PDF for Lawyers

How to go paperless - a case study.

There's a great article in ABA Law Practice Today entitled 'Our Paperless Office,' about how one law firm transitioned to being almost completely paperless.  Anyone who is thinking about making the switch should read this article.  There are a couple of key points made in the article that are worth emphasizing:

1. The law firm spent time planning the transition
2. They opted to use PDFs as their digital format 
3. They implemented the process for new cases first 
4. They created a written procedure for scanning
5. They adopted a file-naming procedure that began with the date and then a description 
6. They developed a redundant and comprehensive backup system. 
7. They used Adobe Acrobat Professional to manipulate their PDFs  

Obviously, I believe in using Adobe Acrobat, but it's worth pointing out that many lawyers try to save money by using various third-party tools to do some of the things that Acrobat can do.  That's fine if you are just toying with the idea of going paperless.  But if you're really committed to going paperless then you have to use Acrobat as your main PDF tool.  

And you could use the free Notepad tool to do word processing, but you wouldn't do that if you were serious about creating professional looking documents.  Saving money is obviously an important goal, but chintzing out on an important software tool is going to cost you: time, money or maybe even an important advantage.

One last thought about this article:  the authors explain that they "continue to open a physical file folder for each new matter."  I predict that in one or two years they will discontinue this practice.  The cost of storing paper is too high, and there is really no point to it. But it's not unusual behavior for companies that make the switch.  For some reason, we cling to the notion that keeping the paper is 'something we are supposed to do.'  

Maybe it's a primitive urge that's welded into our DNA.  But, whatever it is, evolution will eventually route around that pesky inefficiency.

Adobe's amazing online services

Yesterday I had the good fortune to get a preview of a new online tool from Adobe called 'Presentation' (which is officially being announced today, probably about now). So what exactly is this new tool?  Basically, think of an online version of Powerpoint built on Flash technology. And how much will it cost you?  For now it'll be free, as are all of the offerings on Acrobat.com.  The Presentation service is not fully-mature yet. But that's actually desirable.  Adobe said they'd prefer to launch early and get user-feedback on features that they want baked in.  One feature that is on the near horizon is the ability to export to Powerpoint, which is obviously important.

'Presentations' is but one of several free tools available on Acrobat.com. If you haven't checked it out yet, you probably should. You'll be very impressed with the writing tool, which is called Buzzword.  Especially if you've been using Google Docs as your online collaborative word processor. I like Google  Docs, but Buzzword is vastly superior in terms of look, feel and versatility.

Clearly, Adobe is trying to position itself as a major player in the area of online collaboration.  You can also hold online meetings using the ConnectNow service in Acrobat.com.  For now, the limit is three people.  But, remember this is a free tool.  And, many impromptu meetings that require screen-sharing don't involve more than three people.

If you have any ideas on how to improve Acrobat.com navigate to ideas.acrobat.com and give them the benefit of your thoughtfulness.  We'll all benefit if Adobe makes this service better.  But, from what I can tell, it's pretty amazing already.

Fujitsu ScanSnap tips & tricks

As many of this site's readers know, I'm a big fan of the Fujitsu ScanSnap scanner.  It's compact, reliable and very easy to use.  Oh, and there are models for both Macs and PCs.  The latest version is the S1500 (or the S1500M if you use a Mac), and it is amazing.  

If you have a Fujitsu ScanSnap you already know how wonderful it is.  So here's some even better news: there's now a special site just for people who want to learn tips and tricks for using the scanner better. It's run by Fujitsu so the advice is straight from the horse's mouth, as they say.

Using Acrobat to put Exhibit stamps on digital documents

Okay, this is a major PDF breakthrough for lawyers.  If you want to be able to stamp your digital documents with Exhibit labels and then have them numbered (or lettered) you need to go read this post right now.  Installing the plug-in is easy as pie.  If you do e-filing in federal court you need this.  If you prepare documents for trial you need this. If you're a lawyer and you use PDFs you need this.

And for his excellent work, I hereby nominate Rick Borstein for the Nobel Prize in PDF Technology!

Why become paperless?

Interesting article on the topic of going paperless [click here]. In addition to the, by now obvious, economic and efficiency benefits, there is the environmental benefit:

"There is a clear environmental need for paperless offices. The paper industry is one of the world’s major polluting industries and one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gases with over 900 million trees cut done annually. The EPA reports that paper is the number-one material thrown away, comprising 40% of our waste stream."

What's your preference, sir?

Remember this joke?  Guy goes into see the doctor, and the doc asks "what seems to be the problem?" The guy says "Doc, it's my arm.  It hurts when I do this." And then the doctor says "well, then don't DO that!"

I mention this joke because it's basically what happens when people fail to make any attempt to set the preferences for their applications.  Technology trainers are constantly hearing lawyers complain that Word wants to auto-correct certain words.  In the attorneys' view the problem is irresolvable; it's a bug in the program that simply can't be fixed.

The tech trainer usually wants to say something similar to what the doctor in the joke says: "if you don't like it when your computer does that then tell it not to."  Then the tech trainer patiently shows the lawyer how to set the preferences for that program.  Every program has preferences.  You knew that, right?

Maybe you didn't.  And, if so, then you wouldn't be alone.

Computers seem to make people dumb. Imagine picking anyone out of a crowd and telling them that they'd get to live in a mansion with a butler for a week.  The first time the butler does something that is annoying or not to their liking, do you think they'd be at a loss as to how to fix the problem?  No, they'd pipe right up and command the butler to do what they want. Even if they never had a butler before.

But these same people when they get a new program seem to think that the designers of the program have configured it just for them.  And so therefore they should expect it to work perfectly in the way that's most natural for them. If it doesn't then they curse the program.

Adobe Acrobat is an amazing program.  If you want to be 'paperless' then you should invest in Acrobat (preferably the Professional version) and you should take the time to learn how to set it up to your liking.  The reason you prefer paper is because you're used to working with it.  The reason you tend to feel less comfortable with PDFs is that they don't behave like the paper you're used to. So what are you going to do about that?

One thing you can do is to set up the preferences to how you like things to be.  Do you prefer to see one whole page from top to bottom when you open the PDF?  Fine, then set it up in preferences.  Maybe you like to view two pages side by side.  That's a preference choice too.  I could sit hear and describe all the preference choices for you, but that's not the optimal approach. You should open up the preferences and see what all your options are. If you have a Windows machine go to the EDIT menu (or select CTRL + K).  If you have a Mac the preferences are under the ACROBAT menu (shortcut: CMD + ,).

If you don't like how your computer acts, then change it.  You have the power.

Getting ready to be paperless (the easy way)

Many folks resist becoming paperless not because they don't want a paperless system, but because they dread the process of switching.  Granted the switch can be very challenging, but it doesn't need to be. How can you make it easy?  Read the short paper that's referenced here.

Technology webinars (how to go paperless & more)

Last December my friend Dane Ciolino and I put on a half-day seminar called Digital Workflow for Lawyers, which was very well received.  The point was to show lawyers how to make the transition from a paper-based law practice to a more digital one, with a strong emphasis on using PDFs.  

Now we'd like to do some online programs to help folks improve their tech-lawyering skills.  If you've already signed up for email notices at the Digital Workflow website that we set up then you'll be getting announcements as they are sent out.  But, if you haven't, and you're interested in getting notices about our seminars & webinars, then click here.

The nice thing about the webinars is that anyone can participate, even people outside Louisiana.  Basically, if you have a high-speed internet connection then you can join in (although we probably won't be able to offer CLE credit outside Louisiana).

And if there are particular things you want to learn about then send us an email with those suggested topics.  We have posted the written materials that we used at our seminar online if you are interested ind downloading them.  Just visit the website and click on any of the links along the left-hand side.

Bookmarking Tip for Acrobat

Knowing how to create bookmarks is important if you are going to efficiently navigate your PDFs.  This one of many reasons why you need the full version of Acrobat.  I talked to a patent attorney in Kansas the other day who reviews information from the Patent office that is made available in PDF format. But, he only has the basic Adobe Reader.  He obviously spends a lot of time navigating PDFs, and often returns to the same PDF later on to find information he has reviewed previously.

This is a person who needs the full version of Acrobat.  And he needs to learn how to bookmark pages so he can quickly return to them later on.  The first thing you should do when you get Acrobat (after setting up your default viewing preferences) is to learn the shortcut for creating a bookmark. In Windows it's CONTROL + B, and in Mac it's COMMAND + B.

Now here's the really cool bookmarking tip that you can use PDF you are in is text-based (i.e. 'searchable').  You'll know it's searchable if you can highlight a word or sentence of text.  So, let's say you've highlighted a passage and you want to tag that as a bookmark.  If you highlight it and then use the shortcut for creating a bookmark Acrobat will create the bookmark and name it with the text that you highlighted.

I'm not sure if this works in older versions of Acrobat, but I can say that it definitely works in Acrobat 9.0.  One way I use it is when I create a PDF of, say, a complaint or other document that has headings.  I can quickly go through the document and highlight each heading and create a bookmark.  Then when I open that document later on my bookmarks are essentially a table of contents of the main parts of that document.

How to bates-stamp using Acrobat

If you have the full version of Acrobat then bates-stamping documents is fast and easy.  The first time you do it you may be a little overwhelmed, but it's really not that hard.  First, you don't even have to have the documents you want to bates stamp open.  So, to make it easy I've created a PDF tutorial that you can download and view.  After you view it you'll know exactly what to do.  So here is the link  (Windows tutorial), but Mac is basically the same process).