By Jim Calloway You may be glad to return to face-to-face meetings and hearings, but videoconferencing is not going away. There will still be clients who can be spared a long drive to your office for a quick conference, but video is preferred so you can share documents on the screen. You may decide that…

By Jim Calloway You may read the subject line and think you know how to do this, but the advanced features outlined in this short piece are not so commonly known or used. Document creators have often recognized the power of find and replace. It speeds the process of changing a word or phrase throughout…

By Jim Calloway Sometimes Microsoft tends to hide powerful features in favor of simple interfaces better for the average user. Microsoft Word’s Print Preview Edit Mode is something useful that you have probably never used because it is hidden. It shouldn’t be hidden and that is an easy fix. Today’s suggested project is to learn…

By Jim Calloway Legal ethics guru Lucian T. Pera recently suggested in his column in Law Practice Magazine that lawyers have an ethical duty to stay current on the news, at least where things like data breaches and hacking attacks are concerned. Such current interest items are often not covered in standard ethics fare. For…

By Jim Calloway When you need to edit a PDF file, one great tool is Adobe Acrobat Pro DC. It has so many features, including combining several PDFs into one, the ability to redact, electronic signatures and the like. Everyone in your law office who needs to do sophisticated work with PDF files likely needs…

By Jim Calloway Email is a part of our lives, like it or not. It is great when you need to deliver documents to another state without paying for a courier. But between all the spam, the phishing attempts to attack your computers and an appreciation that most emails contain a request for you to…

By Jim Calloway Lawyers often deal with the challenges that occur when people die without making a last will and testament. One result is sometimes intestacy laws distribute property differently than the deceased might have wanted. Additional expenses and legal fees are almost always a result. Similar challenges and expenses can occur when a lawyer…

By Jim Calloway Automating law office operations is a step many law firms can benefit from. The Kennedy-Mighell Report podcast recently covered law office automation in their episode I Just Wanna Automate, Automate. Sometimes it is the small steps with tools that you already own like Quick Parts in Microsoft Office. Dennis Kennedy and Tom…

By Jim Calloway What service are you using to back up your computers? Ideally you should have regular backups made both to some hardware device you own and to an online cloud-based backup service. And if you keep family photos and other important information on a home computer, that may need a backup as well….

By Jim Calloway Podcasts have been experiencing a renaissance with many new podcasts being released during the recent years. This new content includes a lot of legal-themed podcasts. If you have a long commute or drive a great deal some days, legal podcasts can be a way to make that time more enjoyable and productive….

By Jim Calloway Our smart phones are so powerful and there are so many apps available for them, it is hard to keep up with everything that is possible. For iPhone users in the legal profession, Jeff Richardson’s iPhoneJD site has been a resource for many years. If you are interested in a new app,…

By this point you have likely learned how to use Microsoft OneDrive to share files with clients in a more secure manner than email attachments. In addition to that, now you can send a link to a client to request that the client securely sends files to you. This could be really helpful if a…

By Jim Calloway Years ago, there was a lot of discussion in the legal community about metadata, that hidden data in documents that had the potential to reveal more about the document than most lawyers would like. It was a particular potential problem when using forms from a past client’s matter as a form for…

By Jim Calloway Microsoft Word is an important tool. But, unlike most tools, using it doesn’t improve your skills with practice. You can become a Microsoft Word power user. But you do that with training, internet searches that often begin “How do I ….“ and reading tutorials and help files. Today we are sharing a…

By Jim Calloway Hopefully, the headline captured your attention. You really do need to install the emergency patch for Windows 10 that Microsoft released last week. Some vulnerabilities in software do not impact systems lawyers use, but this one is an opening in wireless printing tools that can be used to take over other system…

By Jim Calloway Lawyers who once believed they would never post a video promoting their law firm on YouTube now host YouTube Channels. While many lawyers prefer reading online content over watching a video, that is clearly not the case for many, if not most, internet users. So, law firm marketing increasingly involves online video…

With Independence Day coming up, our thoughts turn to summer fun and travel, especially since both fun and travel last summer were so limited. In Lawyer Tech Tips: Ways to (Really) Get Away This Summer from Attorney@Work, several legal tech experts discuss using technology to enjoy a better summer vacation. Their tips cover using technology…

By Jim Calloway Sometimes adding a signature to a document before you print it is a big timesaver. Many Oklahoma lawyers have scanned a signature so they can “sign” their emails in their own handwriting. But you can also do that with a Microsoft Word document. Even if you do not use it frequently, setting…

By Jim Calloway Ransomware and other online attacks have been in the news recently, from shutting down the Colonial Penn pipeline to schools, hospitals, and a meat processing company. FBI Director Christopher Wray has asked victims not to pay ransoms. But the cybercriminals now have a new threat. If the ransom is not paid, in…

By Jim Calloway During the past year, many people got more Amazon deliveries than ever before. But on June 8 Amazon stealthily delivered something to you that you should reject. If you use Alexa, Echo or other Amazon devices, Amazon just enrolled you in a bandwidth-sharing service called Amazon Sidewalk. While it theoretically could have…