by Brett Burney

“Mac Attack” at the Georgia ICLE Technology Conference, Feb. 24

I’m honored to be speaking at the Georgie ICLE Technology Show and Tell on February 24, 2011. I’ll be giving one session on “e-discovery trends” and a second session devoted to Macs entitled “Mac Attack: Should Your Firm Move To A Mac Environment?”

"Mac Attack" at the Georgie ICLE Technology Show and Tell February 24, 2011

I’m honored to be speaking at the Georgie ICLE Technology Show and Tell on February 24, 2011. I’ll be giving one session on “e-discovery trends” and a second session devoted to Macs entitled “Mac Attack: Should Your Firm Move To A Mac Environment?”
Now obviously, if you already use Macs in your practice, this may not be all that interesting, although I promise a few nuggets that will make it worth your while.

But if you’ve been contemplating the possibility of moving your practice to Macs away from Windows, this will be an hour well-spent as I’ll cover the differences, the pros & cons, and generally discuss the practicalities of moving to the Mac.

There’s a whole day of great stuff at the Technology Show and Tell and it’s very affordable! Make sure you come by and say hello!

by Brett Burney

Clicking A Button With Your Spacebar

It’s the little things that can make a big difference. When a dialog box pops up asking me to click a button (such as Cancel, Ok, Save, etc.) I hate having to take my hands OFF the keyboard, move over to the mouse or trackpad, move the cursor to the right place, and then finally click the button.

Clicking a button with a spacebar

It’s the little things that can make a big difference. When a dialog box pops up asking me to click a button (such as Cancel, Ok, Save, etc.) I hate having to take my hands OFF the keyboard, move over to the mouse or trackpad, move the cursor to the right place, and then finally click the button.

I know, it’s a small thing, but even just taking that 1 or 2 seconds to perform that action gets annoying if you have to do it 40 or 50 times a day.

In the Windows world, you can use the Tab key to circulate through the different buttons, and when the right one is highlighted, you can hit the Enter key to “select” or “click” the button.

It really annoyed me that this wasn’t a default in Mac OS X, but I was happy to find a fix hidden in the Keyboard Shortcut Pref Pane.

Go to Systems Preferences > Keyboard > and select the Keyboard Shortcuts tab. Down at the bottom under “Full Keyboard Access” you select “All controls.”

Keyboard shortcuts

Once you make that change, you can now use the Tab key to switch the “focus” to another button in the dialog box. The main difference from the Windows world is that you don’t use the Enter/Return key to “click” the button – that will “click” whatever default selection has been programmed into the dialog box, which is usually in the blue color.

Instead, the button with the “focus” will be ENCIRCLED in a blue color, and you’ll need to hit the SPACEBAR to actually “click” that button.

Document save dialog box for Mac OS X

So in the example above, the “Save” button is the default selection, and hitting Enter/Return will automatically “click” that button, even without the use of the Tab key.

The “Don’t Save” button is encircled in blue, and I could use the Tab key to place the “focus” on “Cancel.”

If I hit the spacebar now, I will click the “Don’t Save” button. Or I could hit Tab to shift the focus to “Cance” and then hit the spacebar to click “Cancel.”

I haven’t found this to cause any problems or conflicts with anything else in Mac OS X, and I think it’s a great setting to change to shave off those extra seconds during the day. You will use this more than you think!!

by Brett Burney

What Do I Use To Open A PDF On A Mac?

This may seem like a silly question, but PDFs are indispensable to the practice of law and so it’s important to consider the software you use to open and interact with PDF files.

Adobe PDF Logo for opening PDF files on a MacThis may seem like a silly question, but PDFs are indispensable to the practice of law so this is an important consideration.

As I wrote in my review of Adobe Acrobat 9 for Law.com, PDF has become the lingua franca of legal documents – it is the standard for electronic filing, scanned documents, digital signatures, form distribution and much more. This means lawyers and legal professionals have to open and read a LOT of PDF files every day.

Opening & reading a PDF

About 90% of the time, all we need to do is open and read a PDF – we don’t need to highlight or annotate anything, create bookmarks, or do anything else except just read the content.

So 90% of the time, I’m opening PDFs in Preview, the excellent image viewer that’s built into Mac OS X.

Preview is truly a hidden gem that’s built into Mac OS X. It’s fast, functional and free, and it was designed by Apple to work within the Mac OS. It’s the default viewer for image files such as JPG or TIFF, as well as PDFs. That means out of the box, your Mac will open Preview when you double-click a PDF file.

I choose to leave Preview as my default PDF viewer, even though I have both PDFpen and Adobe Acrobat on my system. I leave Preview as my default PDF viewer because it’s fast and performs admirably when I simply need to open and read a PDF.

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by Brett Burney

Another Story About Why You Should Set Up The “Find My iPhone” Service For Your iPhone & iPad

A few weeks ago I had someone share a “Find My iPhone” story with me in response to my post on why every lawyer should set this up on their iPhone or iPad. It was so good I had to share it in another attempt to convince everyone why it’s imperative to set this up as soon as possible.

A few weeks ago I had someone share a “Find My iPhone” story with me in response to my post on why every lawyer should set this up on their iPhone or iPad.

It was so good I had to share it in another attempt to convince everyone why it’s imperative to set this up as soon as possible.

This person was involved in a car accident which totaled the car, but fortunately the individual was relatively un-harmed after an ambulance trip to the ER.

In these moments, items like the iPhone rightfully become a secondary concern, and this individual’s iPhone was left in the car while they were getting checked out at the hospital.

But fortunately, they had enabled the “Find My iPhone” service so that when they got home that night, they logged on to www.me.com/find and located the phone. The map reported that the iPhone was located on the lot where the car had been towed. And since they had not yet programmed a Passcode on the iPhone, they were able to lock the phone and set a Passcode – all this from the comfort of their home computer.

The next day they visited the car lot to retrieve their personal belongings from the car, including the iPhone. The only problem is that they couldn’t locate the iPhone. They went back to the front office and asked if anyone had seen the iPhone. The lady said they didn’t have it. Even when it was pointed out that the iPhone had GPS inside, the lady was adamant they didn’t have the iPhone.

Leaving the front office, the individual called a friend who used a computer to visit www.me.com/find and verified that the iPhone was still in the same spot on the lot. They then turned on the iPhone’s alarm which emitted a loud, high-pitched tone.

Returning to the wrecked car, they could hear the alarm, but still had trouble locating the iPhone. Finally, they found it hiding between the dashboard and the windshield, which had been busted outward.

it’s possible that this individual could have located the iPhone without the use of the Find My iPhone service, but it would certainly have been much more difficult. The GPS alone is so useful because you know where the iPhone is located! At the very worst, this individual could have completely wiped the iPhone from their computer to ensure that confidential information was not compromised.

The odds are stacked against you – you WILL lose your iPhone or iPad at some point in your career. Don’t be one of those people who WISHED they would have turned on the “Find My iPhone” service, especially since it’s now FREE!!!

by Brett Burney

Get ‘Em Now! iPhone & iPad Apps On Sale for Christmas!

I received quite a number of hits when I posted about iPhone and iPad Apps on sale during Black Friday, so you guys are obviously interested in finding deals on iOS Apps. Here are some deals for Christmas!

iPhone and iPad Apps on Sale for ChristmasI received quite a number of hits when I posted about iPhone and iPad Apps on sale during Black Friday, so you guys are obviously interested in finding deals on iOS Apps.

Well, you’re in luck because there are some mega-sales going on right now in the App Store.

First, ’tis the season and a lot of developers are feelin’ the spirit.

Second, there’s a “price freeze” that went into effect yesterday (Dec. 23) on the App Store for the holidays, and I presume as Apple gears up for the Mac App Store coming on line in two weeks.

I love finding App deals myself, and since I KNOW there will be a profusion of iPads under the trees this year, I’ll be updating this page as I find more sales to share. So keep checking back!

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by Brett Burney

Make Your iPhone & iPad Surf the Web Like It’s Internet Explorer or Firefox

Last week during my “iPractice on an iPad” session at the Ohio State Bar Association’s Legal Technology Conference, I was proclaiming how the iPad can be useful to pull up information from the web when you’re out of the office. One gentleman asked about certain web sites that require you to use Internet Explorer or Firefox to navigate their site.

Last week during my “iPractice on an iPad” session at the Ohio State Bar Association’s Legal Technology Conference, I was proclaiming how the iPad can be useful to pull up information from the web when you’re out of the office.

One gentleman asked about certain web sites that require you to use Internet Explorer or Firefox to navigate their site. His specific example was the Ohio Bureau of Worker’s Compensation at www.ohiobwc.com. He regularly visited the site to access claim documents for clients, which were usually PDF files. When you visit this site from Safari on a Mac, or Mobile Safari on an iPhone or iPad, you get a message that says “your Internet browser is not compatible with this site.”

Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation homepage

It’s hard to tell how common this is, but it’s extremely frustrating when you run your practice from a Mac. I see it commonly on sites from government-type agencies (e.g. municipal sites, law enforcement, court sites, etc.).

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by Brett Burney

Macs & iPads at the Ohio State Bar Association Legal Technology Conference

I was thrilled to present the “Mac Track” at the Ohio State Bar Association Legal Technology Conference last week. I’ve been honored to be invited to speak at the conference for the past five years, but it’s only been the last three years where I’ve been asked to speak on Macs.

Ohio State Bar Association Legal Technology Conference Mac Track

I was thrilled to present the “Mac Track” at the Ohio State Bar Association Legal Technology Conference last week. I’ve been honored to be invited to speak at the conference for the past five years, but it’s only been the last three years where I’ve been asked to speak on Macs.

Three years ago at the Conference, I did one session on Macs. This year, I did three.

Three years ago, there were about 10-12 folks in the room for that single Mac session. This year, the room was full with about 25 folks, while the iPad session was packed with 40-45.

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by Brett Burney

Mac Training from the ABA Legal Technology Resource Center

If you’re an ABA member and you’re not taking advantage of the Legal Technology Resource Center (easy to remember at www.lawtechnology.org), you’re missing a lot. I’ve long been a fan of the Legal Technology Resource Center (LTRC).

ABA Legal Technology Resource Center for Mac Training Session

If you’re an ABA member and you’re not taking advantage of the Legal Technology Resource Center (easy to remember at www.lawtechnology.org), you’re missing a lot.

I’ve long been a fan of the Legal Technology Resource Center (LTRC), even when David Whelan was at the helm. Catherine Sanders Reach took over from David several years ago and the Center has continued to produce top-notch articles & blogs & webinars & surveys (see the just released 2010 Legal Technology Survey Report).

And it keeps getting better. Catherine’s staff amazes me with the amount of helpful information they consistently pump out, all on top of being an “on-call” resource for any ABA member that has tech questions.

ABA Legal Technology Resource Center TechEZ Training Library for Mac SessionsOne of their many resources is the TechEZ Training Library where the LTRC posts recordings of their live training events. A lot of the sessions on their page are applicable to both Windows and Mac users, but they actually offer two sessions (so far) that are specifically geared to Mac users.

LTRC staff member Josh Poje is a Mac-fan and has recorded the two Mac-focused sessions entitled:

Mac Users: Boost Productivity with Spaces (10mins)

Mac: Introducing Mac OS X’s Built-In PDF Tools (13mins)

You need to be an ABA member to access this fantastic resource, but it’s worth it.

The LTRC just recently released two more training sessions entitled “Trust Accounting Simplified with Clio” (hosted by Clio co-founder Jack Newton) and “Gathering information online with Google Docs Forms.” Both of these recordings are absolutely applicable to Mac users, and they’re great.

I highly recommend you check out the LTRC’s website and definitely take the few minutes required to view their TechEZ Training Library.

by Brett Burney

Why Rocket Matter’s Integration with Dropbox is Significant

A few days ago Rocket Matter announced their integration with Dropbox and I wanted to share a few thoughts as to why this is significant. I talked with Larry Port and Ariel Jatib of Rocket Matter about why Dropbox integration was important to their SaaS-based practice management service

Rocket Matter Logo for Dropbox IntegrationA few days ago Rocket Matter announced their integration with Dropbox and I wanted to share a few thoughts as to why this is significant.

I talked with Larry Port and Ariel Jatib of Rocket Matter about why Dropbox integration was important to their SaaS-based practice management service. Larry echoed the same story he wrote in his guest post on The Mac Lawyer blog in that the initial request came from conversations at the 2010 ABA TECHSHOW (kind of a good reason to consider attending TECHSHOW 2011 next April! … as a disclaimer I currently serve on the TECHSHOW Planning Board and lead the “Mac Track”).

Rocket Matter’s decision to integrate Dropbox was also heavily confirmed this past November at MILOfest where “Dropbox” was the word-of-the-day at the conference.

What makes Dropbox so special?

I’m a big fan of Dropbox. I also like SugarSync, Live Mesh, and a host of other similar services, but Dropbox is just so simple to set up and use that I find myself recommending it to everyone. At the very least, I tell folks just sign up for the free 2GB account so it’s available for easy file sharing and provides another layer for backup and access (you can use my Dropbox referral link to get an extra 250MB extra for free).

Dropbox Box Logo for integration with Rocket MatterDropbox is a “cloud” service, but when I talk about Dropbox with clients I don’t start in the clouds. In fact, I completely ignore the cloud aspect at first because Dropbox works with a LOCAL FOLDER on your computer. That LOCAL FOLDER is no different than your ~/Documents folder or any other local folder on your Mac. The only difference is that the Dropbox LOCAL FOLDER is constantly “backed-up” to the cloud. And if you have multiple computers (e.g. office/home, work/personal, etc.) that same LOCAL FOLDER can be synchronized on every machine.

Dropbox is a cloud service, just like Rocket Matter, but Dropbox works with a LOCAL FOLDER on your machine. So using the Dropbox LOCAL FOLDER to store your documents is no different than using your local ~/Documents folder to store your documents. If you’re not connected to the Internet, you’ll still have access to your files stored in the Dropbox LOCAL FOLDER.

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by Brett Burney

Mac Track at the Ohio State Bar Legal Technology Conference

I’m thrilled to be speaking on Macs, iPhones and iPads at the Ohio State Bar Technology Conference next week. My thanks to the fine folks at the OSBA and Affinity Consulting for the invitation. My session include “Macs in the Law Office,” “iPractice on an iPad,” and more

Ohio State Bar Association Legal Technology Conference Mac Track

I’m thrilled to be speaking on Macs, iPhones and iPads at the Ohio State Bar Technology Conference next week. My thanks to the fine folks at the OSBA and Affinity Consulting for the invitation.

Ohio State Bar Association Legal Technology Mac Track SessionsMy session include:

Macs in the Law Office

Mac: 60 Tips in 60 Minutes

iPractice on an iPad

I’ll also be speaking on cloud computing.

You can download the conference brochure from here. It’s a stellar conference packed with my friends from Affinity Consulting (Paul, Barron, & Debbie) and Sensei Enterprises, Inc. (Sharon & John).