tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-72251878394059969472024-03-05T03:09:58.386-05:00Lawyer PDFPractical and useful advice for lawyers or anyone working with PDF documents. Bill Lipnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01082262485259162610noreply@blogger.comBlogger36125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7225187839405996947.post-72961778137754142762017-02-27T13:13:00.000-05:002017-02-27T13:13:33.378-05:00Annotating a PDF - Don't Forget Security<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
In case you are doing this - <b>sending a PDF without any sort of security</b> applied, is .. well... risky. <br />
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A common task these days, is to 'edit' PDF content - often by highlighting, adding comment balloons, adding strike-through, or text. These edits are added to a "layer" in the PDF.<br />
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If you simply send an edited PDF to a recipient, they can change or delete these edits if they have use of a PDF editing solution like Adobe Acrobat or pdfDocs. Thus, you run the risk of the recipient making unwanted changes to your edits.<br />
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<b>The solution to prevent unwanted editing is quite simple </b>- apply security. In the example of Adobe Acrobat, (a) open your PDF in Adobe Acrobat, and go to Tools / Protection. Choose Encrypt and use the password option. Once you confirm you wish to change security in this PDF, you will be presented with a screen offering a range of security options. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYXPfr4ZWRO1ZPdUQxs47jhY63316fGRsHIFwdP3RwjURygDwZkppmvlyQVwcM3At7_xwB-4WUzeL54Lg8718yUtciz5Db206Cf_Tn8SvIzNM9TrEXaVXyLvmecrly-_QW04GhP52QREqK/s1600/Set-Security-Acrobat.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="255" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYXPfr4ZWRO1ZPdUQxs47jhY63316fGRsHIFwdP3RwjURygDwZkppmvlyQVwcM3At7_xwB-4WUzeL54Lg8718yUtciz5Db206Cf_Tn8SvIzNM9TrEXaVXyLvmecrly-_QW04GhP52QREqK/s400/Set-Security-Acrobat.png" width="400" /></a>In the security settings, notice the "Permissions" section of this dialog. You are able to (a) disable printing and (b) also / separately / permit functions ranging from NONE (cannot change ANY content in the PDF), to options to manipulate pages, fill in form fields, add comments - and the option to make any changes but not extract pages. <br />
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Under the "Encrypt" / Manage option you will also find an option to create security templates which can be applied with a single click. This can be a very convenient way for users to access multiple levels of security - and apply the appropriate level with 1 click.<br />
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Use security - its quick, simple, and pretty bullet-proof. Its also the only way to assure your content remains as intended.<br />
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Bill Lipnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01082262485259162610noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7225187839405996947.post-23987384894420635652015-07-12T08:25:00.000-04:002015-07-12T08:35:49.927-04:00Why lawyers love paper<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I have - for a long time now - been confounded by the lack of adoption by attorneys when it comes to the 'paperless office'. There are some great tools available - which are improving all the time which make the paperless office entirely possible. So its not for a lack of good technology.<br />
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Adoption is the key to any technology initiative, and efforts to create the paperless office often run into problems when it comes to 'how to read a document'. Lawyers prefer paper to reading on screen. Thanks to Scientific American magazine, I have a new understanding of the issue of paper vs. on-screen reading. <br />
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Turns out - there is a scientific reason for a preference for paper. (<a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/reading-paper-screens/" target="_blank">read the article here</a>). So what's the solution? <br />
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First step - recognize that attorneys will continue reading from paper.<br />
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Next Step: efficiently facilitate creating paper copies of documents. My suggestion: (a) in the context of the paperless office, continue to scan everything and (b) create a way to easily print a 'reading copy' for lawyers to work from. The reading-copy would likely be identified by a footer added to the MS-Word document or PDF document which indicates date-printed, version number of the document, and a notation indicating "Reading Copy - not for filing".<br />
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Are you already doing this? Comments and suggestions welcome!<br />
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Bill Lipnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01082262485259162610noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7225187839405996947.post-90220302141773124982014-09-26T08:48:00.005-04:002014-09-26T09:00:06.652-04:00Shellshock Primmer<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">The Bash Shell bug is here (and its apparently been here for a long while). This bug is not related to MS-Windows devices but does touch a large number of other devices including iOS devices. Here are some recent articles about the bug - and a patch your IT professionals can apply to the appropriate devices.<br />
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<a href="http://www.lawtechnologytoday.org/2014/09/in-brief-the-shellshock-or-bash-bug/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+LawTechnologyTodayOrg+%28Law+Technology+Today%29">What is the Shell Bash bug? </a><p><br />
<a href="https://www.bluehost.com/blog/bluehost/bluehost-update-need-know-shellshock-bug-3747/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=bluehost-update-need-know-shellshock-bug">More on the bug and what it means.</a><p><br />
The folks at Biscom have published advice on a <a href="http://www.biscom.com/blog/bashshellshock-vulnerability-technical-details/"> patch </a> your IT professionals can apply to affected devices. This is not for beginners and is not something you should undertake without the help of an IT professional. <br />
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</div>Bill Lipnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01082262485259162610noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7225187839405996947.post-80926755198131254772014-07-25T07:39:00.003-04:002014-08-06T06:01:50.732-04:00Use email encryption in Outlook<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Do you know how to use the email encryption options in Outlook? Its disarmingly easy and you should be very familiar with these functions. Here's a Microsoft <a href="http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook-help/encrypt-email-messages-HP010355559.aspx" target="_blank">article on the topic</a> - and a screen print which will guide you to the functions available when sending an individual message (you can also turn encryption on for all messages)..<br />
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PLEASE NOTE: You will need a digital ID to enable encryption, which would be <a href="http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook-help/get-a-digital-id-HP010355070.aspx?CTT=5&origin=HP010355563" target="_blank">added to Outlook.</a> Here is a <a href="http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/providers/digital-id-HA001050484.aspx" target="_blank">list created by Microsoft of digital ID providers</a>.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSbFEk-1DQDwHToPfOmzUjKrHntK4tFzGKpQqKEmRczZHWdng5n2FPDT4LVUmsf4JXgAYPJRe7wClDsRwTyx0lnBIYxOdQDig-CR4bQkHO4JGWrznH3Tzoi6-e4O4LyZKuJKko1SpX_DxW/s1600/Turning-on-encryption.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSbFEk-1DQDwHToPfOmzUjKrHntK4tFzGKpQqKEmRczZHWdng5n2FPDT4LVUmsf4JXgAYPJRe7wClDsRwTyx0lnBIYxOdQDig-CR4bQkHO4JGWrznH3Tzoi6-e4O4LyZKuJKko1SpX_DxW/s1600/Turning-on-encryption.png" height="233" width="400" /></a></div>
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Bill Lipnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01082262485259162610noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7225187839405996947.post-3397014297190746562014-02-13T10:01:00.004-05:002014-04-21T08:28:32.601-04:00A Reminder from the NSA<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: large;">A Reminder from the NSA</span><span style="font-size: 20pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Thanks to the NSA, we are reminded of the value of metadata. Metadata is generally defined as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metadata" target="_blank">data about the data</a>. In the context of documents, <b>metadata</b> refers to information stored inside the document file to record details <b>about the document</b>, like date-created, date modified, author-name, number of characters, and – in the case of MS-Word documents, details about the text of the document like tracked-changes. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibDAowrVqauzOTMLWDvDjD6_X4vC4bgLF6tNGOlH2ItOS_h_rX347iOjrZ3LP_kbut3n3wW96Hs9QxyBx-uUaR4X2bkwWvQOBwHuMX65I0S5ASAzq9_yBk36sZ1AmtCEhBOAaz4l0TC74_/s1600/MS-Word+metadata.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibDAowrVqauzOTMLWDvDjD6_X4vC4bgLF6tNGOlH2ItOS_h_rX347iOjrZ3LP_kbut3n3wW96Hs9QxyBx-uUaR4X2bkwWvQOBwHuMX65I0S5ASAzq9_yBk36sZ1AmtCEhBOAaz4l0TC74_/s1600/MS-Word+metadata.png" height="189" width="320" /></span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here is a screenshot of some of the metadata of the very document you are reading – which I am creating in Microsoft Word.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><u>Metadata cleaning tools</u> exist as a way to remove unwanted metadata (yes - some could be “wanted’) so that you can send a document in MS-Word format without the risk of sending metadata and are common on the legal desktop.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shape id="Picture_x0020_3" o:spid="_x0000_s2050"
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o:title=""/> <w:wrap type="tight"/> </v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Metadata cleaning tools often provide the option of converting to PDF format as a way to provide a ‘clean’ document. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And this brings me to the topic of this article.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br />
</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>PDF files also contain metadata.</b></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf4S_b9B7S0T1PxPi0neu7K461Dn-gDoXjEFbMJ25s4CQYq02lPbwsdW7Too-DlgIaoBl7bTs344qyE4sUn7X33xjmAEK-XbcpZioE4Ou8hfFsROLXULL18F201Cu1-tSL4wp401GkizEv/s1600/PDF+metadata.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf4S_b9B7S0T1PxPi0neu7K461Dn-gDoXjEFbMJ25s4CQYq02lPbwsdW7Too-DlgIaoBl7bTs344qyE4sUn7X33xjmAEK-XbcpZioE4Ou8hfFsROLXULL18F201Cu1-tSL4wp401GkizEv/s1600/PDF+metadata.png" height="164" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here is a screenshot of the metadata found in the PDF document I created from my MS-Word document. Notice that some of the metadata in the PDF is carried directly from the MS-Word file to the corresponding metadata field in the PDF. Examples are <b>Author and Comments.</b> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In an ironic twist, here is an<a href="http://www.nsa.gov/ia/_files/app/pdf_risks.pdf" target="_blank"> NSA document</a> – dated July 27, 2008, which discusses the risks of metadata in a PDF document. See Paragraph 4.1 and 4.2 for a good discussion of the risks of metadata in a PDF. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And here are comments from Adobe about metadata: <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://help.adobe.com/en_US/acrobat/X/standard/using/WS58a04a822e3e50102bd615109794195ff-7c63.w.html">http://help.adobe.com/en_US/acrobat/X/standard/using/WS58a04a822e3e50102bd615109794195ff-7c63.w.html</a> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Which brings me to <i>metadata scrubbing tools</i>. These tools have been common in legal practice for the purpose of cleaning outbound MS-Word files. The latest generation of metadata scrubbing tools now <b><i>must include PDF document cleaning</i></b> to provide a truly comprehensive solution. This is especially important since PDF has become the web-document format of choice. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Which brings us to the topic of a future post – <i>mobile document cleaning</i>.</span><br />
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</span> <a href="http://www.docscorp.com/cleandocs/" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHzC8thFVjMi6aNR-MLy4WznL1QbtN4HqsiEO0nBycap4_2SEwQTzENkYu1n3-zt_QYaP3AMSAdaXSZLvOkkhy839SvWxfwKSdeKO0NVsyXsRr5TUndu2jsaPUpEmeWRatNetInIAQ8OVR/s1600/cleanDocs.jpg" height="56" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For a great solution to PDF metadata cleaning, check this out. (PS: tech-tip: cleanDocs preserves PDF/A formatting when cleaning PDF files). Download a free copy here. (<a href="http://www.docscorp.com/cld/" target="_blank">download link</a>). cleanDocs can clean about 23,000 MS-Word pages per minute or about 14,000 PDF pages per minute. Cost: $4.00 per user per month (paid annually).<br />
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</div></div></div>Bill Lipnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01082262485259162610noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7225187839405996947.post-60127656136174977352013-08-19T20:32:00.002-04:002015-02-11T08:54:18.922-05:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="background-color: #e69138; font-size: x-large;">TECH for Attorneys</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #e69138;"><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The American Bar Association recently <a href="http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/lawyers_have_duty_to_stay_current_on_technologys_risks_and_benefits/">amended Model Rule 1.1</a> to <b>require</b> that <i>lawyers stay abreast of technological changes</i>. <a href="http://www.abajournal.com/files/20120808_house_action_compilation_redline_105a-f.pdf" style="border: 0px currentColor; color: #003366; line-height: 16.79px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Click here</a><span style="color: #111111; line-height: 16.79px;"> (PDF) to see all of the amendments added to all of the model rules at this year's annual meeting. A key phrase in the rule is ... '</span></span><span style="color: #111111; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 16.78px;">To maintain the requisite knowledge and skill, a lawyer should keep abreast </span></span><span style="color: #111111; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 16.78px;">of changes in the law and its practice, including the benefits and risks associated with </span><span style="color: #111111; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 16.78px;">relevant technology,'.... </span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #e69138;"><span style="color: #111111; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 16.78px;"><br />
</span></span> <span style="color: #111111; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 16.78px;">Yes indeed - we will be discussing "relevant technology" for a long time to come, but meanwhile... </span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #e69138;"><span style="color: #111111; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 16.78px;"><br />
</span></span> <span style="color: #111111; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small; line-height: 16.78px;">For a complete and thorough glossary of all IT terms you could ever need to know, consult the <b><a href="http://www.gartner.com/it-glossary/" target="_blank">Gartner IT Glossary</a>.</b></span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #e69138;"><span style="color: #111111; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 16.78px;"><br />
</span></span> <span style="color: #111111; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 16.78px;">_</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">_____________________________________________________</span></span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmVGEo209Hc4QCMl9j7R-0SwUnHbGaxxWnOlIHvWnLYoUdQR79I7uT0mUIWbNRplSA0rh9NfeHor117N3amhCmLCgnRapuACX8-x9zSNba7vZI1bB7UqSrJvcaVS4Hy4igxKiji-5HLpZZ/s1600/FunnelBrain.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="background-color: #e69138;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmVGEo209Hc4QCMl9j7R-0SwUnHbGaxxWnOlIHvWnLYoUdQR79I7uT0mUIWbNRplSA0rh9NfeHor117N3amhCmLCgnRapuACX8-x9zSNba7vZI1bB7UqSrJvcaVS4Hy4igxKiji-5HLpZZ/s200/FunnelBrain.jpg" height="200" width="142" /></span></a><span style="background-color: #e69138; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I have started publishing snippets about technology that I believe are relevant to legal practice. These are being published in The Legal Administrator Daily, and extracted to this blog post as they are published. To wit - here is what we have so far:</span><br />
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<ul style="text-align: left;"><li><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://lawyerpdf.blogspot.com/p/what-is-ocr.html" style="background-color: #e69138;">What is OCR</a></b></li>
<li><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://lawyerpdf.blogspot.com/p/what-is-pdf.html" style="background-color: #e69138;">What is PDF</a></b></li>
<li><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://lawyerpdf.blogspot.com/p/what-is-metadata.html" style="background-color: #e69138;">What is Metadata</a></b></li>
<li><b style="background-color: #e69138; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://lawyerpdf.blogspot.com/p/what-is-big-data.html">What is Big Data</a> </b></li>
<li><b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://lawyerpdf.blogspot.com/p/what-is-business-intelligence.html" style="background-color: #e69138;">What is Business Intelligence</a></span></b></li>
<li><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: #e69138; color: #003366;"><a href="http://lawyerpdf.blogspot.com/p/what-is-taxonomy.html">What is Taxonomy</a> </span></b></li>
<li><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #003366;"><a href="http://lawyerpdf.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html" style="background-color: #e69138;">What is SQL</a></span></b></li>
<li><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #003366;"><a href="http://lawyerpdf.blogspot.com/p/what-is-vdi.html" style="background-color: #e69138;">What is VDI</a></span></b></li>
<li><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #003366;"><a href="http://lawyerpdf.blogspot.com/p/what-is-saas.html" style="background-color: #e69138;">What is SAAS</a></span></b></li>
<li><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://lawyerpdf.blogspot.com/p/what-is-private-cloud.html" style="background-color: #e69138;">What is a Private Cloud</a></b></li>
<li><b style="color: #003366; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://lawyerpdf.blogspot.com/p/what-is-iso-27001.html" style="background-color: #e69138;">What is ISO 27001</a></b></li>
<li><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://lawyerpdf.blogspot.com/p/what-is-dpi.html" style="background-color: #e69138;">What is DPI</a></b></li>
<li><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://lawyerpdf.blogspot.com/p/what-is-file-encryption.html" style="background-color: #e69138;">What is File Encryption</a></b></li>
<li><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://lawyerpdf.blogspot.com/p/ios-7-killing-running-app.html" style="background-color: #e69138;">Killing an App in IOS-7</a></b></li>
<li><b style="background-color: #e69138; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://lawyerpdf.blogspot.com/p/apple-ios-7-making-it-talk.html">Make IOS Talk to You</a> </b></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><a href="http://techforattorneys.blogspot.com/p/crm.html" style="background-color: #e69138;" target="_blank">What is CRM</a></b></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><a href="http://lawyerpdf.blogspot.com/p/what-is-digital-signature.html" style="background-color: #e69138;" target="_blank">What is Digital Signature</a></b></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><a href="http://techforattorneys.blogspot.com/p/passwords.html" style="background-color: #e69138;" target="_blank">Creating and Using Passwords</a></b></span></li>
</ul><span style="background-color: #e69138;"><span style="color: orange;"><b><br />
</b></span> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: #b45f06;"><u>Suggest a topic.</u> Have questions or comments? Have a clarification?</span> </b> <a href="mailto:bill.lipner@discoverypartners.biz" target="_blank">EMAIL ME</a>:</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #e69138;"><br />
</span> <span style="background-color: #e69138;"><br />
</span> <span style="background-color: #e69138;"><br />
</span> <span style="background-color: #e69138;"><br />
</span> </div><br />
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<!-- End of StatCounter Code for Shopify -->Bill Lipnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01082262485259162610noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7225187839405996947.post-72874588948843623472013-03-05T14:50:00.002-05:002013-05-29T11:50:24.672-04:00Never Having to Say Goodbye - An Update<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Imagine being able to "tether" a document so that you were notified <u>whenever it was opened</u>, and can <u>lock the document on-demand, set an expiration, or change print, copy, and edit rights <em>while the document is moving around the internet</em></u>. Now imagine this capability were automtically involed every time a user downloaded a file from a particular SharePoint library or any other document management system.<br />
<br />
The folks at <a href="http://indorse-tech.com/sites/default/files/SharePoint%20Data%20Sheet.pdf" target="_blank">Indorse Technology</a> are delivering just such a solution called <strong>Call-Home</strong> which can "tag" your documents for tracking and control. If you are an Adobe maven, these functions may sound remarkably like Adobe Live Cycle (ALC) Server and in fact, InDorse offers a solution that leverages that platform. The great news is that all you need is a way to make PDF files - and you're in business. AND - Indorse offers a web portal for tagging your documents in addition to the SharePoint plug-in and a complete developer's kit. <br />
<br />
Here's how the SharePoint example works: You have a particular SharePoint site which contains highly confidential documents. Lets call it Fort Knox. The Indorse SharePoint plug-in is installed on your SharePoint server and is configured to "tag" PDF files being downloaded from Fort Knox. <br />
<br />
Tagging a PDF file might mean that it will expire on a certain date, or it might mean that you are alerted whenver the file is opened in Adobe Reader. Tagging also means that you can disable access to the PDF file any time you want and create black-list or white-list locations.<br />
<br />
The behavior is seamless to the end user while giving an organization complete command-and-control over documents, even after they've left the firewall. <br />
<br />
Feel free to contact me for details about Indorse solutions. </div>
Bill Lipnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01082262485259162610noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7225187839405996947.post-20525547270869904282012-03-16T22:31:00.006-04:002012-04-04T20:48:35.635-04:00I regret to inform you....<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjc41bXamu5HXxJVUmq1FbQFTmg6pHY0vJ5DUXAY_WXr8ujyhTFyqrH9v0w7rE-AeNLsAN4DM23ckN992-n6NA9oWBbFW65qB0VFpvcRU5nYJ_SoOT2R8_M-e4iOMKm_PzFktGpJkPIn4q/s1600/Adobe+Reader+6+Message.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="325" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjc41bXamu5HXxJVUmq1FbQFTmg6pHY0vJ5DUXAY_WXr8ujyhTFyqrH9v0w7rE-AeNLsAN4DM23ckN992-n6NA9oWBbFW65qB0VFpvcRU5nYJ_SoOT2R8_M-e4iOMKm_PzFktGpJkPIn4q/s400/Adobe+Reader+6+Message.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Adobe Reader 6 Message</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;"><strong>The Problem</strong></span></span><br />
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">You just spent 20 minutes
tracking down the right form, and another 30 minutes carefully filling it out
in Adobe Reader.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You click the “diskette”
icon to save your work, and a message pops up informing you that you can print
your completed form, but cannot <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">save the
data typed into it</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><strong><span style="color: #990000;">Ugg.</span></strong><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span><span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">How
can that be you wonder?!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You just filled
out the Form W-9 and saved it without any problem! <o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In case you hadn’t noticed –
<strong>not all forms are created equal</strong>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This blog discusses working
with PDF forms when using Adobe Reader.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If you own any version of Adobe Acrobat, you can skip this post.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;"><strong>Flavorful Forms:</strong></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In general, forms come in 3
flavors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Flat, Standard, and Rights Enabled. </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">A </span>“flat” form
is typically a scan of a paper form – and has not been enhanced with
fillable fields. If you're using Adobe Reader then your best option is to print-to-paper, fill out, and rescan. </span></span></div>
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The second flavor is a form
which contains form ‘fields’ which allow you to type information into the
field, and easily advance to the next field with the tab key.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’ll call this a standard fillable form and information
<em>can only be saved if you’re working with Adobe Acrobat</em>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you
only have Adobe Reader at your disposal, you may have a problem!<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The third flavor of form is
exactly like the second flavor, except that it has been enhanced to allow you
to save your information when working with Adobe Acrobat or <em>Adobe Reader</em>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> This is called <em><u><strong>rights enabling</strong></u> - and the </em></span><em>only application available to enhance a
form in this manner is Adobe Acrobat</em> . Note that there are no visual cues to distinguish a rights-enabled form except a minor wording change presented in Reader X... </span></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidEffz8fQjqKyYEfwtqMVsN0ZZnkcaVtl4AGicXb4Y6qIgcRbwq1Y43ssbg4aUkqqmS2BYf4R_96Vru77HByuvGjDYFFdlt-iMaRY_17-eH6518nF_11JlxyKeLMoBmmIziX5183HPMwSz/s1600/You+Cannot+Save-MSG.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="78" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidEffz8fQjqKyYEfwtqMVsN0ZZnkcaVtl4AGicXb4Y6qIgcRbwq1Y43ssbg4aUkqqmS2BYf4R_96Vru77HByuvGjDYFFdlt-iMaRY_17-eH6518nF_11JlxyKeLMoBmmIziX5183HPMwSz/s320/You+Cannot+Save-MSG.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">You Cannot Save</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHyH4yintA2nH3JOwmCcyo3LiUa8ktR4Ol-39iZT7Y3xGI183OE4lDzjBoyEWlrlmV-AD89-dBnGKVcqzZU7y2CaE7PmlCMWzU0V0q_2d3wcnrUm7jNgzePPp9Dl8GPPYM1j0fnrJRY8-i/s1600/You+can+Save-MSG.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="87" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHyH4yintA2nH3JOwmCcyo3LiUa8ktR4Ol-39iZT7Y3xGI183OE4lDzjBoyEWlrlmV-AD89-dBnGKVcqzZU7y2CaE7PmlCMWzU0V0q_2d3wcnrUm7jNgzePPp9Dl8GPPYM1j0fnrJRY8-i/s320/You+can+Save-MSG.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">You Can Save</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;"><strong>The Solution</strong></span></span><br />
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The IRS website is full of examples of
rights-enabled forms which are forms that have certain options enabled –<em> like
saving your information when using Adobe Reader</em>. </span></span><span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">If all forms were fillable
and rights-enabled, we would all be happily locating, filling in, and saving
forms with Adobe Reader.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>However, even though
Acrobat 6 saw the first introduction of enabling usage rights for PDF Viewers some years ago, standard
forms still about so operate with caution. <u>#1 - do a "test" 'save before you spend too much time filling in a form. </u> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"></span><span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><u>#2 - check out the Docs Corp </u><a href="http://www.docscorp.com/public/products/publicProductsFormfiller.cfm" target="_blank">formFiller</a><u> solution,</u> which works with Adobe Reader to make it smart enough to<em> allow saving Standard <u>fillable</u> forms</em> as well as
Rights-Enabled fillable forms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> At $49 a copy </span>Its less than a copy of Acrobat and faster than retyping the form as a Word document. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">#3 - if you're working with a flat form, you might consider recreating the form in MS-Word, or investing in a copy of a PDF editing tool so that you can create a standard form which you could then fill and save with the pdfDocs formFiller application. Or buy a copy of Adobe Acrobat so that you can add fields, and then save the form with rights enabled for your other users working with Adobe Reader. </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<br /></div>
</div>Bill Lipnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01082262485259162610noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7225187839405996947.post-26537380190664103982012-01-14T18:06:00.002-05:002012-03-13T16:22:15.404-04:00UPDATE: Federal Court Requirement for PDF-A - ON HOLD<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">LawyerPDF understands that the Office of Court Administration is advising all federal courts that <em>PDF-A format is NOT REQUIRED for filings</em>, <u>until further notice</u> but may still be requested as the filing format. The requirement has been implemented in certain districts (ie:<a href="http://nysd.uscourts.gov/ecf/rules_040411.pdf" target="_blank">Southern District - NY</a>), but documents are not being <strong><em>validated</em></strong> for compliance. I suspect that technical implementation issues are the reason for the postponement. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Please be certain to check with the specific federal court in which you are filing for confirmation.</span> </div>Bill Lipnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01082262485259162610noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7225187839405996947.post-59555272530593635642011-12-22T13:59:00.003-05:002014-11-21T15:59:44.861-05:00Never Having to Say Goodbye<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I was recently discussing a client’s concerns about losing control of a PDF document after they have emailed it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> They fretted about where it might be forwarded and who might see it. </span>The client is very astute about all of the built-in tools available for securing a PDF like passwords and applying no-copy or no-print attributes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But nonetheless, there was a nagging concern about “losing control” of the actual file once its emailed to someone who can then save it to their own system or forward it to anyone else.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I quipped… well, don’t email it if you're concerned about losing control in the ether-web.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My client replied… “You’re on. Show me how!”.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><u>Never Having to Say Goodbye (to your document)</u></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Enter the world of </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_Rights_Management"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;"><span style="color: brown; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Information Rights Management</span></span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> (IRM) or Digital Rights Management (the latter tends to refer to rich media assets like video and audio) – a world where your documents are always under your control.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is accomplished by maintaining the document on a server – so that you are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">never actually sending the document</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The server hosting your document is running software which gives you complete control over access to the document and can restrict functions like, <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- printing (or no printing)</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- printscreen (or no printscreen)<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- saving or not<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- restrict forwarding via email<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- view with watermark to discourage camera capture<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- file expiration on demand or specified date<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><u>How it Works</u></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There are two general approaches to IRM to consider when selecting a solution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first approach might be called “quarantine” and the second might be called “tethering”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>When you quarantine a document, you load the document onto an IRM server which is often doing double-duty as a secure web-meeting-room. </span></span><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Once the document is loaded,, you email web-links instead of emailing the document itself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>The recipient clicks on the link in their email message and can then view or use the document depending on the access level you have provided.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since they don’t have the document, the recipient cannot forward it. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When you tether a document, you load the document onto an IRM server and add a module to your copy of Outlook. You then email a “package” to the recipient – typically a specially configured PDF file.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>The recipient opens the package which is attached to their email, and will be prompted to add a special module to their copy of Adobe Reader.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This module communicates with the IRM server to determine what access level is available to the recipient.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this scenario the document is “tethered” to the IRM server so it is still under control.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In the context of IRM and “native” MS-Office files, Microsoft has continued to improve IRM functionality beginning with </span><a href="http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/about-information-rights-management-HP006220859.aspx"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;"><span style="color: #783f04; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Office 2003</span></span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> and including </span><a href="http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/information-rights-management-in-office-2010-HA010354260.aspx"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Office 10</span></span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I mention this for readers sending Word documents rather than PDF files which is often the case during the edit cycle.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A free option (this is not an endorsement and there are other free options) to consider is FilesAnywhere.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is easy to use which is a real plus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>See a </span><a href="https://www.filesanywhere.com/fs/v.aspx?v=8b6e668f5e6571a8709f"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;"><span style="color: brown; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">sample document</span></span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> quarantined here.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A couple of products to look at:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">-</span><a href="http://www.watchdox.com/"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Watchdox</span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- </span><a href="http://www.fileopen.com/"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">FileOpen</span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- </span><a href="http://www.brainloop.com/"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Brainloop</span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- </span><a href="http://www.4point.com/pdf/91016824_engage_summary_card_ue_v10.pdf"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Adobe Livecycle at 4point.com</span></span></a></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 115%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><u>Happy Holidays</u> </span></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is the last post for 2011.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thank you for your readership, comments, and suggestions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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Bill Lipnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01082262485259162610noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7225187839405996947.post-16019356955766694302011-11-11T12:05:00.001-05:002011-11-11T12:09:21.352-05:00UPDATE: PDF/A-1 1a and 1b - A Difference Without a Distinction<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">In May 2011, I commented that PACER did not discuss the difference between PDF-A 1a and 1b so there seemed to be no preference for either. Since then, PACER has<u><b> <a href="http://www.pacer.gov/documents/cmecf/relnotes/district_5.0.pdf">published detailed instructions</a></b></u> outlining creation of PDF-A 1a format. In addition, some courts are adding this specification.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">A difference without a distinction - may no longer be true. It is now important to determine whether 1a or 1b is the preferred format. Comments are invited regarding specific courts and their exact requirements.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">PS: Here is a very useful <a href="http://acrobatusers.com/auc/content/tutorials/id_29451/PDF-A.html">seminar</a> published on AcrobatUsers.com discussing the differences between PDF-A 1a and 1b.</span>Bill Lipnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01082262485259162610noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7225187839405996947.post-74264021952457153932011-10-31T14:34:00.002-04:002011-11-17T13:55:30.401-05:00What Happens in Electronic Format Stays in Electronic Format<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What Happens in Electronic Format Stays in Electronic Format - think of it as the golden rule of content. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In law firms, perhaps one of the worst (or best?) examples of waste and needless expense is paper-based pre-billing. In this example, we create reams of printed paper for a review-and-comment cycle - and then we (gulp) archive the paper for a while. As a paper-based process, this takes longer and is less accurate than using an electronic format like PDF for pre-billing. And </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I would submit that PDF documents are the ideal way to handle the process. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here’s why:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1) pre-billing data comes from the billing system so its entirely electronic to begin with. If you have information in electronic format, you <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">never</i> need to convert it to paper. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2) a collection of pre-bills can easily be combined or packaged by billing attorney, so you’re sure that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">all</i> prebills are sent to the billing attorney and returned to the billing staff - in one nice neat bundle. Consider adding a check-box on each page of the bundle which the billing attorney would tick to show they’ve reviewed that page. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3) a pre-bill collection in PDF format is searchable. Billing staff and billing attorney now have the convenience of searching for invoice numbers, dates, and words. Imagine the benefit of simply searching to answer the question... "what did we say on the other bill? " </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4) Typical PDF annotation tools are ideal for reviewing any type of content, including pre-bills. I encourage using the commenting tool because comments can quickly be summarized and reviewed by the billing staff when they receive the annotated pre-bill PDF files from the billing attorney. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5) If you’re using Acrobat X, consider using the SENDNOW feature which lets you track the progress of pre-bill review.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">6) With PDF annotation tools for iPad, its now possible to do pre-bill review-and-comment from an iPad (while on the train / plane / cab / subway).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">7) If you’re keen to archive pre-billing for a period of time, its obviously easier to store a record of changes in PDF format than paper.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is just one example of “keeping it electronic” – and there are many more! </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVBGNYMhr409RZN7h-hA5Bl2_b40PYpGmM6qe3kYd_zB3ZnOD5_GxLd7D7cIqlx06eKF_gnrfLUyn9JJzI6duaqjAvteoY_tb8f3zQjhldjOACv21Akqv4bcq-xnNr2PRSIPG9rorTldPx/s1600/smalllaw-800.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="117" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVBGNYMhr409RZN7h-hA5Bl2_b40PYpGmM6qe3kYd_zB3ZnOD5_GxLd7D7cIqlx06eKF_gnrfLUyn9JJzI6duaqjAvteoY_tb8f3zQjhldjOACv21Akqv4bcq-xnNr2PRSIPG9rorTldPx/s320/smalllaw-800.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
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</div>Bill Lipnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01082262485259162610noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7225187839405996947.post-22320714647132265932011-09-02T10:29:00.001-04:002011-09-02T10:42:23.905-04:00A picture is worth 1000 words except when ...Every day, document collections are populated with image files which contain valuable, often vital, information. Common sources are in-house scanning, downloads of filings or other court documents, or as attachments to emails which are then filed into the document collection. <a href="http://www.docscorp.com/">Docs Corp</a> results show that there are often a large number of image-files in a given document collection. <span style="font-size: xx-small;">(1)</span><br />
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<u>What's the issue? </u>Image files do not contain searchable text, making them invisible to most full-text search engines <span style="font-size: xx-small;">(2).</span> This <em>creates the risk that users do <strong>not</strong> get complete search results when looking for documents.</em><br />
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<u>What's the solution? </u> <br />
The simple solution is to assure that OCR (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_character_recognition">optical character recognition</a>) is applied to image files upon creation or capture - thus making the content "visible" to your full-text search engine. This can occur at the scanner, or be applied to image files to convert them to searchable format on an as-need basis. But most document collections contain 1000s or 100,000s of documents which have already been ingested as image files.<br />
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Docs Corp has created a solution (<a href="http://www.docscorp.com/public/products/publicContentCrawler.cfm">contentCrawler</a>) which can attack large collections of image files, by surveying the entire contents of a document management system or file system, and then create new versions of files (including email attachments) that include OCR text. These files are then captured by the full-text search tool with the final result being complete and accurate search results.<br />
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Docs Corp is conducting a webinar on this topic on September 9th. register here <a href="http://bit.ly/r36wCl">http://bit.ly/r36wCl</a><br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">(1) Results gathered by </span><a href="http://www.docscorp.com/"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Docs Corp</span></a><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> show that between 17 and 25% of documents collections typically include image files.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">(2) Some full-text search engines can index an image-only document without prior OCR - check with your provider on this!.</span><br />
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<br />Bill Lipnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01082262485259162610noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7225187839405996947.post-64531196707477170632011-06-13T10:56:00.002-04:002011-06-13T10:57:38.264-04:00Content Management - Risky Business<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
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<span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Organizations including law firms are obsessed with managing content, and with good reason (1).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span>We have more of it than ever before, so we deploy document management systems, records management systems, case management systems, human resources information systems, and knowledge management systems, to help us create, accumulate, manage, use, and dispose of information.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s impractical not to use these systems – right?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They’re essential to efficient and effective business operations and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">vital to managing risk</i>. </span></div>
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<u><span style="font-family: Times;">CONTENT MANAGEMENT – RISK MANAGEMENT ALIGNMENT</span></u></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;">We often think of managing content from a tactical point of view (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">how do I find it when I need it</i>) and in a reactive way (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the client called with changes, lets find the documents and make edits</i>).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But content management systems are one of the most important risk management tools you have at your disposal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;">Managing risk domains like regulatory compliance, litigation, human resources, conflicts of interest, operational, and ethics, means reaching back to the content we’re managing to assure content management practice aligns with risk strategy and policy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<u><span style="font-family: Times;">MOVING FROM AD-HOC TO MANAGED</span></u></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;">Part of this alignment means taking a hard look at ad-hoc processes and transforming these to managed processes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A working example of where has been implemented is the move to matter-centric document management.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This change has streamlined content intake, improved accuracy, and cascades from the document management system to the records management system.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<u><span style="font-family: Times;">RISK MANAGEMENT:</span></u></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;">For any organization including law firms, efficiency is how we improve profitability and become more effective in areas like customer service, but managing risk is how we stay out of the really hot water.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;">Perhaps examining the obvious, here are a few examples of risk domains and their intersection with content management:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Times;"><u>Operational Risks</u><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><u></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;">- <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Are vendor contracts managed to assure the firm takes advantage of all available discounts?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;">- <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Do you have a way to systematically search all systems for client conflicts?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is this method documented? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;">-<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Is your pre-billing process entirely paper-free? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Times;"><u>Client privacy and confidentiality</u> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;">- <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Does your document management environment make it easy to establish group or ethical wall security?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;">- <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Does it allow only authorized users to remove content from the managed environment?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;">-<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Are laptops encrypted?</span></div>
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<li class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: Times;"><u>Regulatory Compliance.</u><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Times;">- <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>What is the typical regulatory request and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">required response time</i>?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are you confident you can locate the required content on time? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;">- <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>What are the unlikely but possible regulatory requests and how will you respond to them? </span></div>
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<li class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><u><span style="font-family: Times;">Litigation</span></u></li>
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<span style="font-family: Times;">- <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Can you easily identify relevant content in your document management, email management, records management, and HR information system by custodian?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How long would it take? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;">- <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Can you easily collect, hold, and quarantine, relevant content?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;">- <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Is your records retention and destruction policy defensible?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Can you assure that it has been applied consistently? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;">Attendant to managing the content itself in a “risk-aware” manner, are related issues of continuous user training and assessing their compliance with procedures.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Does everyone in the organization have training on what a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">litigation hold </i>is and how and why they’re issued and implemented?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Does everyone have training on how your records policy works?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do you audit employee conformance to the policy?</span></div>
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<u><span style="font-family: Times;">ITS NOT JUST FEATURES AND FUNCTIONS</span></u></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;">Content management tools will always be used to deliver important efficiencies that make it possible for the modern business to operate in the information age.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But as the universe of risks becomes wider and more complex, content management solutions also play a role.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The very systems that we use to create, accumulate, manage, use, and dispose of information are the same systems that must help us manage risk.</span></div>
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<u><span style="font-family: Times;">Addendum</span></u></div>
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<u><span style="font-family: Times;">Why do you use content management solutions? </span></u></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;">I submit that it really boils down to three things: efficiencies, effectiveness, and risk management.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Efficiency means lower costs; effectiveness means better organizational execution, and risk management means lower risk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’ve discussed risk management, but what about the other two areas? </span></div>
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<u><span style="font-family: Times;">EFFICIENCIES</span></u></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;">Given the amount of content moving through and within any organization, it’s obvious that tools are needed in order to operate in a rational and efficient way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Imagine running a 200 lawyer firm without a document management system?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The simple question of “most recent version” would become an untenable task – and an expensive task.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The task of starting a new document would be almost always from scratch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;">Securing documents would mean endless emails to the network administrator asking for new folders and new groups.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Document management systems make these tasks effortless – and the result is a business that operates more efficiently – and at much lower cost.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cost savings through efficiency is a key reason we deploy content management solutions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">It’s cheaper to operate with managed content.</i></span></div>
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<u><span style="font-family: Times;">EFFECTIVENESS:</span></u></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;">Content management systems make us more effective as an organization.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Organizational effectiveness is how well your firm executes on core values like Client Service, Value, or Expertise (or all 3). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The very fact that you’ve implemented these solutions reflects core values like “leveraging content” or “client retention” (through better customer service and competitive pricing).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;">(1) The Digital Universe Decade – Are You Ready? -<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>IDC May 2010 IDC iView </span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Times;">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>IDC predicts that “…. by 2020, our Digital Universe will be 44 TIMES AS BIG as it was in 2009.”</span></span></div>Bill Lipnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01082262485259162610noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7225187839405996947.post-55236956820108893072011-05-18T10:03:00.007-04:002014-03-17T09:58:04.280-04:00PDF/A-1 1A and 1B - A Difference Without a Distinction<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">It turns out that the following information about PDF/A may be more than you need to know, but forewarned is fore-armed!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>There has been a great deal of discussion about PDF/A as a specific PDF file format and some confusion about the two flavors of PDF/A. PDF/A is subdivided into 1A and 1B - these are each referred to as a “Compliance Level”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> For legal practice t</span>he question at hand is whether a specific Compliance Level will be required by the Federal Courts under new rules for PDF/A format.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As you may recall, the Federal Courts will begin requiring that ECF documents be submitted in PDF/A format in 2011.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> By the way, there is nothing preventing you from voluntarily filing in PDF/A format today.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">PDF/A Compliance Levels: </span></b></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">The short description is:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>PDF/A <strong>1A</strong> is considered a “minimal” level of compliance with <strong>1A</strong> including additional features for “a"ccessibility for reading disabilities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“PDF/A-1b (basic) is easier to generate and guarantees the visual reproducibility of content”. <a href="http://www.pdfa.org/doku.php?id=artikel:en:pdfa_a_look_at_the_technical-side#what_does_pdf_a_require_to_be_pdf_a-1a-compliant"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: red; font-family: Times New Roman;">(1)</span></span></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">Our friends at AIIM have very succinctly described the two Levels of Compliance as: </span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">“• PDF/A-1a – Conformance level 1a shall adhere to all of the requirements of the PDF Reference as modified by the ISO 19005 specification and requires structural and semantic properties to be preserved. Level 1a uses “Tagged PDF” and Unicode character maps to preserve the document's logical structure and content text stream in natural reading order. For some applications, users may need to use a PDF/A-1 conformant viewer to take maximum advantage of embedded metadata. </span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">• PDF/A-1b – Conformance level 1b requirements are intended to be those minimally necessary to ensure the visual appearance of electronic documents. Level 1a preserves document structure from the original document that allows the consumer to the archived document to view and manipulate the document as they could the original.”<a href="http://www.aiim.org/documents/standards/PDF-A/19005-1_FAQ.pdf"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: red; font-family: Times New Roman;">(2)</span></span></a> </span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A few other key points are discussed at PDFA.org which I won’t recite here but are well worth </span><a href="http://www.pdfa.org/doku.php?id=artikel:en:pdfa_a_look_at_the_technical-side"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: red; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">perusing.</span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> And this list of <a href="http://www.aiim.org/Resources/Standards/Articles/PDFA-Compliant-Products."><span style="color: red;">PDF/A compliant solutions</span></a> published by AIIM will be useful if you don't have a solution yet.</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">Also download the whitepaper that Docs Corp has published on the <span style="color: red;"><a href="http://www.docscorp.com/public/downloadTrial/WhitepaperPDF_A.cfm">topic of PDF/A</a>. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">Which one should I use for ECF?</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><city w:st="on"><place w:st="on"><u><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">NARA</span></u></place></city><u><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></u></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">Perhaps a place to start is guidance from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) which sets records standards for the <a href="http://www.archives.gov/index.html">federal government</a>. From <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">NARA FAQs</place></city>: </span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">“4. Does <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">NARA</place></city> require a specific PDF/A-1 conformance level? </span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">No. <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">NARA</place></city> does not require a specific conformance level for permanent PDF/A-1 records. Agencies should use the conformance level that best suits their business needs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/initiatives/pdf-faq.html"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: red; font-family: Times New Roman;">(3)</span></span></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><u><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"></span></span></u></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><u><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">PACER</span></u></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">Perhaps PACER can give us some guidance as to which Compliance Level to use.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But alas, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pacer doesn’t discuss PDF/A 1A or 1B – see this PACER <a href="http://www.pacer.gov/announcements/general/pdfa.html">announcement</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And from PACER personnel came the comment “<em>We have been told either format will be accepted. There will be more information made available at each court's ECF website when they begin to require the PDF/A format.</em>”.</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><u><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">CONCLUSION</span></u></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">Short of specific instructions from your Federal District Court administrator, it seems that the distinction between PDFA 1A and 1B is moot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>1B Level Conformance is easier to accomplish and seems to win by default. </span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">(1) <a href="http://www.pdfa.org/doku.php?id=artikel:en:pdfa_a_look_at_the_technical-side#what_does_pdf_a_require_to_be_pdf_a-1a-compliant"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: red; font-family: Times New Roman;">http://www.pdfa.org/doku.php?id=artikel:en:pdfa_a_look_at_the_technical-side#what_does_pdf_a_require_to_be_pdf_a-1a-compliant</span></span></a> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">(2) <a href="http://www.aiim.org/documents/standards/PDF-A/19005-1_FAQ.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: red; font-family: Times New Roman;">http://www.aiim.org/documents/standards/PDF-A/19005-1_FAQ.pdf</span></span></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpLast" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">(3) <a href="http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/initiatives/pdf-faq.html"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: red; font-family: Times New Roman;">http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/initiatives/pdf-faq.html</span></span></a> </span></div><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As always, comments and questions are welcome! Email me at <a href="mailto:bill.lipner@discoverypartners.us" target="_blank">bill.lipner@discoverypartners.us</a></span></div><br />
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<!-- AddThis Button END -->Bill Lipnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01082262485259162610noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7225187839405996947.post-7245518414778977582011-05-02T09:53:00.005-04:002011-05-02T10:41:19.837-04:00Another Top-10 List (12 actually) - Evaluating Your Next PDF Content Solution<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">ILTA will </span><span style="line-height: 115%;">convene a panel discussion on PDF Content Solutions at this years annual ILTA conference - which affirms </span><span style="color: black; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">the importance PDF content solutions in the legal market.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="line-height: 115%;">Clearly the PDF content space for legal practice has evolved to include a number of credible solutions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I hope the next step for ILTA is to develop a <u>Requirements Assessment Tool</u> for those who want help sorting through the feature-sets and methods that are now available among several PDF content solutions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">In my September 17th 2010, blog I discussed the pros-and-cons of free PDF tools and those you pay form (</span><a href="http://lawyerpdf.blogspot.com/2010/09/free-or-full-featured-rightsizing-your.html"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Free or Full Featured</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">)<span style="line-height: 115%;"> and promised that "In my next post I'll drill into the areas of Convert-to-PDF, filling-out-forms, creating-PDF-binders, and advanced editing tools and what to look for.". The ILTA announcement prompts me to fulfill this overdue promise so this post drills into the Top-12-Things-to-Evaluate when selecting your next PDF content solution. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br />In working with dozens of law firms over the past 5 years, I have seen a number of firms choose their next PDF content solution based on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">how similar it was to their current solution</i> – typically by heavily weighting user preference in the selection process.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This approach assures quick user adoption, but firms may be missing the opportunity for significant productivity improvements at cost of additional user training. If you hope to duplicate your current solution at lower cost – skip this post.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you are prepared to consider additional training and help desk <personname w:st="on">support</personname> for improvements in efficiency – read on. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">There are literally hundreds of features across Adobe Acrobat, <personname w:st="on"><placename w:st="on">pdfDocs</placename></personname> Desktop, Nuance eCopy - pdfConverter, and Workshare PDF Professional.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When you multiply these features by the possible workflows they represent – you have a monumental task in figuring out what fits user requirements best and meets your current requirements. </span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Add new requirements like PDF/A files (new Federal Court requirement) or bundling tools used to deliver transaction and litigation document sets to receiving parties.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Add the competing desires of the stakeholders involved.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>IT wants a single PDF content solution on the desktop.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Training wants a solution that matches the range of requirements among users – from litigation <personname w:st="on"><placename w:st="on">support</placename></personname> to the filing clerk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Users want a solution that is intuitive, simple, powerful, full-featured, easy to use, and makes their work effortless.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Can you get by with Scan-to-PDF (probably not – how do you handle creating PDF/A files) or do you need to invest in a copy of Adobe Professional for all of your users. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps – or somewhere in the middle is the perfect solution that will make users more efficient with real bottom line benefits.</span></div>
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<u><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Where to Start</span></u><span style="line-height: 115%;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">When you consider the feature-sets, ways to implement, and possible workflows – the permutations can be overwhelming.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How do you start sifting through this feature / function universe?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps start with a user survey to determine which features users <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">need</i>, which they <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">want</i>, which they <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">like</i> and which features they find <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">frustrating</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a starting point, this will help you rank the features you are evaluating but I consider this data a starting point, not the final set of criteria.</span></div>
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<u><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">The Top-12 Things to Evaluate</span></u><span style="line-height: 115%;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">While PDF is an ISO standard (International Standards Organization 32000) , the variety of PDF content solutions available today for legal practice demonstrates that creative approaches within the same product category can make a solution more or less efficient depending on how your users do things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The differences can have a big impact on workflows and efficiencies. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here are 12 areas that are important to consider: </span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1) <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Creating PDF Files</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">It should be simple enough and usually it is, but since we don’t just create PDF files for fun, look at what happens after file creation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is the user creating a PDF to email it?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Save it to the document management system?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Combine it with other PDF files?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The number of steps in the workflow can vary between PDF content solutions so know your common workflows. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Consider where your users work most often (MS-Word or Outlook or your document management system) and then determine whether the user can easily create PDF content from within their typical “workspace”. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do your users need a really simple method like “drag-and-drop” to create PDF files? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Will File-Print or Save-as-PDF get you there? </span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2) <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">PDF/A Format</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">PDF/A is an ISO Standard which defines a PDF format for long-term archival (see </span><a href="http://www.pdfa-info.com/"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: purple; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">http://www.pdfa-info.com</span></span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> ).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As PDF/A becomes a format commonly required by the courts, carefully examine the steps required of a user creating a PDF/A file.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There can be substantial variation depending on the solution you’re evaluating.</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">3) <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Application Integration<u></u></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">One of the biggest information governance issues with PDF content solutions is the “save-anywhere” issue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It always amazes me when a user (a) accesses a highly confidential document safely secured in the DMS and (b) converts it to PDF format only to (c) save it to My-Documents so they can email it / combine it / edit it / or otherwise manipulate it in their PDF content solution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well designed application integration can assure that users always “manage” PDF content with the same rigor as any other document – and that PDF files which are truly “temporary” (created just for the instance of mailing / combining / saving-to-DMS) are then <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">properly deleted from temp-folders or My-Documents locations</i> (as 2 examples). </span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4) <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Document Management Integration</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">If your organization relies heavily on a document management system, then carefully evaluate the integration points between your DMS and the PDF content solution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Can users easily save a new PDF file INTO the document management system?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Can users easily access documents in the DMS and edit PDF files or convert native files to PDF format?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While in the DMS, can users easily select source files and convert them to PDF format?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The way DMS integration is implemented can be a real time saver (direct-save for example) or a real frustration (save-to-MyDocuments / import to DMS for example). </span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">5) <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Binders and Portfolios (Bundling)</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Binders and Portfolios are becoming the standard way to deliver bundles of PDF or embedded-native files to co-counsel, opposing counsel and clients.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are important differences between the bundling tools on the market.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Look carefully at DMS integration if that is where your source files are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Determine whether the resulting Bundle can be printed if that’s a requirement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">6) <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Redaction</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">If used properly, any redaction tool should produce permanent deletions of content in a PDF file and give you the option to mark the deletion in a variety of ways.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the steps to accomplish this will vary and should be carefully reviewed against your desired redaction workflow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As an example some tools Apply-on-Demand and some tools Apply-When-Saved.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some tools permit batch-redaction while some only work against one PDF file at a time.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">7) <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Editor Functions</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">I define PDF editing as ‘changing the displayable content in a PDF file”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not all PDF content solutions provide the same set of editing tools.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The ideal solution will present tools your users need and omit or give you a way to hide tools they never use.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The result is a more concise user interface which should be easier for the user.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">I would suggest taking an inventory of the editing tools your users currently use – with details about how often they use them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Balance this against the inventory of editing tools in the solution you’re evaluating to assure there is a comparable tool or a suitable workaround. </span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">8) <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">File Manipulation</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">If your practice demands that you combine PDF files, extract pages, merge pages, or split PDF files then carefully evaluate the workflow required to accomplish these functions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are significant differences between PDF content solutions that will please users who do these things often (Click-and-Combine) or frustrate them because of extra steps (Select-and-Merge). </span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">9) <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">OCR Integration</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sooner or later, users will want to (a) convert a PDF file to MS-Word format or (b) convert an Image-PDF file to Searchable-PDF.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each of these workflows will require an OCR solution so evaluate thoroughly the steps required to accomplish each.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Also consider whether you need OCR functions integrated into your document management application which can save time if this is where PDF content is commonly stored.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Also know that some providers offer OCR implemented on a Server (a great solution when users are operating in Citrix or Terminal Server) and some providers implement OCR within the PDF application (needed when operating “off the network”).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">10) <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Scan Capture</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Going Paperless?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Handling litigation scanning in-house?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Your current and desired paper-to-PDF workflows may help define your PDF content solution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do you want to “scan-to-DMS” with a coversheet?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do you want to deskew / despeckle from within the PDF content solution?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">11) <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Forms</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Many users need to fill out forms in PDF format – and some users need to create forms in PDF format.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>PDF form filling has become easier these days with the advent of Rights-Enabled forms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Forms-Creation capabilities (read-and-create / create manual with simple tools / create manual with complex tools) will vary between PDF content solutions so, evaluate thoroughly if form building is a requirement. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">12) <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Adobe Reader Support</b>:</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In some organizations there is a desire to use alternatives to Adobe Reader.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While this is laudable and may make sense for IT strategy, it has the potential to create workflow problems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many websites assume that Adobe Reader (or Acrobat) is present on the workstation and won’t perform as expected with other PDF applications.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Evaluate whether your PDF content solution will co-exist with Adobe Reader in the event that you must keep Adobe Reader for access to certain websites. </span></div>
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<u><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">In Summary</span></u></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">No square pegs in round holes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Focus on key requirements, future needs, user adoption, and these key areas and you will find a solution that meets your needs and delivers new levels of efficiencies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Consider training users on new tools and methods if the benefits are there – we all can handle learning a new tool if we’re showing the benefits and are <personname w:st="on">support</personname>ed with training and help desk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">PDF content management is now a key applications area in legal practice - and can deliver remarkable new efficiencies and benefits to your firm. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Questions on assessing your next PDF content solution? Write me! </span></div>Bill Lipnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01082262485259162610noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7225187839405996947.post-69200572142249138572011-04-07T11:07:00.001-04:002015-07-16T09:43:23.659-04:00Diamonds are Forever - Records are for Archiving<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The last several postings have discussed “going paperless” and the related benefits.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The subtext of the “going paperless” conversation is records management – or what ARMA (Association of Records Managers & Administrators </span><a href="http://www.arma.org/"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://www.arma.org</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #073763;"> </span>) calls an <u>Information Retention and Disposition Program</u>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In my experience a surprising number of firms (law firms / other professional services firms / public and private companies) don’t have a records policy and an even more surprising number – have a policy which they don’t enforce</span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Having a policy means committing to internal audits and employee education to assure compliance with your records program.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To do otherwise is perhaps worse than no policy at all and can expose the firm to a variety of risks (search here for references </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://ediscovery.klgates.com/">https://ediscovery.klgates.com</a>/ ) </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you have a records policy which is well implemented then skip this blog posting – but if you are operating without a policy or are simply using the “keep it all” method then keep reading. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3dOWjywpeumdC_utJWOZ4Y0hzojx8aojBSLpKOzOcaSjUX8coxo_cdSUugNCuqaJulPfbhAxRi1NF_2plwQz0ZKDUMyPQ3Yky6IIg4_-3qCaQ7oODxoGwiNZGrIGrYaKIvz-QqjikIhcZ/s1600/Files_on_a_Shelf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3dOWjywpeumdC_utJWOZ4Y0hzojx8aojBSLpKOzOcaSjUX8coxo_cdSUugNCuqaJulPfbhAxRi1NF_2plwQz0ZKDUMyPQ3Yky6IIg4_-3qCaQ7oODxoGwiNZGrIGrYaKIvz-QqjikIhcZ/s320/Files_on_a_Shelf.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">WHAT IS A RECORD: </span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The definition of a record provided by ARMA is the following: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-family: Minion-Bold; mso-bidi-font-family: Minion-Bold; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Record: </span></b><span style="font-family: Minion-Regular; mso-bidi-font-family: Minion-Regular; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Recorded information, regardless of medium or characteristics, made or received by an organization that is evidence of its operations, and has value requiring its retention for a specific period of time. Recorded information in any format that is created, received, and maintained as evidence and information by an organization or person, in pursuance of legal obligations or in the transaction of</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Minion-Regular; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Minion-Regular; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">business. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Minion-Regular; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Minion-Regular; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">In short – a record is every kind of information created in or moving through your organization. </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"></b></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">WHAT IS A RECORDS MANAGEMENT PROGRAM? </span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A records management program – or an <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">INFORMATION RETENTION AND DISPOSITION PROGRAM</b> – is an organization-wide framework which defines the scope and procedures for retaining and ultimately disposing of information in your organization.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A retention schedule is merely one part of the program, but no more important than user-education, self-auditing, defined procedures for record destruction, or procedures for implementing legal holds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Suffice to say, creating and then operating a records program is complex and can seem daunting at the outset. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Some of the key elements of a records program are:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1) Records Program Committee.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This committee will provide vital input from key areas of the organization like information systems, legal, and operating departments.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2) Records Retention Schedule.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This will be a compilation of the records kept by the organization along with details about the records lifecycle (active, inactive, destruction). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3) Litigation Hold procedures.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How a litigation hold is instigated, implemented, and audited.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4) Destruction procedures.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How records destruction is authorized and how the process is documented.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5) Employee training.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is a vital link in defending your records program and assuring it operates efficiently.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">6) Compliance Auditing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This step helps assure your records program is managed in a way that identifies and corrects errors in the operation of the program.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">KEEP EVERYTHING? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>IT’S SURE EASIER! </span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">First let me deflate the notion that it is sufficient to simply “keep everything”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here’s why this isn’t: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1) One of the key objectives of a records program is efficiency achieved through smaller records inventories and systematic management of records. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you assume that your business is an on-going concern then you will have an ever-increasing inventory of records to store and access.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The haystacks hiding the needles just get bigger and bigger. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Whether paper or electronic – this method of records management will eventually become less and less efficient and will ultimately overwhelm itself – the question is not if, but when. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2) If you use the “keep everything” method then you must truly “keep everything”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Selective or arbitrary deletion of records leaves you open to charges of bad behavior or worse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are innumerable examples in the annals of e-discovery documenting cases lost and sanctions lodged because of arbitrary and capricious destruction of records.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3) If your business is potentially subject to audit or lawsuit, you have created a Pandora’s Box of record-finding which will be larger and more expensive than necessary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can always argue undue burden and excessive cost but a records policy gives you a legitimate way to preemptively dispose of records that no longer have any operational, regulatory, or legal value thus limiting the scope of audits or discovery related to a legal action. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>MYTHICAL CONVERSATION</u>: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Plaintiff’s Attorney to CEO</i>:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Hi Jerry, its Tom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We just finished the 30(b)6 deposition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Guess what? “</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">CEO</i> “Give me some good news Tom”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Plaintiff’s Attorney to CEO</i>:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“The good news is… they don’t have a records policy. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They just keep everything.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s what we’ll ask for in discovery.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">CEO</i> “They’ll just claim the requests are over-broad”.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Plaintiff’s Attorney to CEO</i>: “Yes, and they’ll have to prove it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It will take them tons of extra time and effort”. </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">INFORMATION RETENTION AND DISPOSITION PROGRAM</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If an Information Retention and Disposition Program (Records Program) is so important to the efficient and effective management of records, then why do many organizations choose to operate without one?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They’re hard to implement – here’s why:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1) A Records Program is by definition very comprehensive and requires thorough research and careful decision-making.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“<u>Retention Management for Records and Information</u>” is an ARMA publication </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">which thoroughly outlines the scope of a Records Program and how to organize and execute the effort.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">It is an excellent place to start and includes an excellent bibliography.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2) <u>There is no “one-size-fits-all” Records Program</u>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can refer to examples provided by others in your industry – and some of the reference documents listed below will provide this – but every aspect of a Records Program must be evaluated in the context of your business.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you’re in the legal industry, then someone in your firm should be a member if ILTA – or consider joining.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The membership published a “<u>MODEL PROPOSED RECORDS RETENTION POLICY</u>” which is a useful starting point of a Records Policy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And even if you’re a member of ILTA – take a look at this sample policy published by the <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">ABA</place></city>: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><a href="http://apps.americanbar.org/lpm/lpt/articles/sampledocretentionpolicy.pdf" title="http://apps.americanbar.org/lpm/lpt/articles/sampledocretentionpolicy.pdf"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://apps.americanbar.org/lpm/lpt/articles/sampledocretentionpolicy.pdf</span></span></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><u>Senior Management Sponsorship.</u><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Implementing an Information Retention and Disposition Program requires sponsorship from the organization’s most senior management.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This level of sponsorship helps reinforce the importance of the initiative.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It also helps demonstrate (and sometimes prove) that the organization is serious about a records program.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4) <u>The “C” Word</u><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To assure that your Records Policy truly fits your organization and offers a defensible framework <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>means assembling a committee of stakeholders.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know that for some organizations, this is the death knell of many projects – but the input is vital and consensus is even more important. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is where senior management sponsorship can be very helpful.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">THE TIME IS NOW (Not when you get the audit notice) </span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I hope I’ve convinced you that a records management policy is vital to your organizational health.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps I’ve also convinced you that it’s a big project – and like all big projects you’ve got to start somewhere.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since you’re probably the person who will be project leader – start with research.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Understand the scope of the effort, and then get your Managing Partner, Named Partner, CEO, CFO, and / or CIO on board.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Develop the committee – and convene your first meeting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You may be encouraged by the <personname w:st="on">support</personname> and interest in finally getting this corner of the house in order.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">RESOURCES: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">The Sedona Conference Working Group Series:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><u>THE SEDONA GUIDELINES: <i>Best Practice Guidelines &Commentary forManaging Information& Records in theElectronic Age</i></u></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>November 2007<span style="color: #073763;"> </span></span><a href="http://www.thesedonaconference.org/dltForm?did=Guidelines.pdf"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://www.thesedonaconference.org/dltForm?did=Guidelines.pdf</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #073763;"> </span>(name and email address required)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ARMA International:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><u>Retention Management for Records & Information<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></u><span style="font-family: Minion-Regular; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Minion-Regular; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">ISBN: 1-931786-27-5 (PDF version)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> <span style="color: blue;"> </span><a href="http://www.arma.org/r2/standards-amp-best-practices/project-procedures/retention-management-for-records-and-information" target="_blank"><span style="color: #073763;">http://www.arma.org/r2/standards-amp-best-practices/project-procedures/retention-management-for-records-and-information</span></a></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Minion-Regular; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Minion-Regular; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Creating a Record Retention & Destruction Policy: A CNA Professional Counsel Guide for Lawyers and Law Firms</u> <a href="http://www.jamisongroup.com/downloads/IP_recordretention.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color: #073763;"> http://www.jamisongroup.com/downloads/IP_recordretention.pdf</span></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">American Bar Association:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sample Retention Policy </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <a href="http://apps.americanbar.org/lpm/lpt/articles/sampledocretentionpolicy.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color: #073763;">http://apps.americanbar.org/lpm/lpt/articles/sampledocretentionpolicy.pd</span>f</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Blog posting at AIIM – Harjit Singh – January 16<sup>th</sup> 2011 </span><a href="http://www.aiim.org/community/blogs/community/Formulating-A-Document-Retention-Policy"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://www.aiim.org/community/blogs/community/Formulating-A-Document-Retention-Policy</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Disclaimer: This information contained in the posts at </span><a href="http://www.lawyerpdf.com/"><span style="font-size: x-small;">www.Lawyerpdf.com</span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"> are intended to be informational only and should not be construed as legal advice. This information is commentary and is intended as a starting point for your own research into the issued discussed here. </span></div>
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Questions or comments? <a href="mailto:bill.lipner@discoverypartners.us" target="_blank">EMAIL ME</a>.</div>
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Bill Lipnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01082262485259162610noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7225187839405996947.post-17255693187427400962011-03-28T15:40:00.000-04:002011-03-28T15:40:21.767-04:00A Little Marketing Research?Thanks in advance for those who can take a few minutes. Using the comment space, can you tell me...<br />
- how you heard about LawyerPDF <br />
- how you would rank the content of this blog? (using 1 to 10 1=not beneficial 10=very beneficial)<br />
- what would you like to learn about next?<br />
- other suggestions or general comments always welcome!Bill Lipnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01082262485259162610noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7225187839405996947.post-91613477798577588932011-03-16T10:44:00.002-04:002014-03-03T16:30:47.773-05:00Going Paperless – The Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth - Part III<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">This installment is a bit long for a blog post.. but what can I say? Lots to say! </span></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A Morning in the Life….</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">John and Jane arrive at work for another busy day of juggling client demands and deadlines.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">John arrives early</b> so he can catch up on his inbox – the inbox full of paper sitting on a corner of his desk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He moves the stack onto his blotter and starts with the first item.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s a resume which he quickly scans and thinks might be ok, so he writes “OK” on the top and drops it into his outbox to return to HR.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Next are several benefits forms which he drops into his briefcase to review on the train.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Next is an expense claim prepared by his administrative assistant – he signs it and drops it into his outbox.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Next is a letter from a client requesting an update on a case.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is placed in a special spot on his desk for immediate follow up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The phone rings – co-counsel calling about a case they’re preparing for trial.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While John begins the call, he moves the remaining stack of papers to his in-box to review “later”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>During the call, co-counsel advises that they’ve mis-placed two documents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>John puts the caller on hold, and goes to the file cabinet to retrieve the two documents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He gives the documents to his secretary and asks that the documents be faxed to co-counsel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>7 minutes later – he’s back on the phone with co-counsel.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;">Jane arrives after having finished a breakfast meeting</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;"> with a prospective client.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She turns her attention to her computer and her electronic inbox.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jane scans the list of new inbox items scanning the “document type” column and selects a document type of Client Letter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The letter is displayed in a viewing window on Jane’s computer so Jane can easily read it – the client is asking for an update on a case.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jane clicks on a “cabinet” icon and clicks on the client’s electronic case file to see a chronological list of all documents and emails.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She reviews several documents and emails and then jots a note on the letter image with details for the client.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jane then selects an electronic “route stamp” and enters her secretary’s initials.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The letter with comments is moved to the secretary’s electronic inbox so that she can type the reply letter incorporating the comments added by Jane. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jane returns to her electronic inbox to scan the list of “NEW” items and spots a resume.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She’s in the process of hiring a new paralegal she urgently needs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She clicks on this document and the resume is displayed in a viewing window on Jane’s computer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She scans the resume and decides this candidate is worth reviewing so she selects an electronic “accept stamp” and clicks on the resume image.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She enters a comment into the stamp which says “please schedule an interview – before 9 or after 6 any day this week”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The resume disappears from her inbox and appears in the inbox of the HR Director who schedules the interview. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jane sees a set of benefits forms in the electronic inbox and displays these forms in a viewing window.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She uses annotation tools to fill out the forms, and then uses an electronic stamp to “sign” them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As part of the signature Jane indicates that the forms should be forwarded to HR and they are removed from Jane’s inbox.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The phone rings – co-counsel calling about a case they’re preparing for trial.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Co-counsel cannot locate 2 key documents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jane clicks on her electronic filing cabinet and then the electronic case file, locates the documents, and emails both to co-counsel who receives the documents while they’re still on the phone.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These examples are intended to (a) exemplify the differences between paper and paperless and (b) demonstrate the power of being paperless.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The paperless office is more than just scanning – but should incorporate intelligent scanning which can streamline how documents move through an organization.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The benefits are real and can be seen on the bottom line!</span></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How does it work? </span></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Intelligent scan capture can feed workflow or document management systems so that documents can be easily stored, accessed, and systematically managed through their lifecycle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A few common elements are:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">a) <strong>Document Prep</strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">The idea is to make the scanning process as fast as possible. As mundane as it sounds the first step is to prepare the paper for scanning. This will typically involve:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">- making sure metal is removed. This is very unfriendly to scanners and means that all paperclips and staples are removed.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">- making sure odd-sized pages are accomodated. Smaller sizes should be affixed to an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper, and larger sizes need to be separately batched. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">- check for double-sided pages. These are ok if you have a duplex scanner - but must be copied to single-sided if you're scanner does not support duplex scanning.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">- affix a barcode or cover page to "separate" documents automatically (see "d"). This will allow you to scan a batch of files together - and end up with separate scan files. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">c) <strong>QC the Scan Output</strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Your scan process must include a review of the scan output. This is a process which involves a human who will examine each page for quality (alignment and clarity primiarily). Examining thumbnail images of the scanned pages will easily show mis-alignments but closer examination for readability may be needed. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">d) <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Bar-codes</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When barcodes are “read” by a scanner (using optical character recognition or OCR) they are converted to electronic information with 100% accuracy or not at all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Barcodes can transmit details about a document or simply tell a scanner when a “new” document has started – so you can feed an entire stack of documents into a scanner which can separate the stack into separate electronic files based on a barcode “separator”.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">e) <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Zone OCR</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Zone OCR gives a scanner the ability to see a specific part of a page (a zone) and convert what it finds into electronic information.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This makes it possible to take information from a location on a page and feed that information into a system.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This works especially well when with documents that are formatted alike (pre-bills, purchase orders, etc.) but can be adapted to a number of workflows.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">NOTE: that zone-ocr works with paper documents that have been scanned OR electronic documents being loaded into a system (pre-bills or new-matter form or conflict form are just a few of many examples).</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">f) <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Workflow using Stamps</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Imagine taking a piece of paper and using a rubber stamp to print the words “approved” or “forward to ____” or “Paid on ____ “.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then imagine that the piece of paper flew off to a destination simply based on the stamp.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is what you can accomplish in an entirely electronic world!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">EXAMPLE: </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Electronic HR FILE:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Employment often begins with a resume and these often arrive in paper format – but may arrive as an email attachment.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">a) hard-copy resumes arrive in the mailroom where a bar-code is affixed (or use a coversheet to keep the original paper document unmarked).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">b) the document is placed in the ‘to be scanned’ inbox</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">c) the mailroom takes the to-be-scanned stack and loads into the scanner.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">d) the mailroom reviews each scanned document for integrity and then applies a “send to” stamp adding the recipients initials (rather than carrying the paper around the office for delivery). </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">e) the recipients see mailroom items accumulate in their electronic inbox – including the HR Director who receives the resume.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">f) the HR Director opens the resume to see that it is a paralegal resume.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The HR Director applies an electronic “send to” stamp entering the initials of 3 attorneys who are hiring a new paralegal.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">g) the resume is routed to each of the attorney’s electronic inboxes..</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">h) the resume is returned to the HR Director who arranges interviews while the resume is placed in an electronic “pending” file.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">i) the paralegal is hired – and the resume is then placed in a new electronic HR folder for this new employee.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Imagine routing a Conflict Form using the same methods described above – and this document started out as a Word or PDF document and was never paper.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The same methods work – and the conflict form moves to several of the reviewing attorneys simultaneously – and the status of the form can be checked at any time (who’s holding up approval of this new client?!). </span></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Culture Shock</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So why isn’t the world paperless?!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Going paperless requires using new tools to do the work we're already doing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Often the steps can remain the same - but are easier and faster when automated. But even the slightest change </span>can be hard to implement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Without the enthusiastic participation of everyone involved, going paperless will fail.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Electronic Case Files won’t have all the documents in them (“I’m keeping just a few paper documents on the floor next to my desk because they’re really important”), processes will be interrupted (“I’m not reviewing that resume on line – just print it for me!”), and frustration will abound.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Recruit a sponsor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unless you have a named partner, senior executive, or department manager on board – you’re going to find it much harder to go paperless. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Start small.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Identify a simple process that touches many in the organization – and use it to show the power of going paperless.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps HR forms, or an Electronic Correspondence File which can be the foundation for an Electronic Case File.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Notice that there is “back office paper” (HR, Benefits, Accounting) and “front office paper” (client correspondence and other client content) which may impact your decision on where to start.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Back office paper tends to be more routine and easier to automate – but automating front-office-paper can often deliver a bigger benefit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ultimately you’ll automate both. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">User Support.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Users must have confidence in going paperless which means confidence that they will Always Find Their Document.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Implement tools that make it simple to find a document (searches that execute automatically for example) and give them enough training to assure they know how to find a document.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Going Paperless.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It can deliver hard-cost savings and can transform your organization to be substantially more efficient – delivering another healthy dose of profitability to the P&L.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Share your experiences by posting a comment! </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here is an excellent resource: </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.americanbar.org/publications/gp_solo/2014/january-february/how_start_and_run_paperless_office.html" target="_blank">How to Start and Run a Paperless Office</a></span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">American Bar Association: written by <span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.799999237060547px;">Nerino J. Petro Jr.</span></span></div>
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Bill Lipnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01082262485259162610noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7225187839405996947.post-59456116047930050692011-02-17T08:51:00.000-05:002011-02-17T08:51:41.144-05:00Going Paperless – The Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth - Part II<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #f6f6f6; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-outline-level: 3;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Scanning Your Backfile and Day Forward Documents – It’s Day and Night</span></u></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">In the preceding blog post we discussed the economics of scanning your backfile.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My conclusion is that costs usually exceed benefits so unless there is a compelling reason to invest in this conversion – continue to store the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">existing</i> paper backfile.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You will work this archive down in size over time as you apply your records policy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">A) Benefits of Scanning</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">On the other hand, scanning on a day-forward basis can often yield <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">significant benefits especially when implementing workflow<u>.</u></i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These benefits include:</span></div>
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<li class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">No more adding paper to your <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">backfile archive or using office space to store paper </i>since you can scan incoming documents and – in most cases – destroy the paper version.</span></li>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghyClECFw3hD2Jfhb6KPQUJrE0eJT4pzVWIzAxZVPzyvlFEeQiqLSLWCAc_PAQrYbjAvHHJq2AmktHc94Mx8mzrqPKSjLWZRSeOKQ95cWoGO0DNbnxk57DbRE8-_KvNK45DfLXdjpPlzBD/s1600/Data_to_CD.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" j6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghyClECFw3hD2Jfhb6KPQUJrE0eJT4pzVWIzAxZVPzyvlFEeQiqLSLWCAc_PAQrYbjAvHHJq2AmktHc94Mx8mzrqPKSjLWZRSeOKQ95cWoGO0DNbnxk57DbRE8-_KvNK45DfLXdjpPlzBD/s1600/Data_to_CD.JPG" /></a></div>
<li class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Storing and retrieving electronic documents is more <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">efficient (faster, more flexible) and less expensive</i> than storing and retrieving paper. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">If your paper records have been converted with OCR software, you can easily search through an entire document library for specific words or phrases in seconds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is something you simply cannot accomplish with paper documents.</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Its easy to back up your electronic documents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ever try xeroxing an entire file cabinet of paper to make a back up copy?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Its easier to secure your electronic documents by securing the server , hard drive, or database storing the documents.</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">It is possible to automate and improve existing workflow and implement new workflows to manage electronic documents.</span></u></i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="font-family: Times;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Day-forward documents are the new paper documents received by the firm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There may also be internally generated paper documents – but these should be exceptions since electronic documents should rarely be converted to paper.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In either case, the electronic version of these documents can be managed in computerized workflow processes.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">B) Applying Computerized Workflow Management</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">By their very nature, day-forward documents are at the very beginning of a workflow in your firm – whether it’s a letter, resume, invoice, expense report, medical authorization, or any other type of document.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In electronic format, incoming documents can be routed or re-routed and tracked through an automated workflow process which will mean <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">collapsing a process from days or weeks to hours or minutes – simply by applying automation of the process.</i> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More about this in my next installment. </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Scanning and Intelligent Scanning</span></u></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">So let’s buy a scanner or two and start scanning!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sounds pretty simple but realize that this is just the first of two parts to the equation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The right scanning hardware is vital but the right <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">scan-capture solution</i> can make your scanning process much more intelligent. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">A) Lets go Shopping</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">So let’s buy a scanner or two and start scanning!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Before you buy anything – do a bit of planning and consider the following: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<li class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Identify existing workflow bottlenecks – if you can spot them then they’re probably pretty severe so focus there first. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You’ll see quick payoffs this way. </span></li>
<li class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Figure out how much paper you need to scan every day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></li>
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<li class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Consider who will do the scanning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Consider whether scanning is centralized or distributed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or both. </span></li>
<li class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Determine what scan-capture software you’ll be using.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not all scanners work with all scan-capture software solutions – although many are interchangeable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Double-check! </span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Determine which features you must have or would like to have in a scanner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Speed and cost go together and some features may greatly enhance the scanning process.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Example: Duplex scanners can simultaneously scan the front and back of a page but this may not be necessary because many documents are one-sided.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Example: Built-in OCR (optical character recognition) software can produce searchable files which is a tremendous time-saver when retrieving electronic documents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Example: Bates Numbering can be added during the scanning process.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">B) Intelligent Scanning – Scan-Capture Software makes Your Scanner Smart</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Now that you have the perfect scanner(s) selected, turn your attention to making the scanning process intelligent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Scan-capture software can “read” information on the scanned page and create metadata (data about the documents) during the scanning process.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With metadata it is possible to feed your scanned documents into a workflow solution, document management solution, and ultimately a records management solution often with little or no human intervention for further coding.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Intelligent scanning takes you from “simply scanning” to “automating and managing” electronic documents in your organization.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The benefits can be quite remarkable. </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Intelligent Scanning and Workflow</span></u></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">In our next installment, we’ll talk about how to make the scanning process smart – and discuss a few examples of automating what you’re already doing with paper – only better.</span>Bill Lipnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01082262485259162610noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7225187839405996947.post-30357652387963418272011-02-06T16:13:00.002-05:002017-04-15T15:43:46.635-04:00Going Paperless – The Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma";">No, this blog post isn’t about PDF content – but after a recent conversation with a client I felt compelled to clarify – and demystify – what “going paperless” is really about.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My next several blogs will cover the issue of costs and how to approach “going paperless” for substantial benefits and cost savings. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma";">As a separate subject but very much a part of going paperless is the need for a Records Policy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A Records Policy is the only way you can justify destroying records – and without one – you’re a prisoner to an ever growing library of content.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>ARMA (<a href="http://www.arma.org/"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Tahoma; mso-hansi-font-family: Tahoma;"><span style="color: purple;">www.arma.org</span></span></a>) is the resource on this topic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="http://www.arma.org/pdf/WhatIsRIM.pdf"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Tahoma; mso-hansi-font-family: Tahoma;"><span style="color: purple;">http://www.arma.org/pdf/WhatIsRIM.pdf</span></span></a> </span></div>
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<u><span style="font-family: "tahoma";">PART I – The Whole Truth about Costs</span></u></div>
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<u><span style="font-family: "tahoma";">A) Going Paperless - The Vision</span></u></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The conversation with my client went something like this:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma";">Client:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Well I’m glad you asked about our 2011 initiatives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of the biggies is going paperless.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We think it will save us a ton of money and we're really having trouble locating paper documents”. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma";">Me: “That’s great!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It sure could.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What processes are you planning to automate?”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma";">Client: “Oh, we’re not automating anything really – just getting rid of all of those boxes in storage and putting everything on line.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our storage vendor said it might reduce their revenues a bit – but will make us much more efficient.”.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz9F9sh7wkpIXLk1ub_UsOvZuLaIL-LGmiEraI8qm9Gtgh05zjxLwBfU-6REMRe82og7maIKTzo4vgnDEXh5hv7Lw_8ZSyITnlmyPMCJfsRpouGH1V7OaIDWperyDZAuGZRF8RoUwwI2Bt/s1600/Buried_in_Paper.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" h5="true" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz9F9sh7wkpIXLk1ub_UsOvZuLaIL-LGmiEraI8qm9Gtgh05zjxLwBfU-6REMRe82og7maIKTzo4vgnDEXh5hv7Lw_8ZSyITnlmyPMCJfsRpouGH1V7OaIDWperyDZAuGZRF8RoUwwI2Bt/s200/Buried_in_Paper.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma";">Me: “I see.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are they helping you develop a records policy so you can thin out the old paper records?” </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma";">Client: “Not necessary since we’re still keeping everything.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma";">Me: “And what about the new paper you’re receiving or creating every day?”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma";">Client:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“That’s the best part.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nothing has to change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’ll just box up the paperwork, send it to our vendor, and they’ll put it on line!.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Really simple!"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma";">And with that, I realized that my client was excited about a project which will probably increase costs while delivering little or no benefits.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<u><span style="font-family: "tahoma";">B) Some Nomenclature</span></u></div>
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<li class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span style="font-family: "tahoma";">Uniform Photographic Copies of Business and Public Records as Evidence Act (UPA) – This is the law which makes it legal to substitute electronic records for paper copies - and in fact, permits the destruction of the paper records in the normal course of business.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="font-family: "tahoma";"> </span><span style="color: blue; font-family: times new roman;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">See </span><a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/28/1732"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">this link for a legal citation</span><span style="font-family: tahoma;">.</span></a></span></span></span></li>
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<li class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: "tahoma";">Records Policy – a set of guidelines which defines how long you must keep any type of record in your organization and when you can destroy that record. </span></li>
<li class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: "tahoma";">Back File – This is your existing collection of paper records, most of which you never or rarely need to access.</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: "tahoma";">Day-Forward – This is the new paper you create day to day which is referred to often and must be accessible. </span></li>
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<u><span style="font-family: "tahoma";">C) The Economics of Scanning - Backfile Conversion</span></u></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma";">To figure out whether its economical to “go paperless”, I suggest dividing your universe of paper into two segments:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Backfile</b> and <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Day Forward</b>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lets look at the cost of storing your backfile as paper or in electronic format.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>We need to make a few assumptions which are:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma";">1) we’re working with a bankers box of about 10” high x 12”wide x 15” deep.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This box will contain 2000 to 2500 pages.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>PS: this box is about 1.04 cubic feet in size. Bankers boxes 24" deep will store 4500 to 5000 pages. (for other estimates - <a href="http://www.legalscans.com/estimator.html" target="_blank">see this resource</a>)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma";">2) A scanned page of paper will average 50k in size so a single box containing 2000 pages (15" deep) will require about 100 Mb of storage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>1 Gb of storage will accommodate about 10 boxes of scanned content. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma";">3) You can get a page of paper prepared and scanned for 8 cents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Remember - these are my assumptions and your costs may vary.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma";">4) 1 Gb of storage will cost you about $35 per month.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma";">The results are: </span></div>
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<li class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: "tahoma";">Cost to scan a box = $160.</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: "tahoma";">Cost to store the electronic version of the documents in 1 box = $3.50 per month. </span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma";">Compare the cost of scanning and storing a box to your cost of storing a box. Its probably cheaper to store the box.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma";">In the case of my client the storage costs include $1.50 to receive a box and about 25 cents per box per month to store it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are also retrieval, re-file, and destruction fees as well – this is why you may consider scanning boxes that are retrieved often.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<u><span style="font-family: "tahoma";">D) So Scanning the Backfile is Break-even or Often may Cost More – So Why Do it? </span></u></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma";">Under certain circumstances, it may pay to convert some or all of your backfile even though there are initial scanning costs and monthly storage costs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A few examples:</span></div>
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<li class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: "tahoma";">Is a portion of your business subject to time-limited requests for documents?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You may have no choice but to identify the specific documents subject to requests and invest in scanning and storing those documents.</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: "tahoma";">Are you the custodian of document records like wills and mortgages which must be accessible for very long periods.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In these examples the paper original may be required but its important to “back up” the paper by scanning the originals to electronic media <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">and</b> microfiche.</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: "tahoma";">Are there particular boxes that you seem to be constantly recalling from storage?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It may save you money and will certainly save you time if you scan these boxes and store the electronic versions on line. </span></li>
<li class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: "tahoma";">Are you implementing a records policy?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It may actually be easier to review and cull records in electronic format than in paper format because the electronic version may be indexed with helpful key words and may be full text searchable – making it possible to search and locate electronic records in ways simply not possible with paper documents.</span></li>
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<u><span style="font-family: "tahoma";">PART II – Day Forward and Workflow – Transforming your Organization</span></u></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma";">In my next post, I’ll discuss the benefits of going paperless and how it can transform your business into the efficient document machine you’ve always dreamed about. </span></div>
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Bill Lipnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01082262485259162610noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7225187839405996947.post-9858315578837855232011-01-20T08:33:00.001-05:002011-01-20T08:35:42.993-05:00Practicing Safe Text - PDF Security Myths and Misdemeanors-PART II<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">In Part I of this posting, we discussed "out of the box" PDF security and issues to be aware of. Part II summarizes measures you should consider when dealing with content worthy of security. </span></div>
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<u><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">SAFE TEXT – What to do</span></u><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">In this blog post we discuss Digital Certificates which provide a significant level of protection for PDF content and also review these out-of-the-box measures: </span></div>
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<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">become familiar with standard PDF security options which can significantly limit the ability of the typical user to modify your PDF document;</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Add watermarks to discourage converting your PDF file to MS Word with an OCR solution.</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><strong>Use an OPEN password</strong> since these tend to be very hard to crack, and help keep the document “hidden” (not viewed) until proper access is provided. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is perhaps the best solution in the “standard” arsenal of tools provided in PDF content solutions like <personname w:st="on">pdfDocs</personname> and Acrobat.</span></span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Even with these out of the box tools, there are third party tools which can circumvent PDF security.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So where does that leave you as a creator of PDF documents - why should you trust this document format?</span></div>
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<u><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">DIGITAL CERTIFICATES</span></u></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A PDF document provides a way of indicating that a PDF document has either been modified or has been entirely recreated from scratch to look like your original document, by using Digital Certificates.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">A digital certificate can be applied to a PDF with the use of a Certificate that you either generate through your Windows server or buy from a “trusted third party” organization like Verisign (just one example of many companies providing this solution).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Digital certificates can show a 'physical' signature on a document but more importantly, will calculates a value using all the digital bits and bytes in your documents using a complex mathematical algorithm, and thus create a checksum number on the PDF document. </span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When you and the recipient of the PDFlook at the PDF in Adobe Reader, it will display the digital signature and indicate who applied it and when, and will verify the check sum confirming that the document has not been modified since the digital certificate was applied.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPPf6q-NOiOvLHeZ-_MKqAKXhNw4KvRyWc138fZRLV_rkkqoytGXtwvXy8Ho6oV3jwviXs0xflboYJSByUiL-vCvQpeQn205us3yU1M2bQUgm7yKNnQpZSXf5UI0QQiWUvNOAjebLwLLsL/s1600/Digital+Signature.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="272" s5="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPPf6q-NOiOvLHeZ-_MKqAKXhNw4KvRyWc138fZRLV_rkkqoytGXtwvXy8Ho6oV3jwviXs0xflboYJSByUiL-vCvQpeQn205us3yU1M2bQUgm7yKNnQpZSXf5UI0QQiWUvNOAjebLwLLsL/s320/Digital+Signature.bmp" width="320" /></span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">If someone has un-secured your PDF document, the digital certificate will show that the document has been tampered with since the checksum won't match the bits and bytes now in the document.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The digital certificate cannot tell you where it was tampered with, or by whom, but at least you will know it has been tampered with and is no longer reliable. </span></div>
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<personname w:st="on"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">pdfDocs</span></personname><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"> provides for the ability to easily add digital certificates to a PDF, both from within the <personname w:st="on">pdfDocs</personname> Organizer application, but also directly from within many popular document management products by simply right-clicking on the document and 'signing' it - so this should be easy for everyone to do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">In summary, I still believe it is very worthwhile to use “out of the box” PDF security since it keeps 90% of people from editing your document – accidentally or otherwise. If you want to be sure that your documents are in their original format, apply a digital certificate to the PDF so you at least know the PDF you are reading has the information intended by the author.</span></div>
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<personname w:st="on"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Dean Sappey</span></i></personname><i><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"> is President and co-founder of Docscorp. Dean has a degree in computer science and has been developing technology used by law firms and accounting firms for the past 20 years. He currently manages the growth of Docscorp internationally whilst continuing to be involved in concept and workflow designs for new Docscorp software products. Docscorp has for the past 8 years developed and sold worldwide the <personname w:st="on">pdfDocs</personname> Solutions suite, to provide the creation, editing, manipulation of PDF documents integrated into workflows common to Document Management Professionals. </span></i></span>Bill Lipnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01082262485259162610noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7225187839405996947.post-86430683960441742982010-11-30T09:11:00.000-05:002010-11-30T09:11:58.941-05:00Practicing Safe Text - PDF Content Security Myths and Misdemeanors<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">With another release of information from Wikileaks, we’re reminded of the importance of information security policy and practice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This 2-part posting discusses PDF content security strengths and weaknesses and the importance of vigilance, and will guide you in developing a comprehensive PDF content security policy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">I’m pleased that <personname w:st="on">Dean Sappey</personname>, President of Docs Corp – is the contributing editor for Part I and II of this blog posting on PDF content security. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><strong>PART I – What is PDF Content Security</strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">PDF content is generally considered to be a more secure way to publish and share documents because the PDF standard allows several levels of security and several ways to apply security.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, as hard as we try to make content secure, there is no format which is truly secure against any and all risks and this includes PDF documents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<u><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">PASSWORDS</span></u></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">There are two types of passwords for PDF documents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first is called a “Master” password which controls access to security settings for editing, copying, and printing (as examples).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A second password is an “Open” password which is created by the PDF owner and must be supplied by a PDF user to open a PDF file. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Perhaps since the first password was created people have endevored to unlock them. Quite simply, there are tools available which can crack passwords.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is not a revolutionary notion but should be taken into account when securing PDF content.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As long as parties need or want to circumvent security measures – there will be parties providing software or services to facilitate that circumnavigation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since PDF security relies heavily on password protections it is not uncommon to hear of software designed for PDF password cracking or unlocking. </span></div>
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<u><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">SECURITY – Tier 1</span></u></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">PDFs created by solutions like <personname w:st="on">pdfDocs</personname> Desktop (Docs Corp) and Adobe provide the ability to add security to a PDF document which affects the “functionality” of the PDF document. This security relies on a “Master” document password and allows the creator of the document to:</span></div>
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<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">prevent the PDF from being edited, </span></li>
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<u><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">SECURITY – Tier 2</span></u></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Additional security can be added with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">digital certificates</i> and an <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">open password</i> .</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">A <u><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_key_certificate">digital certificate</a></u> can provide assurances about (a) who created the PDF document and (b) whether the document has been changed or tampered with in any way. A digital certificate” creates a numeric value when applied.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The numeric value takes into account all of the bits and settings within the PDF file.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The digital certificate will become invalid if the numeric value changes at any time after it is applied.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s the equivalent of a wax seal on a PDF.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Another important security measure is the<a href="http://help.adobe.com/en_US/Acrobat/9.0/3D/WSD012A4E1-51D1-4bcd-BA9F-EF03C6F20BB6.html"> “Open” password</a> which prevents a reader from even opening a PDF for viewing without a password.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This type of password tends to be much harder to ‘crack’ and – importantly – prevents viewing and reading (or screenshots etc..) without knowing the password. </span></div>
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<u><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">ADDING SECURITY – Tier 3</span></u></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Another level of security is found with 3<sup>rd</sup> party encryption options including <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pretty_Good_Privacy">PGP Security</a> but these options are beyond the scope of this posting.</span></div>
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<u><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">SUBTRACTING SECURITY – Where there is a Will there is a Way</span></u></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">While it is important as the creator of a PDF that you can rely on the fact that your PDF cannot be easily edited by the person receiving your document, it is also important to understand that in reality there is no way to completely ensure your document is never tampered with or recreated. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Many tech-savvy computer users have discovered a range of software products which allow you to remove the security applied to a protected PDF. These software products allow you to view and edit a PDF even if the PDF is secured because they can unlock the Master password.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Whilst these software products may break copyright and terms of use rules for PDF content, in my own personal view, they avoid being classified as illegal and prevented from selling their software primarily because their End User License Agreements stipulate that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">use is limited to unlocking documents that you own</i>. In other words, they stipulate that you should only unlock documents that you created and possibly just forgot the password of - and not use it to unlock any documents that you do not legally own. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">So be aware even when you create a PDF and secure it, the document can still be unlocked and modified by anyone willing to buy a commercial software application. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Speaking personally as President of Docscorp, it is my view that software should not allow this and for this reason <personname w:st="on">pdfDocs</personname> does not allow you to unlock a secured PDF (as is the case with Adobe Professional). Of course, even if there were no commercial software available to unlock PDFs, there would always be the hacker willing to provide products for this purpose. .</span></div>
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<u><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">SUBTRACTING SECURITY - OCR Conversion and Print Attribute</span></u></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">In reality, as long as a PDF can be <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">viewed without a password, </i>security is very hard to enforce because the properties of the PDF can be modified using commonly available programming languages.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Even without resorting to programming, if you can print the PDF to paper – you can scan it and use OCR software to convert the scanned file to PDF or MS Word.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Software products like <personname w:st="on">pdfDocs</personname> allow the user to take any scanned document and convert it quickly and easily to a full text-searchable PDF or to an editing format like MS Word - in a format that is almost identical to the original document. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">This means that even when a PDF is secured from editing, if the PDF can be printed then an almost exact replica of that document can be created using scanners and OCR software.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This further emphasizes the limited ability of security on PDFs to prevent changes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"> In the next blog posting, we’ll discuss some steps you can take to enforce the security of your PDF content. </span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial;">___________________________________________________________________</span></i></div>
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<personname w:st="on"><i><span style="font-family: Arial;">Dean Sappey</span></i></personname><i><span style="font-family: Arial;"> is President and co-founder of Docscorp. Dean has a degree in computer science and has been developing technology used by law firms and accounting firms for the past 20 years. He currently manages the growth of Docscorp internationally whilst continuing to be involved in concept and workflow designs for new Docscorp software products. Docscorp has for the past 8 years developed and sold worldwide the <personname w:st="on">pdfDocs</personname> Solutions suite, to provide the creation, editing, and manipulation of PDF documents integrated into workflows common to Document Management Professionals. </span></i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"></span></div>
</span>Bill Lipnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01082262485259162610noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7225187839405996947.post-49326833949354645152010-09-27T09:40:00.001-04:002014-03-14T11:47:23.950-04:00Sizing it Up - the mathematics behind scanned image file size<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">of the questions I often get is "why are my PDF files so large?!". This question typically refers to scanned-PDF files and we all know, usually from direct experience, that scanned color PDF files are larger than black and white, and high resolution files are larger than low resolution files. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj63JiStpOL9hi6p068n4widTN0J9RMEuNgS_vw1eBwEvukhA-0JhHZ8BzrluijtygMcA1kX0MBRnO1a-Mj4oG7jpRik4qpmPuALg7-zmzcAYZdz5TYMQKj5ScP0Z0R0flqPVGp1YhzR5_D/s1600/FunnelBrain.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj63JiStpOL9hi6p068n4widTN0J9RMEuNgS_vw1eBwEvukhA-0JhHZ8BzrluijtygMcA1kX0MBRnO1a-Mj4oG7jpRik4qpmPuALg7-zmzcAYZdz5TYMQKj5ScP0Z0R0flqPVGp1YhzR5_D/s1600/FunnelBrain.jpg" height="200" width="142" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><u><i>Here is the mathematics behind file size</i></u>. Understanding the math and the variables will give you a way to understand controlling file size. </span><br />
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<u><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I - By the Numbers</span></u><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A) 3 Dimensional Paper</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When paper is digitized, it becomes 3 dimensional. The three dimensions are height, width, and bit-depth. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">B) Bit Depth</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><strong>Bit-depth</strong> refers to the number of bits needed to represent each dot on the page. Black-and-White dots are 1 bit in size (on for black, off for white) while grayscale is 8 bits in size and colors are 24 bits in size. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">C) Dots Per Inch</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><strong>Dots per inch</strong> is controlled at the scanner and with software with 300 DPI being a common setting. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">D) Bits make Bytes</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As you know, 8 bits make up a single Byte of information (just reciting this for clarity).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">E) Compression</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To display an image, the raw data must be converted to a format which can be displayed in a PDF. Typical </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_format#Image_file_sizes"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">formats are TIFF or JPG</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">. TIFF was developed for fax transmission, where size matters especially back when faxing was invented and data moved over plain-old-telephone-signal wire. </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CCITT_Group_IV"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">TIFF-Group-IV</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> will compress an image at about 20:1 so its been a natural choice as an image format.</span><br />
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<u><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">II - How it Adds Up</span></u><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">See how things start to add up quickly and sometimes exponentially. Going from gray-scale to black-and-white will reduce your image size by a factor of 8. Going from 300 DPI to 200 DPI will shrink your image size by 1/3 - and will be just as readable.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Lets look at an example of a page scanned at 200 DPI. The formula works like this: </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A) <u>Image Size </u></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">example 8.5 x 11 = 93.5 square inches) </span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">B) <u>x DPI</u></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">example 200 x 200 = 40000 dots per inch x 93.5 sq inches = 3,740,000 dots per page</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">C) <u>x Bit Depth </u></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">example Black-and-White = 3,740,000 total bits at 200 DPI</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">example Gray-Scale = 29,920,000 total bits at 200 DPI </span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">D) <u>divided by 8 to convert to Bytes</u></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">example 200 DPI Black and White = 467,500 raw bytes</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">example 200 DPI Grayscale = 3,740,000 raw bytes</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">E) compressed for TIFF Group IV at 20:1</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">example 200 DPI Black and White = 23,375 bytes or 23K page size</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">example 200 DPI Grayscale = 187,000 bytes or 187k page size</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In the typical example of 300 DPI Black and White image, the math is: </span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">300 x 300 = 90000 dots per inch x 93.5 sq inches = 8,415,000 dots per page</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">8,415,000 dots (bits) divided by 8 = 1,051,875 bytes</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">TIFF Group IV compression of 20:1 yields a <b>byte size of 52,593 or 52K</b></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This should give you a clear picture of the factors affecting image size, and the impact of the variables you may decide to 'tweak' when attempting to manage image size. We are typically evaluating file size when dealing with electronic filings. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Other factors to consider when evaluating image file size is:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">how the images will be used since you may affect readability. There is a vast difference between viewing a page of type-written text, vs interpreting margin notes during a document review.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">what they will be viewed on . There is a vast difference between reading a scanned image on a laptop vs a large-screen-high-resolution monitor.</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A key question to evaluating a scanning project is .. how much paper do you have? <a href="http://www.legalscans.com/estimator.html" target="_blank">Here is a resource</a> to help you figure that out... </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Happy Scanning!</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Questions? Comments? Need Advice? Get in touch at <a href="mailto:bill.lipner@discoverypartners.us" target="_blank">Bill Lipner email</a></span></div>
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Bill Lipnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01082262485259162610noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7225187839405996947.post-26654792310804850802010-09-17T10:57:00.001-04:002010-09-17T11:21:20.484-04:00Free or Full Featured - Rightsizing Your PDF Content Solution<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Whether its free of full featured, how do you decide what PDF Content solution will best meet the needs of your firm? This is a bottom-line issue (meaning money) since you don’t want to spend too much on features your firm doesn’t need – or spend too much filling “gaps” if you don’t have certain features you need in your core solution. Perhaps this framework will help.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A – Litigation Support vs. Office Automation</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Start by dividing your assessment into two general areas – PDF content for<em> litigation support</em> and PDF content for everyone else – the <em>office automation</em> “universe”. The Litigation Support folks tend to need automation tools since their documents come in big batches of a similar type – on the office automation side of things, users work on relatively small batches of documents so a feature like document management integration may be vital to them. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">B – Work and Flow</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When thinking about PDF content in the office automation context, do you know have a good understanding of what users do with PDF content? A survey of help desk personnel and users (indeed power users but also average users) is a key step in understanding requirements for PDF content creation, editing, and management in your firm. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Examples – from a long list - of things to know: </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>CREATE:</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- why is paper scanned? (printing out MS Word to sign it for example..) </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- how is paper scanned and captured, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- who emails PDF attachments,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>EDIT</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- do they need to apply security to those attachments,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- do users need to combine files? If so – how is it done? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- do users need to split files? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- are users retyping PDF files for editing? (they need an OCR solution).. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- do users need to redact? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- do users need to Bates?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- do users create closing binders / deal binders / transaction binders ? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>MANAGE</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- are PDF files saved into your document repository? If so – how? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- are PDF files saved to My-Documents? If so – why?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- what is a typical workflow when the result is emailing as an attachment,</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Certain requirements will probably vary from one practice area to another – but you will find a wide range of functions that almost everyone in your firm needs to use. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">C - Legal Desktop Integration</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is a fairly big topic by itself so there’s the condensed version: Where do users spend 85% of their time? In Word and Outlook. What is your system of record? It’s your document repository or records management system. Its vital that your PDF content solution integrate well in these applications so users save time whenever they are creating – emailing – or saving PDF content.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">In my next post I'll drill into the areas of Convert to PDF, filling out forms, creating PDF binders, and advanced editing tools and what to look for. <em>Meanwhile - be sure to inquire if you need assistance with creating or executing a survey of your PDF content requirements. </em></span>Bill Lipnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01082262485259162610noreply@blogger.com