TechnoLawyer: Business Productivity/Word Processing

Coming February 17, 2006 to Fat Friday: Mark Klarich discusses his take on our long-running series about the legal technology industry, Ronald Burdge and Douglas Thomas review their experiences using Amicus Attorney, Jim Calloway reviews WordPerfect 12, and Andrew Simpson responds to criticism of the Time Matters AIC listserver. Don't miss this issue.

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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 February 9, 2006 to Answers to Questions: Business Development Manger for Adobe Legal Rick Borstein offers up redaction solutions using Acrobat, David Wolowitz reviews CaseMap and TimeMap, George Tanguay reviews CaseMap and CaseLogistix, Christopher Palestro reviews GoToMyPC and Windows Remote Desktop, and Larry Vollintine provides step-by-step instructions for synchronizing Outlook 2002 with Outlook 2003. In addition, this issue features links to 16 additional Posts in the TechnoLawyer Archive. Don't miss this issue.

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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.

Elise Nolan, Review: Microsoft's Redaction Tool for Word (Plus PDF Resource)

TechnoLawyer member Barbara A. DiFranza asks:
"I scanned documents for client A in Adobe 7 as a graphic. A few years later, these documents became of interest to client B's counsel and I sent them to her after redacting Client A's name. I used a text box and made A's name and identifying information totally black and opaque. I then put a security setting on the document so that it could not be changed. I e-mailed it to Counsel for B thinking I had whipped the problem. Alas, Counsel B was able to print the document free of my little black boxes because, under the "Comments and Forms" drop down menu in the Print Dialog box, she simply chose "Document" as opposed to "Documents and Markups." Luckily, Counsel B manually redacted the documents before making use of them.

"I've searched the Adobe manual and Carl Young's Adobe Acrobat 6.0 for a solution. Unfortunately, I cannot find a solution. I was unable to mark up a document in Adobe and print to Adobe in order to eliminate the underlying document. If any of you has a solution short of printing, manually blacking out and re-scanning, I will be most appreciative."

My firm has recently begun using Microsoft's free redaction tool for Word. It's extremely easy to use and you can either print to .pdf or save your document as a protected file so that the redactions cannot be removed. The add-in can be downloaded here.

I don't have experience with redacting documents that are already in .pdf form, but you could try some of the suggestions in this article from Planet PDF.

E. Nolan
Cohen & Grigsby, P.C.

About Answers to Questions
Posts like the one above appear exclusively in Answers to Questions, 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. You can subscribe here.

Coming February 2, 2006 to Answers to Questions: John Starkweather reviews Client Profiles, Jeff Lisson reviews CaseMap and how it differs from Summation, Jeffrey Franklin offers up redaction plugin resources for Acrobat and Word, Jennifer Little explains how to transfer Outlook to a new PC, and Bruce Brightwell reviews his upgrade to Time Matters 7.0. In addition, this issue features links to 17 additional Posts in the TechnoLawyer Archive. 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.

In our January 9, 2006 TechnoPoll, we asked you: In your opinion, what is Google's weakest offshoot service?

The results are in, and the loser is ... Froogle, Google's shopping and price comparison search tool. Froogle garnered 22% of the votes. A number of other services also received a fair number of votes, including Orkut (14.5%), Google Talk (9.7%), and Picasa (8.1%).

I voted for Google Local Search, which received 6.5% of the vote. I used to like Google Local Search until Google enlarged the map it places on every page. Now I much prefer Yahoo! Local Search, which provides more space for the listings and loads faster. Plus, Yahoo! Local Search has never let me down — it has helped me with everything from finding a good car service to the airport to finding a parking garage near the location of our recent BlawgWorld launch party.

Take a look at the results.

About TechnoEditorials
A TechnoEditorial is the vehicle through which we opine and provide tips of interest to managing partners, law firm administrators, and others in the legal profession. TechnoEditorials appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.

Coming January 26, 2006 to Answers to Questions: Nancy Merreot reviews how her firm uses CaseMap and Summation together, Steve Scott offers some advice for using old macros with new versions of WordPerfect, Charles Tievsky takes you step by step through his thorough backup routine, Rick Borstein of Adobe explains how to save time when creating PDF files, and Ian Kirby reviews a cheaper alternative to Acrobat that may have better redaction capabilities. In addition, this issue features links to 18 additional Posts in the TechnoLawyer Archive. 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 January 20, 2006 to Fat Friday: Gregory Deatz reviews OpenOffice in a law firm setting, Mark Sullivan reviews his experience with OnlyMyEmail, spam filtering service, Todd Hill takes a stab at explaining why legal vendors don't provide executive bios on their Web sites, Don Springmeyer provides links to a plethora of calendaring programs for the law office, and Ruth Curcuru shares her list of five essential Web sites. 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 January 19, 2006 to Answers to Questions: Glenn Curran explains how to easily archive and search all Outlook e-mail related to a matter, David Hudgens reviews the Panasonic KXTG4000B phone system, Raymond Fivecoat reviews his past six years using Time & Chaos, Rhys Kidd provides step by step instructions for customizing Outlook's AutoArchive feature, and Jeanne Wilson explains how to convert WordPerfect 9 macros to version 12. In addition, this issue features links to 16 additional Posts in the TechnoLawyer Archive. 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.

Google's Web search is best of breed. But it hasn't hit a homerun with every service. In your opinion, what is Google's weakest offshoot service?

Take our TechnoPoll.

In today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire, tech expert Jill Bauerle covered a free, Web-based application that enables you to collaboratively draft, edit, and compare documents, an online store (not iTunes) that sells iPod-ready videos, and a versatile iPod car connector. Don't miss the next issue.

Below you'll find one of the three articles from today's edition:

Getting it Write (Free Document Comparison Tool)
By Jill Bauerle
Sometimes hitting "Save" after editing a document is the most destructive thing you can do to your work. We've all had bad writing days, but that doesn't mean you can't salvage older versions of a file, even without document comparison software. Using Writeboard, a Web-based, document revision tool, every word you've ever deleted or changed is saved and at your disposal. Perfect for collaborating on contract clauses or editing a blog post, memo, or letter, Writeboard is easy to use and, best of all, free courtesy of 37 Signals, creators of other Web-based tools (some free, some not). After signing up, your browser takes you to a clean page. Once you compose and save a document, send it to others or, if you're working solo, leave it until your next draft. You can use a simple set of codes for bold, italics, underlining, and even adding hyperlinks. Edited versions of your Writeboard save as a list of separate links on a sidebar of the home page. Invite as many people as you'd like to collaborate. Once multiple versions exist, labeled with  the name of the editor, time and date, a special function enables you to compare them side by side. In this view, WriteBoard shows you changes in gray, additions in green, and deletions using strike-throughs. Each Writeboard has its own URL for quick access from any computer. Other functions include an RSS subscription for notification each time the document changes, a "Comments" section at the bottom of the page for users to post notes, an "Export as Text" button for saving back to your hard drive, a "Send as E-Mail' Button, and a "Delete Writeboard" button when the last edits have occurred and you've breathed a sigh of relief. Learn more about Writeboard.

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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.