July 7, 2009

Signing PDFs using the Topaz Digital Signature Pad

There certainly is a lot of pressure to be "green" these days. Reducing paper is a rally cry at big law firms and many smaller firms are thinking about it, too.

While it seems pretty easy to send PDFs instead of printing documents, are there times when we must print? For example, to sign a document?

If you are a regular reader of this column, you might remember my article about creating signature stamps. In that piece, I explained how to use Acrobat to "stamp" your personal signature on documents. This is a good practice to use anywhere fax signatures are accepted.

What about gathering the signatures of clients and partners?

A client comes and is ready sign your standard intake agreement and retainer. How could you accomplish that without printing anything? Could you digitally capture a signature and protect yourself at the same time?

Short answer: Yes, but you need a digital signature pad, like the Topaz SignatureGem (available from resellers such as Computime) which is the subject of this article.

You've probably used a digital signature pad when checking out at a department store. Signatures collected from a digital signature pad are superior in many ways to paper signatures. Not only does the pad capture the signature itself, it also captures how the signature was made by tracking variables such as pressure and pen angle. That offers additional assurance.

For those who want to peak ahead, I recorded a Topaz Signing Pad Demo Movie.

More info, after the break . . .

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June 21, 2009

New Training Movies Posted - Search and Touchup Text

If you haven't tried clicking on the HUGE movie button on my full blog page, then you are missing out on some free Acrobat training.

These short movies play back via Adobe Flash and are only one to five minutes in length.

Today, I posted four new training movies:

• Find and Search: Understanding the differences
  Simple Find commands and full Search offer different capabilities. See how to search multiple PDF files
  
• Creating a Full-Text Index for faster searching
  Learn how to create a ful-text index to search across many PDFs in multiple directories
  
• Accelerating Search in a PDF Portfolio for faster searching
  Create a full-text index which "lives" inside a PDF Portfolio to accelerate search
• Making Edits to PDFs with the Touchup Text Tool
  Change text on both PDF Normal (e.g. converted from an electronic source) and Scanned PDF document

If you are interested, you can learn a bit about my process for creating the movies using Adobe Captivate in my full article.

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June 11, 2009

Can I change the number of digits when I Bates Number?

Acrobat 8 introduced Bates Numbering and and additional features and performance enhancements were made in Acrobat 9 Pro.

Last week, I got this e-mail message from a paralegal:

I don't like Adobe's mandatory 6 digit bate stamp. Why did they do that? I like to bate stamp with just single digits. It is more simple that way.

You might be aware that the custom is to Bates stamp discovery documents using six digits including leading zeros. However, that might not meet the needs of everyone. Some folks like to use four digits and others, like my most recent emailer above, wanted to use just one.

You might assume that Acrobat requires you to use a minimum of six digits for Bates numbering.

In fact, if when you Bates stamp (Advanced—> Document Processing Bates Numbering—> Add . . . ) and insert a Bates stamp you cannot change the number of leading digits through the standard dialog:

Actually, let me take that back. You can try, but Acrobat will give you an error:

Fortunately, there is an easy workaround that allows you to Bates Number with only one digit. Read on to learn how. Along the way, you will also learn all you need to use Bates Numbering in Acrobat..

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June 6, 2009

Six free Acrobat eSeminars in June and July

My colleague Mark Middleton and I are hitting the interwebz to do six free, education eSeminars on various feature areas of Acrobat 9 including digital signatures, security, forms, collaboration and PDF portfolios.

• These 1-hour online events are absolutely free
• All Sessions run  1-2 EDT / 12-1 CDT / 11-12 MDT / 10-11 PDT

During these events, you'll have the opportunity to ask questions via our chat pod.

I've included a summary of all of the events below and you can register for all of them (at once) using the link below.

Register for the Acrobat eSeminars

Here's the list of free eSeminars:

I've included a description of each eSeminar in the full article.

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June 3, 2009

Scanner Review: Fujitsu fi-6140

One of the nice things about working for Adobe is that occasionally nice things show up on my doorstep.

That was the case a few months ago when a Fujitsu fi-6140 scanner arrived. My test of this scanner was delayed as I waited for my new laptop to arrive . . . apologies!

Fujitsu fi-6140 scanner on my messy desk.

Fujitsu offers an entire line of scanners from inexpensive personal scanners to heavy-duty departmental scanners. Many of their scanner offerings include Adobe Acrobat, too!

The Fujitsu fi-6140 is department-level scanner that is rated to scan 60, double-sided black and white pages per minute at 200 dpi and 40, double-sided color pages at 300 dpi. This kind of performance is about three times what you'll find in a personal scanner.

The price is also about three times more:

• The Fujitsu fi-6140 is about $1580 (CDW)
• ScanSnap S1500 is a bit under $500 (CDW)

For a small firm that doesn't do a lot of scanning, the Fujitsu fi-6140 might be overkill. However, if you have a lot of documents to scan, or difficult document types, this scanner has many benefits:

1. TWAIN Interface
   Unlike the ScanSnap personal scanners, Fujitsu's business scanners can interface to any software such as Acrobat. (You can't scan inside of Acrobat using the ScanSnap, which is an annoyance).
2. Scanning Options
   The fi-6140 TWAIN driver offers sophisticated imaging tools such as edge cleanup, hole removal, document numbering, etc. You can even have the scanner automatically scan the front of pages at one resolution and the back in another.
3. Paper Handling
   The fi-6140 capably handles thick card stock and other tough to scan documents. I scanned a stack of credit cards and it worked fine!
4. Speed
   The fi-6140 is fast, really fast. If you scan large stacks of paper frequently, you will benefit the most.
5. Software Bundle
   In addition to Acrobat, the fi-6140 includes full versions of professional-level software such as Kofax VRS Professional and Fujitsu ScandAll Pro.
6. Long Duty Cycle

In the rest of the article, you can read more about my overall impression of the Fujitsu fi-6140. In this review, I'll cover how to use this scanner with Acrobat and access some extended functions.

Spoiler alert: I liked it! Read on . . .

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May 13, 2009

Add Dynamic Exhibit Stamps in Acrobat using a free stamp set

Exhibits are documents attached to pleadings or contracts which are referenced by the main document.

Exhibits generally are numbered (1, 2, 3) or lettered (A, B, C) consecutively in the order they are first encountered in the body of the referencing document (brief, contract, etc.).

In order to easily tell one exhibit from another, case documents are often stamped with an easy-to-see exhibit stamp:
.

Since PDF is the defacto (or often mandated) eFiling standard, it didn't come as a surprise that I've received a few emails on this exhibit stamping PDFs over the last couple of years.

I've written previously about creating custom stamps, but an Exhibit Stamp has both a static graphic element and a changing numeric or alphabetic element. I have proposed a workaround using watermarks and the typewriter tool to some firms, but that still was a lot of work.

Only recently have I come across an elegant solution that can accomplish both steps with a click! When you stamp the document, Acrobat will ask you for the exhibit number, then stamp it on the document:

Read the full article to download a special stamp set that does the work for you.

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May 5, 2009

Better PDF OCR. ClearScan is smaller, looks better

Optical Character Recognition (OCR) converts scanned paper documents into searchable PDF documents. This technology has been available in Acrobat for about ten years.

While OCR accuracy and language support have improved over the years, the  default OCR "flavor"— Searchable Image— was the only useful choice.

Searchable Image retains the underlying scanned image and adds an invisible layer of text on top which may be selected:

Searchable Image OCR has some shortcomings:

1. File Size
   For 300 dpi black and white scans, a typical file size is 15-40K per page. Scanning at higher resolutions (600 dpi Vs. 300 dpi) increases file size about three to four times.
2. Print Speed
   Because of the image-heavy content, searchable image PDFs can take a long time to print.
3. Visual Quality
   At 300 dpi, scanned documents are easily distinguishable in quality from computer-generated files.

In Acrobat 9, Adobe engineers added a new flavor of OCR called ClearScan. ClearScan offers improved text quality with a decrease in file size:

I've recently completed some benchmarking which shows dramatic file size decreases and quality gains. Read on to learn about size comparisons, how to use ClearScan OCR and a bit more about how it all works.

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April 6, 2009

Exporting a PDF to Excel

I received this email from a paralegal at a large law firm recently:

Help! An attorney has asked me to convert PDFs we received in discovery to Excel. The PDFs are tabular in nature (probably originated in Excel). Some are scanned in from paper and others appear to be converted electronically. How do I do this?

Fortunately, Acrobat 9.1 offers a couple of different ways to export to Excel.

1. Select table and open in Excel
   This allows you to select a portion of a page and open it in Excel.
   - Works best when you only need small part of the table
   - Better results if the file didn't originate from a spreadsheet
2. Export as Tables in Excel
   This method uses some artificial intelligence to convert multiple page PDF documents to multiple worksheets in an XML-based spreadsheet file. It works best on files which were converted directly from Excel to PDF.

Acrobat generally will usually do a pretty good job converting the text, but formatting and column widths will look different than the original. Acrobat only copies over the text. Formulas will not convert. Do not expect 100% fidelity.

In the full article, you'll receive my usual step-by-step instructions.

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April 3, 2009

Rick's Slides from the ABA Techshow, Some new movies

Last year, over one hundred people attended my "Acrobat for Legal Professionals" track at the ABA Techshow.

I think all of them came up to me afterwards and asked for a copy of my slides!

To stay ahead of the game, I'm posting them here, in advance.

The slides include some tips for getting to many Acrobat features including Bates Numbering, Redaction, etc.

And, for everyone, I posted three new movies on my all new Movie Page:

• Creating a Custom Stamp
• Understanding and Working with Comments
• Exporting a PDF to Excel

The link to the slides is in the full article.

Enjoy!

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March 30, 2009

Batch Conversion of Excel to PDF

I recently received the following inquiries below from customers::

I have several hundred Excel files to convert to PDF as part of a case. Is there a way to do this in Acrobat? A lot of the files have multiple worksheets, too. Do I have to convert each worksheet separately?

So Yes and No. Yes, Acrobat can convert multiple Excel files to PDF. And, No, you don't have to convert each worksheet separately!

Converting Multiple Worksheets

Fortunately, Acrobat 9 can easily convert all of the worksheets in your Excel files to PDF:

When you use the PDF Maker in Acrobat 9, you have some additional options to select just the worksheets needed:

A) Choose options to convert all worksheets, the currently selected worksheet or a subset of the worksheets.

B) To choose some worksheets, but not others, select from the list on the left and use the Add or Remove buttons to move them to the list on the right.

C) Click the Convert to PDF button to complete the process

The result is a nicely bookmarked PDF that looks like this:

What about batch conversion?

If you want to convert many Excel documents in batch to PDF, there are a few additional tricks involved. Read on learn how in the rest of the article.

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March 25, 2009

Acrobat Deployment Tips, Links and Techniques

Adobe recently released security updates to Acrobat and Adobe Reader 7, 8 and 9.

Large law firms and corporations centrally distribute software to users on the Windows platform.

In this article, I'll discuss the tools and techniques that are available to help IT personnel deploy and update versions of Acrobat 7, 8 and 9, including the free Adobe Reader.

First, I'll show you where you can download the apps and our tools for deployment. In the full article, I'll discuss how to "chain" installs, expand Adobe Reader, and use the Adobe Customization Wizard to streamline installation.

Get the Updates and the Deployment Tools

Various updates are available depending on the version of Acrobat and/or Reader you have installed. To make it easier to customize Acrobat, Adobe offers installation tools which help you remove earlier versions of Acrobat, serialize the product, and set a wide variety of program options.

The links below are for Windows versions. Mac Acrobat users can find updates here.

Adobe generally does not issue complete, new packages for dot releases, so it's important to properly "chain" these installs. I'll also discuss how to expand the Adobe Reader to make it installable, and discuss the Acrobat Customization Wizard and other resources available. Read on for this information.

NOTE: If you receive my blog via email, make sure you click on the article title to read it on my blog.

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March 17, 2009

Acrobat 9.1 is Available

Last week, Adobe released updates to Reader 9 and Acrobat 9.

If you are using Acrobat or Reader 9, I recommend that you upgrade. The 9.1 update includes performance fixes, stability improvements and also addresses security vulnerabilities.

To update, choose Help> Check for Updates or download the patch  and apply separately.

The links:

Acrobat Standard and Pro 9.1 Update (Windows)

Acrobat Pro Extended 9.1 Update (Windows)

Acrobat 9 Pro 9.1 Update (Macintosh):

Acrobat 9.1 Release Notes (All platforms)

Read on for my evaluation of the improvements and fixes for he legal market.

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March 9, 2009

Slides for March 9 & 10 Events

The effervescent Mark Middleton and yours truly will be presenting two identical seminars over the next couple of days, so I've posted the slides for these events here.

The event (s) is named Acrobat 9: Save Time, Meet Deadlines, although the slides title is a bit different.

The slides do have some useful information including our speaker notes and include:

• Top new features of Acrobat 9
• Pricing
• Differences between the various versions of Acrobat such as Reader, Standard, Pro and Pro Extended

Enjoy!

Click the full story to get them. If you're receiving my blog via email, then make sure to click the story title to launch the article in your browser.

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February 26, 2009

Materials for Electronic Closing Binders using Acrobat 9 eSeminar

If you attended my Electronic Closing Binders eSeminar, you're in the right place! Here are all the materials you seek . . .

Traditionally, at the end of a transaction such as a real estate closing, we would present our client with a binder stuffed full of all of the documents associated with the deal. These “old school” binders were time-consuming to create and costly to distribute. Creating an electronic closing binder in PDF is a far “greener” alternative that saves time and enhances client satisfaction.

You can download my complete guide and a set of slides in the complete article.

I created a 36-page guide Creating Electronic Closing Binders using Acrobat 9. This document should give you everything you need to create great closing binders.

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February 19, 2009

Materials for Acrobat 9 Legal Forms Seminar

We're doing an Acrobat 9 Legal Forms eSeminar today, so I thought I would pre-load the materials so you can follow the bouncing ball.

I think I really dated myself with that reference!

I'll post a link to the recording soon, but the forms seminar on my Movie Page is almost identical.

Downloads from the Event

1. Presentation
2. Acrobat Form Elements Sample
3. LiveCycle Designer Dynamic Form (completed version)
4. LiveCycle Designer Dynamic Form (starting version)
5. Brief Demo Script for LiveCycle Designer (use with #4)

You'll find all of these materials in the complete article.

Note: If you get my blog via email, make sure you click on the title of the article to go directly to my blog.

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February 12, 2009

Acrobat Legal Training Movies (2/12/09 Update)

Here's an update to my movie page. Added:

1-hour Redaction and Metadata Removal eSeminar
Using the Typewriter tool to type on a PDF

Get up to speed on legal features of Acrobat fast!

Go the complete article for a list of about thirty additional how-to movies and eSeminar recordings.

Get this via email?
Make sure you click on the article title to go to my blog . . .

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