Law Office Technology

Add Outlook Signature to Amicus Premium

 

Go to Communications and go to Actions –> Outlook Email –> Set Outlook Signature

 

This will your outlook signature from Amicus

Office Communication Server

Our firm has begun to use Office Communication  Server for instant messaging.  We were using MSN Messenger but there was underlying concern about using a personal instant messenger for Business Communications.

Yahoo, MSN, AOL, and other instant messenger programs are not secure.  Therefore if you send messages with confidential client information you are potentially allowing your client’s information to get stolen.  I know many firms that use these type of instant messengers and this can leave an open door for a breach of client confidentiality.    

Office Communication Server is completely secure so when I am at a client’s office and ask my assistant through communicator what is the admin password for the client’s server, I do not have to worry about that information being leaked to the entire world. 

OCS give us three ways to connect:

1. Through Software downloaded on the workstation.

 

2. Through a web based portal available in Internet Explorer and Fire Fox.

3. On a Windows Mobile or Blackberry Device

Tight Outlook Integration

1. Conservations are archived and can be searched in outlook.

2. Easily allows you to send an Email Message through Communicator

3. When replying to an email in Outlook, you can send it as an instant message

4. Communicator will look at your Outlook Calendar and set your Availability Status depending on your appointments.

Advantages:

• Can send attachments through a secure network.  Attachments in Emails are not secure.  Ours allows files up to 50MB and is faster then an attachment on an email. 
• Can be used with VOIP and Video Conferencing

Disadvantages:

• Can only communicate with OCS Users
• Available only on Windows Mobile and Blackberry.  Not on I-Phone or Palm Based devices. 

Duplicate Contacts in Outlook

Somehow I duplicated all my contacts in outlook.  This happens from time to time, especially if you have a third party link with a smartphone or a practice management software.  Microsoft's answer to deleting duplicate contacts is to select each duplicate by holding down the control key and hit delete.  When you have 900 duplicates, that is not really a good option. 

I found TeamScope's Contact Scrubber for Outlook by using Google and it easily fixed the problem.

The Contacts Scrubber™ for Outlook® provides a means of easily eliminating duplicate records from your Outlook Contacts. It works by processing your Outlook Contacts, looking for possible duplicate items. As it finds duplicates, it presents them to you, displaying field-by-field comparisons of item data, and proposing a logical way of merging the item data into one unique item. You may then merge these items; you can opt to use the program's proposed merge, or override it with your own personal choices, on a field-by-field basis.

 

 

http://www.teamscope.com/otherpro/utilities.asp

Steps to Configure Junk Email Options in Outlook 2007

These settings will help stop spam from reaching your inbox.

Actions --> Junk Email  --> Junk Email Options --> Safe Sender

Check "Automatically add people I email to the Safe Senders List."  This will help stop a lot of false positives.

International --> Blocked Top-Level Domain List

I block all countries except the United States and Canada. 

Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats

If you have workstations running Office 2007 in your office, it would be a good idea to download the Office 2007 Compatibility Pack.  It will allow users of Office 2000, 2002, and 2003 products to open up 2007's xml format.  I have started to install it on all client computers because users will start be receiving .docx from clients and other attorneys. 

A program is trying to access your outook.

Express Click Yes is a program that will get rid of the annoying outlook message that tells your a program is trying to access your data in outlook.  This is very good for Amicus, TimeMatters and PCLaw users who have links with outlook.