TechnoLawyer

Yesterday, longtime fans of our TechnoLawyer NewsWire newsletter witnessed a changing of the guard. For the uninitiated, this newsletter covers new technology products and services of interest to lawyers. You can subscribe here.

In December 2004, after 4.5 years as the author of TechnoLawyer NewsWire, Jennifer Pascoe relinquished her byline to apply to medical school. Over the years, Jennifer built up quite a fanbase among TechnoLawyer members, many of whom would probably be surprised to learn that Jennifer began writing TechnoLawyer NewsWire just one month after graduating from college. Not only is she not a lawyer, but she is not even a legal technologist. But Jennifer is a quick study and very smart, which explains why she did such a great job.

In January, we held a writing competition for those interested in taking over the byline. In the interim, I wrote two issues of the newsletter. Yesterday, we unveiled the winner — Brett Burney. Brett serves as the Legal Practice Support Supervisor at Thompson Hine LLP in Cleveland, Ohio. He also writes for Law Office Computing, LLRX.com, and Cleveland's local newspaper, The Plain Dealer. Additionally, Brett serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of Law Technology News. Welcome to TechnoLawyer, Brett!

With all the Firefox reviews and tips in recent editions of our Topical Compilation newsletter, I thought it worth pointing out that PC Magazine has published a helpful article entitled Top 15 Firefox Extensions.  Caveat — many of the utilities reviewed are still in beta release. FoxyTunes 1.1 gets my vote as the most intriguing — it permits you to control iTunes or other music software from within Firefox.

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.

Below you'll find one of the five articles from today's edition of TechnoLawyer NewsWire:

Pathbreaking Document Assembly Tool Turns 10
By Brett Burney
If people reach their peak physical condition at age 21, what about software? If you ask the folks at Innovative Software Products of Virginia, they would probably tell you that it takes 10 versions. Why? Because the company's flagship product, Pathagoras, has just turned 10. Pathagoras continues to offer two tools in one — a document management utility that facilitates filing and retrieving documents, and a document assembly utility that works within Microsoft Word. Version 10 contains two major new features — Instant Glossaries and DropDown Lists. Instant Glossaries enable you to quickly disassemble a complete document into its component clauses so that you can easily recreate similar documents in the future. This feature dramatically reduces the time and complexity involved in setting up document templates. To use Instant Glossaries, you simply mark where each clause begins and ends. Pathagoras does the rest. DropDown Lists facilitate moving lists of your frequently used documents and library terms into always-on dropdown lists, enabling you to easily create new documents or insert terms. These lists reside on screen just like Word's font list and style list. Click on any name in the dropdown list, and Pathagoras instantly places the corresponding term into your document. Other new features in Pathagoras 10 include "Beginner's Green Buttons" that guide you step-by-step through Pathagoras' features, a contextual help system called "How Do I? ..." that provides a menu of choices if you get stuck, more powerful variables for conditional text, improved error reporting (the company has a reputation for fixing bugs at light speed), and the ability to open WordPerfect documents into Word for assembly and then convert them back to WordPerfect format. Pathagoras works with Microsoft Word 97/2000/2002/2003. Prices start at $349; a 90-day free trial is available. Learn more about Pathagoras.

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.

Regarding our ongoing discussion of secure online file couriers in the Answers to Questions newsletter, TechnoLawyer member Mark Klarich has found yet another option: "Magicvortex is a subscription service that enables you to deliver large files and maintain some semblance of security."

About Quips
A Quip is a brief member contribution for which we don't have room in our Answers to Questions or Fat Friday newsletters. Instead, Quips appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.

We regularly feature your monitor reviews in our Fat Friday and Topical Compilation newsletters. Thank you for sharing!  Now, it's our turn.

We just bought an NEC-Mitsubishi LCD2060NX 20.1 inch LCD monitor and hooked it up to both a Mac and PC using an ioGear KVM switch.  So far, so good — great image quality and no dead pixels — plus Amazon shipped it in two days for free.

Why this monitor?  One reason — most 19/20 inch LCD monitors have an optimal resolution of 1280x1024, but this model has an optimal resolution of 1600x1200 — that's a lot more real estate in the same footprint.  Price: $780 at Amazon.  Read the review in PC Magazine.

As always, shortly after you research and buy a monitor, you learn about another model with even better specifications.  This week's issue of PC Magazine contains a review of Samsung's SyncMaster 213T 21 inch monitor, which has a 1900x1200 resolution.  Price: $900 at Amazon.

Update: Dell periodically sells the Samsung SyncMaster 213T for as low as $827.96. Also, Samsung sometimes offers a rebate on this model. My thanks to Dennis Kennedy for this tip.

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.

An incredible 67.8% of TechnoLawyer members use Adobe Acrobat.  If you use Acrobat, listen up — tomorrow's edition of our TechnoFeature newsletter will contain an exclusive review of Acrobat 7. Here is the synopsis:

Acrobat 7's Seven Most Notable New Features
In this article, CaseSoft CEO Greg Krehel reviews the seven new features of Adobe Acrobat 7 likely to generate the greatest interest among lawyers, paralegals, and legal assistants. Additionally, Greg also explores the differences among the five different products in the Acrobat family. This article contains 1,301 words.

Incidentally, for those of you who use both Acrobat and CaseMap, Greg asked me to pass along the following: "There's a new "Send-to-CaseMap" Plug-in for Acrobat 7. You can obtain it at no-charge. The behavior of the Plug-in remains the same."

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Tuesdays, TechnoFeature is a weekly newsletter that contains in-depth articles written by leading legal technology and practice management experts. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

In a recent issue of Answers to Questions, TechnoLawyer member Frank Denman provided an incredible Post on how to securely use a WiFi hotspot. In that same newsletter, James Broderick jokingly suggested using code language. In response, Roger Boyell writes: "My encoded message to James is: 'The midget schooner will unwind at midnight Friday.'" All very funny, but you can actually use a WiFi hotspot securely — check out Frank Denman's Post.

About Quips
A Quip is a brief member contribution for which we don't have room in our Answers to Questions or Fat Friday newsletters. Instead, Quips appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.

In a recent Topical Compilation newsletter, we discussed current battery technology at length. TechnoLawyer member Paul Lepine would like to add his 2 cents: "A tiny response if I may — if you road Warriors would Google "solar laptop" you'll find lots of out-of-the-box ideas as well as real products."

About Quips
A Quip is a brief member contribution for which we don't have room in our Answers to Questions or Fat Friday newsletters. Instead, Quips appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.

Regarding a recent Answers to Questions newsletter, TechnoLawyer member Robert Ray writes: "In his review of indexing tools, Jason Havens mentioned several commercial programs that can search your files and, with extra cost plugins, search Outlook. You can download "Lookout" from Microsoft, which does the same thing and is free. You can search files, e-mails, notes, PDF files, contacts, tasks, etc. at the same time." Good point, but how long can we expect software from Microsoft to remain free? In this case, probably for a while given all the free alternatives from Google and others. Ultimately, however, someone will have to pay so don't be surprised to find advertising in these tools someday.

About Quips
A Quip is a brief member contribution for which we don't have room in our Answers to Questions or Fat Friday newsletters. Instead, Quips appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.

Last week at the LegalTech trade show in New York, I had the good fortune to attend a blawger dinner on January 31st and a blawger luncheon on February 1st. Needless to say, I had a great time and learned a lot.

Dennis Kennedy (look for his first TechnoFeature of 2005 later today) and Matt Homann organized the dinner with help from Bruce MacEwen who chose the restaurant (Ruby Foos). Also in attendance were blawgers Arnie Herz, Josh Fruchter, Marty Schwimmer, and Johnnie Moore.  Debbie Ausburn also joined us (look for her TechnoFeature on digital briefs this spring). Of the many dishes we sampled, I most enjoyed the Kung Pao Chicken (at least, that's what I think it was).

Robert Ambrogi and Monica Bay organized the luncheon at the Marketplace restaurant in the Hilton. Dennis Kennedy, Matt Homann, and Bruce MacEwen were in attendance as well as blawgers Larry Bodine, Carolyn Elefant, Tom Mighell, and Ron Friedmann. Also in attendance were Stacey Artandi and Jennifer Collins, Lisa Solomon, Russ Curtis, and a few others whom I didn't have a chance to meet. Bob Ambrogi documented the event. You can also find headshots here thanks to Monica Bay and Russ Curtis.

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.