LAW PRACTICE TIPS

Still More Computer Tips, Tricks and Shortcuts
By Jim Calloway, Director
OBA Management Assistance Program

We received a lot of positive feedback on last month's article on computer tips, so we decided to continue on with some more computer tips. Feel free to let me know of your favorite tips via e-mail (jimc@okbar.org), or you can post them to the OBA-NET.

Word Processing Tips

AutoCorrect and QuickCorrect Save Time

Many of us use AutoCorrect in Microsoft Word and QuickCorrect in Corel WordPerfect to correct common typing mistakes. For instance, if you mistype the word "AND" as "ADN," they will automatically correct this for you. You can also create abbreviations that expand into full phrases. Either of these word-processing programs will correct your common misspellings, and even add entries that expand into larger sets of characters or words. For instance, if you type "VTY" you could have that expand into the letter closing block "Very truly yours."

Here are the instructions:

In Corel WordPerfect, go to "Tools"-"QuickCorrect." Check the "Replace words as you type" box and enter the abbreviation in the "Replace" field and the full phrase in the "With" field. Click "Add." Click "OK."

or

In Microsoft Word, go to "Tools"-"AutoCorrect." Check the "Replace text as you type" box and enter the abbreviation in the "Replace" field and the full phrase in the "With" field. Click "Add." Click "OK."

AutoText and QuickWords Can Be Used to Speed Document Assembly

Use AutoText in MS Word and QuickWords in WordPerfect to enter larger amounts of text into documents by typing just a few characters. This is a similar feature to AutoCorrect and QuickCorrect for use with more complex text. You can create entries like "LWT/" and have it expand into your form for a completed last will and testament document. These features even pull in the specific formatting of text (like a case style). I like to use a character like "/" at the end of all of these terms. That way if we hired a new secretary with the initials LWT, we wouldn't accidentally run the feature by typing her initials.

Quickly Changing Text Case in MS Word

You can use your keyboard to quickly change the case of text in Microsoft Word.

Select the text you want to change and press "SHIFT+F3." Each time you press the "SHIFT+F3" keys, the text case changes and you can switch between UPPERCASE, lowercase and Initial Capitals (aka Title Case).

Print Mailing Bar Codes on Your Envelopes

Many of us use word processing software to print envelopes. Did you know you can also print the mailing bar code for the recipient's address - automatically? It's easy. Here's how to do it in MS Word:

After you've typed the recipient's name and address, choose
"Tools"
"Envelopes and Labels"
"Options"
"Envelope Options," then check
"Delivery point bar code"

Word automatically inserts the correct bar code for the specific address.

This feature is similar in Word Perfect. Here's how:

Choose "Format"

"Envelope," Under "Mailing Address" click on the "Icon showing the Bar Code"

You then choose whether you want the bar code inserted above or below the address.

(We are aware that there is a debate about whether bar codes actually speed up the mail.)

Grande Macros 5.5

Oklahoma lawyers who use WordPerfect and handle family law cases will be pleased to know that Doug Loudenback has completed version 5.5 of his remarkable Grande Macros. (Sorry, Microsoft Word users, but there's no similar product for you.) Not only do these macros help you quickly prepare many domestic practice pleadings, letters and other documents under the newly changed family law procedures, but there are many new additions and creations. These include guardian ad litem motion and order, maps of Oklahoma, a mileage calculator, a numerical calculator, a library of many CLE papers in PDF format and more. Many lawyers tell us the program is a bargain for the child support calculator alone. Go to www.dougloudenback.com and print an order form and mail it in with your payment to the OBA Management Assistance Program, or stop by the Bar Center to purchase one. The price is $120 for new purchasers, and upgrades for users of versions 4.0, 4.5 or 5.0 are available for $60.

E-mail Tips

Save an E-Mail Message and the Attachment Together

We all receive e-mails with attachments. As you know, you can save the attachment to your hard drive and access it later. But what about the rest of the e-mail message that transmitted the document? A message like "this is the version that was approved by the court" can be critical information to have and it would be great if one could somehow keep that message with the attachment. Microsoft Outlook allows you to save a message AND the attachment together in a folder on your hard drive (just as you do with all your other documents). Here's what you do:

Open the message with the attachment. Go to the toolbar and choose "File" and "Save As." A dialog box will pop up and you can choose where you want to put the message and attachment. Pick a name for the message and then click on "Save as Type." Choose "Message Format (*.msg)." This will automatically save the message and attachment together as an Outlook message. Then you can go back into Windows Explorer, find the file, open it, and you will have the attached document along with the original message!

Don't Broadcast Your Friends' E-mail Addresses

Unsolicited spam e-mails are a growing problem. Many of us send and receive group e-mails addressed to more than one person. One county bar association regularly sends out group e-mails to many members. Now for a county bar association, it may be just fine to send out an e-mail that includes dozens of other local lawyers' e-mail addresses in the TO: line. But for other situations, your correspondents may not appreciate having their e-mail addresses shared with strangers and those strangers might forward the e-mail to others. So, instead of placing all of these e-mail addresses in the TO: line, place them all in the BCC:(blind carbon copy) line. Just leave the TO: line blank. That way those who receive it will not get anyone else's e-mail address. With MS Outlook they will get a notice in the TO: line that it was sent to "undisclosed recipients." With other e-mail programs, the TO: line may just be blank.

As I have mentioned previously, this works well for client e-mail newsletters. You can create a contact for "Herbst Law Firm Client Newsletter" as the name and your own e-mail as the address. Then you send the e-mail to that address and place everyone else in the BCC field. When recipients see the TO: line, they understand it is a newsletter. If they reply to it, you still get the reply, while the identities of all your clients are preserved.

Internet Tips

Find Web Pages That Are No Longer On The Internet

For the veteran Internet surfer, it is no longer surprising how many web sites just vanish. You bookmark a favorite site on the Internet that you want to return to at a later date only to find that the information you were hoping to retrieve is no longer there. But that doesn't mean you're sunk! Try going to www.archive.org. This site has "saved" web pages from January 1996 through the present. They claim to have 11 billion pages (100 terabytes). In the middle of the page click on the link for the "Way Back Machine" and enter the URL for the website you're trying to access. You'll get a chart which shows the year and exact dates they have archived. They'll even tell you the dates the site was updated. (This record of web page modifications could be very useful in many legal liability situations.)

The Google search engine also has cached copies of many web pages. So if you are looking for a deceased web page and can locate it with a Google search, you may find a copy there as well.

Windows Tips

Synchronize Your Files - Better Than Briefcase!

This is a very slick option in Windows 2000 Professional. If you have a laptop, this has happened to you. You work on a document and store it on the network at the office. You get home and decide to make a few more changes. But you forgot to download the document to your laptop before you left the office!! You're stuck, right? Wrong!! If you regularly store your documents on the network at the office because you want them to be backed up regularly (or because you want your assistant to have access to them, too), you need to know about synchronizing. It is easy to set up. In Windows 2000 Professional, simply go into Windows Explorer and highlight the files you want later when you're offline. Here's how:

Go to "Windows Explorer"
Highlight the desired files you want to be available offline
Click "Tools"
Click on "Folder Options"
Choose "Offline Files"
Check "Enable Offline Files"
Check "Synchronize All Offline files Before Logging Off"

Now everything that was on your network is available to you wherever you are. No more wondering whether the version on your laptop is the same as the one on the network. You can even create a new document at home, and it will be placed on the network when you get back into the office and synchronize.

File Names

Here's a trio of tips relating to file name extensions, which is the part of a computer file name that is located after the period.

Extensions: Associating by File Type

You can associate a particular application to a particular file type so that the every time Windows encounters an extension that has an association, it will use the application associated with that file type to open that particular file. For instance, by default WordPerfect files are saved with a ".wpd" extension, and Word uses a ".doc" extension. Because of the extensions associated with these applications, these programs open documents with these extensions. To associate files choose "View/Folder Options" from Windows Explorer, select the "File Types" tab and use "New Type" to add an extension and the program you want to open files with that extension.

Extensions: Use Standard File Name Extensions

Rarely does a month go by that we do not get calls from lawyers very concerned because they have tried to open an important e-mail attachment and cannot do so. You can see that the file attachment is in Word or WordPerfect, but when you click on the icon it won't open and they get an error message about file associations. In almost every instance, it is because the person who sent the file uses some file naming procedure in the office that results in the file not having the standard default file name extensions mentioned previously (e.g., ".wpd" for WordPerfect and ".doc" for MS Word.) ALWAYS use the default standard file name extension.

If you receive such a file, you can always just save it to your hard drive and open it by using the File - Open features of the word processor or other application. You could also rename the file using a correct file name extension.

Extensions: File Extensions Reference Guide

LBM? RDL? VBW? If you're a software fiend - maybe even a download junkie - you might find yourself occasionally stumped by the file extensions you encounter on your very own hard drive. Below are two websites that will help you determine what each file extension means. The first site sites on a server at the University of Koeln in Germany. The second site, EXT Search - is a search engine which allows you to search for the meaning of 2,395 file extensions.

http://www.uni-koeln.de/themen/Graphik/ImageProcessing/fileext.html
http://extsearch.com/

Credits: I've done "Tips" programs with so many colleagues that I could not name them all. You cannot really claim credit for authoring tips because after you give a tip to a group, the audience and your co-presenters will then all share the tips with others. However, I wanted to acknowledge two friends and fellow tipsters for their help with some of these tips. They are my counterparts who work for other state bar associations: Reba Nance, Director of Law Practice Management with the Colorado Bar Association and Natalie R. Thornwell, Director of Law Practice Management with the Georgia Bar Association.

Originally published in the Oklahoma Bar Journal December 14, 2002 - Vol. 73; No.36