TechnoLawyer: Utilities

Recently in our TechnoGuide newsletter, TechnoLawyer member Diane Targovnik asked for help synchronizing her Treo with Group. Fellow TechnoLawyer member Nancy Crow has come to her rescue, writing "Intellisync syncs my Handspring Visor with GroupWise quite nicely. I'm sure it will work with a Treo." TechnoLawyer member Sharon Taylor seconds Nancy's recommendation: "We have been able to use the Intellisync software to transfer data to GroupWise and sync calendar and address information from Palm Pilot databases into Groupwise databases." You can try Intellisync before you buy a copy.

About Quips
A Quip is a brief member contribution for which we don't have room in our Answers to Questions or Fat Friday newsletters. Instead, Quips appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.

Below you'll find one of the five articles from today's edition of TechnoLawyer NewsWire:

Adobe Acrobat on Steroids
By Brett Burney
Adobe sells several different versions of Acrobat, but even the most powerful version lacks features that lawyers need. As a result, a vibrant after-market of plug-ins exists. One such product, ARTS PDF's Aerialist, bills itself as "the ultimate plug-in for Adobe Acrobat." What does it do? Perhaps it's better to ask what it doesn't do. Among its many lawyer-friendly features, Aerialist can insert bates numbers, page numbers, dates, author information, and more into PDF documents, and generate bookmarks based on headings and font styles. Aerialist also features advanced document assembly and disassembly tools. For example, you can merge or split PDF files in any fashion — by pages, page ranges, bookmarks, page marks, etc. — while retaining cross-document linking. You can also use Aerialist to convert and merge different file types (.doc, .pdf, .xls, etc.) on the fly. Instead of applying each of these functions manually, you can take advantage of Aerialist's batch processing tools. You can even sequence the tasks performed on your files. Need even more power? Check out ARTS PDF's Aerialist Professional, which includes Aerialist's feature set plus even more advanced tools. For example, Aerialist Professional is the only plug-in that supports the creation of document layers. You can also use Aerialist Professional to edit and fix images within a PDF file, automatically build a table of contents for individual documents or collections of documents, and automatically link keywords within your documents. Best of all, you can batch process files by simply dropping them into "watched folders." Aerialist is available in both Windows and Mac versions. Aerialist Professional is currently available for Windows with a Mac version en route. Pricing starts at $379 for Aerialist and $699 for Aerialist Professional with volume discounts available. You can download a 30-day free demo. Learn more about Aerialist.

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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.

Below you'll find one of the five articles from today's edition of TechnoLawyer NewsWire:

This Cleaner Does Windows, and You Need Not Even Ask
By Brett Burney
Don't you wish smart appliances existed that would automatically clean our floors, do our laundry, wash our dishes, and more without requiring any input from us? Although automated home cleaning does not yet exist, automated document cleaning has arrived in the form of Workshare Protect 4. This new utility doesn't just remove metadata from Microsoft Office documents, it does so automatically and transparently. Workshare Protect enables you to set firmwide parameters for metadata removal and other security measures. You can even decide what to strip from a document depending on the nature of the activity. For example, you might treat internally e-mailed documents differently from externally e-mailed documents. In addition to removing metadata, Workshare Protect can also convert e-mail attachments to PDF format and even compress attachments into .zip format when they reach a specified size. Best of all, Workshare Protect does all of its work behind the scenes automatically, which eliminates the need to train your staff. That said, your power users can view reports showing the risk rating of their documents and what Workshare Protect will remove. You can even grant special privileges to such users so that they can tweak Workshare Protect's actions on a document by document basis — even within the same e-mail message. Workshare Protect works with GroupWise, Lotus Notes, and Outlook, and with Microsoft Office 97/2000/XP/2003. You can download a free trial. Learn more about Workshare Protect.

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.

Below you'll find one of the five articles from today's edition of TechnoLawyer NewsWire:

Follow That Document
By Brett Burney
What's the best way to share an electronic document with someone? Print it out? E-mail it to them? These methods work, but they don't facilitate the integration of changes other people may make to your document. Workshare Professional 4 provides "secure document compliance for Microsoft Office." The thrust of the application is to give you an efficient and secure way to collaborate with others on electronic documents. Tightly integrated with Microsoft Office, Workshare Professional 4 enables you to tag a document as the "master," and then send it to one or more "reviewers." It also integrates with your e-mail client (Lotus Notes, Groupwise, or Outlook) so that it can monitor when modified documents return. Best of all, Workshare Professional keeps an audit trail of any and all changes that were made to a document — think "track changes" on steroids. It can even produce a "Document Audit Report" showing change history, metadata, and send history. Got a document management system? Workshare Professional integrates with all the major players, including Documentum, Hummingbird, Interwoven, and SharePoint. New features in version 4 include one click PDF conversion and security, an enhanced Report Wizard, an "Always On Audit" for Word documents, the ability to centrally apply document policies, integration with DeltaView, and much more. Pricing for Workshare Professional 4 starts at $349 per seat with a 10-seat minimum; it's free for existing firms that have a software subscription. Learn more about Workshare Professional.

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.

With all the Firefox reviews and tips in recent editions of our Topical Compilation newsletter, I thought it worth pointing out that PC Magazine has published a helpful article entitled Top 15 Firefox Extensions.  Caveat — many of the utilities reviewed are still in beta release. FoxyTunes 1.1 gets my vote as the most intriguing — it permits you to control iTunes or other music software from within Firefox.

About TechnoEditorials
A TechnoEditorial is the vehicle through which we opine and provide tips of interest to managing partners, law firm administrators, and others in the legal profession. TechnoEditorials appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.

Symantec's Norton products continue to take a beating from TechnoLawyer members, this time from Chet Hammann who writes: "I can't tell you how much time I've spent getting back computers that have had Norton utilities (Antivirus, SystemWorks, etc.) installed. Even Symantec recognizes that Norton can't be uninstalled when it messes up the machine. The detailed instructions, including Registry edits, are unbelievable. Just don't go there."

About Quips
A Quip is a brief member contribution for which we don't have room in our Answers to Questions or Fat Friday newsletters. Instead, Quips appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.

TechnoLawyer member and IP Memes author Stephen Nipper writes with some helpful tips about Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2): "It seems Microsoft is tired of catching all of the blame every time a new security threat, worm or virus is found, so in SP2 various steps have been taken to better lock down Windows XP. For instance, the firewall and "Windows Update" will be automatically turned on. For many of our offices, the result may be quite a headache. If you don't have a dedicated IT guy/gal already planning the upgrade/update, all you ever need to know about SP2 can be found in the August 2004 edition of Scot's Newsletter."

About Quips
A Quip is a brief member contribution for which we don't have room in our Answers to Questions or Fat Friday newsletters. Instead, Quips appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.

Regarding the long-running thread on how to save Web clippings, TechnoLawyer member Steven McNichols writes: "I strongly recommend SnagIt for Web clipping and manipulating downloaded images. It's very sophisticated."

About Quips
A Quip is a brief member contribution for which we don't have room in our Answers to Questions or Fat Friday newsletters. Instead, Quips appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.

On the topic of system utilities, TechnoLawyer member Lester Proctor writes: "I cannot too much state my view that anything Norton is destructive to your computer. For a good System Suite, including constantly updated virus library, I greatly urge VCOM's SystemSuite, now in version 5 I believe."

About Quips
A Quip is a brief member contribution for which we don't have room in our Answers to Questions or Fat Friday newsletters. Instead, Quips appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.