Legal Services case study: Electronic Case File & the Open Source Solution for PDF Generation

Link: Electronic Case File & the Open Source Solution for PDF Generation.

We get a lot of queries about various methods of PDF creation. Here's a succinct report on the why and how of a Legal Services office that selected an open source solution -- PDFCreator.

Two things I'd like to note -- first, this is a good example of how the efiling requirements in Federal courts are starting to drive a rework of law office workflows. Second, I believe that the server-based PDF creation described here will be the way to go for most offices. It takes some work to get all the plumbing set up, but after that you don't have to worry about maintaining lots of desktops and licenses.

PDFCreator is not only free but also gives us the option of installing the program as if it were a network printer. With staff using it like they use any other network printer. This program also gives us the added ability of instituting an auto save feature managed by an administrator. This enables us to specify a directory to automatically save the PDF file to. We can even have this directory automatically created for each individual user the first time they print a document to the PDFCreator “printer”. This program even gives us the ability to auto name the document using criteria we specify. Such as document title, user name, time created, date created, and any combination of the previous we choose.

And that, my friends, is what I mean by workflow. Way to go LSTech.org!

-- Dave

Comments

[Fabian Rodriguez]

Although PDFCreator is an open source application, it is only available for Windows.

For a complete open source solution, the solution could be using a small Samba file server with a virtual PDF printer, or even putting Linux on the desktop.

[Jasper Sanangelo]

Most of the less expensive PDF solutions are for Windows. I chose to buy Docudesk deskPDF, a small fee so I could get support if needed. there are many issues with converting links and tables of contents and I felt the support lets me sleep well at night.

[Michael W. Zach]

Hello,

would annonce another interesting free pdf-creator found at
http://www.goermezer.de/pdf_converter/pdf_converter_server/servpdf_-_ein_webbasierter_pdf-server_2.html
It's mostly the same as the Creator announced by Dave but it's network-capability seems to be more acceptable.

Your's
Mike (LawEnforcement Dept. @ Z-BUSINESS(R) Europe)