CaseSoft FYI - June 2005
A favor ... if you know someone who might be interested in our tools, would you please forward this email to them with a note from you. Thank you for considering.
Thank you for your votes! We're pleased to report that our tools and support services have just won eight awards in voting by members of the TechnoLawyer Listserv.
We're also pleased to announce that TimeMap 4 is now available. TimeMap 4 is an important new version of our timeline graphing tool. It offers vertical timelines, instant PowerPoint Slide Shows, title and introduction pages and a host of other new features. Your organization's TimeMap licenses are covered by CaseSoft Maintenance. As such, TimeMap 4 Upgrades are available to your organization at no charge. Further details below.
We've teamed up with Adobe Systems to bring you a joint webinar that reviews the new features in Acrobat 7 and the tight links between Acrobat and CaseMap. Details below.
Have you used CaseMap's Research Spreadsheets to organize critical case law? Want to learn how paralegals are using our DepPrep witness preparation tutorial to make attorneys' lives easier? Again, read more below.
CaseSoft Client FYI is our monthly e-mail newsletter (click to view prior issues) providing updates and tips for CaseMap, TimeMap, NoteMap, TextMap, and DepPrep users. Please follow the instructions located at the bottom of this email message anytime you would like to unsubscribe.
CaseSoft FYI June Contents
1. Thanks to You, CaseSoft Wins 8 TechnoLawyer Awards
2. Joint Adobe Systems/CaseSoft Webinar
3. TimeMap 4 Now Available -- How to Upgrade
4. TimeMap 4's Vertical Time Scale Feature
5. TimeMap 4's Powerful "Send-to-PowerPoint" Feature
6. Organizing Case Law Research in CaseMap
7. How Paralegals Can Use DepPrep to Create a Win-Win-Win
1. Thanks to You, CaseSoft Wins 8 TechnoLawyer Awards
Last month we asked you to consider voting on our behalf at the TechnoLawyer listserv. So many of you did that we ended up winning eight separate award categories -- over twice as many as any other firm.
CaseMap won the Litigation Support Solution category, the Knowledge Management Solution category and the Favorite Practice Area Solution category. CaseMap 5 also won the Favorite New Release category. TimeMap won the Trial Presentation Solution category. And TextMap 2, the new version of our transcript summary utility, won the Transcript Management Solution category. (If you haven't seen TextMap 2, please check out the trial version at www.casesoft.com to learn why so many were glad to vote for this simple and inexpensive tool.)
The award we're most pleased by is Favorite Technical Support. We don't suggest our support is perfect, but we do try to deliver great service.
Please let us know what we should do to improve our tools and our support offerings so you'll feel good about voting for us again in the future. Send your ideas to suggestions@casesoft.com or call us at 904.273.5000.
Again, thank you very much.
2. Joint Adobe Systems/CaseSoft Webinar -- Please Attend
We’re teaming up with the legal industry specialists at Adobe Systems to present a joint webinar next week. This hour-long session reviews the many new features in Acrobat 7 and the tight linking between CaseMap and Acrobat.
The program runs next Tuesday, June 28 at 10:00 AM PT / 11:00 AM MT/ 12:00 P.M. CT/ 1:00 PM ET. Participation is limited to the first 200 registrants, so please sign up at Adobe’s website today using this link:
Click to Enroll in Joint Adobe Systems/CaseSoft Webinar
In this webinar you’ll learn how to ….
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Use Acrobat 7's new Organizer feature as a "PDF Dashboard"
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Search across PDFs to find documents of interest
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Use Acrobat and CaseMap together to extract facts from PDFs and manage them in CaseMap
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Convert paper documents or TIFF images to the PDF format
3. TimeMap 4 Now Available -- How to Upgrade
We're pleased to announce that TimeMap 4 has been released.
We hope and believe that you'll love TimeMap 4. New features include:
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Timelines with Vertical Time Scales
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Instant PowerPoint Slide Shows
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100-Page Timelines -- A 500% Increase
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Sophisticated New Looks
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Title and Introduction Pages
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Template Feature that Speeds Creation of Polished Charts
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Built-in PDF Writer -- Create PDFs of Timelines Without Full Acrobat License
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Enhanced Sanction Integration
Upgrading to TimeMap 4
Your organization's TimeMap licenses are covered by CaseSoft Maintenance. One important benefit of being on Maintenance is that all upgrades are made available at no additional charge. TimeMap 4 is available at www.casesoft.com. It is not being shipped.
Critical: If your firms employs Information Systems staff to manage software upgrades, please alert these individuals that TimeMap 4 is now available, but do not download TimeMap 4 yourself.
Read more about the TimeMap 4 Upgrade process
We provide additional details on two of the important new features in TimeMap 4 directly below. You can also read more about TimeMap 4's new features or watch a ~15-minute webinar that shows TimeMap 4 in action using the following links ...
4. TimeMap 4's Vertical Time Scale Feature
TimeMap 4 offers a vertical time scale orientation that produces an entirely new style of timeline graph. This important feature was the one most requested by current TimeMap users. We're pleased to be able to fulfill this request.
Click the following links to open PDFs containing samples of TimeMap 4's new Vertical format. You'll also see an example of TimeMap 4's new Title Page feature in the first visual.
Please note that all three PDFs linked to above were created directly by TimeMap 4's built-in PDF Writer that let's you create PDFs of timelines without a full Acrobat license.
TimeMap 4's new "Send-to-PowerPoint" feature makes it incredibly easy to create PowerPoint Slide Shows based on TimeMap timeline graphs.
Here's an example of this feature's default behavior: Say you've created a TimeMap timeline containing 15 facts. Clicking TimeMap 4's "Send-to-PowerPoint" option instantly generates a PowerPoint Slide Show containing 15 separate slides, each with the next fact in sequence presented front and center. Facts that have been shown on prior slides are faded back, but visible. Future facts are hidden. Pressing F5 in PowerPoint kicks off the presentation and you're viewing a slide show in which the timeline builds from slide to slide.
To view a sample PowerPoint Slide Show created entirely by TimeMap 4, click the link below and then click Open to run the presentation in your web browser. You can advance the presentation to the next slide by clicking anywhere on the slide that's in view.
Click to view a PowerPoint Slide Show created entirely by TimeMap 4
Again, we invite you to read more about TimeMap 4's new features or watch a brief webinar that shows TimeMap 4 in action using these links ...
6. Organizing Case Law Research in CaseMap
Every CaseMap file contains two Research spreadsheets you can use to organize and analyze case law. Use the Research - Authorities spreadsheet to manage top-level information about precedents, statutes, other authorities and other types of case research. Use the Research - Authority Extracts spreadsheet to capture details about particular sections of interest excerpted from important case law and statutes.
Here are some of the default fields CaseMap sets up for the Research - Authorities spreadsheet: Type (e.g., case law, ruling, statute), Citation, Jurisdiction, Notes, Evaluation, Linked Issues, Linked File (permits link to external web page or file containing the authority). You can create additional fields to customize the information you're collecting.
As case law research is organized in CaseMap,
it can sorted and filtered and put to
work in numerous ways. For example, filter the
Research - Authorities spreadsheet down
to those authorities that are relevant to a particular case issue and print a report of this
subset or send this subset to your word processor.
The best way to learn more about organizing
case law in CaseMap is to watch one or both of our Ten-Minute Tutorials on
this topic. They're available at the CaseSoft Webinar Center along with
dozens of other sessions that can be viewed 24/7.
Click to visit the CaseSoft Webinar Center and view Research Spreadsheet Webinars
7. How Paralegals Can Use DepPrep to Create a Win-Win-Win
Ms. Patti Wall is a paralegal at the Delegal Law Offices. She wrote us recently regarding our DepPrep witness preparation tutorial. We think the way Ms. Wall is using DepPrep represents a triple winner:
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Clients win by receiving excellent preparation for their depositions
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Attorneys win by leveraging the value of their paralegal staff
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Paralegals win by being becoming more deeply involved in the witness preparation process
A full-feature trial version of DepPrep is available for download from www.casesoft.com.
Here's Ms. Wall's explanation of how she's putting DepPrep to work:
"I'm a paralegal at a litigation firm. I'm writing to let you know how we're using your new DepPrep product. I had read some initial reviews about DepPrep, but did not know if it would be that useful to our office. I downloaded a trial copy, used it a few times, and then purchased. Now I can't imagine preparing for depositions without it.
"The DepPrep session I conduct leaves our clients much better prepared for their deposition. It also makes the attorney's life easier.
"When clients visit our office to be prepared for their depositions, I meet with them first without the attorney. I use DepPrep to guide an initial review of the deposition process and of deposition dos and don'ts. My meeting with the client typically lasts from 45 minutes to an hour.
"During the session, we review the content of each DepPrep slide and discuss any questions and concerns they have about the points being made. As we go along, I write down questions they have for the attorney. I also note any topics they seem to be concerned or confused about.
"After my DepPrep session with clients, the
attorney joins us to hone in on more specific details that are relevant to
their case. I also bring up each of the items I've made notes about so
the attorney can address them. Since you can jump to any DepPrep slide
in a second, I bring up the slides where there were questions or confusion
and the attorney clarifies and reinforces these points.
"Clients who have been through this process have fared much better at
their deposition.
One example of where DepPrep excels is with the
more chatty clients. DepPrep does an excellent job of helping them see
the importance of keeping their responses simple and specific. I've
also found that clients who've been through my DepPrep session are far less
stressed come their deposition. That makes a big difference in how
they hold up under examination."
Thank you, Ms. Wall!
Please download DepPrep and try it today. Don't just review it yourself. Put it to work with witnesses and see the results.
Click to visit the DepPrep download page.
Click to view a brief webinar on DepPrep
Thank you for being a CaseSoft client!
Here are links to PDF versions of some of our most popular white papers:
Bell Curve & Document Indexing/Imaging
Creating & Using Issue Analysis Memos
Brainstorming Your Way to a Better Case Strategy
