Well, as it turns out, there is a lot Microsoft Excel can do when it comes to helping you manage your firm. Sure, it’s great for keeping track of numbers, simplifying the use of formulas, etc. Fun stuff, we know.

However, there are more ways you can use Excel. Jeff Bennion, contributor to AboveTheLaw.com, recently covered some the basic ways it can be used.

• Calendaring Court Dates
• Analyzing Voluminous Privilege Logs
• Deeper Analysis With Pivot Tables

Mr. Bennion gives a detailed guide on setting up Excel so that can be used for the three uses listed above. Once you’ve set up a spreadsheet for the three uses (or one, depending on your current needs) managing the aspects of your firm will become less time consuming. And hopefully paperless!

Click the link below to view the full article.

Why Excel Is The Most Underappreciated Program In Your Law Office

Photo Credit: harunatsukobo

By Tina Burns

Smartphones have revolutionized the business world and the ability to work on the go. From social media to content storage, it can feel overwhelming when trying to remember to backup files, add events to your calendar or even check the weather…until now.

In a recent article from Attorney Christopher B. Hopkins of Akerman, LLP, we discover the new app IFTTT (If This Then That) that “allows you to get value from your mobile device and social media without “checking in” constantly — thus reducing your internet-induced stress.” This user-friendly app requires no coding or advanced technical knowledge. You simply create ‘Recipes’ to tell the app what to do after a certain action occurs. Here are some example recipes that Mr. Hopkins mentioned:

• Facebook & Twitter: Eliminate opening both account and set IFTTT so that anything you write on Twitter with the tag “#FB” will be posted on Facebook (or vice versa).
• Save Email Attachments to Google Drive: Set IFTTT to download all email attachments to a folder in Google Drive — or set the trigger so that IFTTT will save PDF attachments in a folder if you put “#receipts” in title of an email you send to yourself.
• Weather: If it is going to rain tomorrow in [location], it will send you a text or have IFTTT send you the weather report each morning.
• Congress or Presidential Updates: Set IFTTT to email you when the President signs a new law or Congress schedules a vote on a bill.

(Read the full article “If This Then That (IFTTT) For Lawyers”)

This is just one of the many free productivity apps available for professions to help organize your life and your business.

Download and try IFTTT today!

(Original post found here)

As more and more businesses move toward a Wi-Fi environment for internet access, we should all be mindful of some very easy steps to maintain a secure network.

Chris Hoffman recently provided five (5) easy ways to establish and maintain Wi-Fi security in his article published by How-To Geek.  Important ideas like encryption, MAC address filtering and setting strong passwords are discussed with easy-to-follow instructions.

For those of you who have never visited the How-To Geek site, they offer some amazing tutorials for those who like the self-service technique for technology.  I highly recommend subscribing to this daily email service for helpful tips.

Donna A. Jones
Senior Vice President

It seems like this time of year we’re all looking for new ideas to increase productivity and boost results over the previous year.  Here’s a simple change I recently made that has really helped me, so I thought I’d share it.

I tend to be easily distracted when working on projects on my computer (maybe you are too?).  One distraction that always tempted me to interrupt whatever I am working on was the “New Email Desktop Alert” that popped up whenever I received a new email in Outlook.  (Some people call these alerts “toast” because they pop up on your screen like bread from a toaster.)  They look like this:

Well last week I turned these alerts off and wow, what a difference!  They always annoyed me, but I guess I didn’t realize how often I let them interrupt my work.  I have noticed a significant improvement to my workflow since turning them off.  Maybe you will too?

If you are using Outlook 2007, here’s how to turn off the alerts:

• In Outlook, click on Tools, then Options….
• In the Options dialogue box, click on the “E-Mail Options…” button.
• In the E-mail Options dialogue box, click on the “Advanced E-mail Options…” button.
• In the Advanced E-mail Options dialogue box, uncheck the box next to “Display a New Mail Desktop  Alert”
• Bonus:  In that same dialogue box, you can uncheck the box next to “Play a sound” if you’d like to mute the new mail alert sound each time you receive an email.
• Lastly, click on the “OK” button in all of the dialogue boxes to close them out.

That’s it!  Now you won’t be bothered by those alerts any longer and hopefully your workday will be a little more productive and enjoyable.

PS. If you are an Outlook 2010 user, click here for separate instructions.

Have a safe and productive 2013!

I recently discovered a very informative article called “iPad Apps for Lawyers” published by this group which pares down the somewhat exhaustive list of apps to about 50 that are really useful to trial lawyers.  To review the entire list categorized by function, click here.

While visiting their site, I also learned a lot about their app called JuryPad.

What an amazing tool at a very reasonable price ($19.99 for the iTunes download).  Watch the short promotional video for all the features and tools to assist not only with voir dire but mapping of jury pools, demographics, statistics and trial results.

Donna A. Jones
Senior Vice President