely scanning to an image PDF format. The better approach is to individually select the PDFs you wish to make searchable, on an as-needed, ad hoc basis.

Acrobat Standard and Professional Edition convert image PDF files to searchable versions one document at a time. Both Acrobat Standard and Professional Edition have the ability to make batches of PDFs searchable — via selection of multiple documents within a folder or entire folders. The latter approach might seem appealing, but the process can be so time-consuming that a you may lose functionality of your PC for hours. There are better approaches to batch conversion discussed below.

How to Make Scans Searchable in Acrobat 9 …

The process of searchable PDF conversion in Acrobat 9 Standard or Pro is as follows:

1. Scan the paper document or open an existing PDF.


2. Go to the Document menu and select "OCR Text Recognition," and then "Recognize Text Using OCR" from the submenu.


3. From the Recognize Text dialog box, the option for "All Pages" is the default — click OK to start the process.


4. A progress indicator will appear in the bottom right corner of the Acrobat display, showing the conversion of each page into searchable format.


5. When the progress indicator disappears, the process is complete — just remember to re-save your PDF files.


6. The file is now a searchable, or in AdobeSpeak, an "accessible" PDF — ready for you to highlight and select text that can be copied/pasted, or ready to have its text found in a variety of different types of text searches.

To convert a batch of files, the process is similar, with the variation as follows:

1. Instead of selecting Recognize Text Using OCR from the OCR Text Recognition menu, instead select "Recognize Text in Multiple Files Using OCR."


2. From the "Paper Capture Multiple Files" dialogue box, click the "Add Files" button and select the option to either Add Files or Add (entire) Folders.


3. Navigate to the files or folders desired and they'll be added to the batch for processing.


4. Click OK and then wait for the batch to complete. Acrobat will automatically save the newly searchable files.

A third party product called Autobahn DX from the UK-based company Aquaforest can streamline the batch searchable conversion process considerably. With Autobahn DX installed on a Windows Server, the network version of the software can run automatically at scheduled times. The program will identify all image PDF files in the designated folders and convert them to searchable PDFs — without tying up anyone's PC or wasting a staffer's valuable time. While not inexpensive at $2,999 (including 12 months of software maintenance and support), many small firms have found the cost reasonable versus the value of staff time otherwise wasted baby-sitting Acrobat's resource-hungry, workstation-based batch conversion process.

The Bottom Line …

Searchable PDF files are infinitely more useful in the daily grind of law practice than mere image PDF files. Whether converting files individually or in batches, searchability and copy-ability open up a broad range of text-handling opportunities you would otherwise miss.

Written by Ross Kodner of MicroLaw.

How to Receive SmallLaw
Small firm, big dreams. Published first via email newsletter and later here on our blog, SmallLaw provides you with a mix of practical advice that you can use today, and insight about what it will take for small law firms like yours to thrive in the future. The SmallLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Originally published on November 30, 2009 in our free SmallLaw newsletter.

I often refer to Acrobat Pro as a "legal document operating system." Acrobat initially gained widespread acceptance because of its ability to create PDF files (especially secure PDF files that resist attempts at alteration), but Acrobat's seemingly endless laundry list of functions is nothing short of mind-boggling. Take PDF Portfolios for example.

Another Type of eBook …

You've heard about eBook readers like the Kindle. Adobe Acrobat's Packages (versions 7 and 8) and Portfolios (version 9) enable you to create a different type of eBook — the electronic version of a GBC- or spiral-bound binder combining multiple documents into a single consolidated file.

Much in the manner in which your office might create paper-based binders for everything from settlement agreements to estate plans to pleading indices, you can use Portfolios to create electronic counterparts in Acrobat.

The net result of building a PDF Portfolio in Acrobat is a single PDF file that contains multiple documents. All the documents contained therein are one-click navigable via an Acrobat "bookmark" list. The documents contained within the "electronic three ring binder" are listed by document title. What you can do with Portfolios limited solely by your imagination.

How to Create a PDF Portfolio …

When in Acrobat, the most direct way to initiate creation of a PDF Portfolio is to select File | Combine | Merge Files into a Single PDF.

You'll see a "Combine Files" dialog box. Click the "Add Files" button in the upper left corner, and then either select Add Files or Add Folders. You can select individual files spanning multiple folders or add entire folders (meaning you'd need to stage the contents of entire folders so they only contain those files you wish to include in your Portfolio).

Once you've selected what you want to include, you can change the order of the files by selecting any file listed and clicking either the "Move Down" or "Move Up" buttons.

Note that you can include non-PDF files such as Word documents. Don't forget to check the box under the Options button (bottom left corner of the dialog box) to "Convert All Files to PDF When Creating a Portfolio."

You can specify the file size by selecting one of the three size icons located at the bottom right corner of the dialog box — "Small" (for more efficient loading/downloading if placed on a Web site), "Default" (the option to use virtually all the time) and "Large" (higher resolution to aid in digital production of brochures, newsletters, and general desktop publishing use).

When you have the files in the order you want them to appear in the PDF Portfolio, press the button that says "Combine Files." Once the progress meter churns through all the included files, you'll be prompted to save the PDF Portfolio, navigating to a folder and naming the file. Once saved, your new electronic binder will appear on screen in Acrobat.

To display the bookmark list that for navigating through the included documents, either select View | Navigation Panels | Bookmarks, or click the Bookmark icon on the far left side of the Acrobat program display. You can then click on any of the linked document titles to go directly to that particular file.

Advanced PDF Portfolio Settings …

Let's explore some clever ways to add some visual polish and more detail to the file — with the focus being maximizing the visual impression left on the viewer.

1. Control the View Your Reader Sees Upon Opening Your PDF Portfolio

You can do this by selecting File | Properties (or Ctrl-D). Then click the Initial View tab from the Document Properties dialog box. Under Navigation Tab, pull down the list and select Bookmarks Panel and Page, which will ensure that the bookmark list to navigate your file will always display.

You may also want to pull down the Magnification list and select Fit Page, which will show the viewer the full page view of the document (which they can always adjust using Acrobat's Zoom functions if needed). Click OK when done and re-save the file so you don't lose your changes.

2. Take Credit for Your Work and Add Contact and Copyright Information in Your PDF Portfolio

While in the Document Properties dialog box, click the Description tab. You can modify the document's title, adjust the author information (i.e. adding your full contact information, including telephone and email addresses), the subject, and any keywords with which you can describe the document, explain how the viewer can get their questions answered and, if applicable, provide copyright attribution.

3. Put Your PDF Portfolio on a Diet

Acrobat Pro's PDF Optimizer can compress PDF Portfolios (or any PDF file) by as much as 75%, considerably reducing the size of files that you might send via email. Go to Advanced | PDF Optimizer, click OK, and save the file. When done, re-save your newly compacted file. If you want to get a sense of a before/after size indication, look at the Document | Properties first — on the Description tab, you'll see the file size listed. Check it before and after optimization. The more graphics embedded in the file, the greater the file compression you can expect.

Conclusion

PDF Portfolios are extraordinarily useful. Use them for client closing books, human resources documentation, manuals, and much more. Portfolio away!

Written by Ross Kodner of MicroLaw.

How to Receive SmallLaw
Small firm, big dreams. Published first via email newsletter and later here on our blog, SmallLaw provides you with a mix of practical advice that you can use today, and insight about what it will take for small law firms like yours to thrive in the future. The SmallLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Originally published on October 26, 2009 in our free SmallLaw newsletter.

When I'm on the road speaking, people most often ask me about practice (case) management systems. Practice management systems focus on tying everything together. In doing so, they integrate with various other programs on the typical law practice computer system: billing systems, word processors, document managers, email accounts, and more.

As we approach the end of the first decade of this century, a growing number of law practices can finally achieve the "holy grail" of practice management systems — a single point of entry for all client and case file information. Below you'll find some of my favorite tips (or "hacks" in the SmallLaw vernacular) for pushing the practice management usage and integration envelope.

1. Does It All Connect?

Check all your key software systems for the ability to integrate with your practice management system. Most practice management systems tightly integrate with Microsoft Outlook, enabling you to tie email messages sent and received (and attachments) directly to client files. Most can also integrate with document management systems like Worldox, enabling you to connect every document created, received, scanned, etc. to client files.

Also, before you sign your life away on a new smartphone contract, make sure you understand how it will sync with the software you currently have or plan to implement. It does you no good at all to buy a shiny new BlackBerry Storm only to find that syncing requires two steps using Microsoft Outlook via some version of BlackBerry Professional or Enterprise Server. Or that your new iPhone can only sync in real-time with your practice management system via Outlook's ActiveSync system, which requires a Microsoft Exchange Server.

Regularly check the practice management program vendor's Web site for any updates and patches. Staying up to date will keep the links to all the integrated software you use in good working order.

2. Automate Your Time Entry

Enter all your time and your to-dos in your practice management system. Not only will you stay on top of all aspects of your open files, but it will also make it more likely you'll bill all your time, rather than have those little "tenth-ers" dribble away. Many practice management systems can then either automatically (or semi-automatically) convert to-dos, calendar entries, and case notes into time entries — automatic is good!

3. Save and Make Money With Your Smartphone

Most professional liability insurance companies still require duplicate calendars. Check with your carrier to see if using a smartphone's calendar that syncs to your practice management system will count as calendar number two.

And since you'll always have your smartphone with you, enter time on the road. Many legal billing systems offer handheld time entry capability directly or through add-on services like MonetaSuite, AirTime Manager, or Proximiti WorkTRAKR.

4. The Backup of Last Resort

Do you have my ultimate backup plan in place? If not, your smartphone may save you more than money. Using a smartphone or synced laptop/netbook is also a mini "better than nothing" backup for your practice management program. Keep your device with you and not at the office to safeguard your data.

5. Get the Right Training

Learn how to actually use your practice management and billing programs, the links between them, and how they interact with your portable tools: smartphones, laptops, netbooks, etc.

You could read the manuals yourself, but consider professional training as an alternative. Be very picky and selective about who trains you.

If you were accused of a serious crime, would you hire a first year wet behind the years criminal law rookie to defend you? Of course not — you'd hire the best criminal defense lawyer you could afford. Why wouldn't you take the same approach in finding and hiring a practice management system consultant/trainer?

Your practice management system will interweave itself into the very fabric of your practice. Allow plenty of time for implementation, training and learning. It won't happen overnight but is well worth the time invested.

Any practice management system, properly selected, and well implemented, will give any firm a sizable return on investment. But the converse is also true however — a poorly selected, badly implemented practice management system will become a sinkhole into which you pour otherwise billable time. So get it right!

Written by Ross Kodner of MicroLaw.

How to Receive SmallLaw
Small firm, big dreams. Published first via email newsletter and later here on our blog, SmallLaw provides you with a mix of practical advice that you can use today, and insight about what it will take for small law firms like yours to thrive in the future. The SmallLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.