Mac and Spaces at the Deposition

A few days ago, DCB - a lawyer, friend, and Mac user - was telling me how well Spaces performed during a deposition to make him the fastest lawyer in the room.

Curious others gathered around and said he likely made some converts. I asked him if he ever used the preview feature in OS X Leopard called “Quick Look.”

Quick Look Preview: Even More Convenience

A few minutes ago, I reminded him how it worked in a SMS text, two minutes later he responded, “Thanks. I love it.”

How it Works

Just press the space bar and the Mac will preview any file. It’s fast and easy and prevents wasted time. It also works on movies. Have a look.
 

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Abode is a Software Company, PDF is a Format, Reader is Free, Acrobat is Not. 

This may be the most misunderstood, confused, and even confusing subject in law office tech. 

I have seen resumes from lawyers that claim to be expert in Adobe, expert in a entire company? A PDF is often regarded as an inherently secure format, it's not.  The difference between Reader and Acrobat is often not recognized.  And the enormous capability of Acrobat goes tragically underutilized.   

Here is what you need to know to clear up the confusion and get on the way to using some truly incredible software.

Adobe is a Leading Software Company

Abode is probably most famous for Photoshop.  But they also make Dreamweaver, inDesign, Flash, Coldfusion, Illustrator,  Soundbooth, and of course Acrobat ($400) and Reader (Free). 

Adobe software is often sold bundled into Creative Suites aimed at particular purposes, e.g. Web Premium, Production Premium, Design Premium, ($1,700) and then there is the Master Collection ($2,500).  

PDF is a Format Adobe Invented

PDF is an acronym for Portable Document Format. 

Abode invented it in the early 1990s to facilitate document exchange.  PDF lets people view files independent from the software that created them, e.g. a person does not need Excel to see a spreadsheet created in Excel because they can view it as a PDF.  As a document sharing tool, PDF serves a critical function.

Originally, PDF was used as part of the desktop publishing work flow. For example, a designer working for a magazine can layout and ad in inDesign and then convert it PDF for approval and feedback.

This may seem like a trifling matter but inDesign and other industry class design and layout programs are expensive, inaccessible, and complicated. inDesign, alone, costs $699 and universities and trade schools base design curriculum on programs like it.  I can tell you from experience, it takes many hours of study and practice to even get near programs like inDesign.  See the Screen Shot Gallery for an idea of how complex these programs are. 

The legal industry is split between WordPerfect, Word 2003 with the .doc extension, and Word 2007 and its .docx extension; a standardized file format accessible to all is no small thing.

PDF is a common language. 

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1. What is SEO?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization.

SEO is defined as the practice of including features in a web site so it is more likely to appear high in a list of "organic" (as opposed to paid) search results in response to particular keywords. The diagram below depicts the location of the paid and sponsored links.

Many lawyers have opted for web sites coupled with SEO services. Findlaw is one example of web design services coupled with SEO, there are many others.

2. What is the Value of a SEO Campaign?

Increased traffic to a web site. Provided your site is optimized for the right keywords and it converts visitors into clients once they arrive, SEO can mean more business.

Recent research into Google user behavior has revealed the existence of what is called the “Google Golden Triangle.” The Golden Triangle, situated over the top organic search results,  receives an overwhelming majority of clicks. Users  mostly ignore sponsored links and rarely go to the second page of results; rather they start a new search. A diagram generated by the actual number of clicks made by Google users.

Organic search that lands a page on the first page of results is the game when is comes to getting traffic from Google.

3. What is PPC and how do Sponsored Links work?

PPC stands for Pay Per Click and it means an advertiser pays each time a search user clicks on their link when it appears on the search results page.

Google's Adwords is the premier program that offers PPC advertising. Site owners choose keywords relevant to their site and when a Google user searches for those keywords, a link and description of the site appears in the Sponsored Links section of the Google results page. If the Google user clicks on a sponsored link the site owner pays the amount of their bid for each click.

PPC Adword campaigns are often used in conjunction with SEO campaigns but paying for links does not increase a site's organic importance within the Google search engine. If an advertiser stops paying, their presence will disappear unless the site has established a high rank in Google under the SEO principles.

4. Why is Google so Popular?

Google dominates because their page ranking algorithm named "Page Rank" after co-founder Larry Page - a fateful coincidence indeed - resolved problems that dogged precursor search engines and produced results people wanted to see. Understanding Google's basic innovation comes easily to lawyers because it is the same approach we use to assess the importance of a case or journal article. The more cites from important people makes a case or journal more important, that's it.

Prior to Google, search engines used primarily the number of keywords, once understood that system was easily defeated. The porn industry was frequent exploiter. For example, they would include the keywords "Chevrolet Suburban" hundreds of times in white text on a white background. Search for an SUV and find something else.

Google's algorithm crunched keywords, links, content, and other factors, and gave us back the Internet and very likely saved it from the junk heap.

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A colleague recently switched to Mac, he is happy he did, but had some questions about moving his files from the PC. He had the files he needed on a external hard drive but didn’t know where to put them on the Mac.

All drives on a Mac mount themselves on the desktop for easy access. All that we needed to do was click on his USB drive open a new Finder window, select the files and move them over. I go over that and a little about the PC program that’s used to move around files called Windows Explorer.
 

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Folders and drives on a Mac pop open to allow files to be easily placed inside. It’s a good way to get a file deep into a folder structure.

To change how fast the folders spring open click on “Preferences” menu in the “Finder” drop down menu.

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When I decided to learn about computers, I started with MS Word and was captured by the power and ease of styles and the related automatic tables of contents.  Who cares?

It may be the difference between sleeping and not. 

I have one client whom I often work with late into the night. We were about 6 drafts in at 3 am and we had yet to build a table of contents and the formatting was a little rough.  He said I was done and he’d get up early and take care of the table in the morning before calendar. 

I knew that he was going to manually format and assemble a TOC.  I don’t know how long that would have taken him, but I knew it would take me about 3 minutes. I told him not to worry about it and the polished memo would be in his inbox in the morning. It was, and I went to bed about 5 minutes later. 

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The traditional approach to computer files essentially recreates the physical structure of our files. While digital documents, in any structure, have a number of advantages over their tangible counterparts, maintaining traditional computer file structures of nested folders requires care.

Finding Files is Always the Problem

We have to create folders, arrange all documents within, and be certain that each document in the proper folder to avoid document loss. Locating a misplaced document on a computer is perhaps more troublesome than searching through tangible papers. Without some computer expertise we are powerless to recover the document without excessive frustration or the intervention of some expert third party. As computer files increase, it seems inevitable that we will encounter the misplaced document problem. Under those conditions, it seems reasonable to avoid converting paper to digital as a matter of course.

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Google and search have changed the way we find information. Rarely do we look for something by clicking through a series of increasingly specific categories, we just search for it. With Vista and the upcoming Windows 7, a PC can be searched in the same way.

The search feature also finds:

• Folders
• Files
• Programs
• Communications, e.g. Email
• Contacts
• Control Panel items

Basically, anything you want it to find.

Windows does all this automatically and the feature is available with a click or keystroke. Just click on the “Window” button –formerly the “Start” button- or press the Window key on the keyboard, and start typing. Windows will deliver results instantly in response to each new keystroke.

Windows search, like Google search, works by creating an index of the computer’s contents. You can change what Windows indexes in “Indexing Options” –just start typing index and you’ll see that option come up.

By using this search feature you can dramatically decrease the amount of time and effort spent finding things. It is also a powerful tool to manage the increasing numbers of files we have on our computers.

Just like Google and the search engines transformed the way we use the Internet, local index search can transform the way we can use our computers and that is good news for us.

Macs also have an indexed search feature; it’s called Spotlight. Mac had it first and like most things, I think it is better than the Windows version.

See what it looks like in the Screen Shot Gallery.

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I am a proponent of integration for ease and fluidity; it is at the core of my approach to computers. However, a problem often arises when I try to explain it with a list of benefits or features, because no list can do it justice.  It is the way one thing reinforces the other and then aggregates to whole far greater than the sum of its parts.   Today a series of events occurred that captures what I mean; it involves Document Styles, Twitter, Scouts, and Landscape Architecture. 

Tweet and the Scouts

While having a drink with a lawyer friend, I mentioned my current Twitter kick. He said he saw little value in Tweeting and even having an account brought ridicule at the firm.  I told him that following the right people on Twitter is like having scouts on the Internet reporting back good stuff to check out.  To illustrate my point, I showed him some Tweets on the iPhone and touched one from someone I had just started to follow, @expertparalegal, who Tweeted a link to an article discussing points from the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals guide to lawyers for formatting documents for submission.  As a legal writer, and just at the right time, I had a concrete example of one way Twitter can be useful.  My friend retreated, just a hair, from his position. 

The Persuasive Papers

As I scrolled down the article right then, perhaps rudely. I discovered the Court published a  guide to give “suggestions to help you make your submissions more legible—and thus more likely to be grasped and retained.” Some of the points were:

-Times New Roman and Arial are not good fonts, Georgia and Constantia are better.

-While I knew serif fonts are easier to read because the serifs move the eye along, I did not know that the relationship between serif and sans serif fonts might be reversed on a computer screens.  (Looks like I have to change one of my sites)

-One space after a period, not two. Two is an archaic holdover from typewriters and unnecessary with modern proportional fonts. I didn’t know that.  

-Use all capitals if you want to be ignored. I knew that one.

-Don’t underline and avoid boldface.  I knew that and cringe at underlines.

-Indent .25 or less. I typically use .5 so that was helpful.

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Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to collect information by emailing or embedding a form in your web site? And have the result automatically entered into a spreadsheet and receive an email notification upon each entry?That is exactly what anyone can do with Google Docs.

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