While online research sites offer downloads in formatted for a word processor, I do not recommend using those formats.  I imagine the allure of having an authoritative source as a .doc is the benefit of cut, copy, paste for use in quotations. But cut copy and paste is also available from PDF unless that PDF it is secure or the text is not recognized.  Downloads from online legal research sites, are in my experience, never secure and always recognized. 

Indeed, I find very few secure PDFs from any source. 

Text Recognition, on the other hand, may sometimes present problem. Documents we scan ourselves (or more likely some sends to you), that go from tangible to digital, do not have text recognized by default.   We know the difference when we click on the page to have the whole thing turns blue.  The reason for that is, Acrobat is trying to select the one thing it sees, a picture from the scanner. 

However, when we convert a digital file, e.g. a .doc, to PDF, Acrobat retains the character recognition in the process as sent from the authoring program e.g. Word. (If you want to find which program authored a PDF click “File” – “Properties…”  and on the “Description” tab of that dialog box.  And that is also where you will see the meta-data. also reviewed in the movie below.)   Research sites offer their PDF in the latter category and when you run across a PDF that does not allow you select individual text, click the “Document” menu and select “OCR Text Recognition” (Optical Character Recognition) and you will be able to recognize text in the current or multiple PDFs.

By using a PDF you lose nothing in terms of functionality and gain the stability of a PDF, a myriad of commenting features, and therefore a far better participant in your personal law library.  Don’t worry renaming the cases is very fast.  See my video on Renaming cases very quickly in Acrobat wherein I demonstrate how to rename a file with a full name and citations in a few seconds with a  just a few click and key stokes. 

In my experience it is not the general features and benefits that make lawyers not adopt a digital posture, it is the little stuff.  I hear “But then I have to name all the files.” True and annoying using an old approach but using the features that all computers have, e.g. copy, paste and a keyboard, these little things can be easy and need not hold up the progress toward digital convenience.  

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I am a strong proponent of data and feature centralization, I always prefer to have as much data and as many functions concentrated in the fewest places.  I like to websites that are also blogs, video galleries, and intranets, which is why I develop my own sites.  I like operating systems with powerful native software, which is why I use a Mac.  And I like a phone that is more than a just phone, which is why I like the iPhone.  Computers and websites are not terribly difficult to backup and relativity speaking carry a low risk of loss.  But concentrating data on a mobile phone is a different matter.  

The new iPhone 3.0 operating system now has a feature that allows MobileMe subscribers locate the phone on a map, make it play a sound, display a message across the screen and wipe all the data remotely.  Lose the iPhone, log onto to me.com and have I play a sound, even if in silent mode.  If you can’t find it, display message and maybe a passerby will help get it back to you.  Worst case, wipe all the data and if you find it latter just restore it from the backup in iTunes.  

MobileMe, formerly .Mac, is Apple’s online service that includes a suite of services normally associated with servers. It costs $99 per year and, I think, well worth the price because, among other things, it keeps contacts, calendars, and email, synced between computers and the iPhone.  Enter a contact or appointment on the iPhone and it shows up on the Mac.  One of my clients, who is running Macs in the office, has his secretary enter events in the office to have them appear on his iPhone; a handy feature for a guy always in court. MobileMe opens up other opportunities for convenience and security that I discuss in the step 1 of the Paperless Express and others that I’ll give it a comprehensive treatment in Step 5 of that series.  

I think the new data wipe and phone location features are a good addition and lend a good bit of piece of mind as more data can fit in increasingly small areas. These features are located in the settings area of MobileMe account, which requires that you enter your password again after the initial log in.  Turing on the data wipe and find my iPhone is just a matter of flipping the switch located in Settings- Mail, Contacts, and Calendars- [select your MobileMe Account] flip the switch.  Also be sure to make data Push on the “Fetch New Data” box, you’ll run across  along the way,  it’s just below the list of email accounts.

Also, don’t forget to turn your pass code lock and set it to auto lock in shortest amount of time you can handle.  I find that have the phone lock itself immediately is a bit annoying but more secure; I use three minutes.  Passcode lock is located in Settings – General – Passcode lock.  

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Apple just released the iPhone 3Gs and a new version of the iPhone software 3.0.  They each deliver new features and one of the things that all iPhone users now have available directly from Apple through the new 3.0 software is the Voice Memos app.  While there are several voice memos apps available in the Apps Store, and the one I used was pretty good, like most things Apple does, this included App looks and works a bit better than most.  It’s also free.  

With Voice Memos you can record, name, and attach descriptions to each memo. Once recorded each can be trimmed, imported into iTunes, or more likely, emailed directly from the iPhone.  I always thought carrying a recorder would was a good idea but always forgot to take it along.  Now, with he iPhone,  there is no need to remember.   Of course, the same observation also applies to a video camera, iPod, calendar, map, address book and several thousand other things and all the information on the internet.

The problem I have found with modern technology is not the lack of capability but figuring out what to do with it and then remembering that it is there to help.  Making that calculation in such a way as to alleviate the need to remember seems to be the trick.  Having an iPhone concentrate so many things in one place is a step in that direction and one I certainly recommend.    
 

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To create documents many of us use Microsoft Word and to work with digital documents we use Acrobat.  Those two programs together with the features of the operating system is often all we need to do most things in a law office.  

Of all the things I have learned about computers and the web, this topic is perhaps the most important.  Styles gives complete control over the way documents look, allow simultaneous formatting throughout an entire document, and how Word creates tables of contents in seconds.  This movie is the first video in the Paperless Express Step 2.1 Making Office Letterhead which includes a video on tables of contents as well.

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Some documents, e.g. anything submitted to a court, requires text, e.g. the the descriptive captions, that can be very difficult to format with spaces, return, and tab. Text boxes solve the problem very easily. A text box operates independent of the rest of the document so you can drag it around, put it where you like and have your papers look exactly how you like.  Word 2007 has a number of decorative text boxes that can be useful for letterhead or marketing materials but the "Draw text box" function from the insert menu is the basic item useful for pleadings...

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While Indexed Search on the Desktop, i.e. the ability to search your computer in the same way we search the web, has reduced our organizational burden, good file names are still very helpful.  My clients and colleagues sometimes resist increasing the number of digital files on their office because it is time consuming to rename files with titles that can be helpful.  This concern need not hold you up at all because the same cut, copy, and paste approach we use all the time can be used to rename files very quickly.  In this movie, I use a few keyboard shortcuts to really speed things up and rename a series of cases for my research library.

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I have used several different systems to bill time but no matter which one I used I always found myself collecting  post -it notes and scraps of paper from around my office to input the time into the system. 

The PDF Timecard and Portfolio are my solution to that process. 

As PDF these files are easy to work with and one way to track time in a paperless law office.   In my view,  a paperless law office means little more than  getting comfortable using a computer and  this billing series is part of the Paperless Express Step on Designing Work flows and Procedures.

Download OSLC Time Sheet

Download OSLC Time Portfolio

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Compatibility is a Myth: Macs Do it All Including run Windows

Many think that using a Mac will sequester them into a finite and esoteric realm of the digital world; the opposite is true.  Using a Mac has no impact on email or Internet use and the applications included with OS X - Mac Mail 3.1 and the web browser, Safari – are far superior to their Windows counterparts-Windows Mail and Internet Explorer. The essential desktop applications, Microsoft Office and Abode Acrobat, have Mac versions and a PDF or Word file are the same regardless of the operating system. 

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It may be rare to definitely state that something is simply better than something else but I have concluded that Mac is simply better than PC.  It took me about a year to elevate what I once considered my opinion about personal preference, to the status of objective conclusion.  During that time, I have discovered more reasons why Macs are better for lawyers than PCs.

Windows Woes

In the beginning, I used Windows and  assumed there would be a learning curve but thought time spent in training would be repaid at least ten fold in productivity.  I accepted the error messages, complex configurations, and disruptions caused by unresponsive programs, and viruses as an unavoidable price for the convenience of modern technology.  However, as I significantly increased my technical ability, Windows remained cumbersome, complicated and unreliable.

I dreamed of a practice as a freelance legal writer working with remote clients and needed to know computers to span the distance.  With Windows I was about to give up on that dream.  In desperation and as a last resort, I turned to Apple and they saved me.... 

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The allure of a tablet is that we can write directly on the screen using a pen stylus.  Tablets come in slate and convertible varieties.  The slate is only a screen, the convertible looks like a notebook but the screen can be rotated and folded down over the keyboard.  I used a Gateway convertible for a time and Vista includes what was XP tablet edition as a part of Vista, so all versions of Vista support a pen stylus. 

In my view, enhanced tablet functionality while convenient, is not enough to compensate for the shortcomings of Windows. For Mac users, I recommended the Wacom Bamboo tablet.

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