Category Archives: Computer Tips, Tricks, and Tools

Link of the Day – Tips For Managing Your E-mail

Written On November 8, 2007 By Bob Kraft

Courtesy of The Hamster Revolution Web site, here are some tips for managing your e-mail. We all seem to be drowning in e-mail these days, constantly battling spam and hoping that the important message manage to survive our filters. These tips will help you spend less time and still accomplish your purposes with e-mail.
•Send less. [...]

Posted in Computer Tips, Tricks, and Tools, Link of the Day

Link of the Day – Distraction-Free Writing (For Mac Users)

Written On October 14, 2007 By Bob Kraft

I don’t use Apple computers, although I’m more and more tempted to make the switch. I came across this very simple program for Mac user. All it does is block out everything else on your screen except a word processing program. The idea is to help those of us who are too easily distracted by [...]

Posted in Computer Tips, Tricks, and Tools, Practice Tips

Link of the Day – E-mail Disclaimer Doesn’t Do The Job

Written On October 11, 2007 By Bob Kraft

No offense, but I’ve always thought that legal disclaimers on e-mail messages are silly. And disclaimers on messages sent to listservs are just plain dumb.
The Dallas Morning News had an interesting column yesterday about such disclaimers, and how they may be ineffective. Here are excerpts.
Do you protect your e-mails with a disclaimer at the bottom [...]

Posted in Computer Tips, Tricks, and Tools, Link of the Day, Practice Tips

Link of the Day – Fix Your Computer Addictions

Written On October 9, 2007 By Bob Kraft

OK, I admit it — I’m addicted to e-mail. I live and breathe e-mail, and it can interfere with getting other work done. Do you have a computer addiction? Is it the Internet? Solitaire? Well, whetter it is, there’s a fix for it. Not a cure, but at least a temporary fix.
SourceForge has written a [...]

Posted in Computer Tips, Tricks, and Tools, Practice Tips

Link of the Day – One Laptop Per Child

Written On October 7, 2007 By Bob Kraft

This has nothing at all to do with personal injury clients and Social Security disability claimants, but One Laptop Per Child is a fascinating project that I’ve been following for a while now. The goal is to help educate all the children in the world, and one step in the project is to give every [...]

Posted in Computer Tips, Tricks, and Tools, Consumer Information

Link of the Day – Zoho Alternative To Microsoft Office Suite

Written On August 28, 2007 By Bob Kraft

As the price of Microsoft Office continues to rise, more people are turning to alternative programs to handle their word process, spreadsheets, and other software applications. One of the more interesting alternatives is Zoho.
According to their Web site, Zoho contains:
Online word processor with collaboration features.
Online spreadsheet application to create and share spreadsheets on the web. [...]

Posted in Computer Tips, Tricks, and Tools, Link of the Day

Link of the Day – Microsoft Photo Info Program

Written On August 18, 2007 By Bob Kraft

Whether you’re a personal injury lawyer, a Social Security disability claimant representative, or simply a consumer cataloging family photos, Microsoft Photo Info allows you to imbed information such as names and details within the photo file. Then when you view the digital photo in Windows Explorer, all the imbedded information is there for you to [...]

Posted in Computer Tips, Tricks, and Tools, Link of the Day

Link of the Day – Spam Filter Traps Law Firms Must Avoid

Written On July 23, 2007 By Bob Kraft

The delightful Jim Calloway, in his great Law Practice Tips Blog has a recent message that every lawyer should read. Jim talks about a firm that had important e-mail correspondence from a court get lost to the firm’s spam filter. As a result, the firm was hit with a large sanctions judgment. Don’t get trapped [...]

Posted in Computer Tips, Tricks, and Tools, Legal Blogs, Link of the Day, Practice Tips

Link of the Day – Google Maps Adds Great New Feature

Written On July 16, 2007 By Bob Kraft

I love Google Maps, and it saves me tons of time. But one frustration with it has been that I don’t always like the route it chooses between two addresses. Now Google Maps lets you drag and drop the route guide, so you can fine-tune the route. It’s fun — check it out.

Posted in Computer Tips, Tricks, and Tools, Internet Research or News, Link of the Day

Link of the Day – OldVersion.com

Written On July 15, 2007 By Bob Kraft

Have you ever upgraded a software program to the newest version and then regretted it? Unfortunately, newer isn’t always better in the software world. I appreciate my friend Tom Mighell pointing out the Web site OldVersion.com. Here you’ll find older versions of various Internet browsers, computer utility programs, multimedia programs, and many more.

Posted in Computer Tips, Tricks, and Tools, Link of the Day

Link of the Day – Law Office Software

Written On July 1, 2007 By Bob Kraft

If you’re a lawyer thinking about any type of law office software, whether accounting, case management, or anything else, chances are you’re find a link to it on the law office software page of Legal Research Services.

Posted in Computer Tips, Tricks, and Tools, Link of the Day, Practice Tips

Link of the Day – Digital Dictation

Written On May 12, 2007 By Bob Kraft

Not only personal injury lawyers, but business people and consumers are using digital dictation for a wide variety of reasons. Everything you could ever want to know about digital diction is available at StartStop.com.

Posted in Computer Tips, Tricks, and Tools, Link of the Day, Practice Tips

Link of the Day – PCHell.com

Written On April 30, 2007 By Bob Kraft

PCHell.com is a cleverly named site with tons of tips and tricks for those of us who seem to be in perpetual turmoil due to computer problems. Here is the description from the site:
Everyone has been to PC Hell at one time or another. It’s that place you visit when your personal computer is driving [...]

Posted in Computer Tips, Tricks, and Tools, Link of the Day

Link of the Day – Acrobat For Legal Professionals

Written On April 21, 2007 By Bob Kraft

Adobe Acrobat has swept through the legal community the past few years, and has gone from a helpful tool, to a de facto standard, to a near-mandatory format. If you practice law and you’re not using Acrobat, or not using it to its full potential, you’re just asking for trouble these days.
Among the many sources [...]

Posted in Computer Tips, Tricks, and Tools, Link of the Day, Practice Tips

Link of the Day – LoJack for Laptops

Written On April 17, 2007 By Bob Kraft

If you’re like me, your whole life is in your laptop. That’s fine if you never let it out of your sight. But for those worried about their laptop being stolen, there’s LoJack for Laptops. It’s exactly what it sounds like, and you pay for it with an annual subscription.

Posted in Computer Tips, Tricks, and Tools, Link of the Day

Link of the Day – Make Your Own Google Maps

Written On April 11, 2007 By Bob Kraft

Beginning Thursday, Google Maps will have an exciting new feature — it will (supposedly) be easy to great your own "mashup," or customized Google map. You can make the maps public or private, so you could make a map of the locations of your best clients or customers, your favorite restaurants, hotels, friends, etc. This [...]

Posted in Computer Tips, Tricks, and Tools, Link of the Day

Link of the Day – Blackle

Written On April 8, 2007 By Bob Kraft

Are you such a Green Earth fanatic that you even want to save electricity when you do Internet searches? If so, Blackle is for you. What is it? Why, it’s Google with a black screen! That’s supposed to save electricity because it takes less energy to show a black screen than a white screen.

Posted in Computer Tips, Tricks, and Tools, Internet Research or News, Link of the Day

Link of the Day – Planet PDF

Written On April 5, 2007 By Bob Kraft

Adobe Acrobat seems to be taking over the computing world — for lawyers, publishers, and many others. How can you find all the latest information about tips and tricks for using Acrobat? Visit Planet PDF. Here’s a description from the site:
Planet PDF caters to anyone and everyone with an interest in PDF – from professional [...]

Posted in Computer Tips, Tricks, and Tools, Link of the Day

Link of the Day – Computer File Conversion Utility

Written On February 13, 2007 By Bob Kraft

Everyone sometimes needs to convert a computer file from one format to another — such as gif to jpg or PDF to doc. Zamzar is a free file conversion Web site that claims to handle as many as 150 file formats.

Posted in Computer Tips, Tricks, and Tools, Link of the Day

Link of the Day – Google Earth, Version 4

Written On January 14, 2007 By Bob Kraft

The latest version of the marvelous Google Earth program is available for download. Besides being great fun to play with, Google Earth is helpful to personal injury lawyers for getting aerial views of accident locations, among many other uses.

Posted in Computer Tips, Tricks, and Tools, Internet Research or News, Link of the Day