TechnoLawyer: Utilities

Today's issue of TL Answers contains these articles:

Robin Meadow, How to OCR a Portion of a Page Plus Reviews of ClipMate and PureText

Craig Zawada, Review: LastPass

Bruce Brightwell, Review: Time Matters With PCLaw Versus AbacusLaw

Joshua Gordon, Review: TextAloud

Don't miss this issue — or any future issues.

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Do you believe in the wisdom of crowds? In TL Answers, TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers. This newsletter's popularity stems from the relevance of the questions and answers to virtually everyone in the legal profession. The TL Answers newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of TL Answers contains these articles:

Neil Squillante, Advice About Republic Wireless

Charles Cochran, Review: SugarSync and Syngery+ With Four Monitors

John Armstrong, Another Twist on Document Naming

Richard Schafer, How to Avoid Scan Jams

Don't miss this issue — or any future issues.

How to Receive TL Answers
Do you believe in the wisdom of crowds? In TL Answers, TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers. This newsletter's popularity stems from the relevance of the questions and answers to virtually everyone in the legal profession. The TL Answers newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Originally published on August 30 in our free SmallLaw newsletter. Instead of reading SmallLaw here after the fact, sign up now to receive future issues in realtime.

You've heard stories about hapless iPhone owners who thought their data was backed up despite never syncing their iPhone with their computer or iCloud. Before you snicker, we bet you haven't tapped the full potential of your iOS devices. In this issue of SmallLaw, lawyer and iOS expert Jeff Richardson provides little-known but powerful tips for Apple's Contacts, Reminders, and Notes apps. He also explains how you can use your iPhone to create and manage your usernames and passwords, and enter them into any web browser. Also, don't miss the SmallLaw Pick of the Week (newsletter only) for a buyer's guide to the best iPad keyboards.

IPHONE AND IPAD INFORMATION MANAGEMENT TIPS

Each day of law practice and life inundates us with small bits of information that we need to recall for later reference, but before you can remember one tidbit the next item shows up, followed by another one. Pick up your laundry tomorrow night. Buy travel-sized shaving cream at the pharmacy. Remember this phone number, this password, this person's name, etc. The information never seems to end.

Fortunately, your iPhone is always nearby, and excels at remembering all of the nitty, gritty details so that you don't need to burden yourself with memorization. In this issue of SmallLaw, I'll discuss apps and strategies to help you control this flood of information.

Information About People

You probably use the Contacts app to store a person's name, company name, email address, phone number, and other basic information. But if you tap the Edit button when viewing a contact and then choose Add Field, you will set that you can add many other useful fields.

For example, you can add a Phonetic First or Last Name to remember how to pronounce a person's name and avoid future embarrassment. You can also create a blank notes field with any kind of useful information about a person. I use the notes field to jot down the name and birth dates of children so that when I see someone again, I can remember that his son is "John" and is six years old. You might want to note interests, hobbies, favorite sports teams, etc.

Another field enables you to add a birthday to a contact, after which an entry will appear in Calendar with a small gift icon to remind you. Better yet, the powerful app Fantastical (which I use far more often than the built-in Calendar app) will calculate the math and display that it's Joe's 44th birthday.

The Reminders App and Siri

The iPhone's built-in Reminders app can remind you about specific tasks at a certain time or place. Launch the Reminders app, tap an empty line, jot down a few words about your task (like "Pick up hot dogs for Labor Day barbecue"), and then tap the arrow at the end of the line to remind you at a specific time (Saturday at 5 pm) or at a specific place (such as when you leave your office or when you arrive at a shopping center).

That's a great help, but what makes the Reminders app incredibly useful is the ability to use Siri to create reminders. You can dictate a reminder far faster than you can create one with your fingers. Activate Siri and simply talk to your iPhone. Say "Remind me to call Steve when I get to the office." Siri will ask which Steve, showing you a list of all of your contacts named Steve. Then whenever you next arrive at your office, Siri will remind you to place the call.

You can also tell Siri to "Remind me to go to the bank when I leave home" or "Remind me to start preparing for the Smith meeting at 2:30 on Thursday." All of this works a lot better than jotting down a reminder on cocktail napkin that you forget in your pants pocket, only to be seen again in a different form after going through the washing machine.

You can create different lists in the Reminders app. I recommend that you create one called "Grocery List." That way, in the future, you can simply tell Siri "Add milk to my grocery list." When you get to the store, look at the Grocery List in Reminders to see everything you wanted to remember to buy, including the items you haven't thought about since last Tuesday. You can also create date-specific lists. Tap on a specific date on the calendar in the Reminders app (e.g., Labor Day), and then add your tasks for that day.

All of the above also works on the iPad 3 or later and the iPad mini. In fact, if you have both an iPad and an iPhone, Reminders can keep your two devices in sync via Apple's free iCloud service.

The Notes App and Siri

The built-in Notes app is a simple but effective place to jot down quick notes on any topic that you can imagine. Like Reminders, it's much more powerful when you use Siri. Tell your iPhone or iPad, "Note that Suzie is arriving on Delta flight 456" and Siri will automatically create a new item in the Notes app with that text. Then you no longer need to worry about memorizing that flight number.

Usernames and Passwords

We all struggle to remember the endless usernames and passwords associated with our increasingly digital lives. A horrible "solution" is to use the same password everywhere; you don't want a hacker to gain access to one of your accounts and suddenly have access to all of them.

Rather than place sensitive passwords in the Notes app that any who picks up your iPhone can access, I recommend purchasing one of the many dedicated password apps such as LastPass, mSecure, or my favorite 1Password.

1Password remembers all of my passwords, includes a built-in web browser that can access a web site and enter my username and password automatically, and securely syncs with the web browsers on both my PC and Mac so that with a simple keystroke I can enter (or save) a password for every web site on any computer, iPad, and iPhone of mine. The app can also create complex, secure passwords that are impossible to guess and impervious to so-called dictionary attacks because they don't consist of English words. However, you never have to worry about memorizing or typing these long passwords because 1Password software handles that for you.

1Password can store more than just passwords. It has forms for remembering social security numbers, credit cards, software licenses, etc. I also love the secure notes feature because it provides a place to jot down private information protected under the lock and key of the 1Password app.

Jeff Richardson practices law in New Orleans and publishes iPhone J.D., the oldest and largest website for attorneys who use the iPhone and iPad.

How to Receive SmallLaw
Small firm, big dreams. Written by practicing lawyers who manage successful small firms and legal technology and practice management experts who have achieved rock star status, this newsletter provides practical advice on management, marketing, and technology issues in small law firms, as well as comprehensive legal product reviews with accompanying TechnoScore ratings. The SmallLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of TL Answers contains these articles:

Bill Baldwin, Using ClearScan for OCR in Litigation Matters

Scott Collins, My Five Monitor Setup and How I Use Them; Review: Actual Multiple Monitors

Dean Surkin, Review: Pathagoras

Judy Ruhling, Why Law Firms Use Word Even Though Microsoft Abandoned Us

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How to Receive TL Answers
Do you believe in the wisdom of crowds? In TL Answers, TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers. This newsletter's popularity stems from the relevance of the questions and answers to virtually everyone in the legal profession. The TL Answers newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of TL NewsWire covers an application for securing, sharing, and comparing documents (see article below), an iCloud-enabled app for creating and editing Microsoft Office documents on your iPad, and two new virtualization applications for running Windows on a Mac. Don't miss the next issue.

COMPARE AND SECURELY SHARE THIS THAT THESE AND THOSE

With Microsoft increasingly pursuing consumers — admittedly a much larger market than law firms and other businesses — lawyers shouldn't hold out much hope for improvements to Microsoft Office such as more robust change tracking, metadata cleansing, secure file sending, etc. Fortunately, some software companies still cater to law firms.

Workshare Professional 8 … in One Sentence

Launched last month, Workshare Professional 8 enables lawyers to secure, share, and compare documents.

The Killer Feature

Workshare Professional grew out of DeltaView, software for comparing two Word documents. The new version of Workshare Professional significantly expands the comparison capabilities. It's also 10 times faster than DeltaView.

In addition to comparing the text od documents, you can also compare embedded Excel tables, numbering, bullets, images, and formatting. You can group changes into categories so that you can focus on substance without being distracted by style or vice versa. You can compare multiple versions of a document, and accept or reject changes from the various versions.

Workshare Professional works with more than Microsoft Office documents. For example, you can compare PDF documents, including scanned documents thanks to the new built-in optical character recognition (OCR) technology. As always, Workshare Professional integrates with popular document management systems.

Instead of waiting around to review changes, Workshare Professional can alert you when everyone has added their two cents.

Other Notable Features

Workshare Professional has long enabled you to remove metadata from documents before emailing them to a client or opposing counsel. This functionality remains (including Outlook integration), but Workshare Professional now includes its own secure file transfer, which works from any device such as PCs, Macs, iPads, and smartphones.

Not only does the new document sharing feature enable you to send documents too large for email and eliminate the need for an Outlook add-on, but it also gives you more control over the documents you send. For example, Workshare Professional encrypts shared documents, which means you can recall a document, limit it to read-only, make it accessible for a limited period of time, etc. The Admin Console enables your IT department to set firm-wide document sharing policies so that users need not fiddle with settings.

What Else Should You Know?

Other new features include synchronized workspaces for everyone in your firm across all their devices, the ability to brand these workspaces (especially those that clients and others outside your firm access), and tools for PDF and PDF/A creation. Pricing starts at $175 per user per year. Learn more about Workshare Professional 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.

Coming today to SmallLaw: At version 17.5, WinZip Pro has enjoyed a long life. Now under the stewardship of Corel, its feature set extends beyond bundling and compressing documents into ZIP archives. New features include automated backups, cloud storage, NSA-proof document encryption, securely sending documents, and sending documents too large to email. How well do these and WinZip Pro's other features work? Find out in New Jersey lawyer Ed Zohn's comprehensive review in this issue of SmallLaw. Also, don't miss the SmallLaw Pick of the Week for delegation and time management tips.

How to Receive SmallLaw
Small firm, big dreams. Written by practicing lawyers who manage successful small firms and legal technology and practice management experts who have achieved rock star status, SmallLaw provides practical advice on management, marketing, and technology issues in small law firms, as well as comprehensive legal product reviews with accompanying TechnoScore ratings. SmallLaw also ensures that you won't miss anything published elsewhere by linking to helpful articles (and podcasts and videos) about solo practices and small law firms. The SmallLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Coming today to BigLaw: When law school graduates start working at a large law firm, one of the first curiosities they encounter are Document ID Numbers. In this issue of BigLaw, law firm CIO Matthew Berg reviews Esquire Innovations' iDocID 7.0, the new version of the company's utility for adding Document ID Numbers to Word documents. Matt covers the core functionality, advanced features, integration with document management systems such as iManage, NetDocuments, and OpenText, and much more. Also, don't miss the BigLaw Pick of the Week for the most innovative large firm lawyers of the past 50 years (if you don't know about this list, you're not on it — sorry).

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Large and midsize law firms have achieved unprecedented success yet they still have tremendous growth potential. Written by insiders, corporate counsel, and other industry experts, BigLaw unearths best practices in leadership, marketing, strategy, and technology, and features detailed product reviews with accompanying TechnoScore ratings. BigLaw also ensures that you won't miss anything published elsewhere by linking to insightful articles (and podcasts and videos) about large and midsize law firms, as well as notable press releases issued by the world's largest law firms. The BigLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of TL NewsWire covers an iPad app with a new approach to remote desktop (control) (see article below), a file viewer for discovery document review and other scenarios in which you need to view a document you cannot open, a new iPad note-taking app, and a service that helps you protect the articles on your blog and/or web site from unauthorized republication. Don't miss the next issue.

IPAD REMOTE DESKTOP WITHOUT THE MOUSE TRAP

When lawyers first learn that they can control their Mac or PC from their iPad they get excited. These remote desktop apps theoretically enable you to travel with just your iPad, knowing that you can run Microsoft Word if necessary. But then lawyers try these apps after which the excitement wanes. Trying to control a mouse cursor on an iPad is like trying to tie your shoelaces while wearing ski mittens. A new remote access app takes a different approach.

Parallels Access … in One Sentence

Launched yesterday, Parallels Access enables you to control one or more Macs and PCs via your iPad.

The Killer Feature

Parallels Access doesn't show you your computer's desktop or mouse cursor. Instead, its App Launcher displays your computer's desktop applications as iPad-style app icons. You can rearrange your applications and remove those you don't use. Nothing changes on your computer. Instead, this transformation of your desktop programs into touch-friendly apps occurs only in the Parallels Access iPad app.

"With Parallels Access, you can tap, swipe and pinch your way around Mac and Windows applications to ultimately be more productive at work and lead a more connected life," said CEO of Parallels Birger Steen.

Other Notable Features

Along the right side of Parallels Access you'll find the App Switcher, which enables you to switch among different documents within the same application (e.g., multiple Word documents), and also switch among all the open applications on the computer you're controlling.

As noted above, Parallels Access eschews the mouse emulation that makes other remote control apps so frustrating. Instead, you select, cut, copy, and paste text in Word and other desktop programs just as you would in a native iPad app.

When you need to use a menu or a toolbar, Parallels Access' SmartTap technology magnifies the area your finger touches to make it more foolproof to tap the correct command. Similarly, scrolling works as you would expect on an iPad with no need to use the scrollbar in desktop windows.

You can summon the iPad's keyboard when you want to work in a document. Parallels Access adds special function keys in a row above the regular keyboard that varies depending on the desktop operating system you're controlling (e.g., the Command key versus the Windows key). Alternatively, you can use an external Bluetooth keyboard instead of the iPad's software keyboard.

What Else Should You Know?

Parallels Access requires the iPad 2 or later. In addition to the iPad app, you must install the Parallels Access Mac Agent or PC Agent respectively on the computers you want to control. Parallels Access works both over your local WiFi network and also over the Internet. Like all remote access solutions, the computer you want to control needs to be running. Parallels Access costs $79.99 per computer per year. You can try Parallels Access free for 14 days. Learn more about Parallels Access.

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 on August 20, 2013 in our free SmallLaw newsletter. Instead of reading SmallLaw here after the fact, sign up now to receive future issues in realtime.

What's on your iPad home screen? How about your iPhone? In this issue of SmallLaw, TechnoLawyer publisher Neil Squillante discusses the 28 apps on his iPad mini's home screen (plus a few on his second screen). Neil uses his iPad mini primarily for work plus he's an information architecture expert. Therefore, you'll not only learn about useful apps (including one that launched last week), but also benefit from Neil's insight into how to organize your apps for maximum efficiency. Also, don't miss the SmallLaw Pick of the Week (newsletter only) for advice on how to recruit a winner.

IF I SHOW YOU MY IPAD HOME SCREEN (AND APPS) WILL YOU SHOW ME YOURS?

Lawyer and productivity guru David Sparks regularly publishes a column in his MacSparky publication called Home Screens in which he interviews people about the apps on that screen.

MacSparky is not a legal publication so David rarely interviews lawyers. He also focuses on the iPhone rather than the iPad. I thought I'd use this issue of SmallLaw to pay homage to David's clever column by discussing my iPad's home screen — both the apps I use and my organizational methodology (I have two 32 GB Verizon iPad minis, both of which I've set up identically). After reading this article, I encourage you to reply and discuss the apps on your home screen and how you organize them. Your article will have just as large an audience as this one.

The Dock

Many iPad users place the apps they use most often in the dock. That's certainly the case for me. From left to right, my dock contains:

1. Safari: No surprise here. I also use Safari on my iPhone and Macs with all my bookmarks synced via iCloud. I'm a huge fan of Safari's Reader function, which removes all the cruft from web pages and also makes virtually any web page mobile-friendly. If you've never used Reader, you'll find it a revelation.

2. Mail: My favorite email client, Mail makes managing my email accounts a breeze. I don't use Mail's VIP feature because the number of accounts I have and the filters I've set up at the server level ensure that only relevant email arrives in my inboxes. For example, we have a dedicated, shared email account for press releases from legal vendors.

3. Editorial: Here we enter the realm of third-party apps. Launched last week, Editorial just displaced WriteRoom as my text editor (I'm writing this article in Editorial). I've used Editorial for just a short time, but it's so powerful that WriteRoom may not earn back this prime real estate. I don't use a text editor only for editing and writing articles, but also for composing important and/or long email messages. This eliminates the risk of prematurely sending a sensitive email message by mistake. Like most iPad text editors, Editorial can send what you've written to the Mail app.

4. Adobe Reader: I use this app to access documents needed to create sales proposals. I used to store other PDF documents in this app too but I've since moved them elsewhere as I'll explain below.

5. Soulver: I wrote extensively about this cross between a calculator and a spreadsheet in our TL Research Guide to the iPad Mini as a Productivity Tool. I use it to add up and keep records of the checks we deposit, crunch numbers for sales proposals, and more. The developers will soon release a new version with iCloud support, which will enable me to access all of my Soulver documents on both of my iPad minis and my iPhone.

6. NewsBlur: I switched to NewsBlur for my RSS reader after the demise of Google Reader. What's an RSS reader? It's an application that enables journalists and information junkies to monitor dozens or even hundreds of web sites.

The Top Row (Portrait Orientation)

To avoid confusing you, I'll discuss the rest of my apps row by row, but I organize apps by both column and row. Apps in the left-most and right-most columns are easier to tap than apps in the interior columns so I place more important apps in the outer positions.

1. Calendar: I've tried some third-party calendar apps, but I like Apple's the best. I just wish it offered the same alert sounds that exist on the Mac for consistency.

2. Writing Folder: Yes, I use app folders and here we have our first, which contains four apps associated with writing — Notes, iA Writer, Merriam Webster Dictionary/Thesaurus, Pages, and WriteRoom. Notes syncs via iCloud and also exists on the iPhone so I use it for notes I need when I don't have my iPad with me. I use Pages for more structured documents than a text editor can handle. The two text editors in this folder serve as as backups in case a bad update temporarily makes my primary text editor unusable.

3. Productivity Folder: This folder contains apps that for me have just one function — FileMaker Pro (a homemade database with important information), GoodReader (it can access our file server), Google Drive (we're Google Apps customers so maybe this app will come in handy someday), Salesforce (our sales leads), Chrome (backup web browser), and Documents (moving documents from my computer to my iPad via WiFi).

4. Tools Folder: These lightweight apps don't need much explanation — The Weather Channel, Dark Sky, Calculator Pro, Hightail, Maps, Google Maps, Alarm Clock HD Pro, Clock, Speed Test, and Airport Utility.

The Second Row

1. Podcasts: I have a love/hate relationship with podcasts. They cover niche topics of interest to me, but the hosts remind me of Wayne and Garth. Leaving aside the interesting content delivered unprofessionally, the app itself is a gem. iCloud syncing enables you to start listening on your iPhone and pick up where you stopped on your iPad.

2. Yelp: A must for restaurants if you live in a large city. I don't trust the anonymous reviews, but I use the app on the iPad to bookmark my favorite restaurants and those I want to try. On my iPhone, I can sort my bookmarked restaurants by proximity.

3. App Store: The source of all apps so I've got to have it front and center.

4. Reminders: Although it's not perfect, Reminders helps me manage my tasks better than anything else I've tried thanks to its simplicity (no user guide required) and iCloud syncing. I use it for my three categories of tasks — long-term projects that could take weeks, months, or years, short-term projects such as a sales proposal, and alarms for ephemeral tasks that I dictate via Siri (e.g., remind me to buy a hard drive tonight at 9:00 pm).

The Third Row

1. NoteSuite: Shortly after reporting on NoteSuite in TL NewsWire, I began using it to store PDF documents I need to reference, annotate PDF documents, and take handwritten and typed notes. This app replaced Remarks for note-taking and saved me from buying an Acrobat.com subscription thanks to its iCloud syncing. I have the Mac version too. There's no iPhone version yet, but if that ever surfaces I will no longer need to use Apple's Notes for notes I need when I only have my iPhone with me. NoteSuite has some quirks, but it's an impressive 1.0 release.

2. Music: Back in 2010, I poked fun at my neighbor behind his back because he listened to music on his first-generation iPad. Well, I don't walk around Manhattan listening to music on my iPad mini (nor do I take photos with it), but I use the Music app with headphones at home often enough that I moved it to my home screen.

3. Settings: I dig into this app every day to connect to my Beats Pill, turn on/off my cellular data, make sure a new magazine subscription doesn't auto-renew, etc.

4. Remote: I use this app at home to play music from my Mac through my Apple TV.

The Fourth Row and Page 2

1. Messages: This is a killer app. Because everyone in our company and most people with whom I frequently communicate use an iPhone, their text messages go not only to my iPhone but also to both of my iPad minis. So convenient.

And that's it for my home screen. I don't currently use the rest of the fourth row or any of the fifth row. But I have a second page of apps, all of which are in folders. I won't discuss the apps, but I'll share the folders with you — Newsstand, Books, Periodicals (publications not in Newsstand), Multimedia, Photography, Services (e.g., ETrade and Verizon), Games, Shopping, Social Media, and Communications (Bria, GoToMeeting, FaceTime, Skype, and WebEx).

Now Show Us Your Home Screen

Think I'm missing out on some important apps? Got better apps for certain tasks than the apps I use? Please reply to this issue of SmallLaw to discuss the apps on the home screen of your iPad and/or iPhone.

Neil J. Squillante is the publisher of TechnoLawyer.

How to Receive SmallLaw
Small firm, big dreams. Written by practicing lawyers who manage successful small firms and legal technology and practice management experts who have achieved rock star status, this newsletter provides practical advice on management, marketing, and technology issues in small law firms, as well as comprehensive legal product reviews with accompanying TechnoScore ratings. The SmallLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of TL Answers contains these articles:

Steve Miller, Review: Folder Marker Pro

Jerry Gonzalez, The Right Way and Wrong Way to Run Four Monitors

Donna Sands, Why I Chose AbacusLaw for Practice Management

Burk Roberts, Review: QuicKeys for Document Naming

Don't miss this issue — or any future issues.

How to Receive TL Answers
Do you believe in the wisdom of crowds? In TL Answers, TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers. This newsletter's popularity stems from the relevance of the questions and answers to virtually everyone in the legal profession. The TL Answers newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.