CaseSoft Client FYI Newsletter

2. New Webinar: "Introduction to PDFs"

Attorney David L. Masters, the author of the ABA publication The Lawyer's Guide to Adobe Acrobat, is our guest presenter in a brand new CaseSoft Webinar.

There's no charge for viewing this 30-minute session. It doesn't review CaseSoft products, but rather is a basic tutorial on Adobe Acrobat that compares Acrobat to other image formats and explains such key concepts as the distinction between image-only PDFs and image-on-text PDFs.

Click to view "Introduction to PDFs." While you at our Webinar Center, please check out the dozens of other no-charge training sessions available 24/7.

The ABA is publishing a second edition of Mr. Masters' book with updates on new Acrobat 7: Click to visit the ABA website and learn more about The Lawyer's Guide to Adobe Acrobat.

We've also prepared an article summarizing the key changes in Acrobat 7: Click to open a PDF version of "What's New in Acrobat 7."

Finally, if you use Adobe Acrobat, please read our white paper on how and when to use Acrobat and CaseMap to manage document indexing and imaging: Click to open a PDF version of "The Bell Curve & Document Indexing/Imaging."





CaseSoft FYI - March 2005
Interested in learning more about Adobe Acrobat? We've just posted a new "Introduction to PDFs" Webinar that's presented by Attorney David Masters, author of the ABA publication, A Lawyer's Guide to Acrobat. Would you like to win a license for TextMap 2, the new version of our transcript summary tool? In addition to cross-transcript searching, TextMap 2 offers new work product options and built-in PDF output. Have you used CaseMap to build a lexicon of key case terminology? Have you used CaseMap's "Mark Me Up" ReportBook to astound a client? What's the connection between grandmothers, dishwashers and DepPrep, our witness preparation tool? Please read on to learn more about all of these items. 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 March Contents 1. ABA TechShow Passes & Presentations 2. New Webinar: "Introduction to PDFs" 3. TimeMap Certification Webinar 4. Building a Case Terminology Lexicon in CaseMap: How & Why 5. Astounding Clients with "Mark Me Up" ReportBooks 6. Win a TextMap 2 Transcript Summary Tool License 7. My Grandma, Dishwashers & DepPrep
1. ABA TechShow Passes & Presentations The ABA TechShow is coming up in just a few days. It runs March 31 - April 2 at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers. Click this link if you would like a free pass to the ABA TechShow Exhibit Hall We're booth 509. Please stop by to say "hi" and to see the latest versions of all our tools, including a sneak peak at TimeMap 4, an upcoming version of our timeline graphing product. CaseSoft Presentation at TechShow Institute -- Saturday, April 2 Please attend our presentation at the ABA TechShow Training Institute. You don't have to be registered for TechShow to attend this no-charge event. The session runs Saturday, April 2, from 1:00 - 2:30 in Ballroom 2 of the Sheraton. We'll be showing the tight integration between our CaseMap case analysis tool and Adobe Acrobat as well as 15 other litigation support and EDD products. We'll also be demonstrating the new features in TimeMap 4. Big Document Case Integration Demonstration -- Friday, April 1 Does your organization handle cases involving 100,000+ documents? If so, please be sure to attend the seminar we’re co-hosting at the TechShow on Friday, April 1, 2005. The session runs from 9:30 to 10:45 in the Michigan Room of the Sheraton. We’ll be demonstrating the tight integration between CaseMap, Concordance, LiveNote, IPRO, and Syngence. You don’t have to be attending TechShow to participate in this session, but you do have to register in advance. Click to register
2. New Webinar: "Introduction to PDFs" Attorney David L. Masters, the author of the ABA publication The Lawyer's Guide to Adobe Acrobat, is our guest presenter in a brand new CaseSoft Webinar. There's no charge for viewing this 30-minute session. It doesn't review CaseSoft products, but rather is a basic tutorial on Adobe Acrobat that compares Acrobat to other image formats and explains such key concepts as the distinction between image-only PDFs and image-on-text PDFs. Click to view "Introduction to PDFs." While you at our Webinar Center, please check out the dozens of other no-charge training sessions available 24/7. The ABA is publishing a second edition of Mr. Masters' book with updates on new Acrobat 7: Click to visit the ABA website and learn more about The Lawyer's Guide to Adobe Acrobat. We've also prepared an article summarizing the key changes in Acrobat 7: Click to open a PDF version of "What's New in Acrobat 7." Finally, if you use Adobe Acrobat, please read our white paper on how and when to use Acrobat and CaseMap to manage document indexing and imaging: Click to open a PDF version of "The Bell Curve & Document Indexing/Imaging."
3. TimeMap Certification for Paralegals and Legal Assistants If you're a paralegal or legal assistant user of our TimeMap timeline graphing product, please consider becoming TimeMap Certified. Three simple steps and you'll be TimeMap Certified: Step One -- View the recorded 60-minute TimeMap Certification webinar. It covers numerous topics including: creating visuals from scratch, using the Insert Multiple Facts feature, and using the Fact Style Gallery. This webinar also addresses frequent TimeMap questions. Step Two -- Read our article entitled “Timelines, They’re Not Just For Trial Anymore." View a PDF version of "Timelines, They're Not Just for Trial Anymore." Step Three -- E-mail us the answer to the test question we ask you in the webinar. Click to learn more about the Certification process and to view the Certification Webinar
4. Building a Case Terminology Lexicon in CaseMap: How & Why Most matters involve a fair amount of case-specific jargon. For example, any med mal case surely involves a great deal of terminology re diseases, medicines, surgical procedures, vital signs, and so on. The majority of these words and phrases are unfamiliar to trial team members as well as to the judge and jury. Your CaseMap case file is the place to build a dictionary of such matter-specific jargon. Give us the same energy you would expend creating a word-processing listing of terms. We'll give you back a slew of advantages you'd never get out of the word-processing jargon listing. Creating a Lexicon in CaseMap 1. Add case-specific jargon as Other Objects records on CaseMap's Object spreadsheet. 2. Use the Description field to capture a detailed definition of each term. 3. Use the Key field to flag the most critical terms. 4. If the terms divide into logical grouping, e.g., diseases, medicines, surgical procedures, use the Type + field for Other Objects to capture the appropriate value for each. 5. If you want to go for the gusto, why not link the record for each term to a PDF containing a detailed article about it or to a website on the topic? Advantages of Having Your Lexicon in CaseMap As simple as this concept may be, here are ten benefits that stem from building a lexicon in CaseMap: -- The terminology that's critical to the case is stored along with other key case knowledge. -- Everyone on the team has simultaneous access to a centralized encyclopedia of key terms as CaseMap files are multi-user. -- Two clicks create paper or PDF (using CaseMap's built-in PDF writer) Lexicon reports for the client, experts, and new members of the trial team. Reports have automatic title pages. -- It's easy to sort the information appearing in your screen display of terminology and your Lexicon reports. For example, your lexicon could be sorted by the type of term -- all medicines would be sorted together followed by all surgical procedures. -- It's easy to filter the information appearing in your screen display of terminology and your Lexicon reports. For example, filter the lexicon down to only those terms that are key, or to just medicines, or to only the key medicines. -- You'll be able to include a Lexicon report as one of the reports appearing in each case ReportBooks. Not only is this useful, it's sure to impress. -- Having terminology listed as objects means you'll build your chronology faster. How? As soon as you type the first three letters of a term, CaseMap drops a list of items and selects the term for you. Pressing ENTER completes the word. It's much easier to type "sup" and hit ENTER then it is to type "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious." -- Since you're picking terms from a list after typing the first few letters, you'll end up with correct spellings and be sure to use consistent names. -- When a fact references a term, the fact and term are automatically linked. The LS: Facts field for your lexicon objects counts the total number of facts in which the term is employed. Double clicking the count in an LS: Facts cell displays a mini-chronology of just those facts that reference the selected case word or phrase. -- Now, this is my very favorite: When you're reading a fact and come across an unfamiliar term, simply float your mouse pointer over the term and CaseMap displays a hint containing the description of the term. If an article or website regarding the term has been linked to the jargon object, you'll also be able to use the paperclip icon at the left end of the fact record to display the linked PDF or website right from the fact that mentions the terminology. Please put CaseMap to work as your lexicon solution! Final Idea: When trial approaches, evaluate your lexicon for terms that will be critical to explain to the jury early in the case. Create demonstrative evidence used to educate jurors about these terms during your opening. They'll appreciate you for it. For other ideas re how to get the most out of CaseMap's Object spreadsheet, please read our white paper entitled "Creating a Great Cast of Characters." Click to view a PDF version of "Creating a Great Cast of Characters."
5. Astounding Clients with "Mark Me Up" ReportBooks Have you used a "Mark Me Up" ReportBook to jumpstart the case analysis process? If not, you're missing out on a wonderful new aspect of CaseMap 5 -- one that will not only gets case analysis off to a fast start, but also is sure to impress any client. A ReportBook is a compilation of any number of saved CaseMap case analysis reports packaged together with a cover page, a table of contents, and report-specific title pages. It takes just three clicks to generate a ReportBook. While you can create ReportBooks from scratch, each CaseMap 5 case file already offers a series of pre-built ReportBooks. One of the defaults is named "Mark Me Up". This ReportBook makes it very easy to get clients involved in the case preparation process. It gets early case analysis following an initial client interview into the client's hands for review. The "Mark Me Up" ReportBook contains three reports: a Cast of Characters, a Fact Chronology, and a Document Index. It also includes a special Introduction that explains the contents to clients and asks for their assistance in editing report information. Click to view a PDF "Mark Me Up" ReportBook generated using the Hawkins Example Case Please note that the "Mark Me Up" ReportBook available at the link above was created directly by CaseMap, using the built-in PDFing capability that doesn't require a full Acrobat license. Please print and study this sample work product. Pay special attention to the default Introduction. You can edit the Introduction and the report layouts as you see fit. The key thing to remember is that each new CaseMap 5 case file has a "Mark Me Up" ReportBook that you can create as paper or PDF in literally three clicks. Following your next client interview, why not enter your notes re people, facts, and documents into CaseMap and use the "Mark Me Up" ReportBook to send your client an astounding work product?
6. Win a TextMap 2 Transcript Summary Tool License TextMap 2 is the brand new version of our transcript summary utility that works with CaseMap. We’re giving a free TextMap 2 license or TextMap 2 upgrade to 10 clients who download the trial version of TextMap 2 by the end of day Thursday, March 31. When you download, please enter "TextMap Drawing" so we'll know you're acting in connection with this contest. Again, you must have downloaded by the end of day Thursday, March 31. Cindy Bosman of our Support/Training staff will draw the names of winners on Monday, April 4. She'll contact winners on Tuesday, April 5. She'll also send an update on the drawing results to those whose names weren't drawn. Click to download a full-featured trial version of TextMap 2 If you don’t win one of the free licenses, you’ll still have a chance to save on TextMap due to your download. TextMap 2 is normally $149 per user license, but if you download TextMap in connection with the drawing, you’ll have a week grace period after the winners are announced to purchase TextMap for $99, backed by our year guarantee. If you're one of our many clients who has already purchased TextMap 2, you're still eligible to win a no-charge license if you download TextMap by March 31. If you win, you can have an additional TextMap 2 license for someone else at your organization or you can have a no-charge license for our NoteMap outliner or DepPrep witness preparation tool. Samples of New TextMap Work Product Options In addition to new cross-transcript searching features, TextMap 2 offers many new types of instant reports. TextMap 2 also features built-in PDFing of transcripts and reports without the need for a full Acrobat license, making it easy to output a slick work product. Here are the new types of reports available in TextMap 2: Search Results Reports Anytime you conduct a word or phrase search in TextMap 2, two mouse clicks creates a printed or PDF report of the search results. A Search Report lists all word/phrase hits across all transcripts. For each hit, the transcript name and page/line reference are displayed and followed by the search word displayed in context -- 12 lines of transcript appear above the word hit and 12 lines of transcript appear below. Click to view a Search Results Report generated as a PDF directly from TextMap 2 Condensed Transcript Printing Two clicks in TextMap 2 and any transcript can be printed or PDFed as either full-sized pages or with "condensed" pages where four transcript pages are placed on a single output page. Click to view a Condensed Transcript generated as a PDF directly from TextMap 2 Transcript Highlight Reports TextMap makes it easy to cull key testimony from transcripts and organize it in CaseMap. We call the text selections that are sent to CaseMap "highlights" in that they remain highlighted in the transcript for easy identification. TextMap 2 includes a new Transcript Highlight Report that prints the transcript segments you've sent to CaseMap in the order in which they appear within the source deposition or examination. Printed below each transcript text selection are the associated fact fields from CaseMap, e.g., Date & Time, Fact Text, Source, Linked Issues. Click to view a Transcript Highlights Report generated as a PDF directly from TextMap 2
7. Grandma, Dishwashers & Our DepPrep Witness Preparation Tool I had a wonderful grandmother. One of her multitude of great qualities: she was a fantastic baker. Her Challah bread -- Wow! Grandma was a bit set in her ways. Even though her house had a dishwasher, she would never use it. The dishwasher just didn’t do the job the way she was used to doing it. "Greg, I've done my own dishes since I was a girl in Russia. And stop eating all the bread!" I was always disappointed because more dishes washed meant less Challah bread baked. Sure dishwashers leave you with some pots to scrub and the occasional glass or plate that needs a touch up when it comes out of the machine. But they still save soooo much time. So what’s the connection between dishwashing and deposition preparation? We have a new product called DepPrep. DepPrep is an on-line tutorial for your witnesses to take. DepPrep teaches witnesses basic deposition do’s and don’ts, leaving you free to focus on more critical tasks, such as dealing with case-specific and witness-specific problems. On occasion I meet attorneys who tell me that they don’t need DepPrep because “I’ve done my own witness preparation for years.” Makes me think of my grandmother, which is nice in one respect, but I always wonder if there isn't some Challah bread they could be baking. Please understand that, like a dishwasher, DepPrep makes quick work of 90% of the basics, but still leaves you dealing with the two-day old peanut butter that's stuck to a knife. Please focus on the 90%, not the peanut butter knife. Download DepPrep today and see how it can handle deposition preparation basics for you. Click to download the no-charge trial version of our DepPrep witness preparation tutorial. 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 Chronology Best Practices Creating & Using Issue Analysis Memos Brainstorming Your Way to a Better Case Strategy Better Visuals Via Brainstorming Click to see a complete list of titles