CaseSoft FYI - November 2005

This Client FYI introduces a new feature that will appear in each future issue -- a column on an important aspect of Adobe Acrobat.  This month's column contrasts the functionality found in the Reader, Standard and Professional versions of Acrobat, focusing on those capabilities of greatest interest to trial teams and investigators.

Were you aware that over a dozen litigation support and EDD products now offer "Send to CaseMap" functionality?  We review the products and the feature below.

Have you checked out the new version of our TextMap transcript summary utility that works with CaseMap?  We're offering TextMap 2 at a special discount until 12/16/05.  Again, details 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 November Contents

1. Using "Send to CM" in Acrobat, Concordance, Summation, Etc.

2. The Bell Curve & Document Imaging/Indexing

3. Save 50% on our TextMap Transcript Summary Tool

4. Learn a Key Feature in 30 Seconds: Send to TimeMap

5. What's New in TimeMap 4

6. Comparing the Three Flavors of Adobe Acrobat

2. The Bell Curve & Document Imaging/Indexing

We're offering our TextMap 2 transcript summary utility for half off until Friday, December 16.   Purchase licenses that include 2006 Extended Maintenance for $99 per user license.

TextMap 2 offers tight integration with CaseMap, cross-transcript searching, search reports, transcript highlight reports, condensed transcript printing and PDFing, and many other options.

TextMap 2 is very simple to use.  You'll be culling critical passages from transcripts in minutes.

Your decision to try TextMap for half off is backed by our year-long guarantee.

Click to order TextMap 2 for $99

Click to view a 15-minute TextMap 2 overview webinar

While TimeMap can be used to create timeline graphs from scratch, it's also a cinch to create TimeMap timelines using facts sent from CaseMap.  If you're using TimeMap 4, a sophisticated look is automatically applied to the resulting chart based on either our default style template or a template of your choosing.

Facts can be sent from CaseMap to TimeMap in groups or individually.

To send a group of facts from CaseMap's Fact spreadsheet, filter the spreadsheet down to a subset of choice and then select File/Send To/Send to TimeMap (All).

If you would prefer to shoot individual facts from CaseMap to TimeMap as you review the Fact spreadsheet, right-click each fact of interest and select Send to TimeMap on the shortcut menu.

Please note that you can send information from other CaseMap spreadsheets to TimeMap.  For example, you can send document data from CaseMap document index spreadsheet to TimeMap to instantly create a timeline of case documents.  To do so, display the Objects-Documents spreadsheet and use one of the Send to TimeMap methods described above.

If you would like to see the Send to TimeMap process in action and learn additional details about it, please view our 10 Minute Tutorial on the topic ..

Click to view our online tutorial on using Send to TimeMap

Adobe Reader

Acrobat Standard

The primary feature that makes Acrobat Standard worth ~$300 is it's ability to create PDFs in addition to viewing, printing, and searching them.

Here are four other features of the Standard version that should be of interest to trial teams and investigators:

Optical Character Recognition -- Acrobat Standard can perform Optical Character Recognition (OCR) on PDF files that contain images but not text. Once the OCR text has been added to the file, it can be searched for any word or phrase. In Acrobat 7, you'll find the "Recognize Text Using OCR" option on the Document menu.

Commenting -- Acrobat Standard makes it easy to add notations to PDF documents using highlighters, sticky notes, callouts and numerous other options.

PDFing of Email -- Acrobat 7 Standard makes it possible to create PDFs of email in Microsoft Outlook. For example, one click can create a PDF of an entire Outlook email folder. When you PDF email, all attachments and links can be embedded in the resulting PDF. The PDF automatically includes bookmark links to each email organized by message dates, by authors' names and by the subject lines of the emails. What a great way to deal with email produced during discovery!

The Organizer -- Another important new feature in Acrobat 7 is the Organizer. This tool gives you an easy way to view all of the PDFs that are open, PDFs that you have used recently, or PDFs that you have stored in a favorites folder. For example, the Organizer lets you view PDFs arranged by history, viewing just the PDFs you have opened today, yesterday, the last week, past two weeks, the last month, or the past year.

There are two important aspects of Acrobat/CaseMap integration that need features of Acrobat Standard or Professional and thus aren't available in Reader:

CaseMap's PDF Bulk Importer -- This utility automatically creates records in your CaseMap document index for each PDF in a folder. For example, let's say you have PDFs of 1000 discovery documents in a folder. Point the PDF Bulk Importer utility at this folder and it adds 1000 records to your CaseMap document index filling in the Full Name and linking each record to the PDF it represents so that the PDF can later be opened in one click from inside CaseMap.

Click to view a 10-minute tutorial on the PDF Bulk Importer

Enhanced "Send to CaseMap" -- When the "Send to CaseMap" Plug-in for Acrobat is used with Acrobat Standard or Professional, the link from CaseMap back to the PDF can reselect not just the original page, but also the exact passage culled out of the PDF.

Acrobat Professional

There are three key features of Acrobat Professional that may well justify spending the extra ~$150:

Batch Operations -- Acrobat Professional supports batch operations, for example, batch printing and batch OCRing. Batch OCRing is particularly handy if you receive a large number of PDFs containing the images of discovery documents but not the associated text. Acrobat Professional can OCR an entire folder of PDFs in a single operation.

Indexing -- Acrobat Professional includes the ability to index PDFs. Indexing PDFs dramatically enhances the speed of searches for words and phrases within them. Without an index, searching across a large number of PDF files can be very slow. With an index, search results are instantaneous.

Enabling Commenting by Users of Reader -- A new feature in Acrobat 7 Professional is the ability to enable commenting by users of the free Adobe Reader 7. Normally, Reader users cannot add comments to PDFs or participate in the document review process in any meaningful way. However, using Acrobat 7 Professional, you can create PDFs that will activate commenting capabilities for users of Reader.

The behavior of CaseMap's PDF Bulk Importer utility and the "Send to CaseMap" Plug-in for Acrobat are identical using the Standard and Professional versions.

Learning More

Would you like to learn more about Acrobat or about the tight integration between CaseMap and Acrobat?

You'll find three online tutorials on Acrobat by David Masters, Esq., author of The Lawyer's Guide to Adobe Acrobat, at the CaseSoft Webinar Center. You'll also find three sessions that review CaseMap/Acrobat integration.

Click to visit the CaseSoft Webinar Center