TechnoLawyer: TL NewsWire

Today's issue of TL NewsWire covers an intrgrated accounting, billing, and practice management system (see article below), a location-based weather forecast app for iPad and iPhone, two portable scanners, and a dedicated podcast app for iPad and iPhone. Don't miss the next issue.

Capture All of Your Billable Time All of the Time

The Wall Street Journal recently reported on a survey conducted by LexisNexis regarding the gap between the number of hours lawyers work and the number of hours they bill. While billing partners will always adjust invoices for various reasons, the disparities uncovered by the survey go far beyond mere write-downs. Instead, the survey found that most lawyers fail to capture significant portions of their billable time. This explains why The Wall Street Journal jumped on the story. It also explains LexisNexis' latest product.

LexisNexis PCLaw Version 12 … in One Sentence
Released last week, LexisNexis PCLaw Version 12 is an all-in-one accounting, billing, and matter management software system for law firms.

The Killer Feature
PCLaw 12's new Time Entry Advisor helps you capture time that you might otherwise forget. Because PCLaw is an integrated system, it has a deep understanding of pretty much everything going on in your firm.

Accordingly, the Time Entry Advisor monitors and keeps track of all unbilled activities in PCLaw such as documents, email, events, tasks, telephone calls, etc. At the end of the day, it reminds you to bill for these activities. It can also alert you when you don't bill for an activity, displaying days for which you don't have any time entries in a spreadsheet format.

Those of you involved in the firm's financial management can generate reports to see all unbilled activities by date range, lawyers, matters, and other parameters.

"The new Time Entry Advisor in PCLaw 12 helps law firms to reduce the loss of billable hours and improve cash flow," LexisNexis' Vice President and Managing Director of Legal Business Software Solutions Mike Lipps told us. "Given the challenges faced by law firms in today's tough business climate, we strive to deliver innovations that help firms of all sizes grow and more easily manage the business side of their practice."

Other Notable Features
In addition to preventing lost billable time, PCLaw 12 has improved general retainer handling of client overpayments. For example, it can warn you about client overpayments and automate their handling such as moving overpayments into a trust account or issuing a refund.

The significantly enhanced practice management technologies in PCLaw 12 are especially apparent in the redesigned calendar. You can now view it by day, week, or month, color code different types of events, set up a tickler workflow of deadlines based on an anchor event (such as a lawsuit filing), and create time entries directly from events and tasks.

To reduce the risk of data loss and and also reduce your costs, you can run PCLaw 12 in the Microsoft Windows Terminal Server environment. This setup enables you to enforce settings across your firm, apply software updates to all versions in use, and provide remote access for your staff from anywhere. You'll also find field-level security options in the Client Manager, Contact Manager, and Matter Manager.

Other PCLaw features include automated past due email notices for overdue bills, time entry notes that won't display on pre- or final bills for communicating additional details internally, more robust client records and conflict checking tools, and simplified conversion from previous versions. PCLaw 12 integrates with a variety of software, including Time Matters, Microsoft Exchange 2007 and later, Amicus Attorney, QuickBooks, HotDocs, and ScanSnap scanners. Its Mobility service enables you to access PCLaw from your iPad and from smartphones with modern web browsers.

What Else Should You Know?
PCLaw 12 runs on Windows PCs. A new purchase includes the first year of an Annual Maintenance Plan (AMP) subscription. The PCLaw AMP provides software upgrades and service packs, live technical support, online training, and the Mobility service. Learn more about PCLaw 12.

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 covers an iPad app for outlining your oral arguments (see article below), a gadget that connects tablets and smartphones to the Apple Wireless Keyboard, an iPad database app, and a discovery document review program. Don't miss the next issue.

Eliminate the Paper Chase From Your Oral Arguments

Tablit Applications' Oral Argument is an iPad app for outlining your oral arguments.

The Killer Feature
People dislike jury duty because they know real trials don't measure up to those in movies. Of course, prospective jurors don't realize that screenwriters can bend the rules of civil procedure for dramatic effect whereas you cannot. But most courts don't impose many rules on oral arguments, especially opening and closing arguments at trial. So a poor oral argument is no one's fault but yours.

One key to effective oral arguments lies in rehearsing it repeatedly so that it seems effortless, and you don't run out of time if a limit exists or drone on for too long if no limit exists.

The upper right corner of your outline in Oral Argument contains a timer so that you need not glance away from your outline to stay on track. You can set the timer per outline. Thus, different outlines can have different lengths of time. You can also pause the timer with a tap if a judge asks a question that won't count against your allotted time.

Other Notable Features
You can organize your outline using headings and hierarchical parent-child bullets. For arguments covering many issues, you can further break up your outline by creating custom-named tabs that appear at the top of the app. Tap a tab to see only your outline pertaining to that issue.

For hearings, you need to prepare for possible questions by the judge about authorities and other issues. But because these issues may not arise, you don't want them cluttering your core outline. Oral Argument addressees this situation with Pop-Up Windows, which enable you to link text in your outline to a note that pops up when tapped. For example, you can link the name of a case that you plan to mention in your argument to a Pop-Up Window with details about the case if asked about it. Pop-Up Window links look just like the familiar underlined blue links on many web pages.

Often, you'll want to emphasize the most important points in your outline in the event you find yourself running short on time. Also, you may want to quickly jot down notes on the fly as you listen to your adversary's argument. Oral Argument's Margin Notes feature enables you to place such notes to the right of specific areas of your outline.

What Else Should You Know?
Tablit Applications provides you with an optional free web application with the same functionality in which you can create your outline using your computer. You can then download your outline into Oral Argument. Alternatively, you can just enter your outline directly into the app itself using your iPad's on-screen keyboard or a Bluetooth keyboard. Oral Argument costs $19.99. Learn more about Oral Argument.

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 covers a new laptop (see article below), a browser extension that blocks tracking cookies, a billing software migration utility, document assembly software, and an iPad and Android tabelt app for corporate compliance filings. Don't miss the next issue.

Your Documents Have Never Looked This Good

A recent article of ours noted that most lawyers use a computer to practice law. A subscriber quipped that lawyers should instead use their brain. A clever riposte, but let's face it — lawyers spend a lot of time staring at documents on their computer screen. Tired eyes are an occupational hazard, especially since computer and laptop displays lack the sharpness of paper not to mention the tablets and smartphones of a certain company named after a fruit. This company now has its sights set on revolutionizing laptop screens with your eyes as the beneficiaries.

MacBook Pro … in One Sentence
Launched this week, Apple's MacBook Pro is a 15-inch notebook with a "retina display."

The Killer Feature
The MacBook Pro's retina display uses IPS technology, and offers a resolution of 2880 x 1800 pixels at 220 pixels per inch (ppi), the highest available on a laptop. By way of comparison, Apple also updated its non-retina 15-inch MacBook Pro, which has a resolution of 1440 x 900 pixels at 110 ppi. (And in case you're wondering, the new iPad's retina display sports a 2048 x 1536 pixel resolution at 264 ppi.)

Apple claims that the retina display is sharper than a printed page, and that the pixels are too small to see with the naked eye at a typical working distance. It's all about pixel density. The MacBook Pro's 5.1 million tiny pixels resolve at a smaller scale than larger pixels in standard displays. The larger a screen, the more challenging it becomes to increase pixel density, which explains why Apple's first retina display was on the iPhone 4 in 2010.

Increased pixel density has another advantage in addition to clarity — more screen real estate. You can adjust the resolution with a five-position slider that moves between "Larger Text" and "More Space." Thanks to the number of pixels, opting for more space so that you can, for example, place two documents side by side, ratchets down the quality from retina to merely normal. By contrast, a standard laptop display would become blurry.

One disadvantage of all these pixels is that the new MacBook Pro will "pixel double" existing software until developers issue updates (Apple has updated its applications).

The display has some other notable features. It's glossy (not matte), but thanks to the lack of a glass front, it has a 29% higher contrast ratio and 75% less glare than the standard MacBook Pro, as well as a 178-degree viewing angle.

Other Notable Features
The new MacBook Pro can travel. It's 0.71 inches thick, and weighs 4.46 pounds. The battery provides seven hours of use and up to 30 days of standby time.

Other features include 256, 512, or 768 GB of storage on a solid state drive, 8 or 16 GB of memory, a 2.3, 2.6, or 2.7 GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor, an Nvidia GeForce GT 650M graphics card, an SDXC card slot, two Thunderbolt and two USB 3 ports, an HDMI port, a 720p HD webcam, dual microphones, stereo speakers, and an "asymmetrical fan" to minimize noise. The MacBook Pro also includes Bluetooth 4.0 and WiFi, but not Gigabit Ethernet or FireWire (you can purchase an adapter if needed).

What Else Should You Know?
Pricing starts at $2,199 for the 2.3 GHz model, and $2,799 for the 2.6 Ghz model. If you max out all the specifications on the latter model, it'll cost you $3,749. The MacBook Pro runs Apple's OS X Lion, and qualifies for a free upgrade to Mountain Lion when it ships. Learn more about MacBook Pro.

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 covers an outliner for iPad (see article below), a metadata removal and management utility, a mobile device management system, a legal research app for Android smartphones, and a customer relationship and practice management system for Mac, iPad, and iPhone. Don't miss the next issue.

A Post-PC Outliner

Lawyers take a lot of notes, whether in a courtroom, conference room, or on a call. Wresting these freeform realtime notes, often interwoven with your reactions and ideas, into a coherent and accurate letter, memo, or other document can prove as daunting and time-consuming as keeping track of Lindsay Lohan's court appearances. Organizing your thoughts calls for an outliner. While word processors have such functionality, they've never measured up to dedicated outliners. Also, it's 2012. Given that you often take notes when you're not in your office, the iPad may prove more conducive to outlining than your PC.

OmniOutliner for iPad … in One Sentence
OmniGroup's OmniOutliner for iPad is an outlining app.

The Killer Feature
OmniOutliner for iPad claims to make data entry efficient so that you can organize complex information with (relative) ease. For example, you'll find several app-specific tools on the iPad's keyboard that enable you to quickly add a new row, indent and outdent rows to create hierarchies and parent-children groups, apply typographic styles en masse, and undo.

You can annotate your entries with notes and add hyperlinks. You can move entire groups or individual rows to new locations using your finger or a stylus.

Other Notable Features
OmniOutliner also enables you to create columns with fields for checkboxes, formatted numbers, dates, pop-up lists, and more. You can manipulate columns similarly to rows — drag them to rearrange, and tap a button to show or hide them. You can sort rows by column, and scroll through columns while topic headings remain visible at the top.

OmniOutliner for iPad includes various document and style templates as well as a rich text editor to create and save your own styles. You can add images and PDF documents to your outlines. Export options include formats such as OmniOutliner (Mac), OPML, HTML, and text. You can import documents via iTunes, email, or WebDAV.

What Else Should You Know?
OmniOutliner for iPad costs $19.99. It supports the retina display in the new iPad and works on all iPads released to date. Learn more about OmniOutliner for iPad.

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 covers ediscovery processing and review software (see article below), a digital recorder, an office suite for iPad compatible with Microsoft Office, an iPad task management app, and a secure online message service. Don't miss the next issue.

A Single Software Universe for Your Discovery Tasks

Like the TV show Fringe, ediscovery seems to take place in (at least) two parallel universes. Ediscovery service providers and internal litigation support teams use one or more products to cull duplicate and irrelevant documents from raw electronic discovery material. Then they load the remaining documents into an entirely different product for review by litigation teams. This split software universe results in more complexity — multiple vendors, dual learning curves, file format incompatibilities, and data lost, misplaced, or mislabeled when moving among programs. Not to mention the likelihood of higher costs, which you may find increasingly difficult to pass along to penny pinching clients. A new version of an ediscovery product aims to bring these two universes together.

NeedleFinder 4.3 … in One Sentence
Equivalent DATA's NeedleFinder 4.3 is a cloud-based integrated "end to end" system for ediscovery processing and document review.

The Killer Feature
NeedleFinder moves discovery material through a two-step process of initial culling and preparation (commonly referred to as "processing") followed by review. In other words, it eliminates the need to create a load file because all the discovery data remains in the same system.

When you've culled the documents down to a review set, a single click on the "Send Documents to Review" button moves them to the Review module of the system. You also use NeedleFinder to produce documents for opposing counsel and set aside privileged documents. NeedleFinder accommodates native files, or you can use common image formats such as PDF and TIFF.

Other Notable Features
The father of the iPod Jon Rubinstein dissed the idea of integrating an iPod into what became the iPhone before leaving Apple in 2006, saying "Is there a toaster that also knows how to brew coffee?" History has proved him wrong about integrated products. NeedleFinder seeks to offer the same functionality as single-function competitors.

For example, the new version of NeedleFinder offers a more robust Analysis module for initial processing. The search and culling tools use information extracted from document metadata to expedite the process of eliminating irrelevant and setting aside privileged documents. NeedleFinder includes a tool that enables you to view all document custodians' direct or indirect email threads. You can include or remove duplicate documents, attachments, and email threads.

NeedleFinder's Review module includes the expected panoply of tools. You can apply Bates stamps and issue tags, redact, and filter documents by custodian, date range, file type, search terms, tags, document status, and more. You can save searches for upcoming depositions and other routine tasks.

In additional to these core functions, the Review module also includes features that facilitate team document review such as creating document review batches, setting priorities, and assigning documents to individual reviewers or groups. You can also set documents as public or private, and designate functionality at the reviewer level, as well as monitor reviewer productivity, including documents per hour, hours logged, and documents reviewed.

What Else Should You Know?
If your client also has paper documents, Equivalent DATA can scan them for you and place them into your NeedleFinder account, which takes the one-stop-shopping concept even further. NeedleFinder works in all modern web browsers. The company offers pay-as-you-go pricing. Learn more about NeedleFinder 4.3.

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 covers new PDF software with word processor-like features (see article below), an iPad case that's also a keyboard, an Outlook add-on for printing email, a browser-based practice management system, and a private group messaging application. Don't miss the next issue.

PDF Software With the DNA of a Word Processor

People who buy or lease a new car typically fall into one of three groups. Some stick with the same brand and model, albeit the new version. Others remain faithful to the brand, but either downgrade or upgrade the model. And a third group of people completely switch gears (pun intended). This third group is surprisingly large because of the intense competition in the automobile industry coupled with the changing desires and needs of people. The market for PDF software has become similar since the PDF format became an open standard. One of the major players that caters to the legal market just shipped a new version of its PDF software.

PDF Converter 8 … in One Sentence
Released yesterday, Nuance's PDF Converter 8 is PDF software with legal-specific features.

The Killer Feature
The PDF format rules the legal world for exchanging and storing documents precisely because of its greatest weakness. It's not easy to edit PDF files. While you can make small changes here and there, major changes such as adding a new paragraph typically require revisiting the original document and then creating a new PDF version.

Nuance has essentially baked a word processor into PDF Converter 8. In fact, it goes beyond a word processor in some respects. The new "Advance Edit" technology converts your PDF file into a fully editable document. Thus, if you add a paragraph, everything else in the document moves down like in a word processor — but the document remains a PDF file. Also, the new "PDF Collaboration" feature enables two or more people to edit (and annotate) the same PDF file simultaneously.

Other Notable Features
Taking advantage of its market leadership in speech recognition technology, Nuance has built Dragon Dictation into PDF Converter, enabling you to edit documents and create annotations using your voice.

The new Reduce File Size feature creates smaller PDF files — helpful when efiling documents with courts that impose file size restrictions. You'll also find improved tools for forms, signatures, stamps, PDF portfolios, and PDF/A, and a new fax via email feature.

You can choose from two versions of PDF Converter — Professional and Enterprise. The Enterprise version integrates with LexisNexis CaseMap as well as with popular document management systems such as Autonomy, NetDocuments, OpenText, SharePoint, and Worldox. Both versions integrate with Microsoft Office, including the ability to preview PDF attachments in Outlook.

What Else Should You Know?
PDF Converter Professional costs $99.99. The Enterprise version costs $149.99. Both run on Windows. Learn more about PDF Converter 8.

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 covers a Microsoft Word add-on for creating ebriefs (see article below), a portable monitor, a freeform personal information manager, an iPad note-taking app with illustration tools, and an iPad app for accessing Microsoft SharePoint. Don't miss the next issue.

Has the Golden Age of Ebriefs Arrived?

In 2005, we published an article about ebriefs, including how to create them using PDF software. By now, you would think all litigators would create ebriefs given their advantages, especially for the one-click access to corresponding cases, exhibits, testimony, etc. But ebriefs never took off because they're difficult to create, and even more difficult if not impossible to edit. But the advantages remain undeniable — more so than in 2005 given the increasing number of courts that require efiling and the number of judges who use computers. We recently learned about a new product that aims to make ebrief creation much easier.

efileinteractive … in One Sentence
XLR8R Studios' efileinteractive is a Microsoft Word add-on that enables you to create ebriefs and other legal documents in PDF format with hyperlinked embedded documents.

The Killer Feature
Traditionally, you create ebriefs using PDF software, which presents two problems. First, many PDF programs lack feature-rich tools for hyperlinking. Second, it's not easy to edit a PDF file so if you need to make a significant change to your brief you could find yourself back at square one, having to create the ebrief from scratch again.

efileinteractive addresses both problems by enabling you to create your ebrief in Microsoft Word much as you create your table of authorities in Microsoft Word.

efileinteractive resides in Microsoft Word's ribbon (toolbar in earlier versions). Creating each hyperlink involves three steps — select the text you want to link, select the corresponding file, and confirm.

When you finish creating hyperlinks, one click creates a PDF ebrief containing all the live hyperlinks and corresponding documents. If you need to make changes to your brief, you can create a new ebrief without having to recreate all the existing hyperlinks.

Other Notable Features
Some law firms create ebriefs by outsourcing them, which can save time but cost hundreds or thousands of dollars. By contrast, efileinteractive costs $25 per ebrief. The software itself is free. You can purchase credits in advance so that you don't have to worry about paying when you're facing a deadline.

"efileinteractive finally makes interactive motions and briefs easy to assemble and cost effective," XLR8R Studios CEO Tim Robinson told us. The value of giving the judge instant access to your cases and evidence far exceeds the $25 charge for using the software."

What Else Should You Know?
You can password protect your ebriefs if you want. efileinteractive works with Microsoft Word 2003 and later. You can try it free for 30 days. If you don't want to create your own ebriefs, XLR8R Studios can create them for you through its e-Brief Assembly Service. Learn more about efileinteractive.

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.

Originally published in our free TL NewsWire newsletter. Instead of reading TL NewsWire here, sign up now to receive future issues via email.

Create Legal Documents Without Excel or a Calculator

When ATMs started accepting deposits, it freed law firms and small businesses from having to rush to the bank. But the experience wasn't 100% automated because you had to place your checks into an envelope, stick the envelope into the machine, and hope for the best. Nowadays, ATMs scan your checks and print the images on your receipt. Full automation plus peace of mind. Document assembly programs suffer from a similar problem. They can automate the entry of variable words and clauses into your documents, but they can't crunch numbers. A new product aims to make document assembly fully automated.

TheFormTool PRO 2.0 … in One Sentence
Your Dollar Matters' TheFormTool PRO 2.0 automates the creation of legal documents in Microsoft Word, including math calculations.

The Killer Feature
A growing number of enterprising law firms use document assembly software to create complex legal documents quickly so they can charge clients a flat fee yet still earn more than if they charged an hourly fee.

However, many documents require math calculations that document assembly programs can't handle, forcing you to switch back into manual mode to use Microsoft Excel or a calculator. This slows you down, reducing your profit per document. It's also error-prone.

TheFormTool PRO 2.0's new math functions enable you to automate both the words and the math all in the same document template.

"Cutting and pasting numbers from a spreadsheet into a contract, or worse, from scratch paper, is fraught with risk," TheFormTool's creator Scott Campbell told us. "Including the variables and the computations within the document they support is a best practice. Any other approach is just an invitation for trouble."

Other Notable Features
TheFormTool PRO 2.0 offers five types of math functions -- finance, basic, descriptive, logical, and time.

The PMT finance function can determine periodic payments for a wide range of common documents such as alimony, promissory notes, real estate transactions, and settlement agreements to name a few.

Basic math functions include Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, and Division. Thanks to the ability to nest these functions, you can perform complex calculations in your documents. For example, in a trust or will you could calculate distributions depending on variable factors at the time of death such as the number of beneficiaries and/or their ages. Corporate lawyers can use these functions to determine the voting rights of each shareholder in a company.

Descriptive math functions include Integer, Round, Absolute, Logarithm, Remainder, Exponentiation, Root, and Constant. Patent lawyers often need these functions in scientific patents. Also, environmental lawyers use them in assessments.

Logical functions include List, Sum, Max, Min, Multiply, Item, and Count. These functions often play a role in SEC filings, wills and trusts (oldest/youngest), real estate transactions (maximum/minimum value), and inventory agreements.

Finally, the time functions such as Now, Days, First Date, Last Date, Months, Years, and Fixed and Variable Offsets play a role in transactions (e.g., amortization), employment agreements, wills and trusts, etc.

What Else Should You Know?
TheFormTool PRO 2.0 costs $89. It works with Microsoft Word on Windows PCs. Learn more about TheFormTool PRO 2.0.

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.

Originally published in our free TL NewsWire newsletter. Instead of reading TL NewsWire here, sign up now to receive future issues via email.

Meetings Meet Productivity

Many lawyers find meetings unproductive and dread them as a necessary evil. You could fill a bookshelf or three with books written about how to improve meetings. Advice ranges from removing chairs from conference rooms to assigning a meeting leader to keep people from veering off track. These methods haven't resulted in any major breakthroughs so perhaps we should outsource this challenge to technology as we have with so many others. What if a technology could automate meeting best practices to ensure the optimal use of your valuable time? One company recently unveiled such a solution.

Lucid Meetings … in One Sentence
Lucid Meetings is an online meeting service with built-in productivity tools.

The Killer Feature
Unlike typical online meeting services, Lucid Meetings offers permanent meeting rooms and has baked a number of productivity tools into its service. For example, Lucid Meetings includes a realtime, multi-user note-taking tool. Thus, instead of one designated person hopefully taking notes during the meeting, you can see the notes being taken as the meeting progresses. If you see an omission, you can jump in and add the missing item.

Notes remain connected to the meeting room so that you can add to and search them in future meetings. You can export the notes at anytime in HTML or Word format for distribution. In addition to these group meetings, you can also have your own private room in which you keep confidential notes.

The note-taking tool is not just a word processor. You can create action items and highlight decisions within notes. The Smart Lists feature enables you to quickly find and view all action items and decisions from all meetings to date, and update them as needed. You can even create meeting minutes that automatically list everyone in attendance.

Other Notable Features
When you schedule meetings, you can send participants an email invitation that enables them to add the meeting to their calendar. You can also create an agenda listing the topics, presenters, and their allotted time (the company provides several Agenda templates so you need not start from scratch). Agendas can contain attachments such as documents to discuss during the meeting. Your dashboard enables you to track who can and cannot attend.

Lucid Meetings works in all major web browsers. It doesn't require any plug-ins such as Flash or Java. During a meeting, you can display a document or your screen for a presentation. You can also give this ability to other attendees. The Transcript tool can record your meetings at your option. There's also an accompanying conference call service, including the option to offer a toll-free number and record the meeting.

Seemingly designed specifically for lawyers, Lucid Meetings displays the elapsed time. It can even display the elapsed time for each presenter to keep your agenda on track.

Privacy settings enable you to share a meeting room and its notes, recordings, etc. with only those who attended or with others such as colleagues and clients connected to the matter discussed.

What Else Should You Know?
Lucid Meetings prices its service based on the number of rooms you need. Plans include Individual (one room; $24.95 per month), Small (10 rooms; $199 per month), and Medium (25 rooms, $399 per month). If you need more rooms, Lucid Meetings can create an Enterprise plan for your firm. Learn more about Lucid Meetings.

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 covers new PDF software designed for lawyers (see article below), a backlit eink ebook reader, an email program, an online document management system, and a virtual telephone system. Don't miss the next issue.

PDF Software Designed for Legal Professionals

When a new technology emerges, lawyers first debate the need for it. Once deemed essential, they debate the best product. When the products become increasingly complex and diverse, they seek a a simple legal-specific variant — and a low price never hurts. The last stage of this cycle is now playing out with PDF software since the PDF format has become essential for client records, court filings, document productions, and much more. A year ago, a legal software company launched a PDF product with a feature set designed for the needs of legal professionals. Last week, this company shipped a major new version.

Workshare PDF Professional Plus 2.0 … in One Sentence
Workshare PDF Professional Plus 2.0 is PDF software designed for the specific needs of legal professionals.

The Killer Feature
Law practice advisor Jared Correia recently wrote about the increasing number of products that integrate with one another. Integrations with document management systems are among the most important since these systems essentially replace the Windows file system for managing documents.

The new version of Workshare PDF Professional Plus features two such integrations — Autonomy Worksite and Microsoft SharePoint 2010.

These integrations don't require plugins. From within Worksite and SharePoint, you can create PDF files and combine them into PDF portfolio, which law firms increasingly use for client case file binders. You can also annotate, redact, create and edit forms, and add digital signatures.

"PDFs are very common in business today, and Workshare PDF Professional Plus now makes it extremely easy to create and manage them, particularly now that we have fully integrated with Worksite and SharePoint 2010," Workshare CEO Scott Smull told us. "The software continues our commitment to provide tools that improve the productivity of legal professionals."

Other Notable Features
Workshare has improved the user interface of Workshare PDF Professional Plus, most notably the tool for creating PDF portfolios. A new tool enables you to shrink the size of your PDF files, which should help with electronic filing requirements. Another new tool enables you to revert back to any previous version of the PDF file. You can also view a history of all changes.

Workshare has also enhanced the software's redaction capabilities, including search and replace, the ability to identify certain types of information such as social security numbers, and support for regulatory requirements such as the Freedom of Information Act and the US Privacy Act.

Other features include "reverse conversion" of PDF files to DOC format, support for the PDF/A standard required by many agencies and courts, PDF editing, Bates numbers, headers and footers, watermarks and stamps, links, bookmarks, table of contents, annotation and commenting tools, document comparison, forms, encryption and security, and batch conversion and processing.

What Else Should You Know?
Workshare PDF Professional Plus costs $79 per license, which Workshare claims is 80% less on average than comparable products. The company offers volume discounts. The software runs on Windows PCs. Learn more about Workshare PDF Professional Plus 2.0.

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