Adobe has announced the pending release of Acrobat 8, but the question remains is it worth the upgrade?  There's long been a debate whether Acrobat standard was sufficient or if attorneys needed to use the professional version; however, it appears this debate may be over as the new features that will interest lawyers the most will only be available in the professional edition.

Adobe details the upgrades for legal professionals on its website here.  According to Adobe, the features that relate to the legal profession include:

    * Permanently remove sensitive information (redaction)

    * Metadata removal

    * Built-in support for Bates numbering

    * Enable forms saving in Adobe Reader 8 and auto-recognize form fields

    * New, intuitive user interface

    * Combine multiple files into one PDF package

    * True batch printing

    * Support for PDF/A archiving standard

    * Archive Lotus Notes e-mail

    * Manage shared reviews

    * Faster Adobe PDF creation and rendering

    * Improved OCR engine

These improvements will not be available in the standard edition apparently.  Adobe does provide a side-by-side comparison chart of the Acrobat family of products here.

While Adobe Acrobat 8 is not yet shipping, the Adobe website shows that you can pre-order with upgrade pricing for Acrobat 8 Professional set at $159.00. The bottom line is that this is a good price to upgrade to Professional with features such as Bates numbering that you previously had to purchase from a third party: I think that it will be worth the price to upgrade.

One of the problems we frequently encounter when we find an interesting website is trying to provide others with the URL for that site.  Often, the URL that we have is so long that our e-mail program creates a line break prior to the end of the URL.  This results in a two or more line URL in the e-mail message and when clicked on, often does not activate the entire URL. This results in not being taken to the correct webpage.  Enter TinyURL. 

 
Tiny URL is a URL shortening service that takes long, unwieldy URLs and shortens them into a URL that never breaks.  You can create a shortened URL by copying the URL of the webpage you want to send, going to tiny URL and pasting it into the conversion box.  This will generate a TinyURL which never expires.  You can go to the TinyURL toolbar  page and drag-and-drop a link to place a TinyURL creation button on your Internet Explorer toolbar. Firefox users have several options for integrating tiny URL into Firefox including: TinyUrl Creator 1.0.2; Tinywww Creator 1.0; and TinyURL Toolbar 0.1. As an example of how tiny URL can shorten a link. Here is the URL for the Firefox search results page for TinyURL https://addons.mozilla.org/search.php?q=tinyurl&app=firefox ;here is the TinyURL I created for this same page: http://tinyurl.com/mw633.

Another example of how beneficial shortening a long URL can be:

Here is the URL for the Law Office Management Assistance Program resource Library page at the State Bar of Wisconsin:

http://www.wisbar.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Practice411s_Advice_

Alert&Template=/CustomSource/LOMAP/advice_alert.cfm

Here's that same link using TinyURL: http://tinyurl.com/ehpxv .

There are other URL shortening services available and a comparison of these various services can be found at notlong.com http://notlong.com/links/ which not only provides this comparison but also offers URL shortening services of its own.  However, the most widely known and arguably most widely used service is TinyURL.

URL shortening services can be used for nefarious purposes including hiding the fact that you're being sent to an affiliated link or to hide the true URL of the site.  Unfortunately, this is a fact of life that, like most things on the Internet today, can be used for legitimate purposes as well as illegitimate purposes such as for phishing scams, porn sites and more.  If you see a shortened URL inside of a PayPal message or similar message, you should not open it.  But even with these nefarious possibilities, I believe that the legitimate and helpful purposes of a tool such as TinyURL far out weigh the potential downside to its use.

I am a firm believer in finding tools that make the job of an attorney and their staff easier.  While sometimes there are no little cost options to a particular solution, it is always nice to find a tool that will provide the same or similar functionality at a lower cost without sacrificing ease of use or core features. 

As a transactional attorney, I found tools to create timelines, diagrams and drawings helpful in my practice.  One such tool that I used was Microsoft Visio.  According to Microsoft: "Visio 2003 is a diagramming program that can help you create business and technical diagrams that document and organize complex ideas, processes, and systems."  I used Visio for a number of tasks including flowcharts, diagrams showing relationships between entities, floorplans and more.  Fortunately for me, Visio was included in the Microsoft Action Pack subscription I maintained which provided me copies of Microsoft programs for one annual fee as a reseller and consultant.  Otherwise, Visio can generally be found for under $100.  However, if you only use a program such as this occasionally, that is $100 that could be spent on something else.  Enter Gliffy.com , a web-based application that provides much of the functionality is Visio,is extremely easy to use and is a web-based application which can be used from anywhere. 

Currently, Gliffy is available in an ad supported format although its website does state that there will be a paid version that will do away with the advertising.  However, the ads are minimal at this time and should not prevent you from trying out this terrific web-based application.

According to the Gliffy FAQ, "Gliffy is a suite of online applications designed to replace expensive and difficult to maintain desktop software. Since Gliffy applications work in any web browser, sharing your work is made simple."  According to another FAQ, the initial application offering was designed to produce documents including:   

* Flow Charts

* Workflow documents   

* Class Diagrams   

* Network Diagrams   

* Database schemas   

* Website layouts/wireframes   

* Floor plans   

* Seating charts… and more!

I strongly recommend that you give this web application a try and see how it can help you in practicing more effectively and more efficiently without spending a dime for now.