PDF for Lawyers

Creating PDFs - a reader's suggestion

One of our readers emailed to express his appreciation of a tool called PrimoPDF.  He gave permission to reproduce part of that email, which explains why he likes this product.

We use Adobe Reader 8.1, but it does not have many bells and whistles.  We use the 2003 versions of MS Word and Outlook.  I like the PrimoPDF because it is easy.  Once it is downloaded, PrimoPDF shows up as one of the printers on the “print” dialog box.  You choose it as your printer and “print.”  It then asks for the output file name, and it gives you 4 choices for output quality ranging from “Screen” (basic) to “Prepress” (best), plus a custom option.  For my purposes, I use the “screen” quality, which prints out as clearly as most attorneys would ever need.  There are other bells and whistles which I haven’t needed yet.  The whole process takes maybe 15 to 20 seconds.  I use it to save documents and e-mails that I don’t want to be changed.

PrimoPDF is a free download, and works with Windows Vista.  Of course, I always recommend that lawyers spring for the full version of Acrobat 8.0, which allows PDF creation as well as many other things such as bates-stamping and document redaction (to name just a few things).  It's not free, but you can download a fully functioning version and try it for 30 days.

If you can't afford Acrobat, and need to convert documents to PDF, then PrimoPDF is a good place to start.  Start archiving all of your outgoing letters to PDF.  Eventually, you'll want to get a scanner and the full version of Acrobat, but at least you've taken one important step on the road to becoming completely paperless.

Do you have any good tips on using PDFs in your practice that you'd like to share with other readers of this blog?  Well send 'em in, and we'll post those tips next Friday.  Thanks!

Digital workflow for lawyers

I'll be speaking to the Lawyers Computer Group on 'Digital Workflow' in a couple of weeks.  The talk is about about using scanners and Adobe Acrobat to streamline your law practice (so you don't feel like this poor guy).

The presentation is at noon on February 13th in the Pan-American Life Bldg, downtown New Orleans.  To register contact Michael Goldblatt at 504-841-0900, or by email (michaelgoldblatt[at]aol.com).  The registration fee is $15.

The written materials are pretty spare; I'll be posting links relevant to the talk here.  I think you have to register by February 8th if you want a spot.  Hope to see some of you there.

Develop a paperless workflow - Part 3

Anticipating this post, a reader asked after reading Part 1, "how do you organize documents once they are scanned? By folders? Using document management software?"  Excellent question.  The question of how to organize digital documents deserves a lot of thought.  Many people intuitively opt for document management software, only to learn later on that the better solution was the 'counter-intuitive' one.

What's wrong with document management systems?
Nothing, per se.  A better question to ask is 'what's right about them?'  But the best question to ask is 'what are the trade-offs with using a DMS as opposed to the native file system built into my computer operating system?'  A DMS is a piece of software that creates an interface (which can in some situations become a barrier) between you and the native files. 

Let's say you scan your documents into PDF format and store them in a folder named for the case they are related to.  Only two things have to be working properly for you to access that file: (1) your computer and its operating system, and (2) the Adobe program (either Reader or Acrobat).  If you have a DMS then that program also has to be working properly.  If it's not, then you can't access your documents.

So is the trade-off of paying for additional software, which requires upgrades and periodic maintenance, worth the marginal benefit of having a 'plug-and-play' organization system?  I think that for solo lawyers and small firms the answer is no.  At some point, of course, a firm has so many attorneys and staff that the trade-off becomes worthwhile.  Personally, I'd resist the temptation to use a firm-wide DMS system and pay for outsourced hosting only in the large cases that require it.  I think there is simply no need to use anything other than the basic file organization system that is inherent in any computer operating system.

Folders?  And how many?
I have tended to use electronic folders that more or less mirror what I would use in a paper-based world.  I have a 'pleadings folder' and a 'discovery folder' and a 'documents folder' and a 'correspondence folder and so on.  I found that this was cumbersome in many cases, but I kept doing it. 

Then one day I was having lunch with a good lawyer friend who is completely paperless, and he told me that he doesn't use folders hardly at all.  He dumps everything into one or two or three sub-folders.  I have experimented with this system and I find that it works great when cases are starting out. After that, it depends on the size of the case and the needs of the case.  But, the good thing is that it's fairly easy to create more folders as you need them and shift your documents around if you have to.

Flexibility is important when dealing with electronic documents.  And that's another reason that I don't like committing to a DMS.  Once those documents are organized into a DMS there is no easy way to reorganize them. 

File-naming convention is important
If you're going to use the native operating system to organize your electronic files, then the naming convention you adopt will make a big difference.  Let's use correspondence as the first example.  With correspondence you want to organize it chronologically, right?  So all you have to do is name the files starting with a 4 digit year, then 2 digit month and then 2 digit date, followed by a brief description.

Example: 2007_01_09 Svenson ltr to Abercrombie

I could substitute a dash for the underscore, but whichever approach I use it should be uniform in all cases.  In other words, how you store the files isn't as important as what you name them.  And once you settle on a convention you'll be stuck with it.  It bears repeating, the key is to make it so you can look in a folder and find all your correspondence neatly sorted by date.

My approach is to make the brief description of correspondence have sender first, then type of correspondence (e.g. ltr, email, fax), and then recipient.  I don't think it matters much if you spell out the complete last name of the sender/recipient.  What matters is that there is enough information for someone to find what they're looking for in most cases.  If you adopt a practice of OCR'ing your electronic documents you'll be able to find them based on what's in them in addition to what they're named.

For pleadings I use the convention of naming by order of filing and then a description.

Example: Doc 001 Complaint, Doc 002 Summons, Doc 003 Return on Summons, Doc 004 Req for Time to respond, etc.

In federal courts, the docket clerks designate a document with a document number so my practice is to match my number to theirs.  And the nice thing about doing this is that, if I look in the folder and see that a document number is missing, then I know that I'm missing a pleading I should have.  I know that not all states stamp pleadings with a document number, but I figure that if the federal courts do it then that will be the predominant practice (and most states will eventually adopt it).

As for naming other types of documents, you can be flexible. I would put discovery documents in a separate folder from the general file correspondence.  As I said, you can adapt to your own purpose and that's the nice thing about using the basic file system of your computer instead of a DMS.

Develop a paperless workflow - Part 2

Once you've decided to create a paperless environment, there are a couple of things to consider.  First, you will not likely eliminate all paper from your environment.  The goal (at least initially) is simply to capture all paper, incoming or outgoing, and convert it to a digital form.  This is very important, and it bears repeating.  You must capture all (not just some) incoming and outgoing (yes, outgoing too!) paper.  The best time to capture the paper is when it first comes in, or when it is first being sent out.

If you work in an office with other lawyers (who may not be as inclined as you to make the switch to a paperless world) then it's important to start with a workflow model that at least captures everything into a digital form.  Later on, as the other lawyers buy-in to the digital workflow model it will be easier for them to grasp the benefits of being digital if most of their stuff has already been digitized.

Also, make sure that you have sufficient printing capacity to print out large digital files that you want to work with in paper format.  Eventually, you'll learn to work with digital files and become less reliant on paper.  But, at first, you may find yourself wanting to work with paper.  If you can't output it quickly then your tendency will be to retreat back into the analog world. 

The key to making the switch to digital is to make the firm commitment to capture all incoming and outgoing paper.  All of it.  No exceptions. Not one.

If you can do this then you'll will have achieved escape velocity, and will have slipped the surly (and insidious) bonds of paper.  And soon you will find yourself in a weightless and stress-free atmosphere, wondering why you didn't make this change long ago.

Oh, and did I mention that you have to capture all of the paper?

Develop a paperless workflow - How to do it.

The problem with making the transition to a paperless world is not lack of technology.  Scanners are cheap and so is the software that is needed to use them.  The problem is moving from the familiar world of paper to an unfamiliar one, devoid of paper.  What people need most is a blueprint for paperless workflow.

First, let me reassure those who believe that they could never feel comfortable making a sudden shift to a world completely devoid of paper.  I still use paper, although not very much.  The point isn't to eliminate all paper right off the bat, but rather to develop a system that doesn't depend on paper.  In the next few posts we'll cover the strategies for doing this.  But, for now let's begin with what happens when you scan a document.

After you run the document through your scanner you'll want to name the document and store it somewhere.  We'll address this next time, but for now the question is: what do you do with the piece of paper that you have scanned after you have properly saved it to your computer?

Generally speaking, I throw the paper away since the best thing about scanning is that it eliminates the need to keep the paper (your digital file will be backed up so there is much less fear of losing the electronic version than the paper version).  But, at first, you may incline towards keeping the paper.  Perhaps the paper has information you need to access for a call you're about to make, and it's easier to have it handy in paper form while you make the call.  Maybe you're just hesitant to get rid of the paper for the moment.  Fine.  But you'll need to do at least one thing.

Write something on the paper you just scanned indicating you've already scanned it.  That way, you'll know that it's in your electronic system and you don't need to scan it again.  Even if you think you'll remember that you scanned it, you should adopt this practice because if you work with other people you'll need a system that lets everyone know the paper was scanned.  So what do you write?

One option is to simply write "scanned" on the top right corner.  Another option is to write the file name of the document --in case you need to retrieve the electronic version quickly for some reason.  For example, you might decide to email the document to someone after your phone call and having the document name will let you quickly access the electronic version of the document.  In any case, adopt a system that (1) eliminates scanned paper, or (2) flags the paper as having been scanned, including any other information that might be useful while the paper is still being used.

And remember to toss the paper as soon as you don't need it.  If you don't start purging paper from your desk you'll never realize the full benefits of scanning.  After a few weeks you'll start to notice little things about how you used to deal with paper.  Mostly, you'll learn that people hoard too much paper, keeping it close by in case they need to access information.  Soon you'll notice that having too much paper around you makes it harder to find information, not easier.  The less paper you have around you the less stress you'll feel, especially once you learn to trust the paperless system.

PDF workflow in law schools

PDFs seem to be underutilized in the legal profession.  But while lawyers are not flocking to PDFs in the way that they should, perhaps law students will start the trend.  One way this might happen is if the students start using a product called ecasebriefs, which provides digital briefs (e.g. PDF files) of cases in popular legal text books.

Let's say you are taking Civil Procedure and the professor has assigned Friedenthal, Miller, Sexton & Hershkoff as your textbook.  For $27 a student can download a PDF set of all the cases in the textbook, highlighted and with commentary balloon notes inserted by attorneys.  Since most law students have laptop computers these days this product can be a great convenience.  And law students love to buy stuff like this, or at least they did when I was in law school.

Ecasebriefs has PDF briefs for every legal textbook used in the core curriculum of law schools, and I'm betting that with low printing costs (PDF) and cheap distribution (Internet), the company will be aroudn for a long while.

I haven't seen the product firsthand, but from looking at the screenshot it seems like someone might be able to avoid buying the more expensive textbook by getting this product. In any event, the ecasebrief has a number of useful features that printed textbooks can't offer.  And if the student had the full version of Acrobat they could add their own notes and highlighting on top of the pooped out notes by the ecasebrief authors.  If many law students get used to using PDFs as part of their workflow then it will be a lot more natural for them to use PDFs in their workflow when they practice law.

Scanning is joyful

Many thanks to young Alex McGillvary, who says he was inspired by us to start his home scanning project (link is dead now for some reason) .  See, people, it can be done!  It just takes commitment (and the right tools).  So what are you waiting for?

Open PDF's fast (Windows only tip)

From the excellent site, Lifehacker, comes this tip: "The Sumatra PDF Viewer is a tiny open source portable reader that opens PDF's in the blink of an eye." Startup time is faster than Adobe Reader, and it's free.

Search your PDF files - it's the fast way to find information

Most PDF files are searchable.  And, if they're not, then just make them so by OCR'ing them.  Let's take a quick example.  The  federal district courts in Louisiana have their entire local rules available on the webs.  But searching the rules online is cumbersome, so I decided to capture the rules to PDF.  I clicked on the the button that suggested allowed me to "print all local rules" and was hyperlinked to this page.

Instead of printing the entire set of rules to my printer I 'printed to PDF'.  That's a function built into the full versions of Acrobat (Standard and Professional).  The resulting PDF file size was about 500 kilobites, which is nothing.  But that file had 128 pages of local rules, as you can see for yourself.  That would be a lot of information to sift through if you wanted, as I did, to find the local rule on oral arguments in the Eastern District.  But, if you have a searchable PDF, finding the rule takes only a few seconds.

Just open the file in Adobe Reader or Acrobat, hit the 'Find" command and type in: 'oral argument.'  I think you'll agree this is a faster way than looking through the index.  But the ability to search PDFs really shines when you are looking for information that relates to your cases.

For example, I always OCR the documents I receive from opposing counsel.  The other day I was in a deposition and the witness was asked about a certain person and no one other than the questioner seemed to know who the person was.  I quickly searched the documents to see if that person's name appeared and, lo and behold, it did.  This would not have been possible if I hadn't made the documents searchable.  The OCR function in Acrobat 7.0 and 8.0 is really quick and reliable.  For more information, about OCRing your documents click here.

E-filing - More thoughts on scanning problems

So the post about keeping the file size down generated a lot of good comments and feedback.  Many people are surprised that lawyers are scanning entire documents just so that they can have their orignal signature appear on the document that they e-file.  I'm not; lawyers are comfortable with signatures and they like them.  I'll bet their are lawyers out there trying to figure out how to apply sealing wax to their e-filed documents.

Anyway, as we mentioned, the federal courts don't need your signature.  But, if you really must, have something that appears to be your signature on your e-filed documents consider this option:

1. scan your signature
2. create a table in Word/Wordperfect
3. place image of scanned signature in document
4. Save the signature block for re-use
5. Later, rinse, re-file

One thing that I didn't mention is that scanning the whole document isn't a bad idea just because it creates a larger file size.  It's also a bad idea because it will annoy some court personnel.  If the document is text-based then they can search inside of it.  If it's an image then they can't (unless they OCR it, which they probably can't do).  So, do yourself and the clerks at federal court a favor and stop scanning your documents to PDF.

And move away from the sealing wax.  (You know who you are).

Acrobat Tip from David Masters

David Masters, the author of the highly acclaimed Acrobat for Lawyers, has a  great 'power tip' for using the properties bar in Acrobat.  David will be doing a session  on From Paper to PDF: Acrobat for Lawyers at this years ABA TechShow in Chicago (April 20 - 22nd).  The deadline for the early registration discount is March 10th.  Hope I see you there.

Fast cheap way to create PDFs

From my friend Jim Calloway, whose law practice management blog I highly recommend, comes the endorsement of two programs that help create PDF files:

• Pdf995, which you can try for free.  If you like it then you'll have to pay $9.95 (hence the name Pdf995). 
• CutePDF, which has more features and costs more: $49.95. 

Either way, you're paying less than the full version of Acrobat.  Of course, we strongly believe that the full version of Acrobat is worth the money, but maybe you only want to create PDFs and do a few simple things.  In that case, try one of those two programs.

--Ernie

Another Blog about using PDFs in Law Practice

Acrobat for Legal Professionals is a new blog by Rick Borstein, who I believe works for Adobe.  Looks like a great resource for lawyers and other folks in the legal field who use PDFs.  Rick is very knowledgeable about Acrobat and has some great information up already, including a great post about redacting information with Acrobat.  Check it out.

PDF Redaction -- some Q&A

A couple weeks ago a reporter contacted me regarding the PDF-related aspect of the story of the US Army report on the killing of an Italian agent in Iraq. I'm not sure if he's going to get published, or if I'll get a sound-bite in his final article, so I thought I'd post an edited version of our email "interview."

-How was this mistake made with the PDF by the military?
It seems like a lack of fundamental knowledge about the structure of a PDF file, and what you can and can't do with the various Acrobat tools. As I tell lawyers, it is helpful to visualize that PDF files, like onions (and ogres), have "layers." With a paper document, drawing across text with a black marker doesn't *remove* the text, it just obscures it. In the case of a PDF file, it is possible to either remove the cover-up markings, or, as the reports of this case implied, slip the text out from under the covers.

-Is it a common mistake?
Unfortunately, it seems to be. I don't have any stats on how often it happens with lawyers, but there have been several high profile instances in the past few years. It's not just the military -- both the Washington Post (the Washington sniper notes) and New York Times (a CIA document) have each managed a similar snafu. DOJ did it awhile back too.

-How do you avoid it?
You could print your redacted documents to paper . . .

First, there are tools on the market that deal specifically with this task. A company named Appligent sells one called "Redax" that is widely used by federal agencies.

Second, learn about and understand your tools. Get some training; implement some quality control in your organization; standardize a workflow; employ a geek that knows and cares about security. This isn't the result of some sort of hidden flaw in the PDF format or the Acrobat application.

-How do you protect your documents?
If I produced redacted things, I would use a commercial tool that does that task well, and make it part of my workflow. Just locking them with password protection isn't going to do the job -- you have to remove the text.

-Were you aware of this potential problem with PDF?
Hell, yes I was aware that using a black high-lighter tool in Acrobat doesn't "redact" anything. However, I think it is inaccurate to characterize this as a "potential problem with PDF." The issue is not with the file format, or with Acrobat.

I'd characterize it as a lack of skills and awareness on the users' part, which is generally related to a lack of training, lack of curiosity about and time to use and understand the tools, and also to a failure by organizations to provide proper tools and methods. Hey, somebody at CentCom IT must have been aware (I hope!) that you can't redact a document in this fashion, but either the proper tools weren't available, the user didn't know they were available, or he didn't have access to them.

There was a lot of nerd-chatter about what bone-head the user must have been, but I think it was primarily a failure at an institutional level -- it's not like this type of file goes out into the world (unless it's leaked) without a whole bunch of people approving it. But in all the approval process, where was the "quality control" that asked "is this document properly secured?" Where was the geek that should have QC'd it for security? The print industry spends a huge amount of money and effort assuring that a PDF has all the right fonts embedded in it -- so why don't legal and government institutions have even cursory checks for things like document security, metadata removal, etc.?

-Do you think the general public is aware?
I'd say not, based on recent events. I would assume that some (many? most?) users of Acrobat 6 (who are definitely not the general public) are similarly unaware of how properly to use the software. This isn't some solo practioner in East Poisonspider, Wyoming screwing up -- this is the US Army, NY Times, Washington Post, etc.

-What could some of the consequences be if a document you thought was properly redacted could actually be read in its entirety?
Most documents are redacted to remove privileged information, or confidential business or personal information. From a legal/litigation standpoint, you certainly have some serious issues with privilege claims. But, as with redacting with a magic marker that redacts poorly and allows the underlying text to be read, what are you gonna do? Even if the information can't be admitted in evidence in a proceeding, it doesn't mean it's not useful to other parties.

I haven't seen any cases where an attorney faced a malpractice claim for failing to understand the basics of his office software, but surely that day must come. There are certainly penalties for government entities and personnel that violate the Privacy Act and other statutory and regulatory requirements.

Plus, you look inept, which can't be good from a professional standpoint.

~~ Dave

Perfecting PDF Files

Link: Legal Technology - Perfecting PDF Files.

An article on Law.com presents the very basic basics on PDF. Brett Burney gives some recommendations on PDF creation tools, although most readers of this site will be quite familiar with them. Of historical interest is the cite to this seminal work by our fearless leader, Ernest. Yo, Ernie, when did you write that? It contains a nice little tip on reviewing documents quickly in Acrobat by bookmarking the hotspots using ctrl+B (nice...) after scanning your documents into a single 1000 page PDF (yikes!@?#%). Unfortunately for his readers, Mr. Burney doesn't note that Ernie has gone on to bigger and better things with this site.

-- Dave

Filing Patent Applications as PDF Documents

Dennis Crouch has word at his blog that the Patent & Trademark Office is considering accepting patent applications in PDF form.  And apparently the PTO is asking for comments on this, so head over to Dennis' blog to get more info.

PDFs in legal research

Cindy Chick has great observations about using PDFs in legal research.

Faster search and retrieval in Acrobat

Link: Planet PDF - Faster search and retrieval in Acrobat.

This article at PlanetPDF (which has been republishing some of our PDF for Lawyers tips) is a good how-to on creating an index for searching a large collection of PDFs.

Prior to Acrobat 6, there were separate tools for "Find" and "Search." Find worked in the current document, while Search went through multiple docs. (For those of you in earlier versions, the Find tool icon is one set of binoculars, and Search is two binoculars.) In Acrobat 6, you set the scope of your search in a pane -- you can still do decide, but you don't have to figure out which binoculars to click on.

If your PDFs are not indexed, Acrobat will start at page one and read through each word looking for a match. Indexing means that each occurence of the word is noted, along with its location.

Indexing really speeds things up, and the advanced searching is useful for getting to the metadata fields. For example, if you put witness names in the keyword field, you can find all the docs associated with a particular witness.

It is this capability that makes it possible to build a pretty good sized document collection, fully word and keyword searchable, without a separate database.
-- Dave

Going 'Paperless' - A Trust & Estates attorney's perspective

Merwyn Miller, a California attorney, has a great article that describes in great detail the process by which he converted his Trusts & Estate practice into a paperless system.  Not surprisingly, PDFs play a role in his scheme.

Acrobat 7.0 Introduced

Adobe has introduced Acrobat 7.0, a new version of its popular PDF software program. Users of the updated version will be able to assemble documents from multiple sources, create intelligent forms, and more securely collaborate on projects.

Adobe also announced Reader 7.0, (not yet available, however) an update to its free PDF viewer application. Version 7.0 offers document reviews, Yahoo! Search capabilities at their fingertips, and the ability to interact with 3D objects placed in PDF. Acrobat 7.0 Professional (US$449; $159 upgrade) and Acrobat 7.0 Standard ($299; $99 upgrade) for Mac OS X (10.2.8 and 10.3 or higher) are expected to ship by the end of the current calendar year.

Another court links to this site

The District Court of Minnesota links to this site from a page entitled PDF Tips & Tricks. It's a great resource for information on how to use PDF files in court filings.

New Book -- Carl Young’s Adobe Acrobat 6.0: Getting Professional Results from your PDFs

How to fix the most common PDF mistakes - Tips & Techniques - PDF Zone

I don't normally pitch publications or software, but this looks like a new book that would be valuable to many of our readers, and the teaser is interesting--

The author, who is associated with the PDF Conference seminars, says:

“Students come into class with Acrobat issues, and 90% are ‘driving errors’ that can be easily avoided with a little information, Young says. “Students often come into class with a beef about Acrobat, and I have to gently point out that the errors they are experiencing are the result of faulty creation techniques. By the end of class I can see the light come on in the students’ heads, and they leave feeling a lot better about using Acrobat.”

That sounds like something I could use . . .

1. Can’t navigate around a long PDF, except using page down and up? Chances are you have a “Lost In Space” PDF. The fix? Add bookmarks and hyperlinks.

2. Is your 10-page PDF destined for simple onscreen viewing larger than 1MB? That would be a “Fat Albert” PDF. The fix? Downsize fat graphics.

Etc.

I've read a number of things by Shlomo Perets, who was the technical advisor to the author, and he (Perets) is clearly a Master.

There is always a cornucopia of PDF delights on the PDFzone.com site.
--Dave

Making a PDF for e-filing

I assume that the reason many readers find themselves at this site is because they are lawyers that need to e-file and want to learn how, preferably in 15 minutes or less. The basic requirements for e-filing in federal courts are listed at the US Courts website. At its simplest, there are just a couple of tools that an attorney needs, along with a basic understanding of the process. Let's go over the list from the CM/ECF user info site:

A personal computer running a standard platform such as Windows or Macintosh.
Okay, not many lawyers these days are running Linux or Amiga or DOS or whatever. I assume if you can figure out how to run your practice on Linux, you can figure out how to troubleshoot any issues that arise from e-filing. Your biggest problem would be finding IE 5.5 . . . Not sure why they put this in there, other than to protect themselves from answering a lot of esoteric help-line questions from people that are still using WordStar.

A PDF-compatible word processor. Basically, any word processor or text editor should work. At its most basic, producing a PDF is a variation on normal printing. Anything you can print, you can turn into a PDF. Again, most lawyers are using some non-DOS version of WP or Word, so you may be able to use that software to do double duty (see below on word processors). Anyone out there making PDFs with WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS?

Internet service. If you’re reading this, you have it. If you plan to e-file anything bigger than a two-page document, consider getting faster service.

Netscape Navigator version 4.6 or 4.7.( Netscape 6 is not recommended for use with CM/ECF.) and Internet Explorer 5.5. Netscape Version 7.02 and Internet Explorer 6.0 are currently being tested to certify compatibility. Some users have had positive results with these versions. Now this is a little strange -- as a rule, any computer can produce a PDF file if you use some ingenuity, and the rest of these requirements are fairly generic. But this requirement (web browsers specified right down to the version number) is pretty darned specific without really saying why. If anyone has more info on this, please let us know. I assume since they use the browser to upload the filed documents, it may have to do with security. The web world is starting to realize that it’s good practice to design your site to conform to standard specs so that any browser will accurately render your pages. The court-specified Mac versions are so old and lame that it’s not clear why anyone would use them except to access CM/ECF. But I digress . . .

Software to convert documents from a word processor format to portable document format (PDF). PDFWriter is recommended. Acrobat Writer Version 3.X, 4.X and 5.0 meet the CM/ECF filing requirements. PDFWriter is the "print driver" that comes with Adobe Acrobat, and is the simplest method of producing a PDF with Acrobat. Note that you cannot do this using the free Adobe Reader. Also note that it doesn’t say you can use Acrobat 6. The actual PDF specification – the open standard that defines what constitutes a PDF file –changed from PDF 1.4 in Acrobat 5 to PDF 1.5 in Acrobat 6. However, if you are using Acrobat 6, you can select your PDF spec – 1.3, 1.4, or 1.5 – in the Distiller General Settings or in the PDFWriter settings that you access when you select PDFWriter as your “printer.” Check with your court clerk, but if you use Acrobat 6, you may need to specify PDF 1.4 as your output for e-filings. Don’t worry, it’s not a big deal to change it.

There have also been a number of developments in software that should allow you to fully comply with this spec without resorting to the full Acrobat package. But see above regarding the PDF spec, and make sure it outputs the right flavor. Mac OS X will save any file as a PDF. It's purely the plain-vanilla PDF, but it should meet the basic requirements. WordPerfect will export its files as PDFs, as will the open source OpenOffice package. If all you want to do is produce a PDF so you can e-file it, the function in your word processor may be enough. (But think of all the wonderfulness you’ll be missing out on!) Finally, there are free/cheap PDF-making software products available that do the job with varying degrees of elegance, ease and expense. Again, since PDF is an “open standard,” any product that spits out a file that conforms to the spec ought to do. As a rule of thumb, I’d say that if you produce a PDF via whatever means, and you can open it in Adobe Reader 4 or 5 and it doesn’t blow anything up, it’s fine. There’s no indication that there are going to be fancier requirements – metadata, signatures, etc. – from the courts anytime soon.

Adobe Reader. (The Viewer Formerly Known As Adobe Acrobat Reader.) You’ve got it on your computer somewhere. If you click on a PDF file and Reader doesn’t come up, go here and download it.

A scanner may be necessary to create electronic images of documents that are not in your word processing system. If you need to file documents that you only have in paper form you've got to digitize them, and the digital format must also be PDF. This topic -- including hardware, software, and implementation issues -- fills entire websites and discussion boards. There is an large support industry devoted to scanning mountains of paper to create fodder for the legal system. We can talk about cost-benefit considerations in detail if anyone is interested, but for ease of implementation, I suggest that if you are going the do-it-yourself route, you find a scanner that a) is big and fast enough to handle the volume of paper you regularly deal with; and b) scans directly into PDF format without a bunch of other steps. You may also want to check with Kinko's, but getting a print shop or service bureau to do your scanning, OCR, and PDF conversion soon runs into a lot of money.

So here's the basic workflow:

Create your pleading or other filing using your regular word processing software. If it allows you to save as a PDF, do that. If you use Acrobat or some other PDF-creating software, go through the required steps. If this basic creation process is any harder than selecting a printer and printing the document, think about a different software package.

Scan your paper, save the files as PDFs. Although the court basics don't say so, I'd OCR these documents as a courtesy in order to allow text searches. Give your documents human readable names if possible.

Log on to your court’s website using your (approved) browser, and let her rip.

I’d love to hear how lawyers in all the various jurisdictions are faring with this system.

-- Dave

Quick Tip -- Navigating a Long Document

Well, I've been absent long enough. I feel like I just woke from my long winter sleep (although it still seems a lot like winter here in DC) and need to start off slowly. I've had a few PDF changes in the past couple of months including installing Acrobat 6 Professional at the office, and Mac OS X 10.3 (with the new Preview PDF-handling capabilities) in the home office. So there will be lots to blog about ...

In the meantime, a basic tip that works for both Acrobat and Reader. In a long document, if you need to jump to a specific page (say it's listed in the table of contents, or referenced in the text) just click once in the page number box at the bottom of the window. (It's the box that tells you which page you are currently viewing, and says something like "1 of 456.") When you click once, it highlights the numbers -- just enter the page number you want to go to, and hit enter. It jumps you to the page.

If you can't bear to take your fingers off the keyboard, Shift + control + N will pull up the "go to" box, where you do exactly the same thing.

-- Dave

Reducing the size of your PDF files

Before you send that PDF file as an E-mail attachment you might want to make the file-size a little smaller. How can you do that? Well, it's not a guarantee, but if you choose "Save As" and over-write the old file you might find that the new file is significantly smaller than before. As a general rule: the bigger the file, the greater the percentage of reduction in size.

Adobe Reader 6.0's annoying ads

Steve Covell has a complaint about Adobe Reader 6.0, which sounds legitimate:

"Another upgrade, another problem. The newest upgrade to Adobe's free reader, now called Adobe Reader instead of Adobe Acrobat Reader (good move) has an unfortunate "feature" --it has a colored box on its toolbar that cycles ads for Adobe products.

Fortunately, Planet PDF explains an easy fix to turn this annoying feature off. Under "Preferences" and then "Startup" there is a check box labeled "Show messages and automatically update." Sounds like that should be a good thing, right? Unclick this and the ads are gone for good.

I'm not enamored of the newest version of Acrobat either, but maybe I'll change my mind more as I use it. Still, pushing advertisements is a cheap ploy. Didn't Adobe recently announce higher than expected earnings?

Searching and Finding: Basic Principles

We recently received a message asking "what's the best tool to do text searches of PDF files, regardless of whether they are text on image or not?"
In my most lawerly voice, I reply "it depends." I would like to cover the key aspects of this in more than one post, because, like everything related to PDF, there's a lot lurking beneath the surface.

First, some distinctions and definitions. There is a crucial difference between "text" and "image." If you are talking about documents that were created directly from another program (like MS Word) you don't really have to worry about separating those concepts. (Well, not yet . . .) However, if you are dealing with pages that were scanned from hard copy, you've got to do some conceptual work. Second, there is a difference (in Acrobat) between the SEARCH command, and the FIND command.

Layers
It's easy for most people to visualize that PDFs, like ogres and onions, have layers. For now, we'll deal with only 3 of them. First, the "image" layer. This is a picture -- like a TIFF image.

Key concept: YOU CAN'T SEARCH AN IMAGE ALONE.

Second, there is the "text" layer.

Key concept: SEARCH ENGINES SEARCH TEXT

If you just have "image" PDFs, you'll need to create the text in order to have something to search -- the process is called "Optical Character Recognition" or OCR. This is the same process that many lawyers are familiar with in the scan to TIFF/OCR/put it in Summation loop. Keep in mind that OCR is not even close to perfect, and scanned PDFs are subject to the same errors as any other OCR'd document.

There are about a zillion ways to create an "image + text" PDF file. One is to use the Acrobat "paper capture" tool. With the full version of Acrobat, you can take an existing image file or image-only PDF and "capture" the text. Note that you are limited to 50 pages per document with Acrobat alone. (You can't do "capture" with Acrobat Reader). There are separate "Acrobat Capture" products for high-volume scanning from vendors including Adobe and Doculex. I'll spend more time on the "capture" issues in a later post. Probably the easiest way to handle it is to take your CD-ROMs of images down to the local service bureau and have them do the conversion. Negotiate the price -- "per page" pricing is the standard (I assume because it's the lazy way), but it doesn't make sense as a pricing model.

Okay, so you have Image (not searchable) and Text (searchable) layers. The third layer is the "metadata" layer. This contains info like the author, date, and (very important) keywords that you assign to the document.

Key concept: The Metadata layer is SEARCHABLE.

Find v. Search
This is pretty easy. FIND (ctrl + F, or Edit >> Find) searches the text of the open document only. The FIND tool is on the toolbar -- it's the single set of binoculars. This is just like the FIND command in pretty much every Windows and Mac application.
SEARCH, on the other hand, searches a collection of documents. The SEARCH tool is the binoculars + sheet of paper (or whatever the heck that thing is) button. When you hit SEARCH, you fall into a deep pool of commands, indexes, catalogs, and advanced capabilities. Acrobat uses the Verity search engine, which has long been one of the industry standard desktop (and server) search tools. (I assume Adobe is still using Verity in v. 6 -- I haven't investigated.) This is a full-on, boolean, high-speed indexed search tool.

Search also allows you to search by keyword. (In a later post, I'll talk about assigning keywords, and using them effectively.)

One other key difference is that FIND just starts at the beginning of the document and searches page 1, page 2, etc. in order. SEARCH relies on an index, which makes it both faster and easier. Say you have 1000 page document (what the hell are you thinking? Is this really 200 documents all rolled into one big file? Break them up and index them -- it's worth the trouble.) FIND will take forever as you roll through in page order. SEARCH will give you a list of hits that will jump you right to your page. Much faster.

Search Tools
Pretty much every litigation support database (Summation, Concordance, etc.) will support PDF searches. But, using just the computer's file system and SEARCH, you can get excellent searching capabilities without any database at all. There are advantages to lit support databases, but they accrue mostly to litigation support firms that bill by paralegal-hour.

I'm also very excited about Apple's new Preview application that should be coming out soon with OS X 10.3 "Panther." Apple claims that it is the fastest PDF viewer ever. And the demo by Steve Jobs showed some very very cool search capabilities, which include a "hit list" in a "drawer" that slides out from the app. Stay tuned....

"Searching" Images
Having said all that, it is possible to look for documents or pages without searching the text. Your eye can certainly identify documents without reading them. Even a very small thumbnail will allow you to tell, say, an invoice from a letter. If you have to do it without text search, open your file up, and click the "Thumbnail" tab. (If there aren't thumbnails, create them.) Thumbnails don't have to line up single-file down the left side. Pull that divider bar all the way to the right side of the window. Depending on the size of your screen, you should get 8-10 little images in every row. Then start scrolling. . . Double click a thumbnail to read to page.

More to come . . .
Dave

Basic Information about PDFs

Awhile back I posted a list of resources with hyperlinks to articles and so forth over at my old weblog. This article from LLRX is particularly useful as an introduction to using PDFs in a legal setting. [Ernie]

Word processing files may leak sensitive data

BBC News Report: "The UK government has now largely abandoned Microsoft Word for official documents and has turned to documents created using Adobe Acrobat which uses the Portable Data Format (PDF)." Apparently, they didn't like the feature in Word that creates tracks document changes. Why? Read the article, which is provides a good explanation why it makes sense to distribute documents in PDF form rather than in the form of a word processing file.

Download Free Acrobat Reader

Adobe created the Portable Document Format (PDF) as a way of publishing documents that can be read on any computer. Windows, Unix, Apple. It doesn't matter what kind of computer you have. And it doesn't matter what kind of computer the document was created on.

If the person who creates the document saves it in PDF format (more about that later) then you can read it on your computer and it will appear exactly the same on your computer as it appears on the creator's computer. If you've ever sent someone a word-processing file and struggled to do a mutual editing session over the phone ("uh, let's see you're on the bottom of page 4 but on my copy that typo is on the top of page 5") then you'll appreciate PDF files.

If you want to create PDF files you need a special program (unless you have a Mac with OS X), but to read them you don't need to spend a dime. The Acrobat Reader Program is free to download from Adobe.

You should be aware that the Adobe Reader is not the same thing as Adobe Acrobat; the latter is a $240 program that, among other things, allows you to create PDF documents from any program that allows you to print. There are other less expensive solutions if all you want is a program that lets you create PDFs, but that is a topic for another post.