Does It Compute?

Supra-Organizational Options in Worldox

Like most document management systems, Worldox organizes documents on a hierarchical basis: typically client / matter / document type. Unlike some litigation support databases, one field in Worldox is linked to one item, it does not have one-to-many links where one field can have multiple values.

This frequently gives rise to requests for additional forms of organization, perhaps the most common request being “can I link one document to multiple clients?” While Worldox cannot do this (you would have to create multiple copies of the file, which would be a recipe for disaster), there are a number of supra-organizational options that provide additional flexibility.

The 8th Field

Worldox profiles offer seven fields. There is a little-known additional “hidden” field in the form of a table that can be created in the comments field. This can be useful, for example for litigation firms to assign values to a document (critical, helps other side, worthless, etc.). The limitation is that there is only a single table that can be created across all the firm’s profile groups, you cannot have a separate table for each profile group.

Relationships

It is also possible to create a “Parent-Child” relationship between documents by the simple expediency of clicking on the Child-to-be document with the mouse and dragging it on top of the Parent-to-be. You will be asked if you wish to create a relationship. If you do, in the “R?” column the parent will be listed as “P1” indicating it is a Parent with one Child. You can create multiple relationships and also multi-level relationships (“grandchildren”). So if you have a table of contents, list of exhibits, etc. you can have the contents related to the contents/list document and see them all at a glance.  Similarly, some blacklining programs (such as Workshare) cannot create versions of the documents they are blacklining. However, you can save the blackline as a separate document and then relate it to one or both of the versions in question. DocsCorp’s CompareDocs does integrate fully into Worldox and redlines created with CompareDocs can be saved as versions.

Projects

Projects are similar to relationships in that they group together a variety of related documents. They are limited, however, in that they are directory based, which is why Worldox recommends using a separate “Projects” profile group to manage them. In Worldox GX3, Projects can be shared among various people and can provide a convenient supra-organizational tools. For example, I have a separate “project” for proposals I have made to prospective clients for different types of software. Since each proposal is a document type “proposal” I could not otherwise achieve this level of detail.

Categories (formerly Libraries)

What was formerly called Libraries has just been recast as “Categories.” (If you don’t have the Nov. 9 build of GX3, you won’t have this feature.)  Libraries was in my view a pretty worthless function (although some people are very attached to it) and I never even offered to install it for clients.  It imposes a “second profile” so you had to deal with two successive screens when saving a document. In addition it was static (unlike dynamic searches) and you had to manually assign documents to it. Lastly, it was directory-based, so you could only group files that were in the same physical directory.

Categories, however, has been significantly augmented. You do not need a second “save” screen (although you can if you want) and you can assign categories directly from the display list. In addition, you can have firm-wide categories, personal categories or directory-based categories. There are still some limitations (primarily that categories are not searchable) and as a practical matter you cannot assign more than about 10 categories to a given file.

However, it does offer a way of assigning a single file to multiple clients and various other supra-organizational functions. Let’s hope Worldox continues to develop it.

Access 2010 Is Broken

In the course of volunteer work for a private library, I had created a number of Access 2003 databases to help organize their collections. I created a series of popup menus to make life easier for my end users.

We wanted to upgrade the databases to Access 2010.  Guess what?  Many of the “Run” commands are now broken or won’t work in certain instances.  The pop-ups won’t work properly. There used to be a web site called “accessruncommand.com” that listed them all, but it seems to have gone away.

There is a lot of talk about workarounds, and so on. But the fact is I even went and hired a senior consultant and he couldn’t get the structure to work. Bottom line: after hours and hours we are forced to go back to Access 2003. At least it works!!!

Amicus Cloud

Gavel & Gown has just released Amicus Cloud, designed as an upgrade from Amicus Small Firm Edition.  I’ve been looking at the beta off and on for the past couple of months.

Amicus Cloud is very slick but it has some major stumbling blocks.  The good stuff first. Gavel & Gown had a brilliant idea, which no one else has ever implemented. Amicus Cloud is closely intertwined with Microsoft Exchange: in fact, you must be running Exchange in order for the email function to work. Therefore the email function – which is the operational center of many lawyers’ functioning – is directly tied into the Amicus Cloud code. This is not a “synch,” you do not have to “send” emails to the program, there is no separate button in Outlook to link to Amicus. The two are directly intertwined. Since email synch/integration tends to be one of the central issues in complaints about other programs’ functionality, this resolves that central problem.

If you are currently using Exchange, this is a no brainer. If you are using another program, Gmail or whatever, although there are ways of getting your data into Amicus Cloud, in essence you will wind up having to abandon your other program.  So this can be a bit of a two-edged sword.

The other usual modules - contacts, files, time entry, billing, etc. are very slick, big buttons and all. The program is designed (or “optimized”) for use on a mobile device, so when you log in there are big buttons informing you about appointments, email, phone messages, etc.  This leads to the second brilliant conception behind Amicus Cloud:  all your data is available on whatever device you are using:  iPad, iPhone, Android phone, Mac, tablet, normal desktop browser, you name it. There is no download or synch, your data is “just there.”  As Ron Collins would say, “phenomenal.”

But,... there are some big “buts.”  The first of course is bandwidth. One of the major drawbacks to previous cloud-based applications has been speed and response time. For any cloud app to work acceptably you have to have major bandwidth available.  And you better check the data plan on your smartphone carefully.  If you will be using a smartphone heavily, you better have a 4G connection. In addition, response time depends on the response of the bandwidth Gavel & Gown has contracted for with the Microsoft data center it is using (which should not simply be taken for granted). When I was testing (even with only a small amount of data), some days the program was very zippy, other days the program dragged and I have a lot of bandwidth in my office. In any event, you should not expect response time to consistently be equivalent to what you have with an in-house network.

Then there are some of the usual drawbacks of web-based products. There is no search function in the contact list, for example. You have to go to the first letter of the contact (after choosing to sort by first name, last name or company name) and then scroll down.  As a solo, I only have about 1200 contacts, but this can still be frustrating.

Several functions are lacking in the initial release.  There are no linked events, no precedents, no document assembly/merges and no custom fields. Many firms don’t use these functions, but for those that do they are likely to be critical.

Gavel & Gown has announced that their upgrade strategy will be very aggressive, with updates, fixes and new features every three weeks at least initially. They have assured me that fixes are “in the works.”  And in fact, there was a major issue with the formatting of contacts up to just before the formal release, but this issue has been fixed. So unless you are prepared to “limp along” for a couple of months, you might want to wait a bit.

Setup is a major issue. There is basically no import routine. Data can be imported from Outlook, but that does not help with your client list. The only import option available is from the Amicus Small Firm Edition, and you will have to pay Gavel & Gown to import your data for you. They say their charges will be “reasonable,” but it is not clear what that will wind up meaning for a firm with a lot of data.

For a more detailed review, see Legal Loudspeaker

At $34.95/user/month, Amicus Cloud is priced substantially lower than its nearest competitors (who range from $50 to $85/user/month), but you have to add the cost of Microsoft Exchange. Since many firms have this already, this is not really an issue. If the firm does not, Gavel & Gown will rent it to you for $10/user/month, which is on the high side of the going rate. It may pay to shop around (but make sure you are comparing the same things, i.e., including backup, anti-virus, anti-spam, etc.).

In short, Gavel & Gown has come up with a couple of brilliant innovations, but Amicus Cloud is still a work in progress and if you badly need one of the still-missing options, you might want to hold off for a couple of months to see how it shakes out.

3 a.m. Insight -- aka "Duuuh": Worldox and Gmail

A question that caused much pulling of hair at a client recently:  Why doesn’t Worldox pop up when downloading Gmail attachments from the web?  (Note that if you have Gmail integrated with Outlook and save the attachment from Outlook, there is no problem.) The long version is as follows. For the short version skip to the last paragraph.

The most common downloads from the web are PDF documents. These actually open in Acrobat and you do a “save as” Worldox pops up.

Otherwise, when you download something you are normally given a choice whether to open the file or save it to disk. If you choose to open the file, say in Word, the file opens and you then do a save as and Worldox pops up.

If you prompt to “Save to Disk” the document is saved directly to your designated location on your PC. Worldox does NOT pop up. The reason for this is that when Worldox intercepts a “save” or “save as” command, it is actually trying to intercept the respective dialogue box. But when you select “save to disk” you are saving to a pre-determined location and the dialogue box is bypassed, giving Worldox no opportunity to intercept anything.

If you change the download settings on your browser (Firefox or Chrome, it doesn’t seem that IE lets you do this) from save to a specific location to “ask me every time,” then this behavior changes.  If you are using Chrome (and have the new Chrome hooks installed in Worldox), when you click “download” on a Gmail attachment, Worldox DOES pop up. However, this has serious side effects. If you try, for example, to download a “custom hook” from the Worldox support site, when you click on the desired hook file to download it, Worldox pops up and then hangs. You have to log off entirely to get rid of the Worldox profile screen.

If you are using Firefox, and try to download an attachment to Gmail, you get a dialogue box entitled “Enter name of file to save to...” and Worldox does NOT pop up.

On other sites, Worldox may (or may not) pop up on download commands. If you try to download from Box.com, for example, Worldox DOES pop up. Similarly, Worldox can be made to pop up when uploading to or downloading from many Court sites. This may vary with different sites.

So the bottom line is that the most efficient and best practice when downloading Gmail attachments is to choose “open with...” and then “save as.”