Category Archives: Software

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Synchronization Programs

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For the last several years, one of my favorite programs has been Network Unplugged. Not long after I started using Network Unplugged, Mobiliti, the company that made it was acquired by Packeteer. At that time, the name was changed from Network Unplugged to Mobiliti.

Regardless the program was still the same. The aspect of this program that I really loved was that it replicated the network folders I designated onto my local drive. Thus, when I was away from the office, I could still access my files. In addition to replicating the files, however, it also replicated the drive path. Thus, accessing a file when I am sitting on my back deck is the same as accessing one when I am in the office. When I return to the office, I simply synchronize the files and I am all set.

Unfortunately, last year Packeteer was acquired by Blue Coat Systems. As a consequence, Mobiliti is no longer being sold. Thus, I have started looking for a possible replacement, in the event that I will have to make a switch in the future. Right now Mobiliti is still working fine for me. However, I want to be preapred in case I develop a problem with it or if it comes time to upgrade to a new computer.

One program that I have stumbled across is BeInSync. It looks promising. However, I am curious if there is anyone who has tried it who doesn’t mind sharing their experiences. I am also open to other suggestions. The key features I am looking for are preserving the file paths and good synchronization.  I am also not interested in a solution that requires me to have an internet connection.

Although I am connected to high speed internet much of the time, there are places I visit regularly where I have no reliable internet connection.

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Adobe Acrobat 9 Error

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Is anyone else having this problem? I am using Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro Extended. Starting last week, Acrobat keeps crashing on me. It almost always crashed if I OCR a document and then try to save it. Also, it will crash sometimes if I open a scanned document and then try to save it.

The error message I receive is:

Adobe Acrobat 9.1 was encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience.

When I click to get more information, I discover the following Error signature:

AppName: acrobat.exe

AppVer: 9.1.0.163

ModName: ntdll.dll

ModVer: 5.1.2600.2180

Offset: 00018fea

My computer is running fine, otherwise. I have tried repairing my installation of Acrobat and that was of no assistance.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

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Using Checkmarks in Excel

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Carol’s Corner Office Blog recently had a great trip on how to add checkmarks to an Excel spreadsheet. Carol explains:

I receive lots of e-mail from subscribers asking me if they can put checkmarks into the cells in their MS Excel spreadsheets. The short answer is yes!

There are several ways to place checkmarks in the cells of your MS Excel spreadsheets. Follow the steps below to learn how:

Note – Depending upon your version of MS Excel and Windows, you may not have some of the fonts below.

  1. Type a lower case a and change the font to Marlette or Webdings.
  2. Type an upper case P and change the font to Wingdings2.
  3. Hold down the ALT key and type 251.
  4. Click on Insert | Insert Symbol and scroll down and click on the checkmark. Click on Insert | Close | Enter.
  5. Hold down the ALT key and type 0252 and change the font to Wingdings.

I know that this is probably not something you need to do often, however, if you need a checkmark, you now know several ways to accomplish this. Check out Carol’s complete post. It contains 6 different ways for you to add checkmarks to your spreadsheet.

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Redaction Done Wrong. Again!

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At times I am amazed at the technical incompetency of some people. Recently the AP was able to discover the confidential details of  the settlement between Facebook and ConnectU because whoever “redacted” the confidential information did not actually redact the information. Instead of properly redacting information from the document, the person simply put white boxes over the “redacted” information. Because of this, “The Associated Press was able to read the blacked-out portions by copying from an electronic version of the document and pasting the results into another document.”

Additionally, there are multiple other ways in which the information can be read in Adobe Acrobat. In fact, if you choose Document > Examine Document, in Adobe Acrobat, Acrobat will create a report that lists all of the “redacted” information.

To view the document yourself, click here.

The reality is that it is not too much to ask for basic technical competence from people who are publishing allegedly redacted documents. It’s one thing to not have a full understanding of all of your computer’s programs. However, if someone is going to release allegedly redacted documents on the internet, it is not unreasonable to have that person actually ensure that the documents are redacted properly. The thing that makes this worse is that the document could have been redacted in Acrobat easily and, if done with the redaction tool, none of the confidential information would remain in the document.

In a great coincidence I attended an Adobe webinar on redaction just days after the AP story broke. If you would like to learn more about redaction, you can check out information from that webinar here.

Hat tip to PDF for Lawyers for first linking to this story.

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Making a Useful Signature Stamp

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At PDF for Lawyers, Ernie the Attorney provides a great tutorital on creating a digital signature in Adobe Acrobat. The problem with using a digital signature in Acrobat is that most people don’t understand them. In addtion to your name, the digital signature contains other information that verifies that you signed the document and that it has not been changed since.

Ernie explains:

A signature, digital or not, has to satisfy two elements: (1) non-repudiability, and (2) acceptance by the receiving party.  In other words, the point of signing a document is so the recipient knows it’s from you, and that you can’t deny it’s from you (i.e. you can’t repudiate authorship of the document).  Digital signatures are far superior to regular signatures in this arena.  Where they fail miserably is in the ‘acceptance’ part.
Because digital signatures are not familiar to most people they freak out if they see a bunch of numbers where they’re used to seeing indecipherable human scrawl.  So, how to remedy this problem?
The quick and dirty fix is to do what I outline in that blurb I mentioned a few sentences ago. Just create a stamp and slap that on the document you want to ‘sign.’  It won’t be secure like a real digital signature (and if you want to repudiate it you can say your secretary exceeded her authority and stamped it without your knowledge).  But, let’s say you’re a fair-minded, by-the-rules kind of guy (or gal).  Is there another option?

Fortunately Ernie has solved this problem. Simply go to his post and follow his few simple steps to create a digital signature with an appearance that won’t freak people out.

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A Primer on Electronic Signatures

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TechnoEsq has a great post in which he discusses the methods of signing electronic documents. As he explains:

Contracts are now signed electronically, emails are frequently used for communication between counsel and clients, pleadings in federal court are even electronically signed and filed. Obviously, such a paradigm shift is necessary in the modern era and makes today’s world work, from ATM and credit card purchases to purchasing automobile insurance online. From a legal perspective, however, there are many different forms of electronic signatures. The term is used interchangeably to describe three very distinct means of signing a document electronically:

1. Signature Stamp (or scanned version of a signature)

2. Electronic Signature (used in the federal court system)

3. Digital Signature (encryption used to authenticate a document).

This article explains the three forms of electronic signatures and assist in their creation.

I urge you to review this article to find out the uses for each of these three types of signatures as well as how to create and use each of them.

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Creating a New Google Docs Document from GMail

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Google recently added a new feature to Gmail that allows you to create a new document in Google Docs with one click. As the GMail Blog explains:

No more copying and pasting the text from your email — just open the message you wish to convert, click the “Create a document” link on the right side of the page, and voila, you have a brand new document which you can then modify and share!

This feature is not turned on automatically. To turn it on, simply open your Gmail account, click on Settings, then click on Labs. Near the bottom is Create a Document. Click enable and then save the settings. While there, feel free to poke around the other options available and try them out if any catch your attention.

Hat tip to Reid Trautz for first pointing this out.

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Synchronizing Files with Dropbox

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The Affinity Law Office Technology Blog recently posted about Dropbox, a site that allows you to backup, share, and synchronize your files online.

The post explained:

Once installed, the software creates a Dropbox folder on your desktop.  Simply drag files you want to sync with another computer to the Dropbox folder.

Here’s how it works:

  • Drag and drop to move files around, just like you normally would
  • Any files or folders inside Dropbox will get synchronized to Dropbox’s servers and any other computer linked to your account.
  • Green checkmarks will appear on top of your files to let you know that they’re synced and up to date.

Dropbox provides up to 2GB of storage for free. Larger amounts are available for a monthly fee. The feature that I love about this service is the synchronization. There are a variety of services that allow you to store documents online for retrival anywhere. This service not only allows you to store them, but it also synchronizes the files and lets you when when they have been synchronized. This means that you don’t have to worry about keeping track of which version of the docuent is the most recent.

If you are looking for a way to synchronize your files, you might want to check Dropbox out.

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Microsoft Word Tips for Jury Instructions

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I just saw a great tip from Carol’s Corner Office Blog about printing jury instructions. One of the problems with preparing jury instructions is that you need a copy for you, opposing counsel, and the judge with citations on them. You also need jury instructions for the jury without these citations. Of course you can make one set, print them, delete the citation information, and then print them. It always seems, however, that something gets screwed up in this process.

Carol has a great suggestion that I have never heard before. She explains:

  1. Create your Jury Instructions for the judge, complete with citations.
  2. Now select the citations at the bottom of the page.
  3. Click on Format | Font.
  4. Under Effects, select Hidden, which will hide the citation text.
  5. When you are ready to print the judge’s Jury Instructions, click on File | Print or use the shortcut CTRL + P.
  6. From the Print menu, click the Options button.
  7. From the Print dialog box, select Hidden Text under Include with Document.
  8. Click OK two times to close the dialog box and print the document with cites.

I think this is a great tip that I am definately adding to my knowledge base. I just wish I had this tip a few weeks ago when I was preparing jury instructions.

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PDF Tips and Tricks

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Recently PDF for Lawyers pointed to a great article on How to Do Everything with PDF Files. I don’t know that the list actually covers how to do everything. However, it is a pretty comprehensive list with several different tips, including several for creating PDFs without using Adobe Acrobat. The first few tips include:

Q: First things first – How do I create PDF documents on my computer without Adobe Acrobat?

A: Get a copy of DoPDF – it installs as a virtual printer driver on your desktop just like Acrobat and lets you print PDF files from any Windows application including images, documents, emails, websites, etc.

Q: I don’t want to install software just for converting a bunch of documents to PDF. Do you know of any alternative?

A: Upload your documents to Google Docs via the browser and then export them as PDF files. Simple.

Q: A client just sent me a PowerPoint presentation by email. Since I am travelling without the laptop and my mobile phone cannot read PPT files, what should I do?

A: Forward that email message (with the PPT attachment) to pdf@koolwire.com – they’ll convert the presentation to PDF and email it back to you immediately. Most mobile phones can read PDF files.

Check out the article for the entire list. The list contains some excellent tips for manipulating PDF files if you do not have Adobe Acrobat.

Now I, like Ross Kodner, believe that the best PDF solution available is Adobe Acrobat. Further, as Ross explains, multiple ways exist to get a full version without paying list price. Additionally, when compared to other similarly powered software solutions, the street price of Acrobat is not out of line.

Despite my believe that everyone should have a full version of Acrobat. I recognize that the solutions in this list are useful for two groups of people. First, there is the large number of people who can’t or won’t purchase a full version of Acrobat. Second, are those who have a full version of Actobat but who are stuck working on a different computer because of travel, etc. In either situation, the tips here give you a great option to create or manipulate PDF files.

Note: I recently installed and begin using Nitro PDF and am in the process of evaluating it. I will be providing a full review on it in the near future. In the meantime, I would note that it has many features not found in other PDF programs and I am enjoying trying it out.