Google Photos

We all use our phones as cameras, but many of us find it difficult to transfer pictures from the phone to a computer or some other device.  We end up letting the pictures fill up on our phone and then have to figure out what to do when it is time for a new phone.  Worse, we break our phone and lose all those pictures forever.

There are numerous ways, of course, to get photos off of the phone. One of the most convenient is Google Photos.  This can be installed as an App on your Android or iPhone.  You can configure the app, so that all photos are immediately uploaded to Google's cloud storage.

There are several things I find particularly attractive about Google Photos.  First, there is no storage limit.  You may upload and store as many photos as you like without ever having to pay extra storage fees.  There is no need to worry about limits.  Second, once it is configured, it works without you having to do anything.  Just take a picture and you are done.  It will upload automatically.  Third, access to the photos is easy.  Just go to http://photos.google.com and see all of your photos (assuming you are already logged into your Google account).

You can leave the photos on the site, share them with others, or download them for use elsewhere.  No need to worry about transferring between devices or losing them when a computer dies.  If you have photos stored on your PC, you can also upload them manually to the Photos site for permanent free cloud storage.

Photo size is limited to 16 megapixels for the unlimited storage.  This is not a problem for pictures taken with your Galaxy or iPhone as neither phone can take pictures above that level.  It may be an issue if you are uploading high quality pictures from another device.  If you want the unlimited storage, Google will automatically reduce the photos to the required levels for storage.

Video can also be uploaded and stored.  Again, there is a limit that the video of 1080p HD.  But again, that will suffice for most people.  Your phones are not capable of higher video quality.

If you delete a photo from the web site, it will also delete from any synced devices, such as your phone.  So do not delete from there if you want to keep the photo.  You may, however, delete a photo from your phone and keep it stored in the cloud.

Also, if you plan to store pictures there forever, remember that if you leave the firm and we shut down your Google account, those photos will go with them.  If you are taking personal photos, you may want to sync them to a personal Gmail account that you control.

iTimeKeep v.2 Updates

I received the following message from iTimeKeep.  They are upgrading their Version 2 release with some requested additions.  Below are the details.  If you have auto-updates turned on for your phone or tablet, you should get this updated app automatically.

Thank you all for the wonderful feedback since our Version 2 release. We have been hard at work to continue to meet our customers’ needs. We are excited to announce that we will be releasing an update to both our mobile and desktop applications on Wednesday, December 16th!  What is included in the update? Ability to Submit All While the new version of iTimeKeep gives your attorneys the flexibility to individually submit timecards, we understand that the change in workflow might have slowed down some attorneys that are already used to submitting timecards all at once.For those entries that are created as “drafts,” attorneys will have the ability to submit all of those entries at once. Check out a screenshot of what to expect to see with the update! For additional information, click here. Calendar View We understand that attorneys want the ability to see the whole picture as it relates to their worked hours. So, we have created a new feature within iTimeKeep called the “Calendar View”. The “Calendar View” will allow users to see a complete daily total of all their submitted, draft, and errored time entries. Check out a screenshot of what to expect to see with the update! For additional information, click here. What is included in the update? The current mobile iTimeKeep application will update by an automatic update or having your users manually update the current application. These actions are dependent upon the users’ app settings on their device. In case your users need to manually update the current version of iTimeKeep to gain access to the new feature, here are two documents that will be helpful to pass along. How to update an iOS device How to update an Android device The iTimeKeep desktop application will automatically update without the users taking any action. If you have any questions regarding the update, please contact our Product Manager at product@bellefield.com. Sincerely, The Bellefield Team Copyright © 2015, Bellefield Systems All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you are a registered iTimeKeep user. Bellefield Systems 2605 Nicholson Road Suite 202 Sewickley, PA 15143 Add us to your address book

iCore Communicator

Our phone accounts also come with a license to use a software program called "communicator".  This is a program that you can install on a computer, tablet, or cell phone that gives you the ability to make and receive calls as if you were in front of your office phone.  It also gives you access to voicemail and allows you to do a number of other things.

Firm policy allows only attorneys and other non-hourly employees to use Communicator.  Hourly employees are expected to use their phones only, since they should not be making or receiving work calls when not at work and on the clock.  If you have some wish to use Communicator on your computer in the office, please contact Michael Troy to explain why and get approval first.

You must install the Communicator application.  Your license permits you to install the program only on one computer and up to three tablets or phones.  So don't try to install it everywhere.

If you want the computer version of the software (PC or Mac) you can download it here:

http://www.icore.com/support/icore-one-communicator-download/

If you want the software for your Android or IOS device, you can download those for free from the Google Play Store or Apple's App Store respectively.  Just search for "icore communicator".  Note that there may be separate apps for tablets and phones.

Once installed, you will need to log in using your full 10 digit phone number as your user name. Please contact Michael Troy to get your password.

From there, you can view a list of callers, look up numbers, make or receive calls, or change some of your work phone settings.

If you are using this app on your cell phone, note that it uses your data rather than cell phone minutes for calls.  If you are connected to Wifi on your phone, the call will use neither minutes nor mobile data.

Phone Hoteling - for the Lawyer on the go.

Perhaps you occasionally or often need to work in another office.  You would like to be able to receive calls, but don't want to deal with all the calls on your cell phone.  There is a phone at the location where you are working, but it does not have your number on it.  This is where the phones "hoteling" feature comes in handy.

Hoteling allows you to set up temporarily any phone in the firm with your phone number.  We just need to know the extension of the phone where you are sitting.  From that, we can configure your calls to ring directly to that phone.  Further, any calls you make from that phone will identify you as you, rather than the name of the phone you are using.  It will also alert you about pending voicemail messages.

Hoteling is really limited to the phone number itself though.  It will not import your favorites or other settings you may have on your permanent phone.  The LCD screen does not change at all.  Hoteling also will not work with phones outside the firm.  Also, while you hoteling, calls to the host phone will go directly to voicemail.

With those limitations, hoteling can be a valuable tool if you are visiting another office and want to keep in touch.  If you have the need, feel free to call the help desk to set it up for you.

Receiving Voicemail Messages

Messages as Email Attachments

Many people have commented about the new feature that allows you to receive all of your voicemail messages as an email attachment.  If this was not turned on for you and you would like the feature, call the help desk and we can fix it for you.  Similarly, if you find the feature annoying and don't want copies of your messages filling up your email inbox, let us know and we can turn it off for you.

You may also just want the email notification, but not receive that bulky WAV attachment.  We can configure your line to notify you with an email only, no attachment.  You can then still check messages on your phone after getting a notification.

Keep in mind that WAV files can take up a fair amount of space.  I recommend you delete these emails after listening to them unless there is a specific reason you need to save it.  Otherwise, you may find your Gmail inbox filling up at an alarming rate.

If you try to open the attachment in Gmail, you will get an error that it cannot be played.  You would need to download the file to your computer and listen to it in Windows Media Player, or whatever preferred audio player program you may use.

You should be able to download the files on your phone, however, you may find it takes longer to download that it would be simply to call your phone and check messages.

Checking Messages Remotely

That brings me to my next topic, accessing messages remotely.  To do this, simply call your office phone number on an outside line and press * once your voicemail message begins.  You will then be prompted for your password and can then listen to your messages.

Messages Waiting

If you have unread messages on your phone, you will have a red blinking light at the top of the phone informing you of this (although we can turn that off if you prefer).  Check messages by pressing the message button (the envelope button to the left of your number pad) and connect.  Then follow the prompts.

The default configuration is that your messages are saved both on the phone and sent to you as an email.  If you listened to your WAV file attachment, that does not affect the read status of your messages on your phone. If you prefer to receive messages only as emails and never saved to your phone, we can configure that for you, or as mentioned previously, save messages only on your phone and just receive notifications via email, or the third option of no email notifications at all.

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iTimeKeep v.2

Bellefield has recently published a new version of iTimeKeep, which is a great way to enter and manage your time in Elite.

What is iTimeKeep?

For those not using iTimeKeep, it is a time entry system licensed supported by the firm.  I would say it is alternative to Webview, but I actually recommend it over Webview.  Rest assured we will be supporting both methods for the foreseeable future.  I think iTimeKeep is superior in many ways.

For starters, you are not limited to using certain versions of Internet Explorer.  iTimeKeep supports virtually any modern web browser.  There are also free apps for your Android or IOS (iPhone & iPad) devices.

If you have not yet tried iTimeKeep, now is a great time to see if this makes your time entry easier.   You are free to go back and forth between iTimeKeep and Webview.  Using one does not prevent you from using the other.  Your iTimeKeep user name and password should be the same as you use for Gmail.

Another good reason to use iTimeKeep is that, especially for the satellite offices, it works much faster than Webview in most circumstances.

What's New with iTimeKeep v.2?

If you are already an iTimeKeep user, you may have notice some significant changes in the last couple of weeks.

The biggest change for timekeepers is that everything is much more tightly integrated with Elite. Under the old system, iTimeKeep would not let you edit, or even view, time entries made in Webview.  Now, any time entered in any way is visible in iTimeKeep and can be edited.

No more batch submissions: with iTimeKeep v.2, when you enter or edit time, it immediately updates in Elite. You don't need to go through a separate step to submit your time.  There is no longer an need to save entries as drafts, since you can continue to edit your entries even after they have been submitted.

Timers are now synchronized.  If you start a timer on your phone, you will also see it running when you view iTimeKeep on your computer.  You can seamlessly move back and forth between devices as you enter and track your time.

Real time validation of Time Entry.  If you violate a rule for a time entry, such as omitting a task code when mandatory, you will be informed immediately so you can correct the error right away.  This feature will not work until we update the back end, however.  More on that below.

Any abbreviations set up in Elite will also work on iTimeKeep.  Alas this is not true for Shortkeys, which is not available for phones or tablets.  Of course, Shortkeys on your computer will still work if entering time via iTimeKeep on that computer.

You can also track your monthly progress.  iTimeKeep will show you your month-to-date hours so you can track your progress toward monthly targets.

For those so inclined, the new iTimeKeep also support Apple Watch.

Upgrading to v.2

Your browser connection should show you the new v.2 interface already.  If you have an App on your phone or tablet, you will need to update your App.  Many of you may have this set to happen automatically, in which case you should be fine.  If you have updates set to manual, you must update your iTimeKeep App to the latest version.

Once you are upgraded, you will have most of the functionality of the new version.   There are a few features that required the IT Department to make changes to the back end.  We will be making these changes shortly. We want to give everyone time to upgrade their Apps first.  Because while the new App works fine with our existing back end, once we upgrade the back end, the older versions of the Apps will no longer function at all.

Calling Your Favorite Numbers

On the main LCD screen of your new phone, you should see  your name and extension next to the first button. If you press the button, you can get a dial tone.

You may see a few other names on your screen if you cover calls for other people.  Most likely though, you don't have names next to all 12 buttons. For empty spaces, you have the ability to add people in your group to this list for making quick one button calls to that person.

If you press and hold a button for about two seconds, you will bring up the "Add Contact" menu. Enter a person's name and phone number (number goes under "contact") and press Save.  That name will show up on your screen all the time.  Just press the number next to that name to call that person.

You also have the ability to change the ring type for calls from certain people.  This can alert you immediately from the sound of the ring when a particular person calls.

There is also an option to auto-reject or auto-divert calls from a certain number.  However, if you are using that feature, you probably are not calling that person all the time either.  There are better ways to do block a person without having that number appear on your screen.  If you need help doing that, the Help Desk can assist you.

Favorite numbers are different from call coverage numbers in that your phone will not ring for the other person's calls, and you cannot pick up their line.  A favorite is simply an easy shortcut way to call someone you call regularly.  If you need call coverage, please contact the help desk.

There is also an option to add a "busy lamp" button to your phone which will allow you to add a name to your screen, but will also show you when that person is on the line.  A "busy lamp" will only work for numbers within the firm.  They can be added through the cloud portal.  If you are not comfortable with that, the help desk can add a "busy lamp" contact to your screen for you.

Do Not Disturb: Be careful!

The new phones come equipped with a Do Not Disturb button, labelled DND.  There is also a DND button on your home screen which does the same thing.  If you enable this feature, all of your calls will go directly to voicemail.  If you have a staff member covering your calls, turning on DND will prevent the calls from ringing at that phone too.

If you don't want to be bothered by incoming ringing, but still want your secretary to answer your calls, just use the -/+ key at the bottom of your phone to turn the ringer all the way down.  This will prevent you from hearing the ring until you turn it up again.

Some people have turned on this feature inadvertently, so be careful not to do this by accident.

If you see a red "do not enter" symbol next to your name on the LCD screen, you have DND turned on. To turn it off, simply press the DND button again and the symbol next to your name because a green circle with a check mark.

Easier Ways to Call

Our new phones make it much easier to find a phone number for someone in the office, or someone we regularly call.

Calling Someone in Your Office

Say you want to call someone in your office, but don't remember their extension.  To access the office directory, click on Home (the button that looks like a house).  Then use the arrow keys to highlight "directories" and select that.  Select "Contact Directory" to see a list of all phones in your office.  Highlight the person you want to call, press "select" and you are calling them.

Calling Someone in Another Office

Only, phones in your office show up in the Contact Directory.  You may, however, search for names in other offices by using the Broadsoft Directory.  Type in a few letters of a person's first or last name, then hit "submit" to find all phones that match the name, or portion of a name, that you typed. Once you find the person you want on the list, highlight and select to call.

At present, we seem to have an issue with the Broadsoft Directory that is causing it to search only first names.  Until we get this fixed, you can click on the AdvFind button to search the last name field.

We did  have a few other glitches getting the search feature to work at all on some phones.  If you get an error about "server unavailable", please email Mike Troy so that we can get it fixed for you.

Outside Lines

Outside numbers are not in the directory, but you can view lists of all recent of missed calls, received calls, placed calls, or all calls calls by clicking on the down arrow from the main screen (just press "type" to change what type of list you are viewing).  Again, just select the number you want to call them.

The New Age of Fax

In a past blog post I discussed why I thought we needed to update our fax technology.  We are now implementing this update.

As part of our move to Vonage, we have contracted with our new phone vendor to take care of our fax needs as well.  We will be retiring all of the fax machines in all of our offices.  We simply can no longer justify the cost of maintaining the machines and the analog phone lines to support them when there are better ways to accomplish the same things.

Sending Faxes

Sending faxes can be accomplished by going to the fax2mail.com fax web site.  If your document is already in electronic format, you can probably just upload that file.  If you have paper, you will need to scan it into a PDF or one of the other acceptable formats.  Once you have your file, go to:

https://fax2mail.easylink.com/welcome.do

A copy of this link has been added to the Research Home Page.

Next, log in using the name of your office's fax account:

Philadelphia-Fax@margolisedelstein.com
Mt_Laurel-Fax@margolisedelstein.com
Pittsburgh-Fax@margolisedelstein.com
Scranton-Fax@margolisedelstein.com
Harrisburg-Fax@margolisedelstein.com
Berkeley_Heights-Fax@margolisedelstein.com
Wilmington-Fax@margolisedelstein.com
Hollidaysburg-Fax@margolisedelstein.com
Beaver-Fax@margolisedelstein.com

Contact the help desk for the password for your office.

Once logged in, click on the "Send Fax" option on the left side of the screen.  You will then be asked to fill out fields that ask for:

1. Name of the recipient
2. Company
3. Fax Address (this will almost always be the fax phone number of the recipient)
4. Subject

All of this will appear on a cover sheet if you include one.  Click on ADD to save the information in the box to the right. If you have multiple recipients, you may repeat this process as many times as necessary

Next, upload your document.  The site will accept a variety of formats, with the notable exception of WordPerfect.  I recommend using PDF.  You may also type in your name and comments below this, which will appear on the cover sheet.

When ready, click on "review and send" in the top right, then hit "ok" when prompted.  Your fax will be sent to the designated fax machines.  If there is an error or problem with delivery, you will receive a notice to that effect.

Receiving Faxes

Under the new system, any incoming faxes will be sent to you as an email attachment.  The fax numbers in all nine of our offices are being moved to Vonage's fax enterprise service, hosted by fax2mail.com.  When a fax is sent to one of the firm's fax numbers, fax2mail will convert it to a PDF file and send it as an email to a designated person or group of people for that office.  The designated office contact will receive the message in Gmail and can forward it to the correct party in that office.

Also, if you want to check on an email and the designated receipient is not available, or if you want to look up an old email, you may go to the fax2mail.com web site and look in the inbox.  Once you have found and selected your fax, you can click on "view" which will generate a PDF on your computer and allow you to download it directly to your computer.

Conclusion

This new system will allow you to more easily save faxes in your email account, or download easily to the MDIR.  It will also allow us to keep a record of faxes sent and received, as well as allow sending and receiving faxes without leaving your desk.

Setting Up And Using Your New Voicemail

When you get your new phone, one of the first things you will want to do is set up your voicemail.

To set up your voicemail, do the following:

1. Press "messages" button.  This is the button with an envelope on it to the left of your number pad..
2. The main menu screen showing the number of any messages pending.  Press the button below "connect" to continue.
3. You will first be asked to enter a password.  The default password is 5252.  
4. Next, you will be asked to change your password.  Enter your new password as instructed (twice).
5. You must then record your name, which will be used by the voice mail system.  Record your name and press # to save.  Be sure to record and save your name.  Failure to do so may result in an error message when you try to change other settings.

That's it! Voicemail is set up and ready to go.

It is also recommended that you record a full greeting message. You may choose to record one greeting while away or another for when you are busy.  You are not required to record both these, but the option is available if you wish.  If you just record the away greeting, it will be used for both instances of away and busy.

To record a new greeting, do the following:

1. Press "messages" button.  
2. Press the button below "connect" to continue.
3. Enter your password and press #
4. Per the instructions, press 1 to listen to voicemail.
5. Press "2" to record a greeting to be played when you are on the phone (a busy greeting) or press "3" to record a call when you are away from your desk.  In other words, you can have two messages, one for when you are on a call and another for when the phone just rings several times when no on can pick up.  Again, you don't have to have separate greetings, but you have the option.
6. Once you have recorded your greeting, press #.  You have the option to listen to your greeting, re-record it, or simply be finished.

When someone leaves you a voicemail, you should see a red blinking light on the top right of your phone.  This indicates you have a new unread voicemail waiting.

To access voicemail, do the following:

1. Press "messages" button.  
2. Press the button below "connect" to continue.
3. Enter your password and press #
4. Per the instructions, press 1 to listen to voicemail.
5. Per the instructions, press 1 again to listen to your messages.
6. You may save the message by pressing pound or delete by pressing 7.

There are a few advanced voicemail features that I will cover in my next blog post, including ways to be notified of voicemail messages while away from the office.  Stay tuned for more soon!

Introducing Your New VoIP Phones

New VoIP Phones

The firm is in the process of upgrading our phone system after decades of use from our existing PBX. We have decided to move to a Voice over IP (VoIP) phone system.  Essentially, that means instead of using traditional phone lines and equipment, your phones operate on the same Ethernet cable used by your computer.  Calls can go out using either the Internet or a private computer network that connects back to Vonage (formerly iCore) where it connects to the other party using whatever phone system is being used on the other end.

VoIP has been around for many years and is now the norm for most businesses.  It is more efficient, can provide better sound quality, and provides you with many more features than traditional phones. Many businesses delayed moving to VoIP because of call quality issues.  When making a call on the Internet, delays of even a fraction of a second can greatly hurt call quality.  For this reason, we have installed an internal private line to most of our offices that will ensure call quality of service back to the phone vendor's main connection.

Everyone who currently has a direct dial number will keep that number.  None of that will change. Some people within the firm do not have direct dials at present.  Under the new system, they will. Because of this, some 4 digit extensions may change to make them consistent with the direct dial numbers that we get for those people.  We will also maintain everyone's existing extension as a alternate extension.  So if you have someone's extension memorized, you will still be able to reach them using that old extension, as well as the new one.

The new phone system comes with a wide variety of features that I will address in upcoming posts over the next few weeks.  Today's post will focus on the phone itself.

All existing landline phones in the firm will be replaced by a new Polycom VVX 410 Business Media phone.  It works much like your current phone, but there will be a few changes.

Vonage has provided this Quick Start Guide, which you may fine helpful.

Making a Call:

Currently, in most offices, you must press an outside line button or dial "9" to get an outside line. That is going away.  With the new system, you dial the area code and number.  No need to dial a "1" either.  You must dial an area code, even for local calls.  Dial 10 digits, and the phone should start ringing.  If you dial a four digit extension, you must then hit the "dial" button to complete the call.

You also have the ability to assign speed dials to up to 11 numbers.  These will show up on the LCD screen on the phone.  Once configured, just press the button next to the person you wish to call and it starts ringing.

The Firm's directory is also available on the main screen.  If you do not know a number, just scroll until you find it and select that number.

Receiving a call:

No real changes  here: You can simply pick up the receiver and start talking, or press the speaker button and talk through the speaker.  There is also a button for a headset usage.  We don't expect many people to use this, but if interested, let me know.  Personally, I find the speaker works just as well as a headset.

Transferring a call:

There are three ways to transfer.

1. Consultative Transfer.  This is where you want to speak with the recipient before transferring.
1. Press the "transfer" button (button with two hand sets to the left of your number pad)
2. Dial the recipient's extension and wait for them to answer.  You may announce who is calling and ask if they want to speak to the caller.
3. If yes, just press "transfer" again and hang up.  If no, you should see a "cancel" option on your screen.  Press the button under cancel and you are speaking with the original caller again.
2. Blind Transfer: This simply transfers the call straight to the recipient without any discussion.
1. Press the transfer button
2. Press the button under "blind" on your screen.
3. Dial the recipient's extension.
4. Press transfer and hang up.
3. Transfer to Voicemail
1. Press Transfer
2. Dial *55
3. Dial the recipient's extension
4. Press # and hang up.

We have a Transfer Quick Tips Sheet, which basically spells out what I said above, that you can also review or save for future reference.

Three way calling:

When speaking with one party, you should see an option for "Confrnc" on your screen (if not, press the button under "more").  Press the button under confrnc and call the third party.  You can then speak with that party alone, then press confrnc again to join all three of you on a single call.  You cannot have more the three parties (including yourself) on a call unless you are using one of the conference room speaker phones.  However, if there are two or more people in our office on the call, each of then can conference in one other party and have everyone speak together.

Getting Help:

For a more detailed presentation of the phone's features, you may also find this PowerPoint presentation helpful.

Of course the Help Desk is always available to provide assistance.  Please keep in mind that we are still learning some of this as well, so please be patient with use. Our main focus right now is just getting everyone set up with the basics.

The other option for help is the iCore Help Desk.  Dial 611 on your new phone and you will be connected to them.  They should be able to answer your questions or help you make any changes you need.

Stay tuned for more:

I will be posting several more blog posts over the next few days that will help you with additional information on some of the other things you can do with your new phones.

Controlling Your Document Sizes

I frequently hear from frustrated attorneys and staff about difficulties emailing documents that are beyond the 25 MB attachment size limit in Gmail.  How can a few dozen pages go over the limit when you sometimes receive documents that are hundreds of pages long and well within the limit?

The answer is that the way you create a document can GREATLY affect its size.  To demonstrate this, I created a sample document that was 19 pages long.  In WordPerfect, the document was only 61 kb (that's roughly 0.06 MB).  At that rate, I could get nearly 8000 pages into a document that would be under the 25 MB limit.

But we often want to convert a document to PDF.  When I used the "publish to PDF" feature in WordPerfect, the document size grew to 104 kb.  It is larger, but still plenty of room for thousands of pages. Rather than use the "publish to PDF" I made a new PDF using the bioPDF printer that lets you create a new PDF from any program.  BioPDF was more efficient and created a new document that was 90 kb.  BioPDF also does a better job of stripping out metadata.  This not only saves on size, but can also help you to keep data related to the creation of the document from the recipient.

Next, I printed out my document and then scanned it from a network copier.  Scanning will always drastically increase document size because it turns the text in the document into an image.  Images require much more space than text.  It also makes the document less useful because you cannot do word searches, or copy and paste text from the document.  My scanned file increased the document size to just over 1.1 MB (1142 KB).  The document size was 12.7 times larger than the one I created using bioPDF.

Using a network copier to scan document is not even the worst method.  Scanning on one of the desktop scanners most of use have at our desks is an even worse way to go.  The desktop scanners use a less efficient compression tool for the images.  So, in addition to taking a much longer time for the scan to complete, you also end up with a much larger file.  I scanned my test document on a HP Laser Jet 1536 printer/scanner as a black & white document and at 200 dpi.  The same document as before had now ballooned to about 8.6 MB (8595 kb).  This one 19 page document is now roughly 1/3 of my Gmail attachment limit.

Even worse, I scanned the document a second time as color and 300 dpi.  This was not necessary as the document itself was simply black lettering on white paper, but the scanner must use more space just for the possibility of of color.  In this case, my document was almost 11.3 MB (11,253 KB) or almost 1/2 of my Gmail attachment limit for a single 19 page document.  It is also more than 125x the size of the same document created with bioPDF.

Desktop scanners are a convenience if you are doing a small scan, such as a letter or a receipt.  If you have larger documents, even 10 or 20 pages, it makes more sense to scan from the network copier, or send to Reliable.  Your documents will end up roughly 1/10th the size you get on the desktop scanner.

If you are starting with an electronic version rather than just paper, a much better option is to use the print to PDF function using bioPDF (or its predecessor BullzipPDF - or any other PDF printer you might have). This will almost always create the most efficient PDF document you can get.

If you already have document in electronic format, printing it out and then scanning is about the worst thing you can do.  You create a much larger document, and have a less useful document.

Some people prefer to scan because they want to sign a document, then scan the whole document with the signature. Rather than do this, I recommend keeping a scanned image of just your signature on your computer. You can import this image into a WordPerfect document, then print to PDF.  Another option is to add your signature as a custom stamp in PDF Xchange Viewer or Editor and simply add your signature to an existing PDF document.  Either method will keep your document MUCH smaller than printing and scanning the entire document.

In summary, when creating a PDF, use a print to PDF method.  Using network copier/scanners are bad and using your desktop printer/scanner is really bad.

Working With Email Files

Frequently, I get asked to help people with files sent to us as part of discovery.  Often, people are sending emails from a system without providing any way to open or read them.

Email files can be tricky because of a wide variety of ways to open them.  If you have a relatively small number of files, and just need to take a quick look at them, this web site my be helpful:

http://www.coolutils.com/Online/Mail-Converter

This online utility will take files in EML, MSG, MIM, MBOX, MBX, DBX, PST, OLM, or VCF formats and convert them to a more easily readable format such as PDF.  This can be great if you just need to read the emails.  But if you need to do more with them, or access attachments, you may need something more.

Most commonly we see files in .PST or .MSG format.  Both of these formats are commonly exported from a Microsoft Outlook account.

Many of you have MS Outlook already installed on your computer.  If you have a recent version of MS Office, you probably also have Outlook.  We began installing it by default after we got rid of GroupWise.  Prior to that, we did not install Outlook because it often caused conflicts with GroupWise.

If you have Outlook installed, you may simply be able to import the file directly into Outlook.  From there, you can access the files just as if you were viewing them on the original system.  If, however, you are using Outlook for regular email, be careful about importing other people's PST or MSG files into your emails.  You don't want to get their email mixed in with your email.  Be sure to save it to a separate folder.

Another option it to use PST Viewer Pro.  This is a program specifically designed to let you review PST or MSG files.  This program will also work with OST files, which is yet another Outlook export format, but one not commonly used. As we have to pay for each licensed installation, we don't install it by default on all computers.  But if you have a need for it, call the help desk.  We can make it available to you.

The EML format is a default export format for Outlook Express or Windows Live Mail.  There is an easy trick to open these files.  EML is actually saved as a MHTML file, which almost any browser can open.  If you change the .EML extention to .MHT, you should be able to click on the file and have it open.  PST Viewer Pro will also open such files.  If you have Outlook Express or Windows Live installed on you computer, you should be able to import them that way.

The MBOX format is a mailbox file format that works across a wide variety of non-Microsoft email programs.   The best way to access these files is to use a free mail program and simply import the file. If you are looking for a program for just this purpose, I recommend i.scribe.  This is a very small program that can run on your computer.  Once installed, you can drag and drop MBOX files directly into a folder that you create in i.Scribe, then begin reading the emails.  Unlike several other email programs, you can begin using i.scribe without having to connect to an online mail account.

If you receive emails in other formats, we can try to figure out a solution.  But often, if the format is for some proprietary third party program, you may not be able to open it without access to the original program.

Avoiding Cyber Attacks

For many years, hackers attempted to access networks and data with viruses that could automatically move, replicate, and embed themselves on new computers.  Today, network security, firewalls, and anti-virus software have rendered most of these attacks ineffective.  But that does not stop hackers.  They have moved on to the next weakest link -- you.

Most current system attacks trick unwitting users into allowing hackers and malware into the system.  Once embedded there, the hacker can invite in other malware and begin to do real damage to a network.  Therefore we must all be vigilant against potential threats to our network.  There are several issues that everyone should consider:

Email providers have gotten pretty good about preventing dangerous attachments from getting through.  But they are not foolproof.  If you get an attachment that looks suspicious, have someone from IT take a look at it.  Often, you can view a document without opening it.  If the sender or the document itself says that viewing it properly requires granting a permission, or enabling macros, that is a big red flag to stay away.

Because many email providers block dangerous attachments, hackers may include a link asking you to connect to a web site.  That site may be infected.  If a link looks suspicious or is even unfamiliar to you, question whether you should click on that link.  If the link has a "php" in the address, that means it is designed to run a script.  Sometimes this is legitimate, but often not.  It requires closer scrutiny.

Just because you know the sender, that does not mean the message is safe.  Many times, hackers will access the email account of an innocent party, then send emails to everyone in the address book.  We recently had one hacker who remained connected to the account, responding to questions about the email and saying it was legitimate and that the recipient should go ahead and click on the link.  Poor grammar is often a tip off, but not always.  If you are not sure, pick up the phone and call the sender.

If a site asks you to enter any name or password where you do not usually do so, that is a red flag. A Google site, for example, should see you are already logged in and not ask again.  Hackers often create sites that look like a legitimate site, just to steal your name and password.  If you must create an account at a new site, be sure to use a name and password different from what you use for other sites.

If you go to a site and something strange happens, let IT know about it.  Years ago, a hack would be obvious right away as you were bombarded with advertising or had other immediate problems.  Sophisticated hackers today put malware that has little impact on you, but can turn your computer into a "zombie" used for distributing malware to others.  It is often a good idea to have someone run a couple of scans on your PC to make sure all is well.

If you think your home computer or other device (yes, phones and tablets are vulnerable), please don't connect to our network via VPN or use the firm's WiFi.  Your device can act as a Trojan horse, bringing malware inside our firewall to be released on the network.  If you ask, we can recommend several anti-malware programs to run and check out your home computer.

Never give your password to anyone, either via email or over the phone, unless their names are Mike, Mary, Lucy, or Bode.  No one from Google will ever ask for your Gmail password.  No one from Microsoft, Apple, your bank, your broker, or any other outside company should ever request that sort of information. If an outside vendor requests that sort of information, get their name and say you will call them right back, call the company's main number and ask to be transferred to that person.  Do not just call a number that the caller gives you. Do not rely on caller ID, which is easily faked.

In short, stay alert, if something looks suspicious get a second opinion before acting.

LibreOffice 5.0

LibreOffice recently released version 5.0 of its Office Suite.  I thought this might be a good time to discuss the program more generally.  For anyone unfamilar, LibreOffice is an office suite with multiple functions similar to MS Office or WordPerfect Office.  A major factor that makes Libre different from these other Suites is that LibreOffice is free.

Benefits LibreOffice:

For many, especially in business, we often think of freeware as somehow substandard.  Often that may be the case, but I don't think it is with LibreOffice. It is a feature rich fully functioning office suite which can do virtually anything you want.  In the unlikely event you need it to do something it cannot, there are free downloadable add-ons available, or you can work with other online developers to build your own customizations or improvements.  A major benefit of the program is that it is open source, meaning there are thousands of developers making customizations and add-ons that are available to do a great many things.

Of  course, most of us are not coders or developers.  We just want a great program that works right way.  Libre absolutely delivers on this front.  The Suite includes Writer, a top of the line word processor. Calc, is its spreadsheet. Impress handles presentations.  Draw is used for graphics and diagrams,  The Base database program works great on its own or as a front end for other more complex databases such as the also free MySQL.  Math is great for developing formulas.  If you are a mathematician, scientist, economist, etc. you have got to try this.  Finally there is Charts for easy creation of charts.  People used to having a Mail program included in their office suite will be disappointed.  There is no program the corresponds to MS Outlook.  Of course, there are other very good mail programs available to replace Outlook.  They just aren't part of LibreOffice.

Aside from the hassles of MS Office licensing, I prefer LibreOffice.  I find MS Office's ribbon interface difficult to use.  It is unintuitive and tends to hide many of the features I often need to use.  By contrast, Libre's familiar toolbar remains much easier to use.  Also, even if you develop experience in using MS Office, it is quite possible that the next version will have a completely new user interface that requires you to learn all over again.  This has often been the case in the past.  By contrast, Libre, makes changes on a slower evolutionary process, which means there are not huge changes in the user experience between versions.

In addition to its support for MS Office documents, Libre has a strong library of support for a wide range of other types of documents, many created by older or defunct systems.  If you have an older document from some source that won't open properly in MS Office or WordPerfect, you might want to give LibreOffice a try.

Libre as a Replacement for MS Office

Be default, we have been installing LibreOffice (and before that OpenOffice) for many years on all new computers (unless you needed MS Office).  We have configured it to open MS Word and Excel documents and to save in those formats by default.  This enables lawyers and staff who do not have MS Office installed, to work with such documents when the need arises.

Microsoft often seems to make deliberate changes to MS Office via updates or service packs that can interfere with Libre's ability to convert some MS Office documents  This was especially true with earlier versions.  However, Libre developers have been focused on making the product highly compatible and interactive with MS Office.  Most documents can convert back and forth seamlessly.  Even redlining with someone who is using MS Office has gotten much better in recent version.  For Word documents and Excel spreadsheets, it usually works perfectly.

History of LibreOffice

LibreOffice has a complicated and long history. Back in 1999, Sun Microsystems bought a company called StarDivision.  It included a product called StarOffice, an office suite in direct competition with Microsoft Office.  Microsoft, of course, dominated the market at the time and most people had not even heard of StarOffice.  Rather than try to compete, Sun made the program free and open source, so anyone could work on it.  The name changed to OpenOffice.  It remained a free download but continued to be developed and improved.  Sun did not seem to have any business model for the program, as it did not even try to collect advertising revenue or use it as a loss leader for other products.   Personally, I think they just liked having a thorn in Microsoft's side.

In 2010, Oracle acquired Sun.  Oracle really had no interest paying to maintain and improve OpenOffice.  It saw no financial benefit and liked remaining on good terms with Microsoft.  It did not kill OpenOffice, but rather in 2011, donated it to the Apache Foundation, a nonprofit group.

Many OpenOffice users grew frustrated at this point because Apache really didn't put the money and resources into improving and upgrading the software.  Because it remained open source, anyone could take the code and improve it themselves.  A group of volunteers who had been working on OpenOffice for years, took the source code and started the Documents Foundation to continue work on the software.  This derivation was called LibreOffice which continues to be developed and upgraded to this day.  OpenOffice also still exists, but by the time it started development again, many people had already moved to Libre and saw no need to go back.

Updates

The program is updated every few weeks, but most updates are quite minor.  I like this method as it allows me to get used to changes over time, rather than a single major upgrade like the pay programs do.  But it is also not necessary to have the latest version.   Most changes are quite minor and often deal with issues that never impact you.  So don't feel like you must download new versions constantly.  Because the installation package is rather large, it's probably not a good idea to attempt a download from the site during work hours, as you may interrupt Internet access for the whole office for a short time.

From time to time, we update the copies we deploy to new computers and keep a copy on the u: drive of each office.  If you think the version you have is getting dated, someone from the help desk can help you install a newer version.  Of course, with open licensing, you are free to install wherever you like, including personal computers, kids' computers, etc. without there ever being any cost.

Other versions

I have only used the Windows version of LibreOffice, but there are also versions for Linux and Mac.  There is also a portable version which you can stick on a flash drive and use without having to install.  This can be handy if you are working on document on a computer that does not have a reader installed.

There are version of Libre for iPhones and Android, but I don't recommend these.  There are other programs I like better for those devices, particularly the free WPS Office.  For most basic access to MS Office documents on a phone or tablet, I just use Google Drive.

Outside Reviews:

For more reviews on LibreOffice, you may find this ZD Net Review interesting.  A more in depth review of features is in this Alphr article.  Also, betanews had a review discussing the different versions.

More detailed release notes on what has been added to version 5 are available on the Document Foundation site, which manages LibreOffice.

Cell Phone Discounts

Last year the firm switched from AT&T to Verizon for the phones used by the Partners.  However, because enough people are using AT&T phones, we were able to keep our group discount with AT&T for employees with personal phone plans.  If you have an existing AT&T account or want one, you can get an 18% discount off your monthly subscription costs simply by associating your account with the Margolis plan.  You can still pick whatever plan you want and still receive your own bill.

There is a chance that AT&T could decide to end the plan if not enough people from the firm remain as participants.  If that happened, the discount could go away.  But there does not appear to be a significant danger of that happening as we are well over the necessary threshold limits.  For more info, click on the link below.

AT&T Flyer

If you are interested in the discount, you can sign up for it through any AT&T store or by calling AT&T's toll free number.  Just mention our FAN  ID: 2384628 to get the discount.

Verizon also offers an employee discount of 5%, which can be added to a 3% discount if you sign up for paperless billing for a total of 8% off whatever plan you have.  You can contact our sales rep Jill Poletas if you have any questions.

Keep in mind that good deals are available right now because the new iPhone 6s is due out shortly.  If you want an iPhone, you can get an even better deal on the soon to be old iPhone 6 once the 6s is released.  If you are getting something else, now is a good time to get a deal.

Phone System

Since the firm switched phone providers last year, phone service for many has been, to say the least, sub-par.  We have been working to address this problem and are on the verge of implementing a complete solution.

Margolis Edelstein has contracted with iCore (recently acquired by Vonage) to install an entirely new Voice over IP (VoIP) phone system.  Everything will be new: new phones, new lines, new carrier, new voicemail.  With this change, the firm will shed all of its existing communication problems once and for all.  In addition, there are a great deal of behind the scenes upgrades as well.  We are replacing all the tie lines that connect all of the offices.  We will be putting in Power over Ethernet Switches in all offices to power the phones.  We are also getting all new routers to connect voice and data between offices.

VoIP does not work like traditional phones.  Voice is converted to a digital signal and sent over the same digital line that connects your computer to the network.  Some businesses have been using this technology for over a decade, and almost all large and mid size law firms have adopted this system.  That said, to the end user, the phone will look pretty much like your standard office phone.  They will have a new color LCD panel that will provide you with more information.  But they have a basic hand set and key pad just like any other phone.

If you want a closer look, everyone's phone will be replaced with a new Polycom VVX 410 IP phone.  Several of the conference rooms will also receive a Polycom Soundstation 6000 (a conference phone).

Over the next few weeks, I will be posting additional blog entries on how to make the best use of the phone's advanced features, and the many more capabilities we will have.  But today I am simply going to discuss the transition to the new desk phones.

Network installations will start tomorrow (Thur 8/27) when iCore professionals will be installing new switches and routers in several offices.  We will then deploy the new IP phones to your desk.  This will all be done while your existing phones remain in place.  Once we are confident everything is working properly, we will cut over your current phone numbers to the new phones with a minimum of down time (a matter of minutes).  The final cut over will be scheduled after testing of the new equipment is complete, but we plan to move relatively quickly and have everything in place within the next few weeks.

Once complete, you will continue to use the same phone number and extension that you always have had.  Many people currently do not have a direct dial.  When we move to iCore, every single phone will have a direct dial.  This will mean some changes for people who do not have a direct dial now.  You will receive a new number and can be reached by others in the firm who dial the last four digits of your new number.

That said, your old extension will not go away.  We have set up alternate extensions for everyone whose extension is changing.  If, for example, you are used to calling Lucy Harding at ext. 5416, you can still dial that extension to reach her phone.  Lucy will also have another extension that is the last four digits of her new phone number, which will also reach her phone.  In other words you can use either extension to reach her. Both will ring her phone the same way.

As part of the installation, iCore will offer phone training either in person or via Webex to all offices.  If you want a head start though, here are links to some of the training documents they have already provided to us.

iCore Phone Training Powerpoint
Polycomm VVX410 User Guide
Voicemail Setup Guide
Phone Transfer Tips

To reiterate, you will receive training so don't feel you have to dig into all these materials yourself.  I just posted them here in case anyone is curious.

While I realize that any change can be disruptive, we have done our best to minimize disruption for you.  The new system will be to the long term benefit of the firm.

Exporting Gmail

Save as PDF

There are times when you may find it necessary to export some of your emails to another format for some reason. Of course, the easiest and best known way to do this is simply to "print" an email to a PDF file from within Gmail.  But this only works for printing a single email or a single conversation.  If you want to print more, you need to open each conversation separately and print as a separate document.

Bulk Export:

There may be times when you may want to export dozens, maybe even hundreds of emails at once.  Exporting each email individually would be tedious and time consuming.  Fortunately, there is an App that may save you the trouble.  Gmail Print All Pro allows you to select an entire folder full of email and generate a Google Drive document that includes all the messages.  You can choose to exclude images and/or attachments as you prefer.

This is a free app available in the Chrome Web Store.  Once installed, simply select the folder you wish to print, make sure the settings are as you want them and press "create".  A Google Drive document will be created in your Google Drive with all of the email.  Attachments and images are stored separately.  However, images should appear in the document and the attachments will be accessible from a link within the document.

Limitations

There are a few limitations.  First, the printer limits you to up to 80 conversations.  More than that will be saved to a second document.  The reason for this is that the documents should not become too large and unwieldy.  Keep in mind that if you have conversation mode on, you may have a back and forth with someone that includes dozens of individual emails.  That counts as only one conversation.

Gmail Print All Pro will only print documents connected together in a single folder or label.  If you want to print a bunch of miscellaneous emails, you can select them, then add them all to a single label.  Then, run the print job.  After it is done, you can simply remove the label again if you wish.

Once the emails are stored in Google Drive, you can share those documents with anyone else who uses Gmail and give them either read-only or edit rights to those files.

In my brief testing of Gmail Print All Pro, I found a few problems.  One was that some emails seemed to become double spaced rather than single spaced with no explanation why.  Another issue is if I wanted to then take that Google Docs file and create a PDF out of it.  The links in the PDF would only go back to the original Google Docs folder unless you manually edited all of them.  Therefore, I don't recommend using this unless you are only sharing via Google Drive, or you don't care about links to attachments.

Conclusion

If you need to share select emails with someone and don't want to bother saving each one individually, this can be a good option.

Hold off on Windows 10 upgrades for now.

Windows 10 officially released on July 29.

Some of you may be receiving invitations from Microsoft to "upgrade now" right on your computer.  Microsoft forced through these invitations as a Windows update.  I want to reiterate that you should not upgrade your computer to Windows 10.  There are a number of reasons for this:

• The upgrade may fail and leave you with an unusable computer.  I have read several reports of this happening to others.
• After a successful upgrade, you  may find some of your programs do not work properly
• You may also find that some older hardware, such as printers, or other devices may not work properly.
• Windows 10 has a very different interface from Windows XP or 7.  You may find it difficult to figure out how to do basic things or find your programs.  The Help Desk is not ready to help with any such problems yet.
• At present, there is almost nothing of significance that can be done with Windows 10 that cannot already be done on Windows 7.  The reverse of that is not true.  There are a number things Windows 7 can do that Windows 10 cannot.

You may recall my concerns about upgrading in an earlier post that I published back in March.

We will begin testing shortly to see how compatible this new version is with our existing hardware and software.  Over time, I expect the firm will make the move to Windows 10.  I just do not want to rush the issue.

If you are using Windows 7 at work, you may receive pop up ads from Microsoft encouraging you to accept a free upgrade to Windows 10.  PLEASE DO NOT DO THIS.  Although I have heard good things about it in many reviews, I need time to test that it works with our systems before we upgrade.  We have a whole year to take advantage of the free upgrade if we wish, and there is no easy way to go back if you upgrade and find that things do not work.

If I find there are problems, or that things are good, I will let you know my findings in this blog.  If we get to the point where I think an upgrade is safe, you can upgrade at that point.  Of course, if you are happy with the way things are working on your computer now, there is no need to upgrade your Windows 7 computer to Windows 10.  Microsoft will continue to support Windows 7 until 2020.  We will continue to support it as well.

If you have Windows XP still, your computer is not eligible for a free upgrade.  However, we are trying to retire XP where we can.  If you would like a new computer with Windows 7, let us know.  We are probably working our way around to you, but if anyone wants to be at the front of the line, just let us know at the help desk.  If you want to move from XP to 10, we are not ready to deploy 10 yet.  Hopefully, we will be ready some time this fall, unless we find any serious problems during testing.

If you buy a new Windows 10 computer or upgrade a home computer, keep in mind that you are on the cutting edge.  We cannot provide help with any Windows 10 specific issues yet.  There are typically numerous problems in the first six months of any OS release.

I recommend patience.  Let others deal with the bugs and upgrade once they are resolved.  Also, unless there is a good reason, you are usually better off buying a new computer with Windows 10 pre-installed rather than upgrading an existing computer designed for an earlier version  Upgrading typically comes with complications that are not worth it.

New PDF Editor

For many years, the firm has been using PDF Xchange Viewer as our preferred program to work with PDF documents.  I discussed some of the benefits and features of Xchange Viewer in an earlier blog post back in February.

The firm has upgraded to a new product from the same company called PDF Xchange Editor.  The new program has all the same features as the old one, plus a few extras.  You should not lose anything you do already by upgrading.

One of the most significant added features of the new Editor is the ability to edit PDF text.  As long as the document was created from actual text (and not simply a scanned image of text), you should be able to add, delete, or change text.  I still don't recommend creating a PDF if you still plan to edit it, but this feature may come in handy when you need to make changes to an existing PDF.

Another very nice feature is the ability to add Bates Stamp information to your PDF documents.  This will now be the preferred method for Bates Stamping PDF documents, as it has more flexibility than a program I had recommended in an earlier post.  There is an actual Bates Stamp feature built into the PDF Xchange Editor program.  But if you need even more flexibility, you can use the header/footer feature to create even more advanced Bates Stamps.

You may have received a scanned document in another format, such as TIFF or JPEG. PDF Xchange can open these documents as well and allow you to mark them up or run an OCR on the text.  However, you may have to save the altered document as a PDF to retain your changes.

If you want to learn more about all the features and functions of this program, there is a manual that goes into great detail.  You can read that manual here.

We are installing the new PDF Editor on all new computers.  If you think you may benefit from the new features, we can help you get it installed on your existing computer as well.

Spam

Spam Email

Spam has been the bane of email almost since the invention of email.  The term "spam" is the nickname given to unsolicited commercial email.  It gets the name from a Monty Python sketch that involves a couple ordering a meal in a diner.  All of the menu choices have spam in them, with each choice seemingly having more spam than the next.  The patrons in the background also began chanting "spam" until pretty much everything in the diner is overwhelmed with the word "spam" to the exclusion of everything else.

That is the same problem we generally face with spam email.  It can become so overwhelming, that our inbox can file with so much unwanted repetitive nonsense that we cannot find the emails we really want.  At one point in 2014, about 80% of all emails sent were classified as spam.

Spam is not only merely annoying.  It can be dangerous.  Spam messages can provide links to infected web sites, can try to lure you into revealing your account names and passwords, or can contain attachments that infect your computer with malware.  Years ago, I used to click on links in spam just out of curiosity to what they were about.  But with the dangers that can exist today, I don't click on any unknown links and never open an attachment from an unknown source.  Getting a zip file attachment from an unknown source is a particular red flag that danger could be packed inside.

Combating Spam

Efforts to combat spam are difficult.  Authorities have shut down or blocked major spam servers.  Spammers then turned to infecting millions of individual computers all over the world and turning each one into individual mail servers to send spam.  This has made it impossible to choke it off at the source.  But all major email providers are focused on this problem.  They have managed to reduce spam traffic to around 50% of all messages, but this is still very high.

Working with Spam in Gmail

Before we had Gmail, we had a centralized anti-spam system in place.  Thousands of emails were dumped into a central file which typically was only checked if someone asked us to see if something ended up there accidentally.  With Gmail, there is no longer any central spam location.  Every user sees all incoming email addressed to them, but with Gmail putting suspected spam into a special folder labelled "spam."

I have found Gmail's anti-spam algorithms to be highly accurate.  It relies on the feedback of its users to classify messages.  If large numbers of people mark a message as spam, then similar messages get classified as spam automatically and are sent to a user's spam folder.  Similarly, if enough people mark a message in "spam" as not spam, Gmail learns that similar emails should not be sent to the spam folder in the future.

Going through one's spam folder can be a tedious and time consuming process.  At one point, I was receiving over 200 spam messages each day.  Even though that number has now dropped to about 30-40 each day, that is more time than I care so spend looking at ads.

Spam Folder Maintenance

Different people take different approaches to spam.  Some people look at all of them individually, some ignore them, some simply delete them without much review.  Personally, I fall into the "ignore" category and recommend that to others as well.  Because I find Google's spam filter to be so accurate, I am fairly confident that anything in the spam folder is not something I want to see.  As a result, I only look in that folder if I think something was sent to me and I did not get it.  Otherwise, I ignore that folder.  Reading through all those messages is simply a waste of time.

On the other hand, I also don't delete my spam.  Google holds spam messages in your spam folder for 30 days, then deletes them automatically.  Deleting your spam en masse without reviewing it means it is gone forever.  If some important email did go to spam and your realize it later, you cannot recover it after you have deleted it.  On the other hand, leaving your spam folder alone, means you have 30 days to realize some important email might be in there and give you a chance to search for it.  After 30 days, Google deletes it forever, so you don't have to worry about them continuing to pile up and use up your available space.

Searching Your Spam

If you need to search for something in your spam folder, you must specify it in your search.  By default, Gmail search does not include results from spam or trash when you do a general email search.  If you want to search your spam, you musty type "in:spam" before the search time.  For example, if I wanted to search for the word "computer" in my spam folder, I would search "in:spam computer"   If I find something I want to save, I simply open it, click on the "not spam" button at the top of the screen, and it moves to my inbox.  In doing this, I am also automatically telling Google that similar items should not be considered spam and Google gets smarter about how it classifies future similar emails.

Video Conferencing? You have it already!

From time to time, I get asked about the firm's capacity for video conferencing.

The firm has not invested in professional grade equipment for large conference room style video conferencing.  If you need that, you will need to go to a third party provider.  Many Court Reporters offer such services.  Recently Kaplan Leaman & Wolf did a CLE in the Philadelphia office which discussed its ability to provide these services, among others.

For direct person to person video conferencing, however, you already have everything that is necessary.  I want to warn at the outset, that the help desk has virtually no experience with video conferencing.  These tips are more for the self-sufficient among you who like to try new features.

Hardware Requirements

Your laptop has a built in camcorder and microphone.   This is all that is necessary for hardware.  I do, however, recommend at least a better microphone for sound.  We can provide a USB headset.  We also have a few desk microphones that connect via USB if you don't want to wear head gear during your meeting.

Video Chat on Google

Video Chat is part of the Google Apps package that we already use for email an other purposes.  It is a part of Google Hangouts.  If you want to have a video chat with someone, simply click on the chat icon in the lower left hand corner of your Gmail screen, below your folders.  Select the icon that looks like a video camera and then enter the name or email address of the person with whom  you wish to chat.  You can chat with anyone in the firm, although support staff, who do not have laptops, do not have camcorders and therefore cannot appear on screen.

You may need to register for Google + or download a few plug-ins for Google Voice or Google Hangouts the first time you use this feature.  It is fine to do these things.

Chat with anyone on a variety of devices

You are not limited to people within the firm.  You can communicate with anyone in the world who has a Gmail account with Google plus added.  These are free accounts that anyone can create in minutes  You will receive a warning though if you invite someone outside the firm.

You are not limited to laptops either.  Some or all participants can use a smart phone or tablet (Apple and Android are both supported, among others) to participate.  They just need the free Google Hangouts App installed on their device.

Live Demonstrations

If you wanted to give a demonstration to a large group of people, you can create an internet link so that hundreds or even thousands of people could view the presentation.  In these large groups, however, the conversation is only one way.  Viewers can only respond by typing text into the chat feature.  The chat feature is access on the left hand side of the screen. Click on the blue chat icon to bring up a chat box on the right side of the screen.  Participants can type in notes that the others can read.

Other Features

Another nice feature is the screen share.  If you are demonstrating something on your computer, you can allow all other participants to see your screen and what you are doing (similar to WebEx if you have ever used that).  There are other options that allow you to take a screen shot of the what is happening, or allow a presenter to show a YouTube Video (hint: if you want to share a private video, you can upload to YouTube as private then share that video with the group here).

Once your conversation is complete, hang up and you are done.

Other Video Chat Programs

There are, of course, other free video chat programs that are available for use.  Skype is one of the most popular.  A big benefit of Google is that you know everyone in the firm already has an account and can be contacted through the firm's contacts.

Video Tips

You usually see an image of yourself in a small box in the corner so you know what others are seeing.  Be sure to center your face in the screen.  Don't have a bright light or window in the background as it will make you look like a shadow.

Clipboard - Copying and Moving Text

The ability to move around text in a document was probably one of the first things we liked when we moved from the typewriter to the word processor.  Hopefully cutting and pasting is second nature to most of you.  But for those who may need a few tips to speed up the process, this post is for you.  This function is known as "clipboard" in Windows.  You are essentially saving data to a temporary file, the "clipboard," and then pulling it out again.

Basic Cut, Copy and Paste

The difference between copy and paste vs. cut and paste is that copy makes a second copy of the text, where cut and paste deletes the text from the original location and moves it to the new location. A common method to do this by using your mouse to select the text to be moved, clicking on the tool bar or right clicking to select "copy" or "cut" then move your cursor to the new location where you again go to the toolbar, or right click to select "paste."

Drag and Drop

Windows also gives you the ability to highlight a section of text in one Window, click on it with your mouse, then drag it to a second window and release the mouse button to paste.  This can save you a few steps, but you must have both windows open and visible, neither using the full screen.

Keyboard Commands

For the keyboard user, you may do the same thing by holding the shift button and using arrow keys to select the text you want.  Then use ctrl-x to cut, ctrl-c to copy and ctrl-v to paste.  You can also select an entire document all at once by using ctrl-a.  Another important command to know is if you just cut or copied something and want to undo, use ctrl-z.

Works across programs

In Windows, these command will work across almost all applications.  I frequently will "select" document in Word or WordPerfect, then paste the text into say Google Docs to create a new document.  Usually most formatting will come along, but some advanced formatting may not.  Pictures will also usually be copied if the new program supports them.

Lose the formatting

There are times when you want to copy the text but not the formatting.  For example, you don't want a different text size or color if you are pasting a sentence into another document.  For this, use ctrl-shift-v to paste the text without the formatting.  This option is also available on most mouse menus when you right click.  It may say "paste as plain text" or "paste special" and then select "plain text."

This saves time in many ways

We mostly use this feature to move a longer clip of information that would take too long to retype, or for specific information like a phone number or name that we don't want to mistype.  Another time this is handy is when you have a special symbol or word that uses foreign characters.  Sure, you can figure out how to generate those characters yourself.  But it is often easier to find the word somewhere else and quickly copy and paste it into the document where you need it.

Remembering your Clips

The clipboard feature has been easy to use because of its simplicity.  It is a quick way to get move information around.  But a price of this simplicity is the limitation on it is that you can only move one thing at a time.  You cannot even move to separate parts of same document at once.  There may be occasions when you want to clip multiple things before placing them in the new location.

One easy option for this is to quickly cut and paste your selections into a a word processing document such as WordPerfect, Google Docs, or even just Wordpad - built into all Windows computers.  Then simply grab them from there when ready to place them where you want them permanently.

There are also several "clipboard" programs that will allow you to clip multiple items, allowing multiple clips to be "remembered" by being saved in the program.  You can then select which once you want pasted when you are ready.  A good free program that does this is CLCL.  Which is easily installed on any Windows computer.  Personally, I don't use a program like this much.   Basic cut and past works well enough for me and keeps things simple.  But if you are so inclined, you can give it a try.  Keep in mind that the help desk does not use these Apps, so their ability to help with problems is very limited.

Advanced WordPerfect

Advanced WordPerfect

Margolis Edelstein has long relied on WordPerfect rather than Microsoft Office for the generation and editing of most of its documents. For anyone interested on why we use WordPerfect over MS Word, you may want to read my earlier blog post on the topic. Today's post is not discussing the relative merits of WordPerfect. It is simply a discussion of some of the advanced features that you might find useful if you already use it.

The latest version of Corel WordPerfect is X7, the 17th version of the product. I know that many of you are still using older versions.  We don't typically update WordPerfect until we replace your computer, unless there is some specific need that you have for the latest version. Apologies also to the Wilmington office which has never jumped on the WordPerfect bandwagon. I'm afraid you'll find today's post only of theoretical interest.

I continue to believe that WordPerfect is by far the most powerful and feature rich word processing program available today.  We are going to discuss advanced features and a few other tips and recommendations.

I know this is a longer post than usual, and that your time is valuable, so you may want to browse the headers for anything of interest and skip the parts that are not as important to you.

Make the Most of your Toolbar

If you don’t want to search around in the menus for a function that you use regularly, an icon can almost always be added to your toolbar for quick and easy access.  Typically, we add “Publish to PDF" and "Save As Microsoft Word" by default since they are two of the most popular.  If there are other functions you want added, just contact the Help Desk and someone will assist you with this.

Avoid Losing Work

If you open up an old document intending to use it as a model to create a new one, remember to click on File, Save As, right away so you create a new document with a new name.  Otherwise, you may accidentally hit Save and overwrite the original document.

Also, remember to save your work regularly, every 10 or 15 minutes.  WordPerfect or your computer generally could crash.  You don’t want to lose what you have written.  So frequent saves are a very good habit.

Macros

A macro in WordPerfect is a way to carry out several steps with only one click. You can bring up a certain document automatically (current file list for example) or insert a phrase, paragraph or entire letter instantly. Many of you already use macros which were created by Mary or Lucy to put in the “header” information at the top of a letter (attorney name, phone number, email address, etc.) or an attorney signature at the end of a letter. If you’re interested in learning more about how macros might be able to help you in your day-to-day job duties, send an email to the Help Desk and we’ll set up some one-on-one training.

WordPerfect and PDF

A big focus of WordPerfect over the last few versions, and a big advantage of it over Microsoft Office, is WordPerfect’s ability to work with PDF files. PDF files are not really meant to be edited once created, but we very often get PDF files that need to be reworked. WordPerfect can help you accomplish this without retyping everything.

Say you get a PDF from a client and need to make substantial changes to it. You can simply open the PDF in Word Perfect. Just click on File and then Open PDF.  You may be asked to have Wordperfect recognize text.  In a PDF file, text can be actual text that the program is capable of showing you and letting you edit.  Importing this is easy.   Sometimes, however, text is actually a picture of text, meaning that a program cannot identify individual words that we can read on the page just fine.

WordPerfect is giving you the option of allowing it to use its built-in OCR recognition to look at the scanned images and try to recognize these pictures of words and convert them to text. There may also be actual pictures on the document that contain text as well and there is also an option to recognize and extract text from those images.

OCR is a very processor intensive function. So if you have a document that is hundreds or thousands of pages and OCR scan could take quite a few minutes, even hours. If you have a longer document you may want to do a few pages at first to make sure it's working okay. If it is a very long document you may want to let the OCR run overnight. Of course, time will vary depending on how powerful your computer is and how long the document is.

Depending on the quality and character of the original document, you may lose a great bit of the formatting.  OCR is also not alway accurate, so plan to proof and correct what the computer has done.  

When you open the PDF document, you are no longer working on the original document. Once the document opens, it is a WordPerfect document, not PDF anymore.  You may edit the document just like you would any other.  Once complete, you may save it as a WordPerfect document, or convert it again as a new PDF document.

I recommend saving the document as a WordPerfect document until you are absolutely certain that no further edits need to be made. Saving it as a PDF and then opening it again for editing requires two conversions which can in some cases corrupt the document. Once the document is absolutely complete and ready to be sent out as a final document, it is fine to publish it to PDF. You can do this directly in WordPerfect, or use a print to PDF function such as bio PDF. I have found that the publish to PDF function in WordPerfect creates a smaller and more efficient document, So if you are already in WordPerfect I recommend using its publish tool as your preferred PDF creation tool.

Final Documents should normally go out as PDF

I also recommend sending final documents to any outside parties in PDF format rather than WordPerfect or other editable formats. If there is no reason for the receiving party to edit the document, then it is best that they are unable to edit it. Also, PDF ensures that the recipient will see the formatting as you expected.  If they receive a word processing file, it may display differently for them that it does for you.

In fact, I almost never recommend sending a WordPerfect document to anyone outside the firm.  WordPerfect is not commonly used.  Although WordPerfect documents can be opened and converted by MS Word, most people cannot open the file simply by clicking on it.  This can lead to confusion.  Opening WordPerfect in Word can also sometimes lead to document corruption or formatting problems.  PDF is much more universal, and for reasons above a better option for final documents.  

Collaboration is best done Online

If you are collaborating on a document with someone else, I find Google Docs a much better option than WordPerfect, MS Word, or anything else.  You can share the document with anyone in the firm or outside the firm, and work on it together in real time.  Google also tracks which author made what changes to the document and when.  Google does not have many of the advanced tools for formatting that you have in WordPerfect, but it is the best for collaboration.  See my earlier blog post on Google Drive for more on this.  

Once collaboration is complete, you can finish the document by saving as RTF and then working in WordPerfect to do whatever advanced formatting you want.  I don’t recommend using this with letterhead as it can be tricky to add the letterhead template to an existing document.  But for other documents, working on it collaboratively in Google Docs, then moving to WordPerfect for the final formatting can work well. Of course, if no advanced formatting is needed, simply save as PDF directly from Google Drive.

Metadata

Another useful feature of WordPerfect is the option to save without metadata. If you are not familiar with metadata this is information that is saved in your word processing file that is not part of what is seen in the document itself. This can contain information about who worked on the document authored it, modified it, etc. It can also contain information about the different dates that the document was worked or previous names of the document and other information that you may not want someone else outside the firm to know.

Metadata exists in virtually all documents created by a variety of programs, but WordPerfect is one of the few that gives you an easy way to strip out this information. As I said, publishing to PDF is my preferred method for distributing final documents. This will also strip out the metadata. However, if you want to send a document to someone who needs to edit it and that person is outside the firm I consider it prudent to remove the metadata before sending it to them.

Language and Grammar

After you have created a document, you may find it useful to get a second opinion about the language you are using. Even if your language is correct sometimes a second opinion will tell you how to write things more simply or clearly or just make the document read better. WordPerfect has a built-in grammar checker under Tools. You can opt to have WordPerfect check your grammar on the fly (as it does spelling by default) or you may find it preferable to run a quick grammar check once you have completed the document.

Another useful tool along the same lines is the thesaurus. This can help you find a different word that might more accurately describe what you were trying to say, or simply find a different word if you find you are using the same ones over and over again.  There is also a built in dictionary to be sure of a word’s definition.

Redactions:

You may have an occasion where you need to send a redacted document to someone. There is an option in Word Perfect under Tools for redaction.  Simply highlight the words that you need to be redacted and then save the document. I strongly recommend saving as a new document, or even as a PDF in order to prevent overwriting the original document. Once redactions have been saved they cannot be undone.  

File Compare

Perhaps you want to compare document you just created with an earlier version. Assuming you have saved an earlier version you can do this using the compare documents feature. Simply have one of the documents open, then click on File - Documents - Compare and WordPerfect will show you all the differences between the two documents.

Reveal Codes

Sometimes, you are dealing with a document that is formatted in a particular way and you cannot figure out how to change the formatting or get rid of it. The WordPerfect feature called Reveal Codes will show you all of the formatting commands in a block at the bottom of the screen You have the ability to go in and remove or alter those formatting features from within that box.

A more radical step, if you want to remove absolutely all formatting from the document is to save the document as plain text. But I'm warning you now, if you do this it will really remove ALL formatting, bold face, italics, font size, links, line spacing, page numbers, justification, etc. will be stripped out of the document.  Also gone are any embedded pictures, tables, etc. So you don't want to do this unless you really want to make some serious changes to the way the document is formatted. I have sometimes found this option helpful when I have a document that is hopelessly messed up in many location. This fix means I have to redo all of the formatting from scratch.

The help desk also has a special macro that can strip out certain formatting that is causing trouble while leaving other formatting alone.  The help desk is a good resource for you if you run into this problem.

Tables

There may be times when you find it helpful to create a table in a document. A table is essentially a small embedded spreadsheet in the document. You can create a table by clicking on the Table option on the toolbar and you get how many rows and columns you wish to create and then simply creating it. You can then fill in all the cells as you wish. If you have found that you've made the table the wrong size it is easy enough to add or delete rows or columns from a table that has already been generated.

Hint: if you already have a spreadsheet created with another program, you should not have to recreate it as a table to insert it.  Just copy and paste the portion of the spreadsheet you want into your WordPerfect Document.  WordPerfect should recognize it and insert it as a table with all the data already in place.

Insert Picture

You may also have occasion to insert a picture into a document. This is easy enough by clicking on insert and graphics / pictures, then from File select the file you wish to insert.  It should show up in the document and allow you to adjust for size.

Nonstandard Characters

You may at some point have a need to insert a character that does not appear on your keyboard. For example, a paragraph symbol (¶) or section symbol (§).  From the top toolbar, click Insert, then Symbol, and you will see a wide variety of menus that show you any number of useful symbols. Simply select the characters you wish to insert  and press the insert button. If you have the standard “lower” toolbar in WordPerfect, you may already have the Symbol feature available there with one click.

If you want to speed up the process for symbols that you use repeatedly you could also simply memorize the numerical code for commonly used symbols. For example, I know that pressing the Alt button and typing 21 on the numeric keypad will insert the section symbol: § into my document.  You might want to consider creating a ShortKey for it or QuickWors, which brings me to my next topic

QuickCorrect and QuickWords

QuickCorrect works much like ShortKeys, although it typically does not use a hotkey so can be a little faster for the typist looking to save every keystroke. If you open QuickCorrect on the Tools menu you will see that it already has a number of things listed there for example teh will automatically correct to the.  If you have other words you regularly misspell, typing them in here along with the correct spelling will prevent you from having to correct it manually later.  Just make sure the misspelling is not another word or part of a word or you may find yourself “correcting” things you did not want corrected.

QuickWords works in a similar way, but is used for items other than misspellings. You could also add unusual characters for quick insertion.  For example, add a QuickWord for “Sec.” to be changed to the section symbol § for you.

Important warning here is that we're perfect we'll make that replacement EVERY SINGLE TIME it sees that. Therefore if you ever want to have what you originally typed show up as exactly that in the document, do not add it to QuickWords. You might want to find a cheat like typing “Sec..” (with two periods) to create the section symbol.   That way, you can type Sec. when you want that, and just add the extra period when you want the symbol.

Generally we recommend using Shortkeys rather than Quickwords for most of the things that you want to be changed automatically. The reason for this is that Shortkeys works across a wide variety of applications.  Your Shortkeys are not limited to use in WordPerfect.  QuickWords is limited to this one application.

Further Help

This is just a smattering of the many features built into WordPerfect.  If you are interested in learning more, I recommend the following:

In WordPerfect, Click on Help, then Corel Tutor to view a wide variety of helpful tips on how to do certain things.

If you prefer, there is a wide range of “how to” videos available at Brainstorm.

You may also find WordPerfect Universe, a user based site, helpful for tips or answers to your questions.