I’m Back

Yes, I’m finally back. After weeks of illness, back troubles, and juggling work, interspersed with trying to bring a renovated vacation rental cabin to market, getting married, and then dealing with my husband’s knee injury, I’m finally able to think about posting to this blog.

Thanks to the friends and loyal readers who dropped me a note of concern. It was much appreciated and made the days brighter.

Onward and upward!

Acrobatically speaking …

Rick Borstein’s blog, Acrobat for Legal Professionals, is worth a visit.  Rick is a Business Development Manager specializing in the Acrobat-Legal Market for Adobe Systems Incorporated. He’s also an Adobe Certified Expert in Acrobat and a member of the American Bar Association and the International Legal Technology Association.

His June 16th post, Commenting on Image-only PDFs,  explores tools in Adobe Acrobat to help you comment and mark-up PDFs that are images only (not OCR’ed text.)  His example was medical records containing signatures and handwritten notes.  I can imagine IP and Real Estate being interested in his recommendations, since they often encounter image-only PDFs.

Adobe Acrobat is a rich program – you or someone in your office should learn as much about it as possible to get the most efficiency from it.

Do’s and Don’ts

Allison C. Shields is the President of Legal Ease Consulting, Inc. and maintains a blog here.  Her article “Too Much To Do, Too Little Time” appears in July 2006 Law Practice TODAY.  The article’s aimed at attorneys but most of us could read it and learn from it. It reinforced for me the idea that it’s OK to say “No”, and to turn down clients who are more trouble than they’re worth.  Both notions were strange to me when I started on my own a year or so ago … but these are valuable lessons.

Give her blog a visit … and stop by Law Practice TODAY to catch her article and others in this Solo and Small Firm Issue.

The Human Side of Tech in the Courtroom

Andy Seldon’s Do’s and Don’ts of High-Tech Trial Presentations in Law Technology News (July 6) is especially useful because it doesn’t just concentrate on presenting technlogy … it focuses on common mistakes and suggests best practices so you can comfortably and professionally work with tech available to you in the courtroom.

Andy makes 10 well founded points. It would behoove you to read this article and absorb these points.

The 10 points are:

– Failing to learn and exploit technology.

– Incompatibility.

– Objectionable evidence.

– Going solo.

– Unprepared witnesses.

– Muddy waters.

– Overusing technology.

– No backup plan.

– Failing to make the necessary arrangements with court staff and checking the local rules.

– Not matching the technology to the case.

Andy Seldon is an attorney and is the director of information services for the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, based in Minneapolis.

The Virtual Chase

Just to prove what a geek I am … I’m not a legal professional, although I do work with them. But I truly enjoy perusing Genie Tyburski’s The Virtual Chase.

The Virtual Chase
Teaching Legal Professionals How to Do Research.

The Virtual Chase is a service of the law firm Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, LLP. Genie Tyburski is Web Manager of The Virtual Chase. She writes for Law Office Computing, and speaks about Internet research issues at library and continuing legal education programs.

What’s Your Document’s Security Risk Rating?

Download Trace! Document Security Freeware for Microsoft Office, from Workshare. You can run Trace! against any Microsoft Office document on your computer, company network, or oninternal or external websites. Trace! analyzes your document’s security risk rating. Workshare provides a Quick Reference Guide and Trace! Release Notes in PDF.

Viewers for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint

Get your viewers here:

Word 2003 viewer – replaces Word 97 and all previous viewers – you can open, view, print and copy all MS and Mac Word files, and files saved in many other formats.

Excel 2003 – replaces Excel 97 viewer – you can open, view, print, copy Excel 2003, 2002, 2000, and 97 workbooks.

PowerPoint 2003 – replaces PowerPoint 97 – MS says this lets you view presentations created in PowerPoint 97 and on up. No mention of copying or printing.

We’ll be posting soon about some of the intricacies and myths of WordPerfect to Word.

Welcome …

Greetings!

Welcome to Tips, Tricks, and Techy Tidbits – a collection of software shortcuts and tips; links to various tech, tech-law, and law blogs; and whatever else interests me enough to pass on. The Pages links to the right take you to my business, ABC Consulting.

In early 2005 I left my role as Help Desk and Software Trainer at Cincinnati, Ohio’s oldest law firm and struck out on the solo consulting path. I am a software instructor, a “PC productivity coach”, and a big fan of being smart about how we work.

I represent the human side of technology.

Starting a New Law Firm/Macs vs PCs

There's a discussion over yonder at David Swanner's South Carolina Trial Law Blog around his February 8th post – How to Start a New Law Firm – involving Macs vs. PCs; case management software; and research needs. Useful stuff, this. Enjoy.

Road Trip Thoughts

I often drive to and from my assignments. I work with people, end users just like you and me, generally at law firms. I help them improve their digital karma. 🙂 A week at a firm post-upgrade is total immersion in people. My peeps engross me with their questions, concerns, perceptions and needs, what's working, what's not, why, best approaches, solutions. Whew! It's a combination of training, support, and end-user advocacy requiring my all. And I love it. Love people, humor, most folks' earnest desire to do good work and become more efficient. But, by assignment's end, recharging is a necessity!

So, it's a great pleasure for an extroverted introvert to contemplate 500 miles and 10 hours by oneself, CDs aplenty, atlases by my side so I can trundle down the skinniest lines on the map. No stringent deadlines, no internet connectivity unless I make a point of finding a hotspot. My Subaru Forester fears no road (I do – but that's another story.)

Most recent drive was from Franklin, NC to Manassas, VA and back. Gorgeous, awesome scenery. Incredible to drive north of Asheville, NC up I-26 to Tennessee and then Virginia – the ascent brings you near "America's roof" Mt. Mitchell and very large chunks of mountains. I live in the mountains and even I was impressed. I-81 parallels VA SR 11, so I meandered along 11 for awhile. Lovely to open the windows and hear … almost nothing. Once off the interstate the smells of greenery and soil and hay become evident. I couldn't resist the lure of the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia, so I hopped on for a bit, visited the Peaks of Otter at milepost 86, and descended down 43 into Bedford, Virginia and then took 29 north to Manassas. Was it worth the 2 hours it added to the trip? Of course.

The return involved taking in Skyline Drive, in the Shenandoah National Park, only half an hour from my hotel in Manassas. Through 105 miles I saw maybe 6 – 7 cars, many deer, several quail, and a few turkeys (the birds – not tourists.) It was early, the fog had not completely burned off, very atmospheric. An excellent way to start the day. Skyline Drive ends at 105 miles and the Blue Ridge Parkway begins, but I had to get serious and get home. Too much time away from my sweetie and too long in the car seat! It was time to load the CD player and hit I-81. It's a good sign when I cross my state line and the sun breaks through the clouds, blue skies abound, and all around I can see ridges, mountain after mountain. Home again.

Random Thoughts

• Subaru Foresters Rock! I will never buy a different car. My Forester is hitting 100,000 miles and I expect to own it at 250,000. We'll see!
• So sue me if this sounds sappy – this is a beautiful land – see as much of it as you can.
• Ordinary people doing ordinary things lift up my heart – day-to-day life, chopping wood, carrying water, being in the moment.
• Rediscovering music long ago packed away is much fun!

Road Trip Hits

• Spirit of Love by Majek Fashek (Nigerian musician/reggae afrikan sounds)
• Tit Galop Pour Mamou by Steve Riley & The Mamou Playboys (Cajun!)
• The Trojan Story Trojan Records 2 CD compilation (ska, rock steady, blue beat)
• Soweto Collection World Beat No. 3 (South African music)
• Living on the Other Side by IIIrd Tyme Out (bluegrass gospel)

So where have you visited lately?

Thank you Stephen Nipper!

Thank you muchly, Stephen Nipper of Boise, Idaho! Read his kind words at The Invent Blog – on March 28th he included Tips, Tricks, and Techy Tidbits on his list of blogs to keep. We're in special company – he also included the most excellent PDF for Lawyers and Adrianna Linares' I Heart Tech.

Stephen is a Registered Patent Attorney with Dykas, Shaver & Nipper, LLP and if his name is familiar to you it may be from his TechnoLawyer IP Memes column. Check out his post for his list of keeper-blogs and links to his thoughts on using "probation folders" to trim down the RSS overload.

Take a Break – Stretch at Your Desk

Too much time at your desk can mean tight shoulders, stiff neck, and achey back.  Not to mention too much work makes Jill a dull girl!  I can understand hours spent at one’s desk, sometimes with nary a break.  If you can squeeze in a 5 minute stretch break, you’ll find your thoughts clear and maybe that sore spot mid-back will ease up.  Herewith, from Yoga Journal online, a set of six stretches you can do at your desk, explained easily (if I can do them without re-reading the instructions, you can too!)  Enjoy!

Two Monitors are Better than One

I left a comment at Strategic Legal Technology – under The Benefit of Dual Monitors. Read Ron’s post and imagine what you could do with 2 monitors. Would you enjoy the benefits of better organization, more easily tracked e-mail, calendar; time keeping at your finger tips?

A few more links if you’re not convinced:

The Invent Blog – http://nip.blogs.com/patent/2005/06/dual_monitorsho.html

South Carolina Trial Law Blog – http://nip.blogs.com/patent/2005/06/dual_monitorsho.html

LawLibTech – http://www.lawlibtech.com/archives/000497.html

Searching Technology – Microsoft Slugging Away at Yahoo and Google

From CIO Today, Microsoft Takes On Google and Yahoo With New Search Technology.  Windows Live Search will help users find information faster and organize it better.

Way Beyond Charts and Graphs

If a picture’s worth a thousand words, then Crystal Xcelsius‘ interactive visual analytics is the block buster movie.  Learn more about making the presentation of data come alive, and view a stunning gallery and demos here.