TechnoLawyer: Utilities

Coming May 31, 2007 to Answers to Questions: Barbara Norris explains why lawyers should not create their own trial exhibits, Jason Havens compares Tabs3/PracticeMaster, Time Matters/Billing Matters, and PCLaw plus he provides some tips for Mac users, Elizabeth Markus reviews OmniPage and PaperPort (including where to find free online training), Miriam Jacobson explains how she uses Quicken Deluxe 2000 for client trust accounts, and William Kelly reviews Getting Things Done Outlook Add-In (yes it's affiliated with the famous David Allen philosophy). Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published Thursdays, Answers to Questions is 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. Please subscribe now.

Coming May 4, 2007 to Fat Friday: Mark Bassett reviews Any Password Pro for login and password management, Harry Steinmetz discusses the benefits of using PowerPoint properly, Michael Harnois shares his experience activating his Acrobat 8 Professional upgrade, Stephen Silverberg reviews Sony versus Olympus digital dictation recorders, and David O'Connell discusses the role of insurers in tort litigation. Don't miss this issue.

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

In today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire, lawyer and legal technology legend Dennis Kennedy covers a PDF solution with legal-specific features, a Word add-on for law firms, and a solution for administrating  stock and stock option plans without running afoul of regulations such as FASB 123R. Don't miss the next issue.

Below you'll find one of the three articles from today's edition:

Not Just PDF, PDF for Law Firms
By Dennis Kennedy

With the number of PDF solutions growing like gangbusters, consumers have become pickier. While price remains important, it has become imperative for PDF vendors to further differentiate their products by focusing on the needs of a specific market such as legal.

A good example is DocsCorp's pdfDocs Desktop, which combines affordability with many features and an integrated desktop approach. PdfDocs Desktop enables everyone in your firm to create, secure, and manage PDF documents, and integrates with popular document management systems.

You can easily create PDFs by printing documents, spreadsheets, email, and Web pages to the pdfDocs printer. You can also create PDFs by dragging and dropping a document onto the pdfDocs Organizer workspace area. The program also handles PDF forms — both creating them and filling them out — a feature that has become "must have" for many law firms.

pdfDocs Desktop helps you secure your documents by both password protection and metadata removal. You can prevent readers from modifying documents, and control who can open and view them. You can also redact information from sensitive documents using a special redaction tool.

pdfDocs Desktop can merge documents created by different programs into a single PDF, rearrange documents, change the order of pages, insert page numbers, and add bookmarks, highlights, logos, watermarks, notes, and Bates stamps. In short, you can perform a wide variety of useful tasks that one-trick-pony PDF creation programs will not let you do.

Of special interest to law firms is pdfDocs Desktop's ability to integrate with popular legal document management systems from Hummingbird, Interwoven, Worldox, and others, enabling you can create PDF files easily with a right-click of your mouse from within those systems. You can also easily save your PDF files in the appropriate folders.

pdfDocs Desktop also integrates with Outlook to automatically convert email attachments to PDF format, and email multiple attachments as a single PDF file on the fly. pdfDocs Desktop also integrates with scanners.

Pricing for pdfDocs Desktop starts at $126 plus $24 per year for support, but volume discounts are available.  Learn more about pdfDocs Desktop.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Wednesdays, TechnoLawyer NewsWire is a weekly newsletter that enables you to learn about new technology products and services of interest to legal professionals. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

In today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire, lawyer and legal technology legend Dennis Kennedy covers a free remote access tool, document management software for small law firms, and a utility that converts PDF files into HTML and other formats. Don't miss the next issue.

Below you'll find one of the three articles from today's edition:

The Next Best Thing to a Transporter
By Dennis Kennedy

Lawyers increasingly work in settings away from the office, but need access to information on their office computers. Plus they occasionally need support or assistance from the IT department. Having access to all of your computer assets from wherever you are has become a priority for many lawyers. Since you can't have Scotty beam you back and forth as needed, the next best alternative is remote control software.

UltraVNC is a free software tool that enables you to display the screen of another computer on the screen of your computer over the Internet or a home of office network. You can then work on the other computer remotely, as if you were sitting in front of it.

You can use UltraVNC to access other computers, provide support and trouble-shooting, administer networks, give demos or presentations, and perform any number of other tasks remotely. You can also securely transfer files.

UltraVNC is an enhanced version of a popular open source program called VNC that has a long history. It runs on Windows systems. If you use its embedded Java viewer, you can use an Internet connection and a Web browser to view and transfer files from computers supporting Java (that means Mac OS and Linux). The Web browser capabilities also enable you to access a home or office computer from an Internet cafe or hotel room.

UltraVNC enhancements include a Video Mirror Driver to improve the speed and accuracy of screen updates and remote control. Although UltraVNC does not include encryption, plug-ins exist that can encrypt your communications. There is also a helpful text chat feature so you can communicate with the person at the other computer. UltraVNC is free.  Learn more about UltraVNC.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Wednesdays, TechnoLawyer NewsWire is a weekly newsletter that enables you to learn about new technology products and services of interest to legal professionals. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Coming April 20, 2007 to Fat Friday: Dave Culbertson reviews and provides a comprehensive guide to getting started with the Fujitsu ScanSnap s500 in a law firm, Eli Nelson discusses the risks associated with clawbacks and sneak peaks during discovery, Joyce Glucksman reviews her Treo 650 after nine months of use, Andrew Shear reviews PasswordMaker, and Charles T. Lester, Jr. explains how to see a file's metadata using Windows Explorer. Don't miss this issue.

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

In today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire, lawyer and legal technology legend Dennis Kennedy covers software that enhances and adds features to Outlook, integrated network security software, and an online client development application. Don't miss the next issue.

Below you'll find one of the three articles from today's edition:

Take Client Development to a Higher Level
By Dennis Kennedy

Lawyers often focus on cases and matters. But before a case or matter comes into existence, you must deal with people — both existing and prospective clients. The traditional address book doesn't give you enough horsepower for sales, and high-end customer relationship management software is overkill for most law firms. So where do you turn?

37 Signals designed Highrise as a new Web-based approach to capture the middle ground between address books and the big CRM packages. The focus lies in giving you just the tools you need to manage people and projects and nothing more. With Highrise, you can share contacts, assign tasks based on those contacts, maintain a contact history, and, most importantly, group together related people, companies, notes, and other information in a "case," a term that should appeal to lawyers.

You can use Highrise for your own contacts or search for contacts across your firm. Highrise also helps you move from contact list to action. You can act on your contacts by setting follow-ups, calls, meetings, thank you notes, reminders, and more. Highrise can even send reminders to your mobile phone. You can log calls, conversations, email, and other communications with your contacts. You log email by simply forwarding or copying Highrise.

You can also mine new information from your contact lists. See all communications with a group of people. Build a list of all the experts on a given issue. Generate a list of your clients with whom you have not had contact in the last year. Etc.

Highrise comes from the same company that produces Basecamp, a popular online project management tool that we use to write this newsletter. Highrise is available in a free version with limits on the number of cases and people you can set up, and in five other versions ranging from $12 to $149 per month. SSL security kicks in at $49/month, which most law firms would probably deem necessary. Learn more about Highrise.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Wednesdays, TechnoLawyer NewsWire is a weekly newsletter that enables you to learn about new technology products and services of interest to legal professionals. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Coming April 12, 2007 to Answers to Questions: Leslie Shear shares how she managed case-related emails in Outlook and what has changed since switching to Apple Mail, Andy Satori explains the trouble with converting PDF to an editable format, Arthur Kamp reviews Worldox, Aaron Craft reviews several tools from Sysinternals including a disk-wiping utility, and Mina Diksies explains how to view two WordPerfect documents using dual monitors (one on each). Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published Thursdays, Answers to Questions is 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. Please subscribe now.

In today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire, lawyer and legal technology legend Dennis Kennedy covers a document automation tool with built-in case management, a utility for setting up Windows networks, and a utility for managing and monitoring your network once you set it up. Don't miss the next issue.

Below you'll find one of the three articles from today's edition:

Document Automation Catches Up to George Jetson
By Dennis Kennedy

Lawyers of my generation periodically daydream about George Jetson's job — push a few buttons and then put your feet up on the desk the rest of the day. That vision of the future didn't pan out and probably never will, but technology can make the lives of lawyers easier — most notably document automation software.

Unfortunately, while many lawyers crave automation, many also fear it because of a feeling that such systems are difficult to set up. This concern is especially prevalent among smaller firms. Easy Soft's EasyDocs aims to address this concern by focusing not only on an easy way to create document templates, but adding case and document management to the mix as well.

In the EasyDocs world, your practice revolves around the case documents you create. Thus EasyDocs enables you to automate standard forms and commonly-used documents, and manage your work on your cases at the same time. EasyDocs uses a case-oriented approach with which lawyers are familiar.

You can organize and display your templates by practice area, state, or categories. EasyDocs is network-friendly so you can store these templates centrally on a file server for everyone in your firm to use.

You can assemble your documents for output in either Word or PDF format. You can use your existing document templates and forms or create new ones. The history tab enables you to see all the documents in your case and regenerate a document with a single mouse click. EasyDocs is especially attractive for certain types of real estate practices because you can automatically import HUD-RESPA information.

The most unique feature of EasyDocs is the way it combines document preparation, document management, and task tracking into a single tool, making a lawyer's job, well, easy. For example, by default, all documents related to a case are stored in the same client folder. And each case has its own task list. The Case Log provides a dashboard so you can view all the document-related activity associated with open cases in one place.

EasyDocs costs $499 for a single-user license or $199 for a single user annual term license. Additional seats cost $99 each. Learn more about EasyDocs.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Wednesdays, TechnoLawyer NewsWire is a weekly newsletter that enables you to learn about new technology products and services of interest to legal professionals. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

In today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire, lawyer and legal technology legend Dennis Kennedy covers an online service for staying on top of court filings involving your clients, a free tool for clipping anything on any Web page, and timeline creation software for Mac users. Don't miss the next issue.

Below you'll find one of the three articles from today's edition:

Your Link to Electronic Litigation
By Dennis Kennedy

We have moved past the days of sending associates down to the court house to check the latest pleadings. Electronic filing and access to court records over the Internet have changed the way we access and manage court records. Access to court dockets is only step one. We can now do much more than ever before with court information, moving from access to action.

LexisNexis' CourtLink service takes us further down the road of electronic litigation. It starts with access to court dockets, but adds a set of powerful tools to improve support functions and provide information to lawyers, litigation support personnel, clients, and other members of today's expanding litigation team. You can quickly retrieve the dockets and documents you need, but that's just the starting point.

CourtLink gives you a broad range of information tools. It enables you to stay up-to-date with your cases, access the court docket, and receive alerts about events in your cases. You can also monitor courts with other actions involving your clients. For example, you can learn about a new suit as soon as it's filed.

Using CourtLink's Strategic Profiles, you can obtain insight into trends, patterns, tactics, risks, and new opportunities. You can also review litigation history to learn about a judge's experience in a certain type of case and history of applicable decisions, the experience, success rate, strategies, and resolution history of opposing counsel, and much more.  In short, CourtLink doubles as a strategic litigation tool as well as business development tool.

CourtLink enables you to search by parties, types of cases, key words, docket numbers, patent numbers, and much more. You can search many courts in a single search. You can also set alerts to let you know about developments that interest you. Once you identify suits that interest you, you can use the tracking service to send you regularly-scheduled updates by email.

CourtLink enables you to see information visually using graphics and charts. In fact, because much of the information in CourtLink is timeline-oriented, you can import CourtLink data into LexisNexis' TimeMap 4.1 so that you can better visualize trends and create demonstrative evidence for settlement meetings and other purposes. CourtLink also seamlessly links to CaseMap to help you to build a successful case strategy.

LexisNexis offers CourtLink on a subscription or transactional basis. You choose the options you want to use. Contact LexisNexis for details on options and pricing. Learn more about CourtLink.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Wednesdays, TechnoLawyer NewsWire is a weekly newsletter that enables you to learn about new technology products and services of interest to legal professionals. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Coming March 9, 2007 to Fat Friday: Wells Anderson reviews Time Matters as a lawyer's hub, Christel Burris shares her experience dealing with Dell, Suzanne Turner reviews Deskloops, Mazyar Hedayat discusses Acrobat 8 and legal software upgrades in general, and Shaunna Mireau discusses online legal research and its impact on law firm libraries. Don't miss this issue.

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