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.