Acrobat for Legal Professionals

Just a bit over three years ago, I sat in the audience of my first legal technology conference.

At the time, I remember feeling a bit overwhelmed with the industry terminology and workflow despite my eighteen plus years of experience in the software industry.

At this event and others, I was able to meet many legal technology speakers who were very helpful in bringing me up to speed.

Craig Ball, Esq., veteran speaker and expert in electronic discovery, was one of the first on the circuit that welcomed me. We had an opportunity to talk about the legal market and Acrobat.  I always look forward to seeing him at legal trade shows around the country.

The very first time I met Craig, he discussed how he used Acrobat to present information and shared a frustration with the product.

“I can’t just place an image into a PDF. Why not?”

In Acrobat 6 and 7, there was a multi-step process to create a stamp and place an image, but that was a lot of work.

In Acrobat 8 Pro and up, placing an image is much easier. Craig . . . this one’s for you!

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Note: The Typewriter tool was completely re-written in Acrobat 9. I recommend all users upgrade if you depend heavily on the Typewriter tool. In Acrobat 9 and up, users can also set the font, size, and color of Typewriter text.

File this in the category of  “we’re not perfect.”

Sometimes, the Acrobat 7 (and up) Typewriter tool will change opacity (transparency) from black to a light gray. I’ve seen this bug myself and have heard from a few folks via this blog that they’ve seen it too.

Read on for some a possible fix.

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Many of us have rubber stamps in our office. Perhaps you mark incoming documents as “Received” or invoices as “Paid”. Some attorneys have signature stamps. Stamps are useful because they quickly tell us status information about a document.

You can bring stamps into the digital realm by creating custom stamps in Acrobat Standard or Professional. Then, you can stamp away on any PDF.

Stamps help add impact to your digital communications.

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Note: Acrobat 8 and up use a consolidated commenting toolbar. You no longer need to open a separate toolbar as mentioned in this post.

Problem: You have tons of medical records to review which contain signatures and handwritten notes.

Acrobat’s commenting tools may bark at you when you try to use the highlighter and other tools.

What to do?

One of the not-too-obvious features of Acrobat is the ability to add notes and comments to documents that have not been OCR’d.

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Forms offer a standardized way to collect information, but very few folks take the time to create them properly using Acrobat form tools.

Have you ever received — via email or snail mail– a field-less form to fill in? What a pain it is to drag out an old-fashioned typewriter to do this. Then, you have to scan the form back in and email it. Yechh!

But, there’s hope!

With the Acrobat 7.05 update, Adobe introduced a new tool for users of both Acrobat Standard and Professional—the Typewriter tool.

Update: Enhanced Typewriter tool in Acrobat 9.
The Typewriter tool was enhanced in Acrobat 9 and allows you to set font, size and color.

Where is the Typewriter tool in Acrobat X?
Acrobat X also offers the Typewriter tool. You’ll find it in the Content Panel and it is labeled “Add or Edit Text Box”:

The Typewriter tool provides a simple solution for filling out forms that do not contain interactive form fields. You can type on top of any PDF document, even one you created from a scanner. This allows you to easily fill out paper forms on your computer and archive the results electronically, or send the completed form via email.

I showed this new feature at a paralegal conference not long ago and a lady came up after my talk and hugged me!

Read on to learn how to obtain and use the Typewriter tool.

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