More on Moving to MS Office

My last post discussed the need to move away from WordPerfect and toward MS Office, specifically Office 365.

In my earlier post, I may have undersold management's interest in making this change happen soon. The firm has decided to make the move to MS Office over the next few months.

How to Install MS Office 365

We are planning to roll out MS Office 365 to everyone in the firm.  In the coming weeks, you should receive an email from Office 365.  If you would like to get Office 365 installed on your computer sooner rather than later, let me know.  We will be rolling out licenses to everyone over the next couple of weeks.  But if you are eager to get started, I'm happy to put you at the front of the line.

The email will contain a link and a password giving you access to your Office 365 account.  Once you login, you will see a link to download and install MS Office on your computer.

The download is a small executable program that gets saved on your computer, usually in the "Downloads" folder.  When you run it, the program will download and install the full version of MS Office on your computer.

IMPORTANT WARNING: If you install Office 365, it will automatically remove any older version of MS Office you already have installed.  This should not be a big deal on your work computer, unless you are using a version of Office that contains MS Access.  The new Version of Office only installs Word, Excel, PowerPoint & Outlook.  You do not have to use all of these applications, but they will be on your computer in case you need them.

If you use MS Access for something, or have some special setup, you may want to check with the Help Desk before installing Office 365.

Office 365 allows you to load the program on up to five computers that you use.  If you have a computer at home, you are free to install and use Office.  Please remember, firm policy forbids hourly staff from doing any work at home.  We are happy to let you use MS Office at home for personal use, but do not do work from your home unless you are an attorney or exempt employee.

If you choose to install 365 on a personal computer, it overwrites a copy of MS Office that you already have installed.  Please be aware that if you leave the firm, we will revoke the 365 license, leaving you with nothing, or at least requiring to reinstall any personal version of Office that you may have.

You may also install the Apps available for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc. on any Apple or Android device that you have.

Using MS Office 365

365 installs the most current version of Office (currently 2016).  If you use 2010, 2013, or 2016, you will probably notice little to no difference in how the new version works.  Most of the changes added since 2010 have been online features that we have not used much in the firm.

I will not attempt to offer a tutorial here.  Suffice it to say that the Help Desk is available for questions and I listed some online training available in my last blog post.

Going Forward

Getting MS Office installed on your computer is just the first step.  In May, Cain Elliot will be holding some training courses in MS Office to help with the transition.  We will have more details on those classes soon.

We are also evaluating several solutions that may be used perform a batch conversion of all WordPerfect documents on the file server to MS Word.  These conversions are still being tested. They may be implemented in the coming months if our tests prove successful.

Please start using MS Office as soon as possible.  It does not have to be tomorrow.  You may need to wait for training before you make full use of it.  You may also want to time your switch to when others on your team also make the change so that you are all working with  the same document formats. However, I don't recommend waiting until the last minute.  Over the next few months we will have time to get familiar with the software, if not already, and to develop templates, macros, and other items that may be of help to you in document generation.

By the end of this summer, we hope to have the entire firm fully converted to MS Office.  There may be a few exceptions for special needs uses of WordPerfect.  We are also still considering a firmer final schedule for the final switch.  But for most of you, plan to be using MS Office exclusively by the fall.

Moving to MS Office

I have written several times about the firm's slow migration to MS Office.  As much as I love WordPerfect as a word processor, it simply does not work and play well with others.

Most of our clients and co-counsel use MS Word, meaning that shared editing of documents causes regular problems for WordPerfect users.  In particular, redlining can be a nightmare when converting between document types.  Life is easier when everyone uses the same program.  It is also extremely difficult to view WP documents on other devices, such as phones or tablets, or to work on in any other context, for example, in Google Docs.  Virtually all document management system either do not support WordPerfect at all, or support it in a secondary way that leaves the process with too many bugs to be useful.

By contrast, MS Office formats, including Word documents, Excel Spreadsheets, and PowerPoint presentations have become the standard default formats for a wide range of applications.  Google Drive works well with them, as do many other third party programs beyond the Microsoft family.  More important for our purposes, almost all document management systems work exclusively, or work best with MS Office.  A great many email and calendaring devices are also designed around MS Outlook, which is part of MS Office.

For these reasons, and more, we have been slowly and somewhat reluctantly for many migrating to MS Office and away from WordPerfect.  Acceptance has been varied.  Some offices use MS Word very heavily.  In some offices, a few teams have adopted it but WordPerfect remains favored by the majority.  Many people have opted to have both systems installed and use one program for some purposes and the other for other purposes.

However, as we move closer to the adoption of a document management system (DMS), we are more strongly encouraging the use of Word over WordPerfect.  Most DMS don't work with WordPerfect at all, or if they do, it is in a limited way that makes life more complicated for the user.

So far, the firm has not made any decision to ban the use of WordPerfect, but that day may come sooner than you think.  Supporting two different systems places an extra burden on the help desk as IT is expected to have expertise in both.  It also leads to complications in sharing documents and making them available in a variety of formats.  However, we are now installing MS Office by default and only installing WordPerfect by request on new computers.

Office 365

At present the firm supports a range of version of MS Office from 2010 to 2016 (I think we have retired all of the older versions by now).  There is not a huge difference between version 2010, 2013, and 2016.  The main difference is that the later versions make more use of online features that the firm has not really used.

For the past year, the firm has been deploying Office 365 instead of static version of office.  Unlike earlier version, Office 365 is a subscription service.  This means that whenever a new version of MS Office is released, you can upgrade without any additional cost.  Currently the latest version of Office provided by 365 is Office 2016.

Office 365 permits you to download full copies of Office on up to five computers for the same user. This means if you have a home laptop or desktop, you can download a copy of Office there.   There are also limited versions of MS Office that run on your mobile Android or IOS devices.  Finally, there is  limited cloud version of Office that you can use if you are at a computer that does not have Office installed on it (for example a public computer at a hotel or library).  Office 365 makes mobile use of Office much easier.  As part of our ongoing efforts to help everyone become more familiar with MS Office, we plan to make Office 365 licenses available to all very soon.

MS Office Training

If you have been using WordPerfect for years, you may find yourself having difficulty using MS Office as a replacement.  MS Word does many things differently, and getting used to the new menus will take some time and effort.

Cain Elliott has offered to hold a series of training classes on MS Office.  We do not yet have a schedule for those.  I hope we will have a schedule and more details on these classes soon.

There are also some very good online training videos available on the web:

http://www.gcflearnfree.org/topics/office2016

The site provide free videos and written tutorials on a wide variety of MS Office topics.  Simply select the topic you want and either watch the video or read the tutorial.  These can be useful for learning at your own pace and when you have the time for them.

Change is Coming

The firm is looking into some rather dramatic moves in the way we manage documents.  While these options are still under consideration, any of them will require users to work with MS Word and Excel for the documents.  If you are are unfamiliar with using MS Office, now is the time to get up to speed.

Calendar Invites

You have almost certainly received calendar Invites in the past.  They come as an email giving the date of an event and asking if you are attending.  It may have an option to ask if you are attending, or a link to add to your calendar.  You can click to create a calendar item for that time and day.

It Works Across Platforms

Calendaring works bets internally or with other gmail users.  However, the ICS format is pretty universal.  If you invite others using other calendaring systems, they should get an email notice that allows them to add the appointment to their calendar with a single click.

Of course, if you are not certain what system an outside party may use, you may want to send an email the first time you send a calendar invite, just to make sure they got it.  Most people will get the invite, but it pays to be safe. Once confident they are receiving the invite, you can dispense with emails.

Better Than Email

You may ask, why is it better to send an invite than simply email people about a date?  Well, it makes it easier for the recipient to add to his or her calendar.  The recipient need only click on "yes" to add the event to his or her calendar.  The recipient need not cut and paste or retype information from the email to a calendar.

A calendar invite also makes things easier for the sender.  Especially if multiple people are involved.  Recipients need not email back replies.  They can simply click on "yes" for attending and that information gets added to the sender's list of who is attending.  This makes it much easier to keep track of who can or cannot attend, and avoids lengthy email chains in your inbox.

If the sender needs to change a date or time, all attendees receive notification of the change (unless the sender opts not to send notifications).

When used internally or with other gmail users, there are even more features.  You can permit users to invite others, or to change the details of the meeting.  The creator has the ability to restrict these permissions if desired.  Gmail users can also add a quick note to their decision to attend or not, which shows up in the calendar details.

How to Create an Invite

To create an invite simply open your Calendar and create an appointment like you would for any other calendar entry.  Once it is set up, on the right, you will see an option to "add guests" and three boxes regarding what level of control you want to give to guests.  Add the email addresses of those you want to attend,   Once saved, it will notify the guests.  If they are gmail users, the event  will appear automatically on their calendars.

Working with PDF Documents.

I have addressed the benefits of PDF documents in earlier posts, but thought it might be time to add a few more thoughts.

For years now, the firm has used PDF Xchange Editor, and its predecessor PDF Xchnage Viewer as the preferred program for PDF documents.  Some of you may still opt to use Adobe Reader or some other third party program to do the same thing.   If all you ever want to do with a document is read it, or perhaps print it, then pretty much any program will do.  Even the Chrome browser has the ability to let you read an print a PDF.

Benefits of a PDF Editor:

PDF Xchange Editor, however, lets you do so much more than a simple viewer.  You can:

• mark up a document, 
• make notes on it, 
• attach a virtual sticky note,
• highlight or strike out text, 
• add or remove pages from a document, 
• add or remove images from a page,
• add watermarks, 
• add bates stamping, 
• redact text, 
• add a signature, 
• and a host of other things.

The PDF format is not really meant for editing documents that still need changes to text or layout, but you can make some limited changes even there.

Making a Document Easier to Use

Many people have express frustration when they cannot copy and paste text from a PDF.  Typically, this has to do with the way the document was created.  Many PDF documents, are generated using a "print to PDF" or similar feature that retains the text of the original document as text.  This allows a viewer to copy and paste the text into another document.  It also has the benefit of making the file size of the document much smaller.

Other PDF documents are created in such a way that the text is not captured. Scanning a document is the most common way to create this sort of PDF.  In effect, the computer is taking a picture of the document and embedding that image into a PDF.  So instead of actual text, the page is a picture of the text in the original document.  If you try to highlight the text, it won't work as you are simply putting your cursor over part of an image.

Fortunately, PDF Xchange Editor offers a solution to this.  If you get a document that has imaged text, you can use the OCR feature in Xchange.  OCR stands for ocular character recognition.  The computer looks at the image and recognized the words in it.  It then saves those words as part of the document so that you can use that text however you like.

The OCR feature may take a while to run, depending on the length of the document and the power of your CPU processor.  A document that is thousands of pages long may take hours to OCR, so be aware of that.  Shorter documents, though, likely only take a few minutes.  Once you have run the OCR and saved the document again, the document will retain that information for future use.

How the Firm Backs Up

Data protection is something the firm takes very seriously.  I thought it might be helpful to go over how we back up our data and what is available for restoration:

Google:

For Gmail and Google Drive, we have the ability to restore deleted data for up to 25 days.  After that, the information is gone forever.  Restoring data is not particularly easy.  We cannot restore specific items, but have to restore everything back to a certain date.  So this is not something you want to use routinely.

I strongly recommend that when you delete something from Drive or Gmail, that you simply let it sit in your trash.  Do not empty your trash.  After 30 days, those files or emails will go away on their own.  You don't have to worry about having too much trash, especially now that we have no space limits in Gmail or Drive.  Letting your deleted data sit in trash for 30 days, gives you the time to realize you might have needed something, or deleted more than you thought (such as deleting an entire conversation rather than a single email).  Trash gives you the time to recover that data quickly and easily.

Beyond trash and the 25 day Administrator recovery, our Google mail is backed up to Google Vault. We have the ability to recover messages sent or received, but there is no easy way to restore messages to your inbox.  We can print out a few PDF files of emails if needed for something.  It is not designed to recover large amounts of data easily.  In a real emergency we can use third party tools to do it, though you probably do not want to be the test case for something like this.

File Servers:

Most of our offices have a local file server where we store documents and other important data.  Different offices use different network letters for this, but I'm talking about our Matter Directories (MDIR) - the M: drive in most offices, as well as your personal network drive, the H: or I: drive in most offices.

We back up the file servers using a dedicated backup server built by a company called Datto.  Some offices use a Sirus class backup, others use an Alto class.  It mostly depends on the amount of data being stored.  Either way, both systems back up changes to the file server every hour during the work day.  After a couple of days, those hourly changes are merged into a single file that keeps one set of changes for the whole day.  After a few days, those daily files get merged into a single weekly file and then eventually into a monthly file.  The exact number of days before a merge and the number of months that we keep on file vary from office to office.  The variation is mostly a matter of how much space we have on the backup server.  If we have more space, we can keep more backups.

If necessary, we can recover specific files that may have been deleted.  We only need to know the names of the files, the folders where they had been stored, and when they were deleted.  Something deleted and created between backups may not be available.  For example, if you want a file from a week or two ago, we only have weekly backups.  In that case, if you created a file on Tuesday, and deleted it on Wednesday, it may not be available on the weekly backup, which only shows changes from the way the server looked on Sunday compared to the previous Sunday.

In the event the entire file server crashed and died, we have the ability to do a complete restore from backup to a new file server to get everything up and running again.  We also have the ability in some of our larger offices to run the backup as a replacement file server while the main one is being repaired.  We had to implement this very procedure in Philadelphia recently after the system board died in the main file server there.

We store backup files on site for quick restoration if needed.  We also upload a copy of these files to cloud storage, in the unlikely event that an entire office is destroyed, taking out both the file server and the local backup.  Again, how long we keep backups varies by office, depending on how much available space we have.  However, nothing is available more than one year after deletion.

Two of our offices do not have file servers.  Our Hollidaysburg and Beaver offices are deemed too small to have a file server on site.  Rather we use a shared workstation drive in those offices.  The matter directories in those offices get backed up nightly to a server in Philadelphia, which in turn feeds into the backup system in that office.

Time Entry

Time entry data is backed up using the same system we use for file servers.  Our Elite servers in Philadelphia record all time entries in real time.  These are backed up hourly during the day, less so on nights and weekends.  In the event of a server failure, we could do a backup, but would lose any entries done since the last hourly backup.  As with the file servers, the time entry backup servers are also backed up to the cloud in the event of a site disaster.

Individual Computers

I want to stress also that we do not back up in any way, the data stored on your individual laptops or desktop PCs.  You should not keep items in your "My Documents" folder or anywhere else on the C: drive if you care about losing them.  If your local hard drive fails, all that data could be irretrievably lost.

If, for some reason, you cannot store the information on your H: drive, storing it in your Google Drive is probably the best place to keep items you are concerned about losing.

Document Management

The firm has been considering implementation of a Document Management System (DMS) for many year.  We have put off any such implementation, opting instead to use a manual system of file organization based on the client and matter number in our Matter Directories.  Each office has a separate file server and uses a slightly different system of organization.

Current Setup

Attorneys are required to save documents to the server in the appropriate folder.  There is no easy way to search documents across folders or look for specific content.  Virtually all documents stored in the matter directory are available for reading, editing, or deletion by anyone in the firm.

DMS Concerns

There are many reasons why the firm had continued to use this method rather than investing in a commercial DMS.  Cost is one factor, not only the cost of buying the software and maintenance, as well as hardware, but because a DMS would likely require more IT staff to manage the database and software.  There are also the related headaches for users since DMS can make it more complicated to save documents. Also, most major DMS systems work only with MS Word and not so much with WordPerfect.  Even those that claim WordPerfect compatibility, tend to treat WordPerfect users as the poor stepchild, not giving them proper support.

DMS Benefits

That said, there are a great many organizational and security benefits to a DMS.  DMS software has improved markedly in recent years.  It is becoming much easier to use than in the past.  More importantly, many of our clients are demanding more information about security and control of their documents  While our system takes reasonable precautions to protect client data, clients are more comfortable hearing that a firm has a commercial system with well known security certifications that they can verify.   A DMS not only protects the firm from outside intruders, but can also alert the firm to questionable access or copying of documents from attorneys and staff.  More and more, clients want to see this level of protection.

A DMS also protects from mistakes.  Users often unintentionally delete, overwrite, or move a document, or whole folder of documents.  A DMS would prevent this sort of mistake, or at least make it much more difficult to do.

A DMS makes it easier to find documents as well.  While I'm sure everyone is well acquainted with the firm's system of client and data folders, there is no fast and easy way to run a search for a document  This is a specialty of DMS, and something that could prove to be a great time saver.

If we do get a DMS, it will also probably run from a single source, meaning there would no longer be separate servers in each office.  If you are working on a case from another office, it would be just as easy to access as all your other cases.

Another feature that we currently lack is the ability to share files with someone outside the office. For security reasons the only way that we give access to outside users is through a VPN connection. We do not have the ability to provide access to a limited number of files. Therefore, an outside user either has access to the entire matter directory or nothing at all.  That means that for anyone other than firm attorneys, no one has access to our files from outside the firm.  Most modern DMS system would allow the firm to set up an extranet, so that select outsiders could access select files for audits, sharing with co-council, or other purposes.

Most modern DMS also have a mobility component, meaning you can access your documents from anywhere, without being bothered with VPN.  There would still be a sign in, of course, to protect the records.  Many DMS also have iPhone and Android apps that give easy access on your mobile devices, as well as your laptop.

DMS Under Consideration

I have, from time to time given consideration to adopting a DMS for many years.  For the last couple of years, I have grown increasingly convinced that the firm is going to need to adopt some sort of DMS in the very near future, if only to comply with client demands.  I have been researching and testing a variety of solutions.  I'm happy to have a discussion with anyone interested in the merits and shortcomings of various systems on the market today, but in the interests of preventing this post from going on too long, I'll skip right to my final conclusion.

NetDocuments

I really like a solution called NetDocuments.  This is a cloud based DMS that would be accessible through your browser or mobile app.  It can also be configured to work directly through MS Office (we are probably going to want to phase out WordPerfect entirely before we implement anything).

Though NetDocument has been around for many years, it has become a favorite with both large and small firm in recent years, becoming the preferred DMS in the legal community.  It's security, mobility, and ease of use, make it an ideal solution for the modern law firm.  Though it is not cheap, as a cloud solution, there would be no large initial investment, only the cost of converting our data, and the ongoing monthly use charges.

If you would like to learn more about NetDocuments, check out their web site: https://www.netdocuments.com/en-us

Or Intro Video & other Videos

What do you think?

To be very clear, although I personally like NetDocuments, the firm has not made any decision to move in that direction.  I am putting out my thoughts on the subject in hopes of getting more feedback from you the users.  You are going to have to be using whatever solution we select.  I'd very much like your input to see if you agree that this is the direction we should go.

Do you think we need a DMS?  Why or why not?  If so, does NetDocuments sound like a good solution?

I have created an online poll that you can take to let me know your thoughts.

https://goo.gl/forms/q8zOnJPRoCXsKMoE3


Other helpful Articles on Document Management

http://apps.americanbar.org/lpm/lpt/articles/tch01093.shtml

http://www.uptimelegal.com/11-reasons-your-law-firm-needs-document-email-management

http://www.lawtechnologytoday.org/2013/07/when-to-consider-document-management

http://www.staceyeburke.com/blog/law-firm-document-management-software

Internal Web Site

I have been letting this blog lapse for a few months as the IT Department has been focused mostly on office renovations in Philadelphia.  This has taken a fair amount of my time, and involved work not particularly worthy of discussing with the whole firm.  Suffice it to say that renovations are proceeding along.  We are in the final phase of work in Philadelphia, and hope to have things completed in a few more weeks.

Old Research Home Page Shutting Down

I am going to try to start posting regularly again though.  Today I am posting to announce that next week, we will be shutting down permanently, our old research home page: (10.0.0.251/research/home.html or 192.6.120.251/research/home.html).  The old page has been up and running for 17 years now and has served us well.  It's main shortcoming has been that it is only available when in the office or when using VPN.  We did this originally, because we did not want to make the page visible to the public.

New Research Home Page

Last year, we debuted our new research home page on Google Sites.  You may access the page at research.margolisedelstein.com.  You can access the site from anywhere in or out of the office.  However, we still do not want the site to be accessible by the public at large.  For this reason, you may get a prompt to log in using your Gmail address and password.  If you use Chrome, you are probably already logged in using that account and won't get the prompt.  You can access the site using any browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, etc.).

We have tried to keep some continuity between the old and new sites.  The page may seem a little crude, though this is done on purpose.  I wanted a page that had maximum compatibility with all browsers, old and new.  Using more advanced features often cause problems across browsers.  Keeping it simply hopefully avoids some of that.

There are also a few limitations using Google Sites itself for the hosting.  One particularly annoying one for me is that Sites would not allow me to use drop down lists as we had on the old site.  Instead of that, I have put all the links on a separate page, with the ability to click on section headings at the top of the page to get to the section you need.

Most of the internal links on the page lead to a shared document on Google Drive.   This make it much easier for us to update pages quickly and in real time.  We can update just about anything in a matter of minutes.

Send me your Input

If you notice an error or omission, or have a suggested change, feel free to send it along to me (Mike Troy).  If you think a web site link should be added to the page or find one that is no longer working, please send those along as well.  I am also happy for input on how we can improve or expand the site. If there are key firm documents you think should be added or other ways we can make use of the site to make your life easier, let me know.

I know there are some things on the page that are out of date.  I can only update information when people send it to me.   If there is something out of date that you need, let me know.  That will prompt me to email the person responsible for updated information.

I also have the ability to add online polls on the site.  Right now, I am using that as a method for people to submit phone problems to the help desk.  If people find it useful, we could expand that to other help desk matters (although you can still simply email helpdesk@margolisedelstein.com).  We may occasionally post things about what directions the firm should take regarding technology.

Time Entry Still Limited

One big limitation that still exists is Webview.  Many people use the home page to access Webview. Sadly, Elite has chosen to restrict Webview access to Internet Explorer, and on many new computers requires Compatibility Mode be added for that site in order for it to work properly.  I have argued with Elite about this, but they seem inflexible on the matter.  It's one reason we now offer iTimeKeep, as an alternative method for entering time.  The iTimeKeep app is available for your phone or tablet, and can also be accessed through any web browser at desktop.itimekeep.com.  If you have never used it before, you should be able to log in using your Gmail address and password.  The help desk can always assist if you have trouble.  I mention this, because if you start using a browser other than IE to use the home page, you may be frustrated when you click on the Webview link from there.

Change your Home Page.  

As I said at the beginning of this post, the old page is going away.  For a short time, if you click on a link to the old page, it will simply forward you to the new one.  But at some point, the old Windows 2000 server that hosts that page needs to be retired once and for all.  To avoid eventually getting the dreaded "site not found" screen, you need to update the home page on your browser.

If you want the new home page to appear on Chrome, just do the following:

1. Click on the three dots in the upper right hand corner of the browser
2. Select "Settings"
3. Under "on startup" select "open a specific page"
4. Click on the "set pages" link where you can type or paste the address to research.margolisedelstein.com.  If you already have that page open, you can just click on the "use current page" button.  You can also choose to have it open multiple pages, perhaps the home page and your Gmail inbox.  Just have whatever pages open when you click on that "use current page" button and it will add all of them.

To update your home page in Internet Explorer, simply  do the following:

1. Click on the Gear in the upper right hand corner of the browser, or on "tools".
2. Select "Internet Options"
3. On the "General" tab under "home page"  type or paste the address to research.margolisedelstein.com.  If you already have that page open, you can just click on the "use current" button.  As with Chrome, you can use this to add multiple pages to open at start if you wish.

As always, the help desk can assist if needed.