TechnoLawyer Blog

Today's issue of TL Answers contains these articles:

Allison Shields, Tip: How to Save and Insert Frequently-Used Text in Outlook Messages

Tom Raftery, How I Use Three Monitors in My Law Practice

Sarah Middleton, One Key Advantage of a Document Management System

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.

Coming today to BlawgWorld: Our editorial team has selected and linked to 101 articles from the past week worthy of your attention. Below you'll find a sample article from each section of today's issue, including our BlawgWorld Pick of the Week.

Review of Symphony for Scanning Documents Into Worldox

Your Law Firm: There's an App for That

Lessons for Small Law Firms From the Dewey Collapse

New Book by SmallLaw Columnist Oginski on Video Marketing

Congratulations to Jeff Richardson of iPhone J.D. on winning our BlawgWorld Pick of the Week award: Review of Lawyers's New iPad-Only Ebook on Going Paperless

Today's issue also contains links to every article in the May 2012 issue of Law Practice Today. Don't miss today's issue or any future issues of BlawgWorld.

How to Receive BlawgWorld
Our newsletters provide the most comprehensive coverage of legal technology, practice management, and law firm marketing, but not the only coverage. BlawgWorld enables you to stay on top of all the noteworthy articles (and podcasts) published online without having to hire a research assistant. Even when you're busy, you won't want to miss each issue's Pick of the Week. The BlawgWorld newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of Fat Friday contains these articles:

Mark Olberding, Why Lawyers Should Not Park Their Data in Google Drive

Andrew Weltchek, Review of SpiderOak (Including iPad Integration)

James Sayre, More Tips on How to Stop Advertisements From Following You

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How to Receive Fat Friday
Our most serendipitous offering, Fat Friday consists of unsolicited contributions by TechnoLawyer members. You'll no doubt enjoy it because of its mix of interesting topics and genuinely useful knowledge, including brutally honest product reviews and informative how-tos. The Fat Friday newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of TL Answers contains these articles:

Ben Schorr, Everything You Need to Know About Microsoft Hosted Exchange

Steven Silberman, Tips for Using WordPerfect With Two Monitors

Tobias Crush, Tip: iPhone Wired Tethering (Hotspot)

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.

Today's issue of TL NewsWire covers a Microsoft Word add-on for creating ebriefs (see article below), a portable monitor, a freeform personal information manager, an iPad note-taking app with illustration tools, and an iPad app for accessing Microsoft SharePoint. Don't miss the next issue.

Has the Golden Age of Ebriefs Arrived?

In 2005, we published an article about ebriefs, including how to create them using PDF software. By now, you would think all litigators would create ebriefs given their advantages, especially for the one-click access to corresponding cases, exhibits, testimony, etc. But ebriefs never took off because they're difficult to create, and even more difficult if not impossible to edit. But the advantages remain undeniable — more so than in 2005 given the increasing number of courts that require efiling and the number of judges who use computers. We recently learned about a new product that aims to make ebrief creation much easier.

efileinteractive … in One Sentence
XLR8R Studios' efileinteractive is a Microsoft Word add-on that enables you to create ebriefs and other legal documents in PDF format with hyperlinked embedded documents.

The Killer Feature
Traditionally, you create ebriefs using PDF software, which presents two problems. First, many PDF programs lack feature-rich tools for hyperlinking. Second, it's not easy to edit a PDF file so if you need to make a significant change to your brief you could find yourself back at square one, having to create the ebrief from scratch again.

efileinteractive addresses both problems by enabling you to create your ebrief in Microsoft Word much as you create your table of authorities in Microsoft Word.

efileinteractive resides in Microsoft Word's ribbon (toolbar in earlier versions). Creating each hyperlink involves three steps — select the text you want to link, select the corresponding file, and confirm.

When you finish creating hyperlinks, one click creates a PDF ebrief containing all the live hyperlinks and corresponding documents. If you need to make changes to your brief, you can create a new ebrief without having to recreate all the existing hyperlinks.

Other Notable Features
Some law firms create ebriefs by outsourcing them, which can save time but cost hundreds or thousands of dollars. By contrast, efileinteractive costs $25 per ebrief. The software itself is free. You can purchase credits in advance so that you don't have to worry about paying when you're facing a deadline.

"efileinteractive finally makes interactive motions and briefs easy to assemble and cost effective," XLR8R Studios CEO Tim Robinson told us. The value of giving the judge instant access to your cases and evidence far exceeds the $25 charge for using the software."

What Else Should You Know?
You can password protect your ebriefs if you want. efileinteractive works with Microsoft Word 2003 and later. You can try it free for 30 days. If you don't want to create your own ebriefs, XLR8R Studios can create them for you through its e-Brief Assembly Service. Learn more about efileinteractive.

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 LitigationWorld: Our editorial team has selected and linked to 75 articles from the past two weeks worthy of your attention. Below you'll find a sample article from each section of today's issue, including our LitigationWorld Pick of the Week.

iPad Use on the Bench

How to Write an Unboring Letter to Opposing Counsel

Book Review: Digital Forensics for Legal Professionals

The Supreme Court's Latest Look at Personal Jurisdiction

Congratulations to John Edwards of Law Technology News on winning our LitigationWorld Pick of the Week award: Tools for Spicing Up Your PowerPoint Trial Presentations

How to Receive LitigationWorld
All practice areas evolve, but none faster than litigation. Written by successful litigators and other litigation experts, LitigationWorld provides you with practical tips related to electronic discovery, depositions, litigation strategy, litigation technology, and trial presentations. You'll also receive in-depth litigation product reviews as well as links to the most noteworthy articles in other online litigation publications so that you'll never miss anything. The LitigationWorld newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Coming today to BlawgWorld: Our editorial team has selected and linked to 113 articles from the past week worthy of your attention. Below you'll find a sample article from each section of today's issue, including our BlawgWorld Pick of the Week.

PDF Software Designed for Legal Professionals

Law Grad Ditches Legal Career to Develop Mobile Legal Apps

Ethical Issues and Alternative Fee Arrangements

Attracting Profitable Clients In A Post Recession Market

Congratulations to Lauren Goode of All Things D on winning our BlawgWorld Pick of the Week award: Reviews of Three Ultraportable Scanners

How to Receive BlawgWorld
Our newsletters provide the most comprehensive coverage of legal technology, practice management, and law firm marketing, but not the only coverage. BlawgWorld enables you to stay on top of all the noteworthy articles (and podcasts) published online without having to hire a research assistant. Even when you're busy, you won't want to miss each issue's Pick of the Week. The BlawgWorld newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Originally published in our free TL NewsWire newsletter. Instead of reading TL NewsWire here, sign up now to receive future issues via email.

Create Legal Documents Without Excel or a Calculator

When ATMs started accepting deposits, it freed law firms and small businesses from having to rush to the bank. But the experience wasn't 100% automated because you had to place your checks into an envelope, stick the envelope into the machine, and hope for the best. Nowadays, ATMs scan your checks and print the images on your receipt. Full automation plus peace of mind. Document assembly programs suffer from a similar problem. They can automate the entry of variable words and clauses into your documents, but they can't crunch numbers. A new product aims to make document assembly fully automated.

TheFormTool PRO 2.0 … in One Sentence
Your Dollar Matters' TheFormTool PRO 2.0 automates the creation of legal documents in Microsoft Word, including math calculations.

The Killer Feature
A growing number of enterprising law firms use document assembly software to create complex legal documents quickly so they can charge clients a flat fee yet still earn more than if they charged an hourly fee.

However, many documents require math calculations that document assembly programs can't handle, forcing you to switch back into manual mode to use Microsoft Excel or a calculator. This slows you down, reducing your profit per document. It's also error-prone.

TheFormTool PRO 2.0's new math functions enable you to automate both the words and the math all in the same document template.

"Cutting and pasting numbers from a spreadsheet into a contract, or worse, from scratch paper, is fraught with risk," TheFormTool's creator Scott Campbell told us. "Including the variables and the computations within the document they support is a best practice. Any other approach is just an invitation for trouble."

Other Notable Features
TheFormTool PRO 2.0 offers five types of math functions -- finance, basic, descriptive, logical, and time.

The PMT finance function can determine periodic payments for a wide range of common documents such as alimony, promissory notes, real estate transactions, and settlement agreements to name a few.

Basic math functions include Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, and Division. Thanks to the ability to nest these functions, you can perform complex calculations in your documents. For example, in a trust or will you could calculate distributions depending on variable factors at the time of death such as the number of beneficiaries and/or their ages. Corporate lawyers can use these functions to determine the voting rights of each shareholder in a company.

Descriptive math functions include Integer, Round, Absolute, Logarithm, Remainder, Exponentiation, Root, and Constant. Patent lawyers often need these functions in scientific patents. Also, environmental lawyers use them in assessments.

Logical functions include List, Sum, Max, Min, Multiply, Item, and Count. These functions often play a role in SEC filings, wills and trusts (oldest/youngest), real estate transactions (maximum/minimum value), and inventory agreements.

Finally, the time functions such as Now, Days, First Date, Last Date, Months, Years, and Fixed and Variable Offsets play a role in transactions (e.g., amortization), employment agreements, wills and trusts, etc.

What Else Should You Know?
TheFormTool PRO 2.0 costs $89. It works with Microsoft Word on Windows PCs. Learn more about TheFormTool PRO 2.0.

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.

Today's issue of TL Answers contains these articles:

Elizabeth Gauthier, Advice On Software Upgrades For Law Firms

Fred Hopengarten, A Suggested Tweak To Renfrew's Document Naming Advice

Richard Schafer, Review Of DisplayFusion For Multiple Monitors

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 in our free TL NewsWire newsletter. Instead of reading TL NewsWire here, sign up now to receive future issues via email.

Meetings Meet Productivity

Many lawyers find meetings unproductive and dread them as a necessary evil. You could fill a bookshelf or three with books written about how to improve meetings. Advice ranges from removing chairs from conference rooms to assigning a meeting leader to keep people from veering off track. These methods haven't resulted in any major breakthroughs so perhaps we should outsource this challenge to technology as we have with so many others. What if a technology could automate meeting best practices to ensure the optimal use of your valuable time? One company recently unveiled such a solution.

Lucid Meetings … in One Sentence
Lucid Meetings is an online meeting service with built-in productivity tools.

The Killer Feature
Unlike typical online meeting services, Lucid Meetings offers permanent meeting rooms and has baked a number of productivity tools into its service. For example, Lucid Meetings includes a realtime, multi-user note-taking tool. Thus, instead of one designated person hopefully taking notes during the meeting, you can see the notes being taken as the meeting progresses. If you see an omission, you can jump in and add the missing item.

Notes remain connected to the meeting room so that you can add to and search them in future meetings. You can export the notes at anytime in HTML or Word format for distribution. In addition to these group meetings, you can also have your own private room in which you keep confidential notes.

The note-taking tool is not just a word processor. You can create action items and highlight decisions within notes. The Smart Lists feature enables you to quickly find and view all action items and decisions from all meetings to date, and update them as needed. You can even create meeting minutes that automatically list everyone in attendance.

Other Notable Features
When you schedule meetings, you can send participants an email invitation that enables them to add the meeting to their calendar. You can also create an agenda listing the topics, presenters, and their allotted time (the company provides several Agenda templates so you need not start from scratch). Agendas can contain attachments such as documents to discuss during the meeting. Your dashboard enables you to track who can and cannot attend.

Lucid Meetings works in all major web browsers. It doesn't require any plug-ins such as Flash or Java. During a meeting, you can display a document or your screen for a presentation. You can also give this ability to other attendees. The Transcript tool can record your meetings at your option. There's also an accompanying conference call service, including the option to offer a toll-free number and record the meeting.

Seemingly designed specifically for lawyers, Lucid Meetings displays the elapsed time. It can even display the elapsed time for each presenter to keep your agenda on track.

Privacy settings enable you to share a meeting room and its notes, recordings, etc. with only those who attended or with others such as colleagues and clients connected to the matter discussed.

What Else Should You Know?
Lucid Meetings prices its service based on the number of rooms you need. Plans include Individual (one room; $24.95 per month), Small (10 rooms; $199 per month), and Medium (25 rooms, $399 per month). If you need more rooms, Lucid Meetings can create an Enterprise plan for your firm. Learn more about Lucid Meetings.

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.