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Visit Our Blog
|  The Affinity Consulting Group Law Office Technology Blog has up-to-date information on hardware, software, and tips for using technology in your practice. Click on the icon above to visit now.
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Drafting Legal Documents - Why Traditional Methods Fail
- Barron K. Henley, Esq.
Carefully crafted model documents and templates are critical for most practice areas. Precedents represent the best of what you and your firm knows. They help prevent malpractice, increase profitability and are a primary method for transferring knowledge to others in your firm.
In spite of this, most law offices do not have a comprehensive set of go-to forms and base documents. Instead, new documents are most often generated by finding old documents and modifying them to work for the next client (by either direct modification or dictation/transcription).
However, this approach has a high margin for error and is much slower than alternative methods, and in fact, is often an exercise in frustration as your users because they are trying to work with a document that is fundamentally broken.
Your Word processor is capable of amazing things, and for document-intensive and transactional areas of practice, improving drafting speed and accuracy directly impacts the bottom line while improving client satisfaction. ?
Read our April feature article about Drafting Legal Documents HERE.
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April Speaking Engagements
This month many of our Partners and Consultants have just returned from Chicago and ABA TECHSHOW 2014. Affinity Partner Steven J. Best, Esq., was on the TECHSHOW 2014 planning board and will be vice-chair of TECHSHOW 2015. It will be back to the road again this month as our Partners and Consultants speak on latest in law practice technology. If they are speaking in your area, be sure to sign up to attend the event.
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 Spring Forward - Upgrade to TimeMatters 13 and PCLaw 13
- Learn What You Need to Know at Our Free Webinars Have you considered upgrading to the latest version of TimeMatters or PCLaw to utilize the great new features of these programs, but you got caught up in the daily grind and find yourself with little to no time to investigate your options? We can answer all of your questions about upgrading these products, including new features, usability improvements, and upgraded costs.
Join Affinity for two FREE webinars to help you "Spring Forward" to the latest version of TimeMatters and PCLaw. At the end of each webinar, there will be live Q&A time, plus we will distribute our materials to you so that you can share them with others at your firm. We can set up a call to review anything specific that your firm would like to discuss, as well as provide you with a quote to procure the software and upgrade your database.
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 MS Word Tip of the Month - Adjust Word's Default Settings - John Federico, Esq., Affinity Senior Consultant
We have covered Word's default settings in our newsletter before, but it still amazes me how many people don't change Word's default settings to something reasonable.
If you have to change the font or the paragraph settings every time you start a new document, then STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING RIGHT NOW and take 60 seconds TO MAKE THESE IMPORTANT CHANGES.
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 Microsoft Releases Office for the iPadMany lawyers using iPad's in their practice wondered if the day would ever come that Microsoft released native versions of its Microsoft Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote) for the iPad. That day is here.
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PowerPoint in One Hour for Lawyers
-Buy Affinity Partner Paul Unger's New Book Now!
Last month we announced that Paul Unger's new PowerPoint book that was available for pre-order. The book is now available for purchase in both print and ebook formats. PowerPoint in One Hour for Lawyers offers practical advice for creating effective presentations quickly and easily.
Order PowerPoint in One Hour for Lawyers through the ABA HERE, |
Practice Management Client Care
Affinity's Practice Management Client Care program, PMCC, gives you a training plan or an ongoing support plan that is vital to using your technologies such as Amicus Attorney, Time Matters, Practice Master, PCLaw, Tabs3, or Worldox. Your systems and processes are ever-evolving and you need your technology and your operations to grow with the decisions you make to run your business.
Our PMCC program is a two tier offering - Essentials, which focuses on the ever critical training, or Premier for unlimited, proactive support with training.
For information and price quotes, email or call Katie Kennedy at 877.676.5492.
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 End of Support for Windows XP Just Days AwayLast month we wrote about the looming end of official support for the Windows XP operating system. That day is now upon us.
As of April 8, all of those goodies coming to your PC from Windows Update the second Tuesday of each month, such as security patches, will no longer come to Windows XP. It is time to act.
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 Security Alert: RTF Files in Microsoft Word
Security concerns never completely disappear. Microsoft issued an advisory that attackers are using specially configured RTF (rich text format) files to exploit a vulnerability in Microsoft Word 2010. Opening one of these files could allow the attackers to take control of your computer.
Most law firms no longer work with or receive RTF files, so this should not be a common problem. However, firms using HotDocs versions earlier than the current version 11 know that many HotDocs templates are in RTF format. For those firms special precautions should be taken. Affinity's HotDocs mavens Barron Henley and John Federico have come up with a list of steps to take in order to protect from this RTF exploit.
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 Discount on ALA's Annual Conference & ExpositionEach year, the Association of Legal Administrators (ALA) brings together the best-of-the-best in the legal management profession at its Annual Conference & Exposition. This is where you can network, gain actionable information on your toughest challenges and explore new products and solutions - all under one roof.
This year's Conference takes place in Toronto May 19-22. As an Affinity client and/or newsletter subscriber, you will receive a $100 registration discount when you use the promo code BPR003 when you register on-line. Click HERE to register for the Conference. And don't forget to visit us at booth #423. |
 Newsworthy
Each month we will bring you quick links to a variety of newsworthy items dealing with technology products, services, and other topics of interest to lawyers as they seek to better manage their practices. |
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