Does It Compute?

Small Firm Time and Billing Programs

Ross Kodner recently had a good summary of leading time and billing programs for solo and small firms.  Click here to access it. 

Another product that has been around for a while is Bill4Time which, like many of these products has gotten considerably more full-featured over the years.

As Ross notes, the web-based programs will cost you more in the long run and generally have fewer features than standard desktop-based programs.  But if you won’t need the features, that doesn’t make a big difference. Also, these programs are adding features at a great clip.  But you should sit down and make a realistic assessment of your needs before making a selection. And be sure to take into account expansion and the increased use of email for sending out bills and electronic billing.

PDF/A (Archiving) Format for Court Submission

As courts are increasingly requiring the PDF/A (for “Archiving”) format for submission of documents, the question arises: what exactly does this format entail? Should documents be conformed to PDF/A as a matter of course?

PDF/A is a subset of the features available through Acrobat. It includes/requires:
• No security is applied to document
• No embedded multi-media allowed
• No javascript allowed
• All fonts must be embedded
• No attachments allowed
• Transparency and Layers not allowed
• Portfolios not allowed.
• Must be text searchable.

Some features may not work in PDF/A documents. For example, if you want insert pages in a PDF/A document, PDF/A View mode will prevent the change. Similarly, firms that currently assemble documents into Binders or Portfolios (which is increasingly common) will find they are not PDF/A compatible.

So it may not be a good idea to always use PDF/A mode. The solution most consultants recommend is to use a “near PDF/A” mode that can easily be converted when you need to. Rick Bornstein has detailed instructions for doing this on his Acrobat for Legal Professionals blog.

A useful White Paper called PDF for Archiving is also available from docsCorp.

Lastly, if you are using Worldox, you can set Word 2010 to default to the PDF/A format when using the Microsoft add-in (although as noted above, that may not always be a desirable solution).

iPad Revisited

We went out to visit my 91-year-old father-in-law in Phoenix in early January. I decided to take my iPad instead of a computer, since all I planned to do was check e-mail and Google.

The basic principle, not to have to schlepp a full-size laptop around, worked great. After that it was all down-hill.  My web-based e-mail didn’t work with the iPad (or vice-versa). I could look at the e-mail, but could not reply to it because I couldn’t type a message. So in order to reply to an e-mail I had to forward it to my gmail account and then reply from there. And of course trying to type on the iPad is still an adventure. Fortunately it was just a long weekend, so it was not too bad.

Since the iPad has no “back” function, using Google or Google maps was also a pain. I constantly had to exit out and start over.  Very clumsy to manipulate.  And for directions I could just as easily use the navigation app on my Droid phone.

So was it better than a laptop?  For this very limited purpose, yes. This iPad was a gift. Would I ever actually buy an iPad?  No.

If I needed certain legal-specific apps for the iPad, such as the Worldox app that lets you access the document store in your office from the iPad, it might be different. But without those add-ons, the iPad is little more than a convenient toy.

Making the Most of Adobe Acrobat

As scanning has increased, so too has the use of Acrobat. Many firms are starting to scan old files into Acrobat PDF files. Much of this is uncontrolled – I have seen PDF files as big as 5GB or even more!  This is just a disaster waiting to happen.  Here are some simple things you can do to make the use of your Acrobat files more efficient.

1.  Scan in smaller batches and assemble. Instead of scanning thousands of pages, scan in groups of (say) several hundred. (You may want to experiment on the best number) Then select “Create” then “Merge files into a single PDF.” Drag and drop all the files you want to include into the resultant screen (I have dragged over 600 files at one time). This will create a single PDF. Each file is listed on the Bookmarks Panel which makes the resulting document easier to navigate. To get the Bookmarks Panel to display when the document is opened, go to File | Properties | Initial View and select “Bookmarks Panel and Page.”

2.  Make sure your scans are OCR’d. What good does it do to have 5,000 pages of documents in a file if you can’t search for anything in it? Although Acrobat will do this, it is a slow process. If you plan to scan large amounts of documents, you need to invest in an OCR program. Some large printer/copiers claim to be able to OCR, but check carefully – I recently came across a relatively new Xerox copier that was “OCR’ing” using Acrobat 5!!  Check to see what version your scanner is using. If you are using Worldox, check out Symphony OCR from Trumpet, Inc. which OCR’s in the background and can save tremendous time and effort (and hence money).

3.  Embed an index.  If you have a very long document, searching can be quite slow. If you embed an index, it is very fast. In Acrobat 9, this is under Advanced | Document Processing | Manage Embedded Index. Select “embed index.” In Acrobat X, it is under Tools | Document Processing | Manage Embedded Index. Warning: for some totally illogical and counter-intuitive reason, if you save the file after you embed the index, it wipes out the embedded index.

4.  Use the Search function, not the Find function. “Find” simply finds the next instance of what you are looking for. “Search” lists all the instances, which makes it much faster to navigate through.

Other resources:  Rick Borstein’s “Acrobat for Legal Professionals” features a lot of “how to” columns as well as a wealth of other material. 

In addition, Ernie Svenson’s “PDF for Lawyers” can be very useful. He also writes the “Ernie the Attorney” blog. 

Agilewords Integrates with Box.net for Document Review

I was recently contacted by the makers of Agilewords, saying that their product integrates with Box.net to enable online reviewing and even editing of documents stored on Box.net.

I use Box.net for storage and transfer of files with clients. So I store a lot of software patches, help files, configuration settings, etc. in Box.net folders.  Most similar programs such as Dropbox offer an upload/download model to keep files in synch. The idea of being able to review and edit online was intriguing.

When you install Agilewords to your Box.net account, it takes over some functionality. When you upload a document, you can invite someone to review it. The reviewer is issued an invitation, logs into Box.net/Agilewords and marks up the document online. This is similar to Word’s track changes, but Agilewords uses its own feature set. If the would-be reviewer does not respond to the invite (you can set a due date for review), they are reminded (nagged?) by Agilewords until they do. There is also an approve/reject function. Agilewords lets the owner of the document review and track various reviewer comments and reply to them through a convenient review panel or via a “track changes” view of the document.

This is particularly useful for example if you want a client to review/approve a document but you don’t want to give them the ability to edit or change it – you want to keep control of the document.

There is also an “editor” function in which you can give someone rights to edit the document online, replacing the upload/download scenario. Agilewords charges about $15-19/mo./user for anyone with editor rights (reviewing is free). You would have to examine how you work and collaborate with various people in order to evaluate whether this functionality would be worthwhile.

All in all, Agilewords provides a potentially very useful expansion to Box.net functionality.

New From Microsoft

There have been several announcements from Microsoft in the past week or two that are worth noticing.

First, SP1 for Office 2010 has been released.  According to the sources I rely on for this sort of thing – Windows Secrets and Woody’s Office Watch – the patch has not been adequately tested and you should hold off on installing it, since Microsoft’s track record on this sort of thing is not very good.  So I repeat: hold off on SP1 until other people have installed it (read: beta tested it).

The other announcement has gotten a lot more publicity: Office 365. This is advertised as Microsoft’s foray into the “cloud.”  However, closer examination reveals that you are most likely to still require Office 2010 on your desktop. Even worse, Office 365 requires the notoriously insecure ActiveX protocol, as well as Silverlight.

In short, it is a Microsoft product through and through.  Furthermore, it is based on Azure, Microsoft’s cloud hosting platform.  Azure has only been available for a couple of years so it is not really a mature product.  Furthermore, it’s main architect, Ray Ozzie, left Microsoft last fall.  So the companies that are rushing to jump on the Azure bandwagon may well be in for a rough ride.

Why I Won't Use Chrome

I had been having a lot of trouble with Firefox (slow, doesn’t exit properly any more, doesn’t open links properly). Eventually, I stumbled on the solution, but in the meantime I thought I would investigate switching to Chrome.

Chrome is very fast. I like the little “recently used” images. However, ultimately I won’t use it, because:

– I can’t set up a menu bar. There have been a lot of complaints about this in bulletin boards, but Google shows no sign of fixing the issue, even as an option.

– I can’t customize where my downloads go. Again, I fail to see why this should not be possible. Also, the download indication is somewhat buried and hard to follow.

– When it opens a PDF file, I don’t have any of the Acrobat tools available (whether or not I use the Chrome PDF viewer or the Acrobat one).

– Navigation is clunky.

I think all this is linked to the new trend that “simpler is better.” I disagree. I want my options so that I can work the way I want to and not how the designers of a given program have decided is best for me. Chrome is another in the line of apps that, whyle they may make simple operations easier, it comes at the cost of making complex operations more difficult.

LogMeIn Ignition for Droid X

Continuing my ongoing adventures with my Droid X, I bought Logmein Ignition. This lets your smartphone log in directly to your base computer if it is using Logmein free or Logmein Pro2. 

It takes a little getting used to. For example, I had to move the screen so the icon I wanted was under the mouse pointer (apparently this is a setting that can be changed so the mouse pointer moves). But it works well, given the severe limitations of the small screen. There is a lot of scrolling back and forth to get what you want.

So I now have a number of options when I am out of the office.

I can forward all my mail to my gmail account and look at it there, or
I can log in directly to my on-line mail account, or
I can use Logmein Ignition to connect directly to my base computer.

This means that the basic things you want to do when out of the office for a short time are available on the Droid. You can “keep up” but it is still not a medium for doing any substantive work.

WordPerfect X5

I recently saw a blog enquiring whether or not WordPerfect can make a comeback with the latest version, X5. Click here for the article.

I have used WordPerfect forever (ever since I switched from Xywrite in 1985 to WP 4.0) and continue to do so.

Most people see Reveal Codes as a major advantage to WordPerfect and this is true. There are some other significant advantages, to my mind. This includes:

– The ability to create PDF files natively from WP and (in X5) the ability to convert PDF files to WordPerfect files.

– Much better formatting options (2 headers and footers; the ability to center and right justify text on the same line, etc.)

– Table math. WordPerfect will probably do most of what a lawyer uses Excel for. I have, for example created a Mortgage calculation table in WP: If you plug in any 3 of the 4 parameters for a mortgage (principle, monthly payments, percentage and term), it will calculate the fourth. Thus if you know you can make certainly monthly payments, WP will calculate the amount of a mortgage you can get for a given interest rate and term. 

– Much better control over placement of graphics and text alignment. Since I use WP for all my documentation, this is important to me.

So I plug away in WordPerfect. When I need to send a file to a non-WP using client, I create a PDF and off it goes.  

Using Acrobat X -- Once again, Easy is More Work

I recently upgraded one of my machines to AdobeX.  Hate the new interface.  The menu bar is hidden by default, but if you move the mouse to the bottom center of the screen, it pops up.

You can pin the button bar back up where it is supposed to be by clicking on the Adobe symbol at the right end of the bar. Otherwise, it is an extra click every single time you open a PDF file. Why is this easier?

You can make the tool bar permanent by going to Edit | Preferences | Full Screen and checking the “Show Navigator Bar” option.

Unfortunately, however, this option does not seem to work when you need to download a file from the web.  For every new file you download, you have to go through this process again.  Constant extra clicks.

Also, if you are using Worldox, there are now many more clicks. It used to be (i.e., Acrobat 9) that when you went to download a PDF file from the web, a Worldox bar automatically popped up, so that saving to Worldox was a single click.

Now, however, you have to (1) pin the tool bar up where it should be; (2) select tools; (3) select Plug-Ins; (4) select Worldox; (5) click on the Worldox Save option.  Five clicks instead of one. This is NOT easier to use both by the number of clicks and the obscurity of the process you need to follow.