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Category Archives: Software

Rocket Matter Announces Exciting New Features

Posted on March 4, 2014 by Ben Stevens Posted in Office Management, Online Resources, Product Reviews, Software, Technology Leave a comment
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Rocket MatterThe older I get, the more I am reminded of how quickly time flies. It’s hard to believe, but Rocket Matter is now six years old. I received a call one afternoon in 2007 from a guy named Larry Port, whom I’d never met. He introduced himself to me and said that he wanted to get my thoughts on some software he was developing.

Over the course of the next several months, Larry let me know what he had planned for his product, which would come to be named Rocket Matter. I was very impressed with both him and his product, and when it was launched, my law firm was on board as “user #2”. During the next six years, Rocket Matter would become the leading mobile time and billing and legal practice management software for law firms.

Today, Rocket Matter announced its “Boldy Go” release, which features “Advanced, Galactic Interdimensional Search” capability (as shown below). This complete overhaul of its Global Intelligent Search allows users to quickly and easily locate any matter, contact, client, tag, or billable activity in the entire system from any screen at any time. This release also features a new advanced search page to allow users to build and save custom queries across those same entities, as well as custom data fields.

One of the features that I’ve always loved was the speed and ease of navigating within Rocket Matter. Now, it’s possible to find even more types of information just as quickly, which increases productivity. “Boldly Go” also includes over a dozen other suggested tweaks from legal professionals, including having the Client Portal and Copy2Contact integration enabled by default.

Larry Port said “So far in 2014, we’ve rolled out Box integration, and now our newly revamped search. We have a lot more exciting stuff coming down the pike to make life for attorneys a whole lot easier.” The best just keeps getting better. If you haven’t checked out Rocket Matter lately, take a look – and tell them that The Mac Lawyer sent you!

2014-03-01 Rocket Matter GIS 1

 

Force Quit Basics for Attorneys

Posted on February 5, 2014 by Ben Stevens Posted in How Do I ...?, Mac OS X, Software Leave a comment
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force quitSometimes applications misbehave, and this post will explain several Force Quit basics for attorneys to deal with them when this occurs. This feature is built into OS X, and there are several ways to access this option. In this post, I will discuss the most commonly used ones, which I hope you will find helpful.

The most common method is to select  > Force Quit…, which brings up a list of all applications that are currently running. You then click on the one you want to end, click Force Quit, and poof it’s gone. If you hold down the Shift key when clicking the  menu, the option changes to Force Quit [Current Application] and you can end it directly instead of having to navigate to it.

If you want to avoid having to navigate to the  menu, you can hit Command + Option + Escape to bring up the simple “Force Quit Applications” window, from which you can select the desired app and end it. However, my favorite way to Force Quit is to do so from the Dock, by using Option + Right Click (two finger tap on your trackpad) to bring up the “Force Quit” option.

Rocket Matter Announces Integration With Box

Posted on February 4, 2014 by Ben Stevens Posted in Online Resources, Software, Technology 1 Comment
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Rocket Matter and BoxFor many years, Rocket Matter has been the leading online case management and billing software for lawyers (and my firm’s case management / time and billing software for well over five years and counting).

One of the many things that I really like and admire about Rocket Matter is its attention to innovation, as evidenced by the fact that it has consistently added new features since it’s launch, including its integration with Dropbox way back in 2010.

Today, Rocket Matter announced that it has added integration with Box into its arsenal of features. Now, law firms are able to leverage Box’s cloud-based content sharing and collaboration platform from within Rocket Matter, including the ability to associate billable time with each item in a Box folder. You can learn much more about this new feature (including step-by-step instructions to implement this integration) here.

How to Work With Microsoft Word Files on an iPad

Posted on January 28, 2014 by Ben Stevens Posted in Apps, How Do I ...?, iPad, Software Leave a comment
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ms word on ipadLots of attorneys want to be able to work with Microsoft Word (*.doc) files on an iPad, but they don’t know what is available to allow them to do so. There are a number of programs for the iPad that are essentially the equivalent of a mobile version of Microsoft Office.

Randy Singer, one of the deans of Mac legal technology, compiled the following list that he graciously agreed for me to share with my readers. Each of these programs can read, edit, and create MS Office documents on your iPad.

Check them out, and please feel free to leave a comment below to let us know which is your favorite:

  • OfficeSquared from ByteSquared ($6)
  • Documents to Go from DataViz ($10/$17)
  • QuickOffice from Google (free)
  • CloudOn (subscription)
  • OpenOffice on iPad from RollApp (free)
  • Textilus by knowtilus (free/$6)
  • UX Write by UX Productivity ($24.99)
  • Pages from Apple ($9.99/free)
  • iWork for iCloud (beta) (free)
  • OnLive (free to $10/mo.)
  • Office365 (starting at $5/mo.)

Evernote Clearly Rocks!

Posted on January 16, 2014 by Ben Stevens Posted in Apps, Chrome, Product Reviews, Software, Technology 1 Comment
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Evernote ClearlyThe title of this blog post is a double entendre. Yes, it’s no secret that I have been a huge fan of Evernote and have used it for years, so as an App, it is amazing.

However, I have recently begun to use Evernote’s Clearly browser plug-in, and it clearly rocks! Busy attorneys will find the following features in Clearly particularly helpful:

  • Distraction-free reading – Clearly provides a distraction-free view of your favorite web content by making the text cleaner and easier to read and removing ads, navigation and other distractions.
  • Save to Evernote –  Save content from the web directly into your Evernote account with one click, so that you can read or reference it later. Using Evernote’s Smart Filing feature, your content will automatically be tagged and saved to a related notebook.
  • Listen with text-to-speech – If you have an Evernote Premium account, Clearly can read web content to you, and it highlights the word currently being read to make it easy to follow if you so desire.

Clearly offers a number of ways to customize your reading and web clipping experience, and it’s available for Chrome, Firefox, and Opera browsers. Best of all, it’s absolutely free! You can learn more about Clearly’s features (including its customization options) and watch a short tutorial video here.

Prior to using Clearly, I used Evernote’s Web Clipper plug-in, which provides similar clipping functionality, but frankly it would tend to be somewhat temperamental at times. I have found Clearly to be much more user-friendly, and it’s additional features make it a much better option for lawyers.

If you want to learn more about Evernote and how it can be used in your law practice, read some of our previous posts below:

  • Top Effective Uses of Evernote by Attorneys
  • Guest Post: Life in “The Cloud” (Evernote)
  • Pros & Cons of Web-Based Software for Attorneys
  • Mac Daddy: Solutions to Put to Work in Your Law Practice
  • The Mac Lawyer Featured in Forbes’ Cloud Software Article

The Best iPad Apps for Lawyers

Posted on January 9, 2014 by Ben Stevens Posted in Apps, Online Resources, Software Leave a comment
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In my opinion, one of the best legal technology blogs is iPad Notebook. It’s published by Justin Kahn, who is one of the smartest people I know, a tech guru, one heck of a lawyer, and a great all around guy. In fact, Justin is one of the few people whose recommendations I readily accept without question.

Justin recently published Apps for Attorneys (and Others), a list of what he considers the best apps to help you practice law better with your iPad. Because I want you to read his post and insightful commentary, I have only listed the names and list prices of his recommended apps below:

  • TrialPad ($89.99)
  • iPad Apps for AttorneysCircus Ponies NoteBook ($29.99)
  • Outline+ ($14.99)
  • TranscriptPad ($89.99)
  • iAnnotate PDF ($9.99)
  • Notes Plus ($9.99)
  • Penultimate (free)
  • Pages ($9.99)
  • Textilus ($5.99)
  • Westlaw Next (free)
  • Lexis Advance HD (free)
  • Reminders (free)
  • Notes (free)
  • Drafts ($2.99)
  • JuryPad ($24.99)
  • iJuror ($19.99)

Thanks for compiling this list, Justin. Keep up the great work!

Source: Apps for Attorneys (and Others) by Justin Kahn, published at iPad Notebook.

Readdle’s Scanner Pro Available for Free for a Limited Time

Posted on January 3, 2014 by Ben Stevens Posted in Office Management, Product Reviews, Software 1 Comment
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Scanner ProScanners are an invaluable tool for most attorneys. Do you ever use your iPhone or iPad as a document scanner? If not, you should – as it’s very handy when you aren’t near a “real” scanner.

There are numerous apps that provide this functionality, but one of the best (and The Mac Lawyer’s personal favorite) is Scanner Pro from Readdle – and it’s available for free for the next week because it’s been named Apple’s “App of the Week”.

Scanner Pro is one of the most highly rated scanning apps in the App Store, and it turns your iPhone or iPad into a portable scanner for documents, receipts, notes, photos, and more. The app removes shadows, sharpens scans, and corrects perspective in order to make scans as “readable as possible,” and it utilizes edge detection in order to create fast, accurate scans, and it stores scans as PDF files that can be emailed/printed or uploaded to Dropbox, Evernote, Google Drive, etc.

Even though I believe that Scanner Pro is a bargain at its normal $6.99, this marks the first time since it was released in 2011 that it’s been available for free. If you don’t have it yet, do yourself a favor and click here to get it now.

Source: Readdle’s ‘Scanner Pro’ Named App of the Week, Available for Free published at MacRumors.com.

Macworld’s Best Products of 2013

Posted on December 31, 2013 by Ben Stevens Posted in Hardware, Product Reviews, Software Leave a comment
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EddysThe end of the year means numerous “best of” lists. One of the more prestigious awards is the Macworld Editors’ Choice Award, or Eddy. You can access the entire list here, but these are some selections worth checking out:

  • Adonit Jot Script ($75) is the hottest new stylus on the market. It features a 1.9mm plastic nib with Pixelpoint technology for extra-precise writing. It’s an incredibly impressive pen for writing on your iPad or iPad mini, particularly in Evernote’s Penultimate app.
  • Fujitsu ScanSnap iX500 ($495) is simply the best scanner on the market, period. While it may look similar to its predecessors, this version has a faster and more reliable paper-feed mechanism (up to 25 double-sided pages per minute), and its built-in Wi-Fi converts the scans to JPEG or PDF to allow scanning directly to your iPhone or iPad.
  • Logitech Bluetooth Easy-Switch Keyboard K811 ($100) pairs with up to three OS X and/or iOS devices simultaneously and lets you switch your active Bluetooth connection between them with a simple key press. It’s smaller and lighter than Apple’s Wireless Keyboard, recharges by USB, and even has motion-activated backlighting for typing in dimly lit environments.
  • Agile Bits 1Password is available in both OS X Mavericks ($50) and iOS ($18) versions. This app offers a great combination of convenience and security. You can easily access or create passwords, either through the app itself, through the Mac menu bar, or in a browser with the 1Password extension, and then sync your data via Dropbox, iCloud, or Wi-Fi – all while savely encrypted.
  • Surtees Studios Bartender ($15) helps you organize the application icons in your menu bar. It places its own icon there, which when clicked gives you a submenu bar filled with the icons you’ve chosen to hide. It is simple to use and does its job without muss or fuss.

Source: Macworld Editors’ Choice Awards: The Best Products of 2013.

iOS 7 Allows Super Fast Redemption of iTunes Gift Cards

Posted on December 26, 2013 by Jenny Stevens Posted in Did You Know?, iOS, iPad, iPhone, Online Resources, Software Leave a comment
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itunes gift cardsIt’s a pretty safe bet that lots of gift cards were given yesterday – especially iTunes cards. They are the perfect gift for children, for adults, for readers, for music lovers, for the gamer or the movie buff. And now Apple iOS 7 offers the easiest way to redeem all your iTunes gift cards in less than a second.

 

Simply scratch or peel off the foil to reveal your card number. Go to the iTunes Store App on your iOS7 device, scroll to the very bottom, and click “Redeem”. Then, simply point your camera at the code on the card, and presto!, your iTunes account is instantly updated to reflect the card balance. It’s that easy.

App Santa Delivers Great App Deals

Posted on December 24, 2013 by Ben Stevens Posted in Online Resources, Software, Special Offers Leave a comment
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App SantaWorried because you been naughty this year? Never fear. App Santa will still bring you great deals from some of the most popular developers on the App Store – with savings up to 60%.

Some of the featured apps include such The Mac Lawyer favorites as Scanner Pro by Readdle ($2.99), 1Password by AgileBits ($9.99), and PDF Converter by Readdle ($2,99).

Check it out today and get some apps for your Ho-Ho-Home (sorry, I couldn’t resist).

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