Heading Towards a Paperless Office with Paperport 11, Omnipage 15, and Xerox Documate 252

I revived a post from the past when I was first getting into the paperless office movement. You may want to check out my more recent post on the Scansnap scanner

October 19, 2006

Ahh, it is the dream of almost all lawyers, a paperless law office! Of course, there are many attorneys who still feel much more comfortable with a file bulging with pleadings, correspondence, notes, invoices, etc. Too bad they can’t locate a particular document in less than five minutes. And if it wasn’t for all the paper, my office would always be in a perfect state of tidiness.

There are many attorneys, including myself, out there who cannot completely knock their paper addiction. I’ve supplemented mine with an electronic file addiction. In fact, I’ve almost supplanted my paper addiction with an electronic one. How did I go about it?

Basic needs to get started

Well, several years ago, I purchased an all in one, printer/scanner/fax/copier. At the time, I bought the Brother MFC 9700. It was very inexpensive and was bundled with software including Paperport 8.0. Since my purchase, I’ve learned that the MFC 9700 has a slight defect in that sometimes the automatic feeder pulls documents in slightly askew (this can be corrected within the Paperport application but I’m in the market for a new scanner as a result). You don’t need to purchase an all in one machine but it has a relatively small footprint and thus does not hog critical desk space. What you do need is a scanner with an automatic feeder that is somewhat robust – meaning that you can load at least 50 pages at a time into the feeder. Without an automatic feeder, your quest for the paperless office is doomed.

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They said it couldn’t be done but here’s my triple display Imac. That’s right, 3 monitors all controlled by one keyboard and one mouse.

I recently received discovery from a plaintiff in a civil case. The attorney provided the discovery in printed format and on a “floppy” disk (computer disk in reality, although I still call them floppy disks). She did this in accordance with the Ohio Rules of Civil Procedure but I still had to laugh. I haven’t had a computer that would accept a floppy disk for over a decade now. I promptly placed the disk in an envelope and mailed it back to her. Perhaps she can use it in another case.

I have more ways to answer her discovery than she probably has bytes on that floppy disk. It’s amazing how large law firms can be so behind the times.

Of my myriad ways to deal with her printed discovery, I chose to use Adobe Acrobat to avoid retyping the document. First I scanned the discovery into pdf format with my Scansnap scanner. I opened the resulting file in Adobe Acrobat and proceeded to insert text fields into the document with the text field tool. To insert a text field, I simply drew a box with the cursor. After I have drawn the box, Acrobat provides me with several options concerning the text field. I generally check the option for multi-line (allows for a multiple line response in the text field) and the option for scrolling long text (automatically scrolls the line to the next line when you reach the right margin).

I inserted a text field in the response area of each request for admission and made text fields for my signature bloc and for the certificate of service. In a few minutes, I was done.

Blue regions are the text fields that I inserted right into the discovery document; however, the blue regions do not show up as blue regions on the printed final version – only your inserted text shows up there.

We used to keep a typewriter at the office for functions like this but no more.

Adobe Acrobat Professional to the rescue. Next!

3M Easy Adjust Monitor Stand

You may ask yourself: Why do I need a new monitor stand? My monitor came with a stand.

I couldn’t believe the features you get for $239. Wireless networking and ethernet networking are built-in! The Brother HL-5370DW printer also boasts 32 pages per minute printing speed as opposed to the 23 pages per minute that the Okidata pushed out. Resolution is greater – 1200×1200 as opposed to 1200×600 and paper capacity is 50 sheets more at 300 pages with the standard paper tray.

And let me tell you, duplex printing rocks! However, to perform duplex printing the Brother first prints on one side of the page and then pulls the paper back into the printer and then prints out the second side and then spits out the finished product. I wonder how this feature will hold up over time as it requires a bit of extra work on the part of the printer.

In terms of paper savings, duplex printing is the bomb. So far, I haven’t found any courts that refuse to accept filings that are printed on both sides of the page. Duplex printing also cuts down on your mailing costs. By printing in duplex, you’ve reduced your mailing weight by about half. Your postage costs are reduced and you generally don’t have to buy the larger mailing envelopes to accommodate dozens of pages more.

My only complaint is that the Brother HL-5370DW printer is hard on lightweight envelopes. It generally seals them shut as you are printing addresses on them. I ended up buying a new drum unit for the Okidata printer mainly for the purpose of printing envelopes. It also provides backup in case the Brother HL-5370DW printer goes down. I imagine higher quality envelopes may work better with the Brother HL-5370DW printer but I’m not sure if I want the added expense.

Want to make pdf document creation a breeze? Click on the “pages” button in your open pdf document.

From here you can quickly make several changes to your document. Like . . .

Re-order pages,
Delete pages,
Add other pdf documents to your current document.

You can accomplish all this by dragging and dropping with your mouse.

Let’s say your sending a pdf document that you just scanned in and created with your new Fujitsu ScanSnap Scanner with the Instant PDF Creation feature and you want to send it to a client via email. Afterall, you want to do your part to protect the environment and be known as a green business so why make another copy and use snail mail when you can email an electronic file? What’s the carbon footprint of such outdated practices anyway?

However, you’re worried that email poses some security risks so you want to protect yourself and your client. You come up with the idea to password protect your PDF document. How do you go about doing it?

We open up our document in Adobe Acrobat Pro, proceed to the File menu and select – Properties.

From here, we select – Security.

We select – Password Security to protect our document with a password.

Finally we set our security options and we’re good to go. Just don’t let your client know the password via the same email that contains the document.

Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500 Instant PDF Sheet-Fed Scanner

I couldn’t function without my Fujitsu ScanSnap. It does exactly what the name claims and more. It will scan your paper documents and instantly turn them into PDF files. Not only that, it will turn them into searchable PDF files. In a profession which requires the handling of so many paper documents on a day to day basis, the auto-feed scanner with instant pdf conversion is indispensable.

If you can’t begin to imagine the possibilities that this tool allows then let me help you.

1. Eliminate your file storage room(s).
2. Eliminate the mess on your desk.
3. Find documents instantly.
4. Notify your clients immediately of case events.
5. Slash your mailing expenses.
6. Make discovery searchable. Make any paper document searchable.
7. Get rid of your copier?
8. Cut your paper costs.
9. Significantly reduce typing.
10. Clean out your basement.

Comes with full version of Adobe Acrobat Professional 9. Available for the Mac as well.

You would think this one would be obvious but I get so many questions from others where my immediate thought is to google their question to find an answer yet the person asking the question never considers that option. Here are some recent examples:

1 – What’s the current judgment interest rate in Ohio?
2 – How do I turn off the reveal formatting function in Microsoft Word?
3 – What’s the statute of limitations for credit card debt in Ohio?
4 – What are the 2009 amendments to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 50?
5 – What does the “I’m feeling lucky button” do in Google?
6 – Who’s calling me from area code 867 and where the hell is that?

The answers are usually there. Just Google it.

And by the way, you generally don’t go to a website by typing in its domain name in a Google search box.

Do you absolutely have to have the latest news and information on the Family and Medical Leave Act? Or how about on Title VII jury verdicts? Or maybe on Judge Taylor? Or maybe even monitor yourself for newsworthiness?

You can do that and more with Google Alerts.

Here’s an example of a google alert alerting me about the latest on FMLA law delivered right to my mailbox. It’s that easy.