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February 3, 2010
Try these Dynamic Paid and Received Stamps
Shortly after posting my article on Dynamic Exhibit Stamps, I received this request:
Can you have an interactive Received stamp? I need to stamp incoming mail with the date I received it, although it would also be nice to stamp items with my own text.
Well, sure! I produced a set of four stamps (Paid and Received) that can either:
Stamp with the current date
Ask you for information and stamp that on the document
Follow the MORE below for:
- How it works
- Download
- Installation
- How to use the stamp
Enjoy!
January 28, 2010
Free eSeminars: Learn Acrobat Online
The always suave Mark Middleton and I will be hitting the "interwebz" for a series of educational eSeminars over next few months.
Not all of these eSeminars are legal-specific, but many of them offer content that may be of interest.
- All eSeminars are FREE
- 1-hour long
- Register Online for as many as you want
Friday |
Acrobat 9 Creating & Distributing Forms |
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Acrobat 9 Creating PDF Portfolios |
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Acrobat 9 for Healthcare Professionals |
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Friday |
Acrobat 9 Digital Signatures |
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Acrobat 9 for Financial Services |
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Acrobat 9 and Microsoft Office |
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Acrobat 9 Tips & Tricks |
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Acrobat 9 Applying Security |
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Why Upgrade to Acrobat 9? |
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Acrobat & Creative Suite: Better Together |
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Acrobat 9 Creating PDF Portfolios |
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Acrobat 9 Comment & Review |
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Acrobat 9 Tips & Tricks |
January 13, 2010
Important: Acrobat 9.3 and Acrobat 8.2 Updates Available
Adobe just released updates to both Acrobat and Adobe Reader versions 8 and 9.
Both updates include some bug fixes and critical security updates.
If you manage your own computer, the easiest way to get the update is to choose Help—> Check for Updates.
Close Acrobat after the update begins.
If you don't manage your computer, please contact your IT department.
You can get more information here about the updates below:
Release Notes for 9.3 |
Technote 52073 |
Release Notes for 8.2 |
Technote 52074 |
About the Security Updates |
APSB10-02 |
Information on Application Security Control |
Application Security Wiki |
Important: Still using Acrobat or Reader 7?
Adobe no longer supports or patches for Acrobat/Reader 7 and earlier.
These versions and all previous versions are missing critical updates and users are recommended to upgrade.
For more information, see Adobe Support Policies.
NOTE: As described in Adobe's Supported Product Versions, Adobe Acrobat Professional 7.x and Adobe Reader 7.x support ended on December 28, 2009.
Read on to learn more about why it is important to keep Acrobat up to date.
December 1, 2009
List Bookmarks with a Free Script (Updated for Acrobat 9)
This is an update of my List Bookmarks with a Free Script article which was for Acrobat 8 users.
The new script works with Acrobat 9 and now also includes page numbers.
Legal professionals use PDF bookmarks to mark important sections. Each bookmark goes to a different view or page in the document.
I do hear from quite a few customers who want to create a list of bookmarks found in a PDF.
For example:
Since Acrobat is extensible using JavaScript, you can create a bookmark listing like the one above (for free!) using the steps provided in this article.
The key is to install a tiny JavaScript sequence file which is accessed using the Batch Processing function of Acrobat 9 Pro.
Read on to…
- Download a free, pre-built sequence file
- Install the sequence file
- Create a new PDF which lists the bookmarks in your file
November 12, 2009
Download my Thirty Top Tricks for Acrobat 9
If you follow this blog, you already know that my colleague Mark Middleton and I offer eSeminars on various topics such as Security, Forms, etc.
Those are deep, hour long eSeminars.
On Friday, November 13, we'll be presenting Thirty Top Tricks for Acrobat 9.
You can register here if you haven't yet.
Since I'm sure not all of you can attend, I've rolled up the Thirty Top Tips for Acrobat 9 into a ten-page, illustrated document so you can try them on your own!
Click the menu on the widget to download or view the file.
Download not working for you?
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If you read on, I'll tell you how you can share the document with others.
November 4, 2009
Creating a Click-thru Agreement in a PDF
A click-thru (sometimes called ClickWrap) agreement is a software or web-based acceptance of terms.
Click-thru agreements rely on the recipient clicking "OK" or "I agree" to accept the terms of the agreement.
I recently received this email message about Click-thru PDF agreements:
Is it possible to create a message that appears prior to a [PDF] document being opened to accept terms and conditions? If the user would click "Yes" the PDF would open. If the user click "No" the document would close.
Short answer: Yes!
Do Click-thru Agreements have Legal Precedent?
Yes, there are a number legal decisions on the subject.
The earliest reference I found was to ProCD v. Zeidenberg (text), which established that clicking a button in a software program constituted acceptance of terms.
A number of relevant court decisions may be found here: Click-Wrap Agreement - Internet Library of Law and Court Decisions.
In this article, I'll show you how to create an alert message that pops up when a PDF is opened:
November 1, 2009
Creating Email Portfolios for Small EDD Productions
I took a close look at the Acrobat 9 packaging and didn't find any mention of EDD (Electronic Data Discovery).
Despite that, I'm hearing from more and more law firms that would like to use Acrobat to capture, review and produce email as part of a case.
A great solution is an Email Portfolio. Acrobat can convert an entire folder of email in Outlook or Lotus Notes into well-organized PDF Portfolio which lets you sort, filter and search.
The Outlook integration provide by Acrobat offers the following:
- Convert individual email messages to PDF
- Adds attachments in their native format into the PDF of the message
- Combines all of the converted messages into a PDF Portfolio
- Adds a full-text index to the PDF Portfolio
Acrobat's email archiving feature is intended to be a personal email archiving tool, however with a bit of tweaking (and perhaps a plug-in like Evermap's AutoPortfolio), you may be able to use it successfully to manage small EDD productions.
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New to Email Portfolios? Learn about the basics of Email Portfolios by watching this short movie. |
In this article, I'll discuss:
- How to create a new User Account for production
- Setting up a "null user" in Outlook
- How to load PST and MSG files into Outlook
- How to convert email messages into an PDF Email Portfolio
- Reviewing documents in the Email Portfolio
- Producing Documents from the Email Portfolio
- Converting an Email Portfolio to a PDF Binder
- How to use Evermap's AutoPortfolio tool to move data to a litigation support product like Summation or Concordance
October 14, 2009
Acrobat 9.2 Update is Available
Yesterday, Adobe released the Acrobat 9.2 update.
You can get the update by going to the Help—> Check for Updates or at the following locations:
We recommend that all Acrobat 9 users update.
Acrobat 9.2 includes security updates, but also some fixes to some bugs that affect legal professionals in the areas of Redaction and Bates Numbering.
Read on for a link to the release notes and a brief overview of some of the fixes.
October 6, 2009
Converting Color PDF to Greyscale PDF (An Update)
Converting Color PDFs to Grayscale or Black and White in Acrobat 9
It's rare to find color printers or copiers widely deployed in law firms. When color documents appear in discovery, firms don't always know what to do with them. Examples include PPT files, images scanned in full color, etc.
Acrobat files can contain color and non-color elements:
- RGB: Red, Green, Blue color
- CMYK: Cyan, Yellow, Magenta and Black
- Greyscale: Shades of gray ranging from 0 (white) to to 256 (black) in value
- Monochrome: Black and White
RGB or CMYK image-only PDFs, in particular, can be quite large. Converting these PDFs to grayscale or black can reduce the size of the file and speed printing.
Other times, litigation support departments will have to satisfy the odd attorney who prefers to read grayscale documents.
Whatever the reason, it is fairly easy to convert RGB or CMYK PDFs to Greyscale. It's a bit more difficult to convert to monochrome, but I've included a workaround for that, too.
You'll need Acrobat Pro to make this work for you . . .
September 28, 2009
Fall Acrobat eSeminar Series
Want to learn more about how to use Acrobat 9?
My colleague Mark Middleton and I will be hitting the interwebz for a series of eSeminars this fall. lWe are trying a few new topics which we hope you will enjoy!
Date |
Topic |
| Tuesday, September 29th | Creating PDF Forms |
| Friday, October 9th | Acrobat 9 Portfolios eSeminar |
| Friday, October 23rd | Acrobat Security eSeminar |
| Friday, November 13th | Acrobat 9 Tips and Tricks eSeminar |
1PM–2PM ET |
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More details on the seminars if you click the More button below.
September 12, 2009
Try these Two-line Dynamic Exhibit Stamps
I received a lot of positive correspondence after I created and posted a set of Dynamic Exhibit Stamps in my blog article Add Dynamic Exhibit Stamps in Acrobat using a free stamp set.
If you followed the instructions in the article, a new, dynamic stamp was installed in the Comment and Markup toolbar.
When you use the stamp, Acrobat . . .
- Asks you for the case number:
- Stamps it on the document
A number of lawyers pointed out that they need to stamp more than just the exhibit number.
David Masters, author of the book "The Lawyers Guide to Adobe Acrobat", emailed me this:
In Colorado, our courts expect exhibit stickers to indicate Plaintiff's or Defendant's and have the case number on them.
The job then was to create a dynamic stamp which asked for two lines of input. More importantly, the stamp should be able to be customized.
Mission accomplished and delivered in this blog article!
Once applied, a stamp looks like this:
Follow the MORE below for:
- Credits
- Download
- Installation
- How to use the stamp
- Instructions on how to customize the stamps
September 10, 2009
What's the difference between Acrobat versions?
Probably the most frequently asked question I'm asked is— "What's the difference between Acrobat Reader, Standard, Pro and Pro Extended?"
And, the second most frequently asked question is— "What's the difference between Acrobat 8 (or other version) and Acrobat 9?"
There are detailed "official" matrices you can download from the Adobe website, but they probably don't speak as directly to you, the legal professional.
I've put together two "unofficial" documents that speak to both of the issues above.
So when you want to know which version of Acrobat has redaction, or if web capture changed in version 9, these PDFs will help.
Download the Files
Acrobat 9 Legal Feature Matrix
Shows differences between
Adobe Reader, Standard, Pro and Pro Extended
(214K PDF)
Acrobat 7-8-9 Comparison for Legal Professionals
See new features added in Acrobat 8 and 9.
(179K PDF)
September 7, 2009
Acrobat 9 for Legal Professionals eSeminar on Monday, 9/14
Need to find out what's new in Acrobat 9 for Legal Professionals?
Sign up for our free, 1-hour eSeminar!
Monday, September 14, 2009 |
My colleague Mark Middleton and I will show off all of the top features of Acrobat 9 Professional during this live demonstration.
This event is held in cooperation with the International Legal Technology Association (ILTA).
During the seminar, we'll cover:
- PDF Creation
- Bates Numbering
- Redaction
- Form Data Collection
- Typewriter Tool
- Metadata Removal
- SharePoint integration
- PDF Portfolios
Sign up today!
Just click on the link below:
http://events.signup4.com/AcroLaw
August 23, 2009
Preventing Edits to Bates Numbers applied in Acrobat
Bates Numbering is the process of sequentially numbering legal documents.
Acrobat 8 and 9 Pro allow you to apply and remove Bates Numbers to documents. To try it yourself, choose Advanced—> Document Processing—> Bates Numbering:
The ability to remove Bates Numbers is valuable in case you make a mistake during the numbering process. However, due to the adversarial nature of the legal business, attorneys may desire to limit what the other side can do with documents.
To whit, this email I received from an attorney last week:
What can I use to flatten Bates numbers so that they cannot be altered or removed using the Acrobat Bates numbering process?
I know I can print to PDF, save as TIFF, print-then-scan, etc., but am looking for a solution that will work in batch mode and not degrade the appearance of the file. Also, I don't favor using security settings because I don't want to restrict the user's ability to access the file.
In this article, I'll discuss how to "lock down" Bates Numbers so that they cannot be removed by Acrobat's "Remove Bates" option.
August 3, 2009
Reducing the File Size of Scanned PDFs
It seems like a lot of folks are struggling with the size of scanned PDFs. Below are excerpts from two emails I received recently:
My [Fujitsu] ScanSnap makes PDFs that are too big . . . like around 60K per page! What can I do to make these smaller in Acrobat?
I have to eFile [with the Federal Court] and am having to split the filings into many segments to go through the [Court] gateway. The issue seems to be with documents that are scanned on our network scanner. PDFs produced directly from Word are a lot smaller. Is there some trick to reduce the size of scanned files?
Before covering how to reduce the size of scanned documents in detail, let's discuss four factors that affect the size of scanned images:
- Scanning Resolution
A scan at 600 dpi results in a much larger file than at 300 dpi. - Color Space
Color and grayscale files result in much larger files than black and white files. - Physical dimensions of the scanned page
A legal-size scan will be larger than a letter-size scan, with all other factors being equal. - Compression
Raw scan data can be compressed to make it smaller.
Compression Types |
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Lossless compression retains the exact appearance of the original. Two common types of lossless compression are ZIP and CCITT Group 4. |
Lossy compression makes some (hopefully) non-noticeable visual trade-offs to further reduce file size. JPEG is a common lossy compression method. |
Ideally, you would control all of the above factors yourself by scanning at 300 dpi, black and white and using an efficient compression algorithm.
Unfortunately, you many not have that option. Many desktop and network scanners offer limited or confusing options— or— the scanned PDFs arrived from outside your firm.
Legal Scanning Recommendations |
For the purpose of this article we will make a couple of assumptions:
- You have a black and white scanned document of unknown dpi and compression
- You have already OCR'd the document, or don't need OCR
Read on to learn how to reduce the file size of scanned documents using Acrobat.
July 17, 2009
Redaction Tips and Techniques for Acrobat 9
Redaction is the permanent deletion of privileged or sensitive information from documents. Acrobat 8 Pro introduced a comprehensive set of Redaction tools to the product. Acrobat 9 added additional tools and capabilities.
In this article, I'll discuss three tips and techniques for working with redactions in Acrobat 9 Pro:
- Setting a preference so that redacted files are automatically renamed DOCNAME_redacted.pdf.
- Creating a new document which summarizes redactions
- Setting a Preference to automatically copy selected text into the Redaction Comment
Want to know how Redaction works in Acrobat? |
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Watch a brief Redaction tutorial on my Legal Movie Page. |
Watch a one-hour Redaction and Metadata Removal eSeminar |
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