PDF for Lawyers

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Using Acrobat to put Exhibit stamps on digital documents

Okay, this is a major PDF breakthrough for lawyers.  If you want to be able to stamp your digital documents with Exhibit labels and then have them numbered (or lettered) you need to go read this post right now.  Installing the plug-in is easy as pie.  If you do e-filing in federal court you need this.  If you prepare documents for trial you need this. If you're a lawyer and you use PDFs you need this.

And for his excellent work, I hereby nominate Rick Borstein for the Nobel Prize in PDF Technology!

What's your preference, sir?

Remember this joke?  Guy goes into see the doctor, and the doc asks "what seems to be the problem?" The guy says "Doc, it's my arm.  It hurts when I do this." And then the doctor says "well, then don't DO that!"

I mention this joke because it's basically what happens when people fail to make any attempt to set the preferences for their applications.  Technology trainers are constantly hearing lawyers complain that Word wants to auto-correct certain words.  In the attorneys' view the problem is irresolvable; it's a bug in the program that simply can't be fixed.

The tech trainer usually wants to say something similar to what the doctor in the joke says: "if you don't like it when your computer does that then tell it not to."  Then the tech trainer patiently shows the lawyer how to set the preferences for that program.  Every program has preferences.  You knew that, right?

Maybe you didn't.  And, if so, then you wouldn't be alone.

Computers seem to make people dumb. Imagine picking anyone out of a crowd and telling them that they'd get to live in a mansion with a butler for a week.  The first time the butler does something that is annoying or not to their liking, do you think they'd be at a loss as to how to fix the problem?  No, they'd pipe right up and command the butler to do what they want. Even if they never had a butler before.

But these same people when they get a new program seem to think that the designers of the program have configured it just for them.  And so therefore they should expect it to work perfectly in the way that's most natural for them. If it doesn't then they curse the program.

Adobe Acrobat is an amazing program.  If you want to be 'paperless' then you should invest in Acrobat (preferably the Professional version) and you should take the time to learn how to set it up to your liking.  The reason you prefer paper is because you're used to working with it.  The reason you tend to feel less comfortable with PDFs is that they don't behave like the paper you're used to. So what are you going to do about that?

One thing you can do is to set up the preferences to how you like things to be.  Do you prefer to see one whole page from top to bottom when you open the PDF?  Fine, then set it up in preferences.  Maybe you like to view two pages side by side.  That's a preference choice too.  I could sit hear and describe all the preference choices for you, but that's not the optimal approach. You should open up the preferences and see what all your options are. If you have a Windows machine go to the EDIT menu (or select CTRL + K).  If you have a Mac the preferences are under the ACROBAT menu (shortcut: CMD + ,).

If you don't like how your computer acts, then change it.  You have the power.

Getting ready to be paperless (the easy way)

Many folks resist becoming paperless not because they don't want a paperless system, but because they dread the process of switching.  Granted the switch can be very challenging, but it doesn't need to be. How can you make it easy?  Read the short paper that's referenced here.

Technology webinars (how to go paperless & more)

Last December my friend Dane Ciolino and I put on a half-day seminar called Digital Workflow for Lawyers, which was very well received.  The point was to show lawyers how to make the transition from a paper-based law practice to a more digital one, with a strong emphasis on using PDFs.  

Now we'd like to do some online programs to help folks improve their tech-lawyering skills.  If you've already signed up for email notices at the Digital Workflow website that we set up then you'll be getting announcements as they are sent out.  But, if you haven't, and you're interested in getting notices about our seminars & webinars, then click here.

The nice thing about the webinars is that anyone can participate, even people outside Louisiana.  Basically, if you have a high-speed internet connection then you can join in (although we probably won't be able to offer CLE credit outside Louisiana).

And if there are particular things you want to learn about then send us an email with those suggested topics.  We have posted the written materials that we used at our seminar online if you are interested ind downloading them.  Just visit the website and click on any of the links along the left-hand side.

Bookmarking Tip for Acrobat

Knowing how to create bookmarks is important if you are going to efficiently navigate your PDFs.  This one of many reasons why you need the full version of Acrobat.  I talked to a patent attorney in Kansas the other day who reviews information from the Patent office that is made available in PDF format. But, he only has the basic Adobe Reader.  He obviously spends a lot of time navigating PDFs, and often returns to the same PDF later on to find information he has reviewed previously.

This is a person who needs the full version of Acrobat.  And he needs to learn how to bookmark pages so he can quickly return to them later on.  The first thing you should do when you get Acrobat (after setting up your default viewing preferences) is to learn the shortcut for creating a bookmark. In Windows it's CONTROL + B, and in Mac it's COMMAND + B.

Now here's the really cool bookmarking tip that you can use PDF you are in is text-based (i.e. 'searchable').  You'll know it's searchable if you can highlight a word or sentence of text.  So, let's say you've highlighted a passage and you want to tag that as a bookmark.  If you highlight it and then use the shortcut for creating a bookmark Acrobat will create the bookmark and name it with the text that you highlighted.

I'm not sure if this works in older versions of Acrobat, but I can say that it definitely works in Acrobat 9.0.  One way I use it is when I create a PDF of, say, a complaint or other document that has headings.  I can quickly go through the document and highlight each heading and create a bookmark.  Then when I open that document later on my bookmarks are essentially a table of contents of the main parts of that document.

How to bates-stamp using Acrobat

If you have the full version of Acrobat then bates-stamping documents is fast and easy.  The first time you do it you may be a little overwhelmed, but it's really not that hard.  First, you don't even have to have the documents you want to bates stamp open.  So, to make it easy I've created a PDF tutorial that you can download and view.  After you view it you'll know exactly what to do.  So here is the link  (Windows tutorial), but Mac is basically the same process).

Using PDFs for legal research

The Delaware Employment Blog offered up some excellent tips on how to use PDFs in when doing legal research.  I have been using this method for years, and find it much superior to saving caselaw in Word or Wordperfect format.  After all, you're not going to be editing the cases are you?  I posted a comment to the the blog to explain how I address the issue of copying and pasting.  Anyway, go read the post if you want the scoop on using PDFs for research. 

First hand account of going paperless in a law firm

I've helped many people get over the hump in going paperless, and what I've learned is that the hump isn't that big.  But it seems like it to people when they first approach it.  If you believe that going paperless is hard, then read this first hand account of a law firm that did it.  I can't agree enough with one point that is made in the article: there is very little cost associated with going paperless.  In most cases, the cost is almost zero.

I also agree that the first step is to start getting your faxes delivered electronically.  No big expense there either.

Free PDF editor - can it really be useful?

I am not generally one to tout free or low-cost alternatives to Adobe Acrobat; today won't be an exception.  Nevertheless, there might be some point where you aren't at your computer (where hopefully you have a full version of Acrobat installed) and you need to make comments to a PDF.  In that case I can recommend that you try PDFVue (beta).  One person reports (on Twitter) that they use this program to fill out faxes that arrive in their office by email.  

So, if you find yourself in a MacGyver-esque situation then consider using PDFVue.  On the other hand, if you are frequently manipulating PDFs (and we hope you are), then stick to the full version of Adobe Acrobat.