Author Archives: Ben Stevens

If there is one product that can best demonstrate the creative possibilities the Mac allows, it is without a doubt Circus Ponies Notebook. Yes, it is a strange name, but it is a fantastic program. Its website describes it as “a combination outliner and free-form database that lets you clip, annotate, and share unstructured information.” Notebook takes advantage of the Mac’s simplicity and intuitiveness. When you open the program, it looks like a blank notebook. You can organize and use this program any way you want to, and the best part is that it is so easy that anyone can use it.

Notebooks can contain outline pages, free-form pages, or any combination. Its pages can contain text, graphics, audio, video, imported data — virtually anything you can imagine. You can copy and paste items into the pages, type information in directly, or even use “clipping services,” which allow you to automatically insert data into a specified notebook page, even if you are not using Notebook at the time.

One of the best features of Notebook is its automatic indexing of all information. Yes, all information placed into a Notebook is automatically placed into 14 indexes for easy location and retrieval later. These indices include: text, capitalized words, numbers, web addresses, highlighting, keywords, creation date, due date, etc. There is even a “Super Find” feature, which lets you search using multiple criteria at once.

Notebook can be used to organize information in the office or for use at trial. All of a file’s documents can be attached to a specified page, such as correspondence, pleadings, orders, etc. Witness outlines can include links to other pages or items (both within and outside Notebook). For instance, your notes on a given topic can include images, charts, audio clips, video deposition snippets, and other items for quick and easy retrieval. “NoteBook makes it easy to concentrate on what you need to present, rather than on how you should present it.”

I recently came across the following useful (and free) software:

• GIMP – This is an open source photo editing tool that is comparable to Photoshop, but without the cost.
• iClip – This program gives MacOSX multiple clipboards for copying and pasting.
• Carbon Copy Cloner – Invest in an external hard drive and use this to back up your entire hard drive. As the name implies it makes an exact copy of your hard drive onto a target drive.
• MacTheRipper – Enables you to get around most encryption and rip a copy of any DVD onto your harddrive, from which it can be inserted into presentations or backed up onto another DVD.

Source: “Crucial Mac Software: College Edition” plublished by Willie Morris at his blog, More Willie.

The Self-Presenting Presentation combines three great Apple software functions to automatically present and narrate each slide of a Keynote slideshows adapted for its use. Specifically, this application uses AppleScript, Keynote, and Text-to-Speech to begin playback of the presentation; initiate the transitions, build-ins, and build-outs of the slides; and speak the contents each slide’s notes field.

How can this software be incorporated into your practice?

• Create demonstrative presentations to give to insurance adjusters in personal injury cases to get more favorable settlement offers;
• Produce informational slideshow to display in your lobby to tell potential clients about yourself and/or your practice; or
• Design a case summary to give a mediator prior to mediation to provide him/her with an overview of your case.

You can download and view the Self-Presenting Presentation application from Nyhthawk Productions, which uses itself to give an eight-minute tutorial which outlines how the application works. Basically, you create your Keynote presentation, install the Install Test Script script, and add tags to your notes to “direct” the application.

Thanks to “The Self-Presenting Presentation” by Christopher Breen, published at Macworld.com, for his article about this application.