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iContact
iContact, by
Stephanie L. Kimbro .
As a way to use technology to keep in touch with clients, iContact one of the simplest and least expensive web-based methods out there. Sending out regular updates or newsletters through directed email keeps your law practice fresh in the minds of your clients without requiring that you devote a great deal of time or money to the process.
Category: Office Productivity. Written:
2009. Added:
2-18-2009.
Law Practice Today
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Google Docs & Spreadsheet
Google Docs & Spreadsheets, by
Elsa Wenzel.
For now, Google's office apps make a great traveling companion to desktop productivity software. And despite the beta imperfections, the user experience is more seamless than it has been with Zoho or ThinkFree Online. We expect that Google will gradually add layers of new features to Google Docs & Spreadsheets beta.
Category: Office Productivity. Written:
2006. Added:
9-22-2008.
CNET
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Apple iWork
Apple iWork '08, by
Elsa Wenzel .
The inclusion of Numbers in iWork '08 makes this software bundle a stronger alternative to Microsoft Office for the Mac, which hasn't been updated since 2004. The fledgling Numbers offers more than enough formulas for the majority of users.
Category: Office Productivity. Written:
2007. Added:
9-22-2008.
CNET
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Microsoft Office
Microsoft Office for Mac 2008, by
Elsa Wenzel.
Office for Mac 2008 may be the best pick for business users. Overall, we found ourselves wondering why someone would splurge for Office for Mac 2008. Sure, it's a step up from the 2004 version, and the only one that runs natively on Intel-based Macs.
Category: Office Productivity. Written:
2008. Added:
9-05-2008.
CNET
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MacPac
Can MacPac 10 Generate Better Documents?, by
Sean Doherty.
The Sackett Group's Legal MacPac provides macros for Microsoft Office that make document production easy. The MacPac includes a numbering template to provide customizable and flexible paragraph number schemes for litigation and business transactional documents. And yes, it supports MS-Office 2007.
Category: Office Productivity. Written:
2008. Added:
8-21-2008.
Law.com
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Buzzword
The Buzz on Buzzword for Law Firms, by
Brett Burney.
For the legal audience, Buzzword is more of a rich collaboration platform. Instead of creating a document in Microsoft Word and sending it as an attachment via e-mail, lawyers can create the draft of the document in Buzzword and immediately share it with others online. Since Buzzword is free, it is absolutely worth your time to check it out.
Category: Office Productivity. Written:
2008. Added:
8-21-2008.
Law.com
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HeadCram
Product Watch, by
Nerino J. Petro, Jr..
HeadCram Legal is a speed-reading application specifically designed to work with LexisNexis’s Concordance version 8.02 or higher, so it brings the advantage of increased reading and comprehension speeds to electronic discovery and electronic document management. HeadCram is easier and less expensive than buying and completing one of those Internet speed-reading courses.
Category: Office Productivity. Written:
2008. Added:
8-13-2008.
Law Practice Magazine
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Windows, Mac, Linux
Mediating a Holy War Windows vs. Mac vs. Linux, by
Aaron J. Rittmaster.
The key is to make the best use of tools to maximize law office productivity while minimizing the costs of buying and maintaining equipment and supporting users. Because Windows, Mac, and Linux computers all communicate well with each other in this age of the network, it’s not even necessary to choose only one option.
Category: Operating System. Written:
2008. Added:
8-12-2008.
GP|Solo
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Microsoft Office, Corel WordPerfect X3 Suite, Google Apps and OpenOffice Suite
Sweet Suites Office Suite Choices for Solos and Small Firms, by
Craig Ball, Ross L. Kodner, Donna Payne, and David Rakowski.
Savvy, ingenious, resourceful, and frugal solos and small firm lawyers will recognize the need to be electronically fluent and compatible with the rest of the digital legal world. While any one of the above suite approaches can satisfy the needs of virtually any law practice, solos and small firm lawyers will opt for flexibility and compatibility.
Category: Office Productivity. Written:
2008. Added:
8-12-2008.
GP|Solo
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ABBYY FineReader OCR 9.0
Converting to ABBYY FineReader OCR 9.0, by
Alan Pearlman.
If you have been using FineReader Edition 8.0, it really is time to move ahead with all of the new improvements of 9.0 and give yourself, your staff and your firm the ability to have an average of 35 percent more accuracy over 8.0, as well as new tools and an innovative interface redesign that provides more user productivity with less steps and effort being spent on all of your OCR tasks. I know that with the new ABBYY FineReader 9.0, in either edition, you definitely will experience efficiency; I know we have at my firm.
Category: Office Productivity. Written:
2008. Added:
7-21-2008.
Law.com
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Office 2007
Planning Office 2007 - Document Collaboration Workflows, by
Sherry Kappel.
Careful collaboration workflow planning from defining client collaboration needs to developing contingency plans for inevitable document problems will ensure that your firm provides consistent client service through what is the most significant legal technology transition to occur in more than a decade.
Category: Office Productivity. Written:
2007. Added:
7-15-2008.
International Legal Technology Association
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Office 2007
Word 2007 - Managing Document Collaboration with Early Adopters, by
Sherry Kappel.
Successful document collaboration with Word 2007 early adopters starts with planning, preparation and discovery. Test your Word 2007 document collaboration workflows and technology thoroughly within your firm's document production environment before deployment, verifying support with mission-critical third-party applications. Many firms are using test files that apply the new functionality most likely to be popular among clients, such as tracked moves. Finally, plan internal communications that convey your Word 2007 early adopter collaboration strategy firm wide and ensure consistent client service.
Category: Office Productivity. Written:
2007. Added:
7-15-2008.
International Legal Technology Association
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Office 2007
Technology Update, by
Joe Kashi.
The newest 2007 version of Microsoft Office really is worthwhile. Overall, it is a very effective, stable and easy to use set of programs. It does, however, have some problems converting other file formats. Overall, though, MS Office 2007 is a highly worthwhile product.
Category: Office Productivity. Written:
2008. Added:
7-15-2008.
Law Technology Today
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pdfDocs Desktop 2.1
Review: pdfDocs Desktop 2.1 - An Alternative to Adobe Acrobat Professional, by
John Heckman.
All in all, pdfDocs Desktop by itself can serve as an adequate substitute for Acrobat Professional DocsCorp also provides a trial version so you can test drive the product.
Firms might want to splurge on one or two copies of Acrobat, but rely on pdfDocs Desktop for the rest of the workstations. And if you plan on doing a lot of scanning, the pdfDocs OCR Server is also worth a serious look.
Category: Office Productivity. Written:
2008. Added:
7-12-2008.
TechnoLawyer
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ABBYY FineReader 9.0
Review: ABBYY FineReader 9.0, by
John Heckman.
Fine-Reader OCR software, claims a number of new or improved features including the
ability to recognize headers, footers, paragraph numbering, and footnotes as well as the ability to reproduce them correctly as Word functions. The name of the game is character recognition, and at this ABBYY FineReader is superb. Some of its new features, in particular header/footer and footnote recognition also work well in general, albeit with some kinks in very complex documents.
Category: Office Productivity. Written:
2008. Added:
7-12-2008.
TechnoLawyer
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Rpost
RPost Registered E-Mail, by
Alan Pearlman.
Products come and go in the legal technology arena. Many are good, but once in a while one offers a tremendous boost to law offices’ productivity and peace of mind. If you choose only a single new technology to implement this year, I highly recommend that you adopt RPost registered e-mail for all your most important e-mail communications. You will not be sorry.
Category: Office Productivity. Written:
2008. Added:
7-10-2008.
GP|Solo
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Right Click
Right Click to Knowledge Series, by
Kim Plonsky.
The Right Click to Knowledge Series extracts key information from hundreds of pages of documents in minutes using Speed Read or Knowledge Map. It also integrates with Corel WordPerfect Office, Microsoft Office and Mindjet MindManager Pro 6. The components can be purchased separately and are priced easily within reach of personal or business users. I enthusiastically recommend the entire Cirilab product line as unique, powerful, useful and timesaving tools for managing information overload and quickly digesting all forms of electronic information.
Category: Office Productivity. Written:
2007. Added:
7-09-2008.
Legal Assistant Today
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DealProof
DealProof, by
Brett Burney.
Deal Proof provides another proofreading filter for your documents, ensuring your documents are consistent and accurate. It doesn’t add any extra information or metadata to your document and generates helpful reports. It integrates with most document management systems. It sometimes can take a long time to analyze documents. I would recommend this product for paralegals and associates who are tasked with the responsibility of making sure their long, detailed transactional documents are completely accurate. Deal Proof provides another set of eyeballs to look over your documents and check for missed punctuation and undefined terms. While it’s not as useful for proofreading shorter documents such as memos, it can be a big help with your longer documents.
Category: Office Productivity. Written:
2007. Added:
7-09-2008.
Legal Assistant Today
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WordPerfect
Corel WordPerfect Office X3
Standard Edition, by
Kim Plonsky.
The future seems very bright indeed for WordPerfect Office X3, although I am somewhat hesitant to give my wholehearted recommendation at this time, mostly because I experienced regular and predictable program crashes. Overall, compatibility is indeed WordPerfect Office X3’s strong suit specifically its built-in PDF publishing capabilities and interchangeability with Word and other file formats. Combined with its comparatively low cost, this re-establishes WordPerfect as a contender in the word processing and office suite software war.
Category: Office Productivity. Written:
2006. Added:
7-09-2008.
Legal Assistant Today
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pdfDocs Desktop
pdfDocs Desktop version 1.7, by
Richard C. Belthoff, Jr..
PdfDocs Desktop is unique in its ability to manipulate multiple PDFs at one time. While it doesn’t completely implement all of the PDF standard features (e.g., semitransparent polygons), pdfDocs Desktop is worth considering if you are looking for an Acrobat alternative. The ability to modify multiple PDFs as one file. It easily creates redacted PDFs. The inability to create semitransparent polygons or other shapes. I recommend it as a good Adobe Acrobat alternative.
Category: Office Productivity. Written:
2006. Added:
7-09-2008.
Law Office Computing
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Macro Recorder
Macro Recorder 3.4, by
Steve Taylor.
The first word that comes to mind when describing Macro Recorder is quick. At less than 2MB, it’s quick to download, has a very easy-to-understand interface and is simple to learn. Automates repetitive tasks quickly. Easy and fun to use. Macros might stop working correctly if you change display settings or run the program on a different computer. You will feel like a programmer in 10 minutes.
Category: Office Productivity. Written:
2006. Added:
7-09-2008.
Law Office Computing
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Microsoft Office
Staying on Track with Track Changes, by
Tom Mighell and Dennis Kennedy.
"Track Changes" feature contained in Microsoft Office applications has become the most commonly-used tool for tracking revisions and marking changes in documents. Track Changes was a giant step forward in collaboration technology -- it allows multiple authors of a document to easily view the changes in a lengthy document and make comments that other participants could review, all in one place. Although technology has made even greater strides with respect to document collaboration, Track Changes is arguably the most-used document collaboration tool.
Category: Office Productivity. Written:
2008. Added:
7-09-2008.
Law Practice Today
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Acrobat
Litigating with Acrobat Part 2: Acrobat Inside the Litigation Office, by
Joe Kashi.
An electronic law office has many virtues. It’s easier to safeguard against loss and disaster, easier to share data, and much more economically efficient after a few months transition. However, if you are a litigator, then an Acrobat-based law practice can also make you more effective at preparing and trying a case.
Category: Office Productivity. Written:
2006. Added:
7-09-2008.
Law Practice Today
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Google
Google to the Rescue: A Go Tech Virtual Office on a No Tech Budget, by
Craig Ball.
How much time have you wasted emailing draft documents back and forth or chasing down dates and text in old emails? With all that Google has to offer, that valuable time can be saved. Consolidate your calendar, E-mail, files and much more - free. Google’s got solid calendaring, messaging, file storage, search, disaster recovery, timekeeping, document authoring, desktop management and more.
Category: Office Productivity. Written:
2007. Added:
7-09-2008.
Law Technology Today
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Microsoft Office Live
Review: Microsoft Office Live, by
Douglas J. Simpson.
Get all your emails in one place, create a shared workspace for online collaboration, bolster your firm's marketing - all with Microsoft Office Live. Small law firms will benefit from the web-hosting and collaboration tools, whilst larger firms can use it for client-specific collaborations
Category: Office Productivity. Written:
2007. Added:
7-09-2008.
Law Technology Today
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Outlook
Exchanging Your Old Outlook for the New, by
Brett Burney.
Microsoft Outlook is ubiquitous. If you work in a law office and read e-mail, there's a high probability you're doing that through some version of Outlook. Like the other applications of Microsoft Office 2007, Outlook is much improved and streamlined. While it may not boast the drastic facelift found in Word or PowerPoint, Outlook 2007 proves that beauty is more than just skin deep.
Category: Office Productivity. Written:
2007. Added:
7-09-2008.
Law.com
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Acrobat 8
PRODUCT REVIEW
Adobe Acrobat 8, by
David L. Masters.
The Bates stamping and redaction features alone justify the cost of the upgrade. If you do not have an older version, I still maintain that every law office should have and use Acrobat. I believe the program easily justifies the cost of acquisition.
Category: Office Productivity. Written:
2007. Added:
7-09-2008.
GP|Solo
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pdfDocs Desktop 2.1 Suite
pdfDocs Desktop 2.1 Suite, by
Milton Hooper.
Very efficient - you easily can manage, edit and organize your PDF documents. Users need some type of tutorial to understand how it works. If you are interested in purchasing the OCR server, it’s a rather expensive option for smaller law firms. I highly recommend this product to any law firm that wants efficient software to organize its PDF documents - this is the best I have seen to date.
Category: Office Productivity. Written:
2008. Added:
7-08-2008.
Legal Assistant Today
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MacPac
Leading with Las Vegas: Installing Legal MacPac at Watt Tieder, by
Philip Sultan and Elise Morelli.
MacPac has been a great help to our legal professionals in creating documents. The product has required little maintenance and we have become largely self-sufficient in taking care of the system. Some of our users resisted the product at first, which is common with unknown technology, but as they began to see how much faster they could generate their work product, many of those objections went away. All in all, the firm has benefited from MacPac in many ways and we look forward to finding new ways to apply the technology to improve our workflow at all four offices especially our West Coast offices.
Category: Office Productivity. Written:
2008. Added:
7-05-2008.
Law Practice Today
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One Note
Product Watch, by
Nerino J. Petro, Jr..
The capabilities found within OneNote are truly amazing. But none are quite so amazing as the fact that this product can be purchased stand-alone for under $100. It also comes standard in many Microsoft Office 2007 versions.
Category: Office Productivity. Written:
2008. Added:
7-05-2008.
Law Practice Magazine
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Outlook 2007
Exchanging Your Old Outlook for the New, by
Brett Burney.
While Outlook 2007 can certainly stand on its own, many law firms and companies that use Outlook power the backend with a Microsoft Exchange Server. If you're a desktop Outlook user, you've probably hired someone to maintain the Exchange backend, but it's worth noting some of the features you'll enjoy if your office links Outlook 2007 with Exchange Server 2007. New features for those using both Outlook 2007 and Exchange Server 2007 include a Resource Assistant for booking rooms and equipment; a Web-based, offline address book; and support for unified messaging that allows users to receive voicemails and fax messages directly in their Inbox. Like the other applications of Microsoft Office 2007, Outlook is much improved and streamlined. While it may not boast the drastic facelift found in Word or PowerPoint for graphics, Outlook 2007 proves that beauty is more than just skin deep.
Category: Office Productivity. Written:
2007. Added:
7-05-2008.
Law.com
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