I've written in the past about how much I like using Microsoft's Live Mesh Beta service to sync my current client folders across the three computers I regularly use in my practice (desktop, full-sized notebook, and netbook). Microsoft is in the process of transitioning this beta service into its more full-featured Windows Live Mesh 2011 service for Windows 7 and Vista PC's, but not for computers still running Windows XP. XP users wanting to keep the Live Mesh Beta service will soon be out of luck or will need to upgrade to Vista or 7 . Once Windows Live Mesh 2011 has been out and in use for a few months, Microsoft is expected to terminate the original Live Mesh Beta service. XP users could switch to a non-Microsoft file and folder sync service such as Dropbox that remains compatible with XP. My full-sized notebook and my netbook are still on XP, so I will have to make this decision myself very soon. Like the Live Mesh Beta, Windows Live Mesh is free. In addition to the very useful remote desktop and file syncing features of Live Mesh Beta, Windows Live Mesh 2011 adds the ability to sync your Microsoft Office and Internet Explorer settings across multiple computers. If you use more than one computer, you know what a nuisance it can be if Office is not set up exactly the same way on each computer or if you set IE favorites on one computer, but they don't appear when you open IE on your other computer. The inability to sync favorites/bookmarks was one of the reasons I switched from IE to Firefox a few years ago. Now, if you have a computer at the office and at home (or have a notebook or netbook in addition to your primary desktop), you can use the free Windows Live Mesh 2011 service to do the following: Keep your client or firm files/folders (this includes PDF's and other files in addition to MS Office format files such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint) in sync between your office and home or portable computers. Connect to and remotely control any of your computers you have assigned to your Windows Live Mesh account, even if they have a "home" version of Windows Vista or 7 that does not directly support a Remote Desktop connection. This would substitute for a service such as LogMeIn or GoToMyPC. Keep your MS Office and IE settings consistent across each of the computers you use. Also worth mentioning is the 25 GB of free on-line storage provided by Microsoft's SkyDrive which integrates well with Microsoft Office's web apps for collaboration and sharing files with others.

This is a great tip found on Lifehacker that is especially useful in law offices. As an appellate lawyer, I often copy text from other documents or sources into my briefs. Most lawyers do the same thing when constructing all sorts of legal documents. This task can be made easier by assigning extra mouse buttons to the copy and paste functions. Unless you have a very basic mouse (perhaps the one that came bundled with your computer), odds are your mouse has buttons you don't use. For example, I have a Microsoft Wireless IntelliMouse Explorer 2 connected to my desktop PC. It has two extra "thumb" buttons on the left side plus, as is true of most mice with scroll wheels, the wheel can also be used as a separately programmed push button. I simply downloaded the latest version of the IntelliMouse driver software from Microsoft's web site, installed it, and assigned the large thumb button to Control>C for copy and the scroll wheel push button to Control>V for paste. Now I can copy and paste in my MS Word legal documents (or any PC application) entirely with the mouse without touching the keyboard of even right-clicking. Even slicker is the programming features of many Logitech mice. The Logitech software (unlike the IntelliMouse software - unless I am too dumb to locate the setting) allows you to assign functions to the left and right scroll wheel tilt (did you know that you can horizontally scroll by tilting the wheel? - well that may not be so useful with today's widescreen monitors unless you work with large spreadsheets, but it does let you move one character at a time left or right when working in Word). But you don't really need the mouse manufacturer's specialized driver. You can download and install the free Auto Hotkey utility to program special functions to your mouse buttons (and keyboard). Auto Hotkey is a little clunky to work with, but if you don't mind creating your own scripts (be sure to read the documentation for detailed instructions), it does the job.

There is a ton of good (and free) stuff on the Internet, along with megatons of junk. One of our goals with this blog is to help you sort through the junk to find the good stuff. Recently PC Magazine posted a series of slide shows by containing tips for Microsoft Office 2010, particularly Word and Excel. Here are the links: MS Office 2010 Tips Slide Show MS Word 2010 Tips Slide Show MS Excel 2010 Tips Slide Show Having reviewed these tips, I found much useful information. One of my favorites is the 5th slide of the MS Office 2o1o show. It tells you how to configure Word 2010 to open files created in older versions of Word. Many law firms have a collection of forms or documents created in early versions of Word or Excel that more recent versions of MS Office refuse to open because they may pose a security risk. Assuming you have solid antivirus and antimalware protection, this security feature may not be necessary. In order to allow Word or Excel 2010 to open these old files, go to File, Options, Trust Center, click Trust Center Settings, then select File Block Settings, and remove the checkmarks from the older Office files that you want Office 2010 to open. The 8th slide in the Word show is also a great tip. Many lawyers, when doing research and drafting briefs or other documents, need to use text from emails, PDF's, and other documents that may be badly formatted for word processing purposes. The text may contain hard returns at the end of each line, for example. The AutoFormat feature in Word does a decent job of cleaning up these formatting problems. Earlier versions of Word had the AutoFormat command on the toolbar. With the switch to the Ribbon interface in Office 2007 and 2010, that command disappeared. But you can add it to the Quick Access Toolbar that appears above the Ribbon's tabs by clicking on the down arrow at the right-hand end of the Quick Access Toolbar, and then clicking on More Commands. In the dropdown menu under "Choose commands from," select Commands Not In the Ribbon. From the list that appears, click on Autoformat, the Add button, and then OK.

Last week, Microsoft released it Word Web App for public consumption. A short time ago, Google released its next version of Google Docs. Can either of these replace the desktop version of Microsoft Word? Not at the moment. For formatting large complex documents, desktop word processors (Word, WordPerfect, OpenOffice) are still the way to go. However, web apps have their place and do provide some unique features. Personally, I think that Microsoft Word 2007 is the best word processor available today (although that may change once I install Word 2010). Word 2007 makes it really easy and fast to format large complex documents. Paragraph styles, linked styles, outline numbering, and quick styles are all tools that make handling complex documents easy. We have an exercise in our Word training course where we format a supreme court brief in about 5 minutes. The best part of that is, once we are done, we generate the table of contents in about 3 clicks. It is really difficult (if not impossible) to accomplish the same thing in web based apps. Let’s see what happens when we need to edit a complex document in these applications. The Champion: Microsoft Word 2007 For example, let’s suppose I am working on an 81 page revocable trust. The trust is formatted with styles and outline numbering, contains an automatically generated table of contents, and includes page numbering in the format Article Number-Page. In this example, I have the definitions section for the trust in Article 14, and I want to add a new definition between Section 14.01 and 14.02, and update the table of contents: In Word, this is easy. First, I make sure my formatting marks are on and my style pane is open, then I type in my new text, and click the style that applies to it: That formats the text for me, complete with the proper numbering and indents (the rest of the numbering updates automatically), and then all I have to do is press CTRL-A, F9 to update the table of contents, and I am done. The whole formatting process, including updating the table of contents, takes less than 10 seconds (4 clicks and 2 keyboard commands): The New Kid: Microsoft Office Word Web App Microsoft’s Office Word Web App is pretty good for a first release, but it has far fewer features than Word 2007. It also works a little differently. Word Web App has two modes: a view mode and an edit mode. View mode The view mode is fantastic for reading complex Word documents. I uploaded the trust to my Windows Live Skydrive and opened it in Word Web App. Word Web App rendered the trust perfectly, including page numbers, and hot linked the table of contents so clicking on a TOC entry moves the cursor to the correct location in the document. I tested Word Web App in both Internet Explorer and Firefox and it worked fine. The partial screen shots are below. Edit mode Edit mode changes the way the document looks on the screen. For example, the table of contents appears as hyperlinks (but you cannot click on them as you can in view mode), and fields and line breaks appear with shaded brackets around them: Edit mode also failed to properly display the numbering. “Article Fourteen” was changed to “14” on the screen, and “Section 14.01” was changed to “1.”. (Notice that the line break in the article title is displayed as “[Soft Break]”). However, I was able to apply the styles to my new definition. Switching back to view mode showed that my changes had been made successfully (and that the numbering was still really there). There are a few shortcomings to note in all of this: (1) There is no apparent way to update a field (i.e. I couldn’t update my table of contents). (2) While all my styles showed up and were usable, there was no apparent way to edit my styles or add new ones. (3) I miss my styles pane. (4) No formatting marks. (5) No ruler. There is one huge, giant positive about Word Web App, and that is it preserved all the formatting in my document. I was able to download the trust from Skydrive back to my computer, open it in Word, update the table of contents, and I was unable to find any formatting mistakes or glitches in the document. I don’t think this can be emphasized enough - my document was left intact. However, it is clear that Word Web App is really more of a companion product to Microsoft Word, and not a completely featured word processor. Specifically, there was no apparent way to create or edit styles, insert fields, create a table of contents, etc. These things have to be done in Microsoft Word, but the document can then be viewed, edited and shared on Word Web App. Word Web App is also good for creating a first draft, but the heavy duty formatting still needs to be done in Word. The Challenger: Google docs I uploaded my sample trust to Google docs to see what would happen. However, first I turned on the new features of Google Docs by going into Settings –> Document Settings and checking the “Create new text documents using the latest version of the document editor. The new interface in the latest version looks really nice, but unfortunately, on first glance, it destroyed my numbering (the old version preserved the text of my numbering, but it was no longer automatic): Older version of Google Docs (numbering looks ok) Latest version of Google Docs So can I still make the change I need to make? I added my text, clicked on the styles dropdown, and discovered that there are only 7 styles available in Google docs: I applied heading 2 to my new heading and it didn’t look right at all: I didn’t see where I could update the table of contents. So I decided to download it and open it in Word. The end result was not pretty. Google Docs completely destroyed my formatting. The numbering formats were gone, my styles were gone (replaced with generic Styles 1 through Style 22), the footers were a mess, page numbering was gone, the table of contents field had been replaced by hyperlinks, etc, etc. I also tried the same thing with the older version of Google docs. The results weren’t much better. My automatic numbering had been turned into raw text, all tabs had been converted into non-breaking spaces, my page numbering was gone, my styles were gone, and the table of contents was a mess. Summary of Results So for my test for inserting an additional numbered section in my document and updating the table of contents: Microsoft Word 2007: 10 seconds (approx 4 clicks and 2 keyboard commands after typing the text). Worked perfectly. Office Word Web App: Longer process. I was able to insert the text and format it correctly with the correct style. However, there was no way to update the table of contents, and the numbering in Edit Mode did not display correctly. Still, I was able to edit the document, download it to Word, and update the table of contents. Most importantly, it left all my formatting in document intact. Google docs: Google docs just isn’t well suited to this task. Google docs converts the document and in the process destroys all the automatic numbering formatting, page number, table of contents, styles, etc. In addition, with only 7 available styles, I doubt I could duplicate the formatting and make my sample 81 page trust work in Google docs. Conclusion For legal writing, desktop based word processors still are really the only practical option, particularly for complex documents. Microsoft Office Word Web App does provide an interesting addition, in that you can view, edit and share your document on the web and still keep all your formatting intact – especially your styles. Google docs just doesn’t seem ready for legal writing at this time. Google docs has many other strengths (simultaneous editing, collaboration), but formatting complex documents just isn’t one of them.

We write and talk about esoteric hardware and software that may be of use to law firms, but the reality is that the plain old office suite remains the most used tech product in almost any firm. But "plain old" is hardly a fit description of modern office suites from Microsoft, Corel, Lotus, or OpenOffice.org. For example, integration with cloud-based storage and services, the very definition of "hot" in today's tech discussions, is built-into Microsoft Office 2010. This will boost the ability to collaborate with co-counsel, clients, experts, and others in the creation and editing of Office documents. There are also free web-based 2010 versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint designed to compete directly with Google Docs. They lack the features of the desktop versions of these apps, yet will suffice for creating and editing many documents used by law firms. Office 201o arrives at retail outlets this Tuesday, June 15. At retail, there will be three editions of Office 2010: Professional ($499.99 for full boxed version for 2 pc's, $349 for license key card for one pc), includes: Excel Outlook PowerPoint Word Access Publisher OneNote (new to suite) Home and Business ($279 for full boxed version for 2 pc's, $199 for license key card for 1 pc), includes: Excel Outlook PowerPoint Word OneNote Home and Student ($149 for full boxed version for 3 pc's, $119 for license key card for 1 pc), includes: Excel PowerPoint Word OneNote In addition to these retail editions, there are volume license editions available to PC manufacturers that they can bundle with the PC's they sell you. As has been true in the past, the cheapest way to buy Office 2010 will probably be to include it in the specifications when you order a new computer. If you decide to buy a retail edition of Office 2010, at this point we recommend the Professional edition. We've encountered problems with the beta version of Outlook 2010 in the Home and Business edition when attempting to integrate Outlook with Amicus Attorney.

Preliminary tests by one of our consultants suggests that users of the beta version of Microsoft Office 2010 Home and Business edition may not be able to select Outlook as the default email client on their computer. This inability would prevent integration of Outlook with practice management software such as Amicus Attorney. It could also affect the ability to link Outlook to Worldox and possibly preclude synchronization of Outlook information with a user's smart phone. Similar tests using the beta version of Microsoft Office 2010 Professional edition have not revealed this problem. With the official release of Microsoft Office 2010 fast approaching, we suggest our clients to opt for the Professional edition and avoid the lower-cost Home & Office edition until these issues are further explored and resolved.

Recently in San Francisco, Facebook held its "f8" conference for its developers, media and other interested parties. Facebook now has over 400 million users and has grown from a web site to a platform for delivering software and services. Right now, you may be thinking Farmville, the world's most popular collaborative online game that has a reported 80 million virtual farmers. At this conference however, Facebook and Microsoft announced a partnership to allow sharing of your Microsoft Office documents with your friends through Facebook called Docs.com. Vacation photos, restaurant recommendations, birthday wishes are all things you would share in real life with your friends and family that you can now do through Facebook. But I rarely find myself bringing around a contract, spreadsheet or presentation to the old neighborhood barbecue or Thanksgiving dinner. So, what good is it then, right? Let's plow a little deeper. Here is a hereto for little known fact about me. I am a "Two Face". This is a term I came up with (surely along with someone much smarter and earlier than I did) to describe people who keep two Facebook accounts, one for personal and one for business. I do this for a few reasons. There are things that I share with friends and family that I don't necessarily want to share with colleagues or business associates. Conversely, my friends and family don't really want to hear me "speak the geek" on legal technology but Facebook can also be a good business networking tool if used correctly. What if Facebook came up with a way for me to create different groups of Facebook friends that I could publish different content to?. That is essentially a very basic form of provisioning or assigning rights and privileges. Privacy settings can limit what certain people see but it will not say Picture A goes to Group C and Article B goes to Group D. It also does not create a digital firewall around the content of a group of people, say for instance, your firm staff. I have a theory that we will see more robust provisioning through Facebook itself and through Facebook Connect, soon to be known as simply, the Facebook Platform. Google Docs and Google Apps do accomplish these things already and that is why I think this is such an important announcement. While there is some adoption of the Google platform, people do not generally know how to share a document on Google Docs and if they do, they are not sure what email address to send it to or how to set permissions or if that person or group can then pass it on. There is also the misnomer that the document needs to be generated in Google Docs. There are third party tools like OffiSync which allow you to send your Microsoft Office documents to your Google Docs or Google Apps account in its native format and not subject to any limitations of Google Docs formatting. You can also provision the document to say who can see it, who is read only, who can edit it, and who can share it with others. Google has also updated their online tools and given them richer functionality and better fidelity with Microsoft Office documents. So, it has become a very viable platform for collaboration and sharing. While firms that have adopted Google Apps in place of Microsoft Office and especially where they replace Outlook with the GMail interface have discovered the ease of collaboration and provisioning, this is a very minute part of the legal population. I found only two case studies by Google Apps consultants on law firms while doing some recent research. This is where the opportunity lies for Facebook and Microsoft, in familiarity. Microsoft Office is basically know as an on-premise solution and it's software residing on your desktop and data on your firm's server. They are struggling to be known as a web alternative to well, themselves. The upcoming release (May 12th, 2010 for volume licenses, June 15, 2010 for others) of Office 2010 will start to close this gap with a free web version which has limited functionality and is ad-supported. However, where Microsoft has usually been adept at playing catch up, they simply were losing ground in a platform that Steve Ballmer said 'we are betting the company on'. Docs.com is but another small step, but they have gotten on the right bus and it is a popular one that goes out to the countryside. Imagine a day on the horizon, just past the corn, where you sign into your firm's Facebook system which has a virtual fence around the data and content (for the sake of this discussion, let's assume that data privacy concerns have been resolved). You are notified that a Word document needs to be edited or approved. You click on the link and open it in Microsoft Word and start editing it and in real time people with rights can see you editing it and instant message you with suggestions which you agree on and eventually approve. You then hit the "share" button and select your client's Facebook account which notifies them of the document, which needs to be signed, through their personal Facebook account. Only they can see this notification and the document itself. They can then link to the document which still resides in your virtual perimeter and electronically sign the document. When it is signed, you are notified on your firm Facebook feed. This could also trigger a billing entry to your accounting system. Your client might actually pay you right there with Facebook Credits. Actually, this little stretch of the imagination is available today on other platforms (OK, maybe not paying in virtual credits but payment via an interface like PayPal is). Microsoft's own Share Point can do all of this. The benefit of the scenario above is that you don't have to buy additional software or hardware. Google Apps along with several integrated third party apps can do this today as does the 37 Signals suite and a host of other products as well. However, using Microsoft Office with Facebook, very minimal training would be required and adoption would be almost guaranteed once your firm decided to implement it. Getting the industry to buy in; that'll be a tough row to hoe. Should the above scenario actually come to be, you probably want to avoid the temptation to use your clients' trust credits to buy feed for your livestock.

The ABA Journal reports that LexisNexis and Microsoft reached an agreement to integrate Lexis legal research in to Microsoft Office 2007 and the soon-to-be-released Office 2010. According to the ABA article: Lexis will now be integrated into Microsoft Office products, allowing users to do legal and general research directly while working in Microsoft Word, Outlook and SharePoint. Users, who must have a Lexis subscription, need only click on a Lexis tab in the ribbon of utilities available in Microsoft Office 2007 and the forthcoming 2010 version to start researching, Shepardizing cases or even gathering information from Bing or Google search engines. There is no need to navigate separately to the Web and log on to Lexis or a search engine.

A user writes: I really miss the “Make it Fit” feature in WordPerfect. Is there a similar function in Word? ANSWER: Yes, there is! Although, it works slightly different from the WordPerfect version. In WordPerfect, the option is located under Format->Make It Fit. WordPerfect presents a dialog box asking for the number of pages to shrink to, and selections to choose the formatting options WordPerfect will adjust. By default, WordPerfect adjusts the font size and the line spacing. There are also options for adjusting the margins. The Word 2007 version of this is “Shrink One Page” and is located on the Print Preview ribbon. Word 2007 version isn’t quite as sophisticated as the WordPerfect version. To open the Print Preview window, go to Office Button->Print->Print Preview. The “Shrink One Page” button is located on the the Print Preview ribbon. Clicking this button will shrink the document by one page. Word will start shrinking all the fonts in the document by half a point until the document is one page less that the original number of pages. WordPerfect’s “Make It Fit” tends to be a little more accurate than Word’s “Shrink One Page” in fitting the document exactly to the desired length due to the fact that it adjusts font size and line spacing. Even still, the Word version is good in a pinch and works quite well. If you need finer control over document shrinking in Word, you will have to make manual formatting adjustments. The Word MVP FAQ Site has details on the process.