Law Office Technology

Tech Tip: Software Training Online

The Weekly Email Newsletter Of The Mississippi Bar
March 29, 2010

There are some great options for software training online.  Lynda.com  is the best and offers a 1 month subscription for $25 a month.  Topics include Adobe Acrobat,  Excel, Facebook,  Google App, Google Docs,  InfoPath,  Internet Explorer, iTunes, Office 2003, Office 2007, Office 2010,  Office for Mac,  OneNote 2007, Outlook, PowerPoint, QuickBooks,  SharePoint,  Twitter,  WordPerfect,  Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, and many others.  Acrolaw has a lot of free training videos on Adobe Acrobat on their site  http://acrolaw.host.adobe.com/.  Microsoft also has a some pretty useful online training programs on all their office products: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/training/default.aspx?ofcresset=1. This TechTips are provided courtesy of Craig Bayer, Law Office Technology http://www.lawot.com/

Law Office Technology's New Digs

Two weeks ago, I went with my friend Tom O’Connor to visit Ernie Svenson’s new office.  After Lunch at Lucy’s I was chopping at the bit to move Lawot into the technology equivalent of El Dorado.  We are now located in Launchpad which is in the The IP Building, right next to the US Fifth Circuit and a stone’s throw away from the Louisiana State Bar Association.  Launchpad is basically a collaborative office space full of technology minded people.  Ernie’s desk is right next to me,  Tom and Techy Becky, works in front of me and  another brilliant tech attorney, Al Robert, is ten feet away to the right.  We now have access to state of the art conference rooms,  training centers, VOIP Phones, and super fast internet.

This is the future and Law Office Technology is proud and humbled to be part of it.  Gone are the days of googling for a couple of hours to find an answer.  I just take off my head phones and ask aloud if anyone knows how to “Insert Obscure Legal Tech Question” and I get an answer.  I am surrounded by people that work very long hours and love every minute of it.

Obviously Launchpad is no secret as the following articles from the New York Times, New Orleans City Business, and WWL can attest. 

FYI, I still have more monitors then anyone there. 

Synergy – The Virtual KVM Switch

Besides using dual monitors, I also use dual laptops, a dell latitude and IBM Tablet X60.  The problem I have whether at home, on the road, or the office is that I just want to use one keyboard/mouse for both computers.  I finally found the solution in Synergy which is basically a virtual KVM Switch.  I installed Synergy on both laptops and when the laptops are connected to the same network, I only need need one keyboard and mouse.  It works across platforms so if you have a Mac and a PC you could share it on both computers. 

This article will help you set it up: http://www.engadget.com/2005/08/09/how-to-share-your-keyboard-and-mouse-in-realtime-with-synergy/

ThompsonWest Webinar Series

 Tom O’Conner, Browning.Marean and I have been doing some Webinar’s on legal technology for ThompsonWest.  We did one on Basic Law Firm Technology yesterday and we are doing one on 1/21/2008 on disaster recovery.  Certain states will give CLE Credit. 

Here is the description:

Disasters come in many forms -- hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, power outages even terrorist attacks.  The best disaster recovery plan is a disaster preparation plan so that your practice can be back in business as soon as possible. Technology can assist this process but there are other important business decisions to consider as well: availability of equipment, access to data, staffing issues .....all these are supported by technology in today's law firm and this session will show you how to put the the right technology system in place before disaster strikes.

http://westlegaledcenter.com/program_guide/course_detail.jsf?videoCourseId=18196558

 

 

CLE Speaking in Baton Rouge

I will be speaking in Baton Rouge next Thursday for the CURRENT TRENDS IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT PRACTICE III CLE for East Baton Rouge Parish.

Here is a description:

Government & Public Law is a specialized practice area which presents unique challenges. This two-day seminar is designed for all attorneys, administrators, city, parish and municipal officials to provide information on the current and relevant law, trends, and practical information to help perform your job more effectively.

My Topic will be “Law Office Technology: Use of Technology to Modernize Your Law Practice” @  3:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. in the Baton Rouge Court Building.

ISPs in Louisiana and Mississippi Do Not CHOOSE AT&T

I am currently setting up email hosting for a client of mine.  They have a Small Business Server and want to host their own email.  Not to get too technical but when you do this, you call up the ISP (Internet Service Provider) and make sure that their Reverse DNS Points to your server.  Every time I have to deal BellSouth, now AT&T, this is a nightmare.  As I write this, I have been transferred for the 10 times (1 Hour) and no one could help me.  When I call Cox Tech support to do this, it takes 1 call. 

Blocking Myspace, Facebook and Youtube

I am starting to use a free Internet tool called OpenDNS (http://www.opendns.com/)  to block Myspace, Facebook, and Youtube.  The only firms I will not do this for is Family Law, which need to view the sites for legitimate business reasons.  I have found it is the easiest way to block these sites in the small firm environment. 

ABATECH SHOW 2007

I got back from the ABA TECH SHOW in Chicago on Sunday and I am still trying to recover.  Besides working Gavel and Gown's Amicus Booth and hanging out with LexisNexis, especially the PCLaw people, I got a chance to look at a lot of other products.  I will probably write about one a day until I am finished.

Here is a partial or maybe a complete list.

Fujitsu ScanSnap

Newsgator (Feed Demon)

Abbyy Recognition Server

CaseLogistixs

CMS Backup Systems

Compulaw

Dual Monitor Help

My productivity has gone up a lot since moving to three monitors, but some things are hard to do.  For Example, getting my wallpaper to stretch correctly has been a problem.   

One of the sites that has been helping me out is: http://www.realtimesoft.com/multimon/faq.asp

They have some great articles on working with different programs. 

This site recommends a program called UltraMon, which is fantastic.  It is basically written for people who use multiple monitors.  Here are some of its features:

• efficiently move windows and maximize windows across the desktop 
• manage more applications with the Smart Taskbar 
• control application positioning with UltraMon Shortcuts 
• multi-monitor support for desktop wallpapers and screen savers 
• mirror your main monitor to secondary monitors for a presentation

A single license costs $39.95.  I can now extend the Task Bar across all three screens which is great because I usually have 15 programs open at once.

Online Backups, Best Practices

I have setup online backups for many clients.  Our company has partnered with BackupmyBusiness to setup these backup services.  BackupmyBusiness is pretty reliable and it works.  The best backup  scenario would be to use Backup My Business and also tape/usb hard drives to protect your data.  The USB drives can keep multiple backup copies.  This is particularly good if a user deletes a file, and does not realize it until five days later.  We can then pull that day's backup and restore it.  I did some inquiring and found out that Backup My Business will keep a file that was deleted for 7 days.  So, if Joe deletes a file on Tuesday, and 6 backups have run since then, we should still be able to restore it Monday night.  After Monday, the file will be purged from Backup My Business and we will be left to rely on the USB/Tape Hard drives. 

To be totally protected, you need to have determine how many backups your USB/Tape Drives can hold.  I try to get about 2 weeks work and then archive the last backup and start all over again.