Apr
27
2009
A recent post on Business Writing caught my eye. In the post, Lynn Gaertner-Johnston relates a story about her decision not to recommend a person for a consultant job because she could not find her contact information. Gaertner-Johnston explains:
But when I tried to track down Rita’s contact information to give to my client, I couldn’t find anything but a gmail address. An email Rita had sent me recently did not include her phone number, website URL, or any other contact information.
Rather than give my client Rita’s name and gmail address with no other way to contact her or check her out, I recommended another consultant.
I run into this problem all of the time. I will receive an email from someone and the email does not include any phone number or other contact information. I receive the same thing with voicemails. Someone will call and ask me to return their call. However, they either rush through their phone number, making it incomprehensible, or they don’t leave one at all.
The reality is that if I have ever had any extended communication with you, I likely have all of your contact information in my contact database, but why make me go look for. If I have two people I need to call back and one person left me their number (either in voicemail or email) and the other did not, guess who I am calling first.
As Gaertner-Johnston explains:
Here’s the moral of the story: If you want work, share your contact information. Put it on everything. Include it on every message.
Sage advice that I urge everyone to follow.
You can find me contact info here, here, or here, or by sending a text to 50500 with the message BryanSims.
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Apr
25
2009
Every so often I read something and I say to myself, I wish I had written that. I had that experience recently when I read a post on PDF for Lawyers.
In the post, Ernie explains:
Remember this joke? Guy goes into see the doctor, and the doc asks “what seems to be the problem?” The guy says “Doc, it’s my arm. It hurts when I do this.” And then the doctor says “well, then don’t DO that!”
I mention this joke because it’s basically what happens when people fail to make any attempt to set the preferences for their applications. Technology trainers are constantly hearing lawyers complain that Word wants to auto-correct certain words. In the attorneys’ view the problem is irresolvable; it’s a bug in the program that simply can’t be fixed.
He then notes:
Computers seem to make people dumb. Imagine picking anyone out of a crowd and telling them that they’d get to live in a mansion with a butler for a week. The first time the butler does something that is annoying or not to their liking, do you think they’d be at a loss as to how to fix the problem? No, they’d pipe right up and command the butler to do what they want. Even if they never had a butler before.
But these same people when they get a new program seem to think that the designers of the program have configured it just for them. And so therefore they should expect it to work perfectly in the way that’s most natural for them. If it doesn’t then they curse the program.
I run into this problem all of the time. For example, I will ask someone why they didn’t use the automatic paragraph numbering feature in Word. They’re response is typically something along the lines of “I don’t like how Word does it.”
Not liking Word’s default formating for automatically numbering paragraphs is a reasonable position to take. Rejecting automatic numbering as a result is not. If you don’t like how a program does something, change it. Don’t suffer in silence. Every program out there has some options for you to change the default settings. Most of the time you can change the program to work as you desire.
Admittedly, there are some things that you can’t change about how a program works. If that is the case, I urge you to not simply throw up your hands in frustration and curse the programmers. If there is a feature you want, or a setting you want the ability to change, you should contact the publisher of the program. I can’t guarantee that the publisher will listen to you. However, I bet that you will find that most companies are more receptive to user suggestions than you would expect. Certainly you are more likely to get your issues addressed with a smaller company rather than a large company.
However, if you have an issue with a piece of software, do not suffer in silence. If no on ever complains, chances are, the problem will never be fixed.
If you are interested in learning how to customize the features in Acrobat, check out the rest of Ernie’s post. If you want to learn how to control what your information in Word looks like, check out my series of posts on formatting in Microsoft Word. If you want to control whether a PDF opens in your web browser of Acrobat, see my post here.
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Apr
17
2009
Today I had two reviews published by the ABA’s Law Practice Management Section in their Law Practice Today webzine.
The first is a review of UltraMon, a product I have used for years. If you use multiple monitors, you definitely need to check this utility out.
The second is a review of Nitro PDF PRo. I have use this program just during the last few months. During that time, however, I have been very impressed with the options it has to handle PDFs.
Go here for further information on UltraMon and here for further information on NitroPDF Pro.
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Apr
14
2009
For the last several years, one of my favorite programs has been Network Unplugged. Not long after I started using Network Unplugged, Mobiliti, the company that made it was acquired by Packeteer. At that time, the name was changed from Network Unplugged to Mobiliti.
Regardless the program was still the same. The aspect of this program that I really loved was that it replicated the network folders I designated onto my local drive. Thus, when I was away from the office, I could still access my files. In addition to replicating the files, however, it also replicated the drive path. Thus, accessing a file when I am sitting on my back deck is the same as accessing one when I am in the office. When I return to the office, I simply synchronize the files and I am all set.
Unfortunately, last year Packeteer was acquired by Blue Coat Systems. As a consequence, Mobiliti is no longer being sold. Thus, I have started looking for a possible replacement, in the event that I will have to make a switch in the future. Right now Mobiliti is still working fine for me. However, I want to be preapred in case I develop a problem with it or if it comes time to upgrade to a new computer.
One program that I have stumbled across is BeInSync. It looks promising. However, I am curious if there is anyone who has tried it who doesn’t mind sharing their experiences. I am also open to other suggestions. The key features I am looking for are preserving the file paths and good synchronization. I am also not interested in a solution that requires me to have an internet connection.
Although I am connected to high speed internet much of the time, there are places I visit regularly where I have no reliable internet connection.
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