In our December 2010 email newsletter, the MS Word tip of the month was how to add "Save to PDF" capability to MS Office 2007 (it is built-into MS Office 2010) even if you don't have Adobe Acrobat installed on your computer. One of our readers asked if the "Save to PDF" function in Word could be used to create the stripped-down PDF/A files that will soon be required by federal courts when efiling documents. The answer is yes. The PDF conversion tool in MS Office 2007 and 2010 can save to PDF/A format. When you select Save as PDF, the dialog box that opens will have an Options button. Click on that button and you will see near the bottom of the next dialog box the choice to pick PDF/A. It is that simple. I wouldn't recommend using PDF/A for general law office use. It strips out many of the useful features of PDF files for the sake of future compatibility, such as hyperlinks. When a document needs to be efiled in federal court, it can be saved to PDF/A at that time.

Staples is one of my favorite places to buy the tech products I need for my appellate practice. It is also my primary source for supplies such as paper, pens, etc. I have no affiliation with Staples other then my appreciation for the fact that they had the wisdom to open a store in the strip mall closest to my home/office. Now Staples is selling Amazon's market-leading Kindle ebook reader. The Wi-Fi only model is $139 while the Wi-Fi plus 3G model is $189 (a better value for the ability to download ebooks easily while traveling). It is available in-store only, so as not to compete with Amazon's on-line sales of the device. But this development gives you the chance for a hands-on test before you buy - something that was not possible when Amazon's web site was the only Kindle source. While I think the much more expensive Kindle DX (apparently not available at Staples stores) has more appeal to lawyers because its larger screen makes it easier to read PDF files (our format of choice for digital documents), the latest versions of the regular-sized Kindle also include native PDF reading capability. And it is possible to email PDF files to Amazon for conversion to Kindle's "text flow" format and then wireless download the converted document to your Kindle for easier reading.

Few things are as frustrating as having an inconsiderate colleague, client, co-counsel, or opposing counsel attach a huge file to an email message directed to you. If all goes well and you are in your office with a speedy connection using your regular email client, the attachment gets through without a problem, perhaps with some delay in processing your email send/receive cycle. But if you are on the road and depending on a slower Internet connection or, worse yet, your smart phone and its 3G connection, a huge email attachment could tie-up your email send/receive process for many minutes or even an hour or more. Although you cannot control the behavior of others (beyond making suggestions for appropriate conduct), you can avoid being the inconsiderate person who sends overly large email attachments. My personal rule is to never send a file that is 5MB or larger as an email attachment. For multiple attachments, the I keep the combined size under 5MB. In a perfect world, perhaps 1 or 2 MB would be a better limit given the wide use of smart phones among mobile lawyers. There are many services (some free, some paid) that let you upload large files and share them by emailing a download link to your intended recipient. One way to "send" larger files is to create a free account at Acrobat.com. Once you create your account, simply sign-in to your account's home page and upload the large file you would otherwise send via email attachment. Then simply click on the name of the file and hit the Share File button at the bottom left. A window will pop up so you can enter the email address of the recipient along with the subject and a message. Within a few seconds, your recipient will receive an email containing a link to the file. It will open in a browser-based viewer and provide a download option. This is a much more courteous way to share large files than by burdening your recipient with a huge email attachment that could, depending on where they are and how they are accessing their email, bring their workflow to a halt.

This post comes from Bill Lipner and his Lawyer PDF blog. If you use a document management system (DMS) such as Worldox, you should be aware of the integration options between DMS and a PDF content management system such as pdfDocs. In the full post at the link above, Bill explains that without tight integration between document management and PDF content management, your firm is exposed to information risk and users spend extra time on tasks that could be more efficient.

The large-screen Amazon Kindle DX has the been the ebook reader for choice for lawyers to use in their practices. It's larger screen, higher-capacity storage, long battery life, and native PDF compatibility gave it an edge over other ebook readers. Then Apple released the iPad earlier this year. The iPad is not an ebook reader per se, although it can be used for that purpose. But it is really a slate computer that has too many compromises to make it an ideal ebook reader, such as a backlit screen instead of e-ink and much shorter battery life. Despite these shortcomings as an ebook reader, the iPad is a very cool device in other ways. However, if you don't already have an iPad, and your are interested in a slate computer as an alternative to a notebook or netbook, you may want to wait for the release later this year of Cisco's business-oriented Cius slate (aka tablet) computer that will run the Android operating system. Apple's iPad sparked a price war among traditional e-ink based ebook readers such as the Kindle. Last week Amazon dropped the price on its standard-sized Kindle to just $189, making it a true bargain. Even better, today only (July 1), you can buy a Kindle for only $150 (plus $5 shipping) on the Woot web site. Woot is now owned by Amazon. Well the price war has finally hit the "lawyer's Kindle" - the larger DX model. Amazon dropped the price by $110 to $379, making it substantially cheaper than the cheapest iPad. Of course, that is an apples and oranges comparison anyway, but if what you really want and need is an ebook reader, this price drop makes your decision much easier. Not only did the price drop, but Amazon now offers the DX in a more "lawyerly" graphite gray color and improved the contrast of its e-ink screen by 50% so it will be easier to read and display graphics (in gray-scale, of course) more realistically. How can a lawyer use the DX in his/her practice? Read our earlier blog post here. Now the original Kindle DX (which I have owned and used in my appellate practice since its release over a year ago) can be purchased refurbished from Amazon for $249.99. It has the standard warranty and Amazon's regular 30-day return policy. Also big news on the Kindle front is the release of a Kindle app for the Android operating system. Those of you with a Kindle account and an Android cell phone have not, until now, been able to read your book purchases on the high-res screens on your phones. Now you can. I installed the new (free) Android Kindle app on my Motorola Droid. It works very well. I have access to all of my ebooks and they are quire readable on the bright and crisp Droid screen. That will probably get better once I receive my pre-ordered Droid X with an even larger screen in mid-July.

I had the pleasure of attending and speaking at the triennial Michigan Appellate Bench Bar Conference last week. During the Conference's Tech Tips session, I used my netbook computer to demonstrate efiling of an appeal brief using the Michigan Court of Appeals system operated by WizNet. As a Michigan-licensed lawyer residing over 1,000 miles away from the nearest court I practice in, efiling has been a huge benefit to me and cost saver for my clients. Even those whose office is a few blocks from their local trial or appellate court house will save money and time by efiling. In Michigan, as in most places, efiling is accomplished by converting your Word briefs and motions to PDF format, usually via Adobe Acrobat. Although rules will vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, the Michigan Court of Appeals provides a nice primer on how to adjust the settings of Adobe Acrobat to create PDF files better suited for efiling. For example, setting Acrobat to automatically create Bookmarks from the headings in your Word document and setting the resultant PDF doccument to open with the Bookmarks pane visible can be a time-saver and make the document more user-friendly for the reader. Consider downloading the guide from the Michigan Court of Appeals web site. It will be useful no matter where you practice. And be sure to check our Affinity University schedule for our excellent webinars and in-person seminars on using Adobe Acrobat in the law office.

Recently I wrote of the benefits of upgrading from Adobe Acrobat Standard to Acrobat Professional for the features that are useful in the law office, such as batch OCR processing. The upgrade is $160 (or less) very well spent. You should have at least one copy of Acrobat Professional in your office. However, you may not need Acrobat Professional on every computer in your office (or on your travel notebook/netbook or home PC). Indeed, depending on how you use your PC, you may not need the Standard version of Acrobat either. There are alternatives that let you read and create PDF documents. Some of those alternatives are free. A few offer nice features for legal users. One example recently featured in the always-interesting Lifehacker blog is the free version of Nitro PDF Reader. Unlike more basic free PDF readers and creators, Nitro has a full range of features that allow you to add annotations to PDF files (excellent for taking notes on transcripts, briefs, or documents you are reviewing), markup text (for marking necessary changes to draft documents), and fill-in PDF forms (becoming increasing common on court web sites). You can also scan your signature and sign PDF documents, saving the need to print a paper copy solely for the purpose of signing it, then rescanning it for transmittal via email attachment. Beyond viewing and annotating, Nitro includes a PDF print driver that lets you create PDF files from almost any Windows application. I particularly like the ability to drag any file and drop it onto the Nitro desktop icon to create a PDF file. Perhaps what truly sets Nitro PDF Reader apart from other free PDF viewing and creation tools is its use of a ribbon interface similar to Microsoft Office 2007. If you have become familiar with using Word 2007, using Nitro PDF Reader has the same look and feel. I installed it on one of my computers that also has Adobe Acrobat Standard. Although there are some things Acrobat can do that Nitro PDF can't, such as create bookmarks in PDF files, I like the simple uncluttered interface of Nitro better than Acrobat and will probably use it instead of Acrobat when I don't need full Acrobat functionality. For example, as an appellate lawyer, I often take notes and incorporate those directly into the PDF document when reading trial transcripts or reviewing documents that make up the trial court record. Nitro PDF seems easier to use for that purpose. Nitro PDF Reader is not a complete substitute for Adobe Acrobat, particularly the essential Professional edition of that application. But as a PDF tool on a secondary, home, or travel computer, it is worth serious consideration for the added features lawyers and law office staff will find useful.

When you scan a document, chances are the resultant PDF file is merely an image of the original document without a searchable OCR layer. PDF images are not nearly as useful to a law practice as are searchable PDFs. While many scanning applications can automatically convert PDF images to searchable PDFs as part of the scanning process, doing so can slow the process to a crawl. Anything that slows the scanning process will make you or your staff less likely to scan everything that comes into the office. Discouraging scanning is the last thing you want to do. One answer is to buy or upgrade your version of Adobe Acrobat from Standard to Professional. Standard does a great job of applying OCR to PDF images and turning them into searchable PDFs. But it does so one document at a time. If you need to convert a whole folder worth of documents, the process is tedious and time consuming. But Acrobat Professional allows batch processing of a large number (potentially hundreds) of documents at a time. For this feature alone, the upgrade from Standard to Professional is worth the price (typically in the $160 range per license). There are also other benefits relating to the creation of forms, redacting functions, document comparison capabilities, etc. Although a bit out-of-date, this blog post from Acrobat for Life Sciences details the steps to set up batch conversion of PDF images to searchable PDFs. There is a similar post from the ABA. Of course, batch OCR processing of multiple files is memory and processor intensive, so you will want to do this on a spare computer or at times when you are not using your computer for other functions. I know a tech-oriented appellate specialist in Detroit who gets extra duty out of his inexpensive Intel Atom-powered netbook by using it for scanning and batch OCR while at the office, then unplugs it from the office network and takes it on the road while traveling. That's squeezing great value out of a sub-$400 computer. Since learning of this idea, I've also done it with great success using my Toshiba NB205 netbook and an old spare copy of Acrobat 6 Professional I had in my junk drawer. You don't even need to leave your desk to do this because you can use any of several methods (Windows Remote Desktop via Live Mesh if the netbook has XP Home, LogMeIn, VNC, GoToMyPC, etc.) to remote into the netbook (or any spare computer) from your primary PC to open Acrobat and trigger the batch OCR process. As a Live Mesh user, I typically use Remote Desktop for this purpose.