The Connected Lawyer

One of my favorite programs is Mobiliti which is now owned by Packeteer, Inc. When I first started using the program it was called Network Ungplugged. I actually prefer that name, because it is a great description of what it does. The program allows me to synchronize my network files to my laptop so that I can work on the files when I am away from the network. Not only is this program easy to use, but it also preserves the file paths of the files, so that working on the files on my laptop is just like working on the files on my network.

Mobiliti is a great program and one I recommend for anyone often has to work when disconnected from the network.

Recently, I had some files on our network that were deleted. I had local copies of the files on my laptop and I needed to synchronize them back to the network. The way that the synchronization is set up, if a file is deleted from either the network or the local drive, the other file is deleted upon synchronization. In this case, I did not want that to happen. Instead, I wanted certain local files to be copied back to the network.

I looked in the configuration settings and did not find a way to do that. I checked the online Knowledge Base and still found no solution. So I contacted customer support via email and got my answer. I am posting it here in case others need the info and so that I can find it again.

1. Go to File\Synchronization settings\synchronization tab and set it to fully interactive mode. Save changes by clicking OK.
2. Sync.
3. At the preview, select the file that you don’t want to be deleted from the real network. Right click and choose “Change sync action”
4. Set the sync action to the new desired action and proceed with sync.

A couple of days ago I wrote about the fact that many people still use Office 2003 and are unable to read documents created in Office 2007. The solution that I suggested was that if you are using Office 2003, you should download the compatability pack that allows you to read Office 2007 documents.

Of course, not everyone will download the compatability pack. Tom Mighell, of Inter Alia, has a different solution. He suggests using Scribed.

Tom explains:

Here’s how it works. Take your document and attach it to an email. Address it to the members of your team, and CC ipaper@scribd.com on the message. Scribd will take your document, convert it to iPaper, and send your collaborators a copy of the link to the online document. And if you haven’t viewed a document in Scribd yet, you’re missing out. Scribd supports a lot of document formats, too — in addition to all Office files (both 2003 and 2007), it will convert PDF, PS, .TXT, .RTF, and open document formats.

The great thing about Tom’s solution is that you are simply adding an additional email address to your message. You do not have to take the time to manually upload the file a to a service such as Scribed or Google Docs.

As always, when using a service such as this, you must be cognizant of their terms of use to make sure that you are not disclosing confidential information to third parties. However, this is a great simple solution for sharing documents with others without worrying about what software program your recipient is using.

For years, I have done the majority of my research online. Until a couple of years ago, I would identify the cases that helped me, email those cases to myself, print them out, and then highlight/take notes on the hard copy. A couple of years ago, I realized that it made no sense for me to keep all of my documents electronically, but keep my research in hard copy.

After coming to this realization, I switched to printing my cases to PDF and then commenting and highlighting the cases in Adobe Acrobat. If I have a big project, however, I can end up with several cases to print to PDF. This can be a time consuming task if it is done one case at a time.

Using Adobe Acroabt 8 Professional (no, I do not yet have 9), I can take advantage of the Batch Processing feature. I simple select Advanced > Document Processing > Save as PDF. I then identify the files that I want converted to PDF. Acrobat will open the files and convert them to PDf for me.

Last week I had about a dozen cases to convert to PDF. I simply started the batch processing and ran out to grab some lunch. When I returned, all of the work had been done and the files had all been saved as PDFs.

When I got my new computer recently, it came with Office 2007. It took me a while to get used to 2007. The reality is that I was perfectly happy with Office 2003 and I felt no overwhelming reason to change. Since getting Office 2007, I have realized that many other share my opinion in this. It seems that relatively few people have moved to Office 2007.

The problem is that Microsoft changed the file format in Office 2007, and users of Office 2003 cannot read files created in Office 2007. Fortunately, there is an easy and free fix for this. Unfortunately, it seems as though very few people know about this fix.

Simply go here and download the compatibility pack. After you install this, you will be able to work with Office 2007, even though you still use only Office 2003.

It is no secret that  Adobe Acrobat is one of my favorite programs. I am excited about the launch of version 9 and am curious about what new features that Adobe has added to make Acrobat even better for lawyers.

Fortunately, Adobe appears to want to answer that question. Rick Borstein has announced on his blog that he will be free 1 hour eseminars where he’ll “show off the latest legal-specific features of Adobe Acrobat 9.”

Rick says that during the seminar, you will

• Find out which features are in which version of Acrobat
• Learn how to create a PDF Portfolio for a Closing Binder
• Discover the new and powerful Document Comparison tool to help you spot changes fast
• See how to accelerate Redaction workflows with pattern-based search
• Split documents for electronic filing workflows
• See new, easier-to-user forms creation and data collection tools
• Use enhanced Bates Numbering to help you manage your case
• Take advantage of new ClearScan OCR
• Export PDFs for re-editing in a word processing program

Right now he has three different seminars scheduled. I am getting ready to sign up now. If you are at all interested, simply click here to go to Rick’s blog and sign up.

A couple of months ago, Matt Homan recommended PicLens for anyone who “EVER view photos or other images in the web.” At the time, I thought the suggestion was interesting, but I did nothing other than bookmark Matt’s post and the PicLens site.

Recently I was using Flickr and was again frustrated at how awful their browsing ability is. After getting frustrated, I remembered PicLens and quickly installed the software in my browser. After using it for just a few seconds, I was hooked.

PicLens allows you to create full screen immersive views of pictures on a variety of websites, including Flickr, Google Images, MySpace, Facebook, and others.

It is a great program and it is easy to use. I recommend you try it out.

Recently I had a self imposed (or maybe a wife imposed) moratorium on purchasing new software. Some days I think I like to collect software as much as I do other gadgets. To that end, I download a lot of free trial software, play with it for a while, and then discard it when the trial period expires.

A little more than 60 days ago, I decided to download a free trial of ActiveWords, which was developed by Buzz Bruggeman. The principal behind ActiveWords is simple. You type in a few letters or a word and ActiveWords replaces what you typed either with other text, or by navigating to a website, or by launching a program, or by performing a set of actions.

I have heard of ActiveWords for years, but I had never tried it before, figuring that I don’t really do that many things that it would be useful for. Oh how I was wrong.

When I downloaded it, it took me a while to get things started. I quickly realized, however, that this program was designed for me. I am a minimalist when it comes to my desktop, my menus and my quick launch bar. I keep very few icons on my desktop and only my used programs on my quick launch bar. Additionally, I keep my menu very organized with folders and subfolders. This means that for programs I have to navigate through several submenus to launch a program I use infrequently.

With ActiveWords, however, I simply assign an active word to the program. So, for example, when I type CM, ActiveWords launches CaseMap for me. If I type GM, ActiveWords launches Firefox and navigates to my GMail account. Similarly, Lit, navigates to my Litigation folder in My Computer.

The program is easy to use. Adding new active words is easy and takes only a few seconds. Another great feature is that you can assign as many different words to perform the same function. For example, with the My Documents folder, depending on the day, I may think of it as mydocuments, docs, or mydocs. With ActiveWords I can associate each of these with the action of opening the My Documents folder. Thus, regardless of which word I type, the My Documents folder opens.

In a very sneaky move, ActiveWords gives you a 60 day free trial of the program. This means that it gives you plenty of time to learn to use the program and get hooked on it. Once you start using ActiveWords, my guess is that you will not give it up easily. On day 61 I tried to perform an ActiveWords function and it did not work. After checking a few things, quickly realized that my free trial had expired. I briefly considered bravely computing without ActiveWords. After about 15 seconds, I had shelved that idea and was on ActiveWords’ website buying a copy of the program.

Download this program and give it a whirl. If you start using, you will wonder how you lived without it. On day 61, I predict that you too will be taking Buzz’s name in vain and pulling out your credit card.

One of the goals I have with this blog is to discuss the ways in which we can leverage technology to practice law more effectively. I know of no other utility that allows you to do this more efficiently and effectively than ActiveWords.

Update: I wanted to add a couple of updates to this post. First, as alluded to in the comments below, ActiveWords installs a monitor bar that stretches across the top of you monitor. This bar allows easy access to ActiveWords and its features. It also shows when you are entering an active word. Personally, I hate when programs install monitor bars like this. I want to control my own desktop. Fortunately, the monitor bar is easily disabled. Had I not been able to disable the monitor bar, I would have uninstalled the program.

Second, I do have one minor quibble with the program that I forgot to mention. When you are adding a command to navigate to a website or to open a particular folder, ActiveWords has a “Use Current” button that allows you to designate the open folder or website as the location to navigate to. My problem is that I use Firefox for web browsing and the Use Current button does not pull the address from the Firefox window.

Update #2: The scripts that Buzz refers to below (that would not show up in the comments) are:

To add an internet site:

<alt>d</alt><ctrl>c</ctrl><ADD WIZARD:INTERNET><wait for window:title=Add New ActiveWord><ctrl>v</ctrl><tab><alt>n</alt>

To toggle the Monitor Bar:

<HIDE SHOW AWMONITOR>

Thanks to Buzz for sharing these.

I am using Adobe Acrobat Pro 8 and Mobiliti Basic 7.1. I presume that most people are familiar with Acrobat. Mobiliti is a program that creates a virtual network on your laptop that allows you to access designated folders when you are disconnected from your network. I love this program. It allows me to keep my files synchronized. Plus, it preserves all of my file paths. I recommend it to anyone who uses a laptop.

I have a problem that has been vexing me for a while, however. When I am disconnected from the network and running on the virtual network, Acrobat operates very slowly when trying to access the virtual network (either to save or open a file within Acrobat). When I click on a folder on the virtual network, it takes about 20 seconds for Acrobat to open that folder (yes, I counted).

This can become very frustrating quite quickly.

Has anyone else encountered this problem?

Does anyone have any suggestions?

I love tips that help us use MS Word more effectively. Nerino Petro at Compujurist has a great little post detailing how to take the last bit of text that appears by itself on the last page and squeeze it into the previous page. Not only does Nerino share this tip, but he also tells us how to do it in both Word 2003 and Word 2007.

I would note that you should be wary of trying this on briefs that are filed with courts that enforce strict page limits and font sizes. Word adjusts the font sizes to repaginate the document.

If you need to solve this problem, jump over to the post and see the details. I will give you a hint. The Print Preview feature plays an important role.

I have written before that TinyURL Creator is one of my favorite Firefox extensions. That is no more. I have a new favorite: Shrinkify. Both of these extensions do the same thing. Namely, they take a really long web address and convert it into something that is short and easily used.

For example, if you search for Shrinkify on Google, the search results web address is: http://www.google.com/search?q=shrinkify&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

That same address shrinkified is http://shrinkify.com/837. Similarly, the same address in a TinyURL is http://tinyurl.com/6ao2m4.

Given that both of these do the same thing and both are accessed in the same manner (right click on the web page), one may wonder why I prefer Shrinkify over TinyURL Creator. That answer is simple. When I shrinkify a web address, I temporarily get a black band across the top of my screen telling me what the URL is. When I use TinyURL Creator, I get a box that tells me the URL. With TinyURL Creator, however, I have to click the box closed to make it go away. With Shrinkify, the information goes away automatically. Thus, Shrinkify saves me an entirely unnecessary mouse click.

If you aren’t using anything to shrink your URLs, I encourage you to try one or both of these services. Both work fine and will make your URL life much more simple.