TechnoLawyer: Business Productivity/Word Processing

Coming July 4, 2008 to Answers to Questions: Carol Bratt, Pam Rolph, James Sayre, Thomas Stirewalt, and Cynthia Zook share their favorite methods for copying and pasting between Word and WordPerfect without any unwanted formatting, including macros, toolbar buttons, third party utilities, and more. Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published Thursdays, Answers to Questions is a weekly newsletter in which TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers (including you if you join TechnoLawyer). Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Coming June 30, 2008 to Answers to Questions: Paul Easton reviews PaperPort and Nuance's technical support (plus shares his thoughts on paid support in general), and Philip Franckel reviews Canon's ScanFront 220P and LexisNexis CaseMap. Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published Thursdays, Answers to Questions is a weekly newsletter in which TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers (including you if you join TechnoLawyer). Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire covers redaction software (see article below), an online backup and file sharing service, and an online conference call service. Don't miss the next issue.

For Your Eyes Only
By Peter R. Olson

From the Bay of Pigs to Watergate to Valerie Plame, we've always had a fascination with our nation's clandestine service. But if you've ever bothered to make a FOIA request, you'll often find page after page of supposedly declassified information redacted. Annoying. But certainly understandable since you often use this same tool in your own practice to protect confidential client information — but hopefully not with white tape.

Redact-It Desktop 1.0 from Informative Graphics provides a number of automated redaction tools designed for computer files. You can use Redact-It Desktop to remove sensitive contents from briefs, exhibits, and more before sharing them with courts, government agencies, or another party.

Redact-It Desktop includes predefined macros that automatically redact names, social security and credit card numbers, and other such items. You can also create customized macros to search for and redact words, phrases, and images. You can review recommended redactions, modify them if necessary, and produce a new redacted file for distribution.

To further simplify the redaction process, Redact-It Desktop includes easy-to-use pop-up lists to select standard search items. Redact-It Desktop highlights the terms you want to redact for easy review. Best of all, it does not alter your original file. Redact-It Desktop can add Bates stamps and watermarks too.

In addition to redacting documents, Redact-It Desktop also removes metadata (hidden information such as authors and revisions). Redact-It Desktop outputs your redacted document in PDF or TIFF format, or in Informative Graphics' Content Sealed Format (CSF), which provides additional security as they cannot be altered. Recipients can download the free Brava viewer to open CSF files.

Informative Graphics offers a free trial version of Redact-It Desktop. Pricing starts at $195 for a single-user license. Learn more about Redact-It Desktop.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Wednesdays, TechnoLawyer NewsWire is a weekly newsletter that enables you to learn about new technology products and services of interest to legal professionals. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Coming June 26, 2008 to Answers to Questions: Michael Schley reviews ISYS:desktop 8 compares it to free desktop search programs, Douglas Folk explains why you may not want to switch to Mac and he reviews Trend Micro OfficeScan, Wayne Grant reviews Topdeq's GO-2 desk, Phyllis Dubrow reviews PureText, and Harold Lloyd reviews Nuance products PaperPort, OmniPage, and Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published Thursdays, Answers to Questions is a weekly newsletter in which TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers (including you if you join TechnoLawyer). Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Coming June 27, 2008 to Fat Friday: Martin Dean responds to Ross Kodner's recent TechnoGuide Post about email confidentiality, Carol Bratt provides some line and page numbering tips for Word and has a few words about so-called power users who are anything but, Philip Franckel provides two Yellow Pages advertising tips, Dwight Corrin suggests three more rules for modern day email etiquette (and we join the debate with tips of our own), and Fredric Gruder draws from 30 years legal experience to offer insight into why general counsel don't hire small firms. Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Fridays, Fat Friday is a weekly newsletter that features a grab bag full of genuinely useful product reviews and tips on a wide variety of topics. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Coming June 20, 2008 to Fat Friday: Charles Stokes explains why his law firm remains a Dell customer, Tom Trottier reviews the Treo 680 and lists his favorite Treo apps, Kerry Hubick shares a tip about about line numbering in Microsoft Word, Thomas RuBane reviews Apple's Spaces (and we debate the use of virtual desktops versus multiple monitors), and Mark Adams reviews pdfDocs Desktop, including concrete examples of how it can solve ten common problems. Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Fridays, Fat Friday is a weekly newsletter that features a grab bag full of genuinely useful product reviews and tips on a wide variety of topics. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Coming June 19, 2008 to Answers to Questions: G. Blair McCune reviews Dragon NaturallySpeaking Preferred and Professional (and explains the difference between the two), Edward Zohn explains how he uses QuickBooks to handle trust accounts (without setting up a separate set of books), Peter Pike reviews OmniPage Pro for OCR and its Word/WordPerfect integration, Ed Walters shares his favorite way to copy and paste from Word to WordPerfect, and Brent Blanchard discusses legal research pricing and adhesion contracts. Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published Thursdays, Answers to Questions is a weekly newsletter in which TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers (including you if you join TechnoLawyer). Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Coming June 13, 2008 to Fat Friday: John Pierce explains how his mail server setup takes the hassle out of email, Carlton Barnes reviews SafeCopy 2.1 mobile edition, Steven Schwaber compares Word and WordPerfect and explains why he wants a word processor not artificial intelligence, Terry Flanagan suggests an alternative venue for LegalTech, and Brent Blanchard writes in questioning how TechnoLawyer handled a recent Post about a member's trouble with her Palm Treo (and we provide a clarification). Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Fridays, Fat Friday is a weekly newsletter that features a grab bag full of genuinely useful product reviews and tips on a wide variety of topics. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Coming June 12, 2008 to Answers to Questions: Robert Rice reviews Amicus Attorney's conflicts checking abilities, Philip Franckel shares his thoughts on adhesion contracts and reviews Loislaw, Robert Fleming discusses Time Matters' stability, 30-year word processing veteran Stephen Silverberg compares Word to WordPerfect, and Deb Hoffmann reviews Google's Grand Central. Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published Thursdays, Answers to Questions is a weekly newsletter in which TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers (including you if you join TechnoLawyer). Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire covers legal forms that come bundled with automation software (see article below), contact and project management software for Mac users, and a Web application for managing your eDiscovery workflow, including legal holds. Don't miss the next issue.

Smart Legal Forms
By Peter R. Olson

Law students daydream about writing perfect legal documents. But real lawyers don't have time to daydream, and their clients don't want them to reinvent the wheel. Thus, while a law student may fret over some inconsequential detail, lawyers just want to know — Who's got the best legal form?

Masterform offers customizable legal forms for lawyers that come embedded in a document automation program that looks like a word processor. The automation features help you transform Masterform's document into your client's document. Plus, you need to make your changes only once and the form does the rest.

Masterform's documents provide standard word processing tools, but the automation tools make the documents much more flexible. For example, the forms contain blue hypertext links in nearly every paragraph. When you click, a pop-up window appears from which you can select options such as paragraph numbering or a particular clause. Click on green hypertext links for pop-up "information windows" with hints and legal references.

Masterform legal forms also save you time by automatically renumbering paragraphs, changing clause references throughout the form, inserting data such as your client's name, and matching all gender-specific words. When you're done modifying your legal form, a single click removes the embedded hyperlinks to save or print a clean, professional-looking document. You can save it in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF format, or leave it in Masterform.

Masterform currently offers the following forms: Distribution Agreement, Consulting or Services Agreements, Employee Non-Disclosure and Non-Compete, Employment Agreement, Equipment Purchase Agreement, Non-Disclosure Agreements, Web Site Development Agreement, and Work Order Agreement.

Masterform's legal forms are free for three months. After this free trial period ends, you can purchase a registration key for unlimited use for $95 per form. Learn more about Masterform.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Wednesdays, TechnoLawyer NewsWire is a weekly newsletter that enables you to learn about new technology products and services of interest to legal professionals. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.