Working offline with web based app’s

Google Gears (BETA)

There’s a lot of chatter these days about the death of the rich client PC. Google is making some strides with Google documents and Gears.

Are we facing a future in which we have a simple shell PC/Mac opertaing through a browser, with applications hosted by someone like Google and files stored in some super protected nuclear bunker-like server centre?

Aside from the technical issues, such as problems with offline/online synchronisation and whether the relative inexpense storage will leave the online application economically unecessary in the first place, there are some issues that seem to me to be insurmountable.

The fundamental problem for me stems out of my responsibilty to my client

Let’s say that I am working on a witness statement for my client. The future, some would say, sees  me using a web based word processor. It all looks great in practice, perhaps I am sharing it with my client over the internet and we are working on the draft together seemlessly integrating whether online or offline.

Sounds great, but there is one problem: privilege.

No matter how much a lawyer may want to use online applications his client will always have a veto. Why? The witness statement I mentioned above, is not mine. The property in the statement belongs to my client. Ok it might be on my files, it might, if it is say, a draft contract, never leave my office. I might be able to withhold it should my client not pay his or her fees. However, that changes nothing, the privacy or otherwise of that document is for my client to determine and not me.

So let’s say my client has some wonderful new technical process, say a web based word processing application, and he seeks my advice on whether it is patentable. Is he going to want me to have the details of that patent advice on an application that is hosted by another tech company? Is he going to be happy to have all his proprietary processes documented and stored on “Mega Secure Hosting Inc’s” servers?

Would a wealthy private family trust, that wants me to set up some off shore companies in order to save tax, think the same way?

How about an alcoholic wife beater in the throws of a divorce?

Or a suspected terrorist?

And even if all 3 of those examples I have just given were to agree I would have no choice in having to have a back up rich client in case that client number 4 did not.

This problem recently arose for me. I have some confidental disclosure from a defendant in a case I am working on. It was supplied to me in PDF form. It would have been nice to have my co-counsel look at it in electronic form over the web. I nearly uploaded the files. But the truth of the matter is, that as if I  had uploaded it there would have been an instant breach of confidence, I would have effectively shown 4Shared the document and unwittingly involved them in a breach of confidence.

I cannot see a way around this problem. And it goes much further. Commercial data is as jealously guarded as privleged material, just think:-

-personnel records

- banking and financial data

- medical records

- customer/price lists

- proprietary data

Manila Mail

Jeff’s Apps – ManilaMail

At last (for me at least) a simple menu bar item to control Mail. It’s lightweight, and best of all it’s free.

Pagico

Looks interesting. A combined, notes, contacts, files, folders, iCal organiser.

AllBookmarks…woot

I have bookmarks all over the shop. I have never been able to settle into using one browser consequently my bookmarks are a mess. I think bookmark salvation is in hand in the form of AllBookmarks. It’s a simple little app that sits in the menu bar and allows, via a neat menu system, to access your Safari, Camino, Firefox and Flock bookmarks. Really simple idea and works perfectly.

And it’s Free.

DocumentWallet: intial impressions.

DocumentWallet is produced by GGT enterprises based in San Diego. I downloaded the trial yesterday and have been playing with it since.

My intial impression? It’s a belter. I think I have found in DW something I have been looking for for a long time. These are some brief thoughts:-

1. The UI is simple and effective. It’s a classic three pane affair much like you’d see in Mail. On the left hand side is a column which sets out your main document collections: the main hierarchy of files. To the right sits a main navigation pane showing details of particular documents, below that is a preview pane.

Easy.

2. Setting up collections or folders of particular documents is as easy as creating new Mail folder. Not only that you can create smart collections based on the meta data you have entered for each document.

So once you have your documents in DW moving around them is beyond easy. But how easy is it to get your documents in there in first place?

Answer: about as simple as you could hope for.I tried it today and I ended up laughing at how easy it was. It’s not often software makes me smile, but DW did.

Let me explain:-

Last year I was acting for a Claimant in a fraud claim. When it came to disclosure from the Defendant I was confronted with 40 lever arch files of documents. Having a small office I decided to employ a contractor to scan the disclosure into pdfs. My hope was I would have a few DVDs and with just those I would navigate all those documents with nimble ease. Ha ha ha, I am such a fool.

When the contractor was done he gave me a bunchh of DVDs, which turned out to be basically useless.

The DVDs did not contain 40 pdf files, that is one for each folder, but many hundreds of files. The contractor had used a scanner with a 50 sheet maximum feed capacity. Each time a new batch of 50 pages was scanned a new file was created. Even worse the file naming protocol was inconsistent and it was impossible to tell how each pdf related to the other, without printing them out and checking each against the Defendant’s list of documents. Next to useless – no utter crapola is probably a better description.

The upshot was that I had to have all the files printed off and checked against the list of documents in order to recreate the hard copy originals. I ended up 40 lever arch files.

Anyway, I have another case pending against the same Defendant. So I thought I would see if DW could help me tidy up the files. And? Well, after an afternoon of learning how to use DW and experimenting with those files , totalling 4 gigabytes of pdfs, they are now in perfect order. That is a real testament to the power and simplicity of DW. How did DW allow me to do this?

1. When you import a bunch of files you can choose to import all as one file or as seperate files. Hence you can merge many seperate pdfs. For example I merged 398 pages of bank statements stored in 8 separate pdfs with one click of a mouse.

2. Once you create a file you can add to it. So when I found a further 200 pages of bank statements a little later on in the afternoon I added them to the 398 pages I mentioned above with no problems at all. So you can tootle along adding files, and as you spot stuff that needs to be merged with existing documents it’s simple. That feature is great for anyone wanting to keep an open file of, say, correspondence. You can simply open your existing file and scan in your new materials.

3 . As you import (whether by way of an scan or existing file) you are confronted with a dialogue box which asks you for data such as title, date etc. The data entry fields can be modified to suit your own needs. For example I have changed the default fields to “relevance”, “issues”, “source” and “tag” (more of the last one next). Data entry using this system is aided by auto-fill of fields fields. This can make the whole data entry process extremely rapid.

4. My initial instinct was to create a folder called “Defendant’s Disclosure” and drag and drop all of the files into it. However, I added the “tag” field which I used that to identify the documents as “Disclosure”. I then created a smart collection to hold anything tagged as the same. Simple. Smart collections can be made up from other fields, such as title, description etc much like you would an iTunes playlist. It’s so easy it’s almost a joke.

So my initial impressions have turned into a mini-essay. However, DW is that good. To be totally honest, if I never use DW again it will have been worth $30 just for tidying up 4 gigs of mess.

If I could add anything? I would like to be able to dump selected information from the document information pane to a printer. That way I could use DW to draw up lists of documents. Hey, but that’s not a complaint.

I am over the moon with DW. It sits alongside IGTD, Quicksilver, and Circus Ponies Notebook as simple cost effective and smart software that helps me. I have seen more sophisticated document management software, but what do I want that for? The simpler the better for me. I need documents to be accessible and useful to my case. I do not want document management for document management’s sake. But don’t take that as meaning DW is not sophisticated, it is, it just does not cloak its sophistication with complication.

Give the trial a go, you have nothing to lose but the clutter and mess of too much paperwork.

DocumentWallet

DocumentWallet looks like a good piece of software. In my line of work, commercial fraud, document management is fundamentally important. This is the developer’s blurb:-

So what is DocumentWallet? DocumentWallet is a Mac OS X program that allows you to scan in and manage your documents. When you scan in each document, you enter a few pieces of information about the document such as the title, category and sub category (as well as fields that you define) and then you can quickly and easily locate your documents. You can view the documents right on the screen, print them, email them, or save them as PDFs. In addition to the powerful search built into DocumentWallet, you can organize your documents into collections. These collections can contain whatever you want and even better than that is the ability to create smart collections that automatically create collections based on whatever criteria you like. For instance, you can create a smart collection that contains all of your manuals for your electronic components or one that contains documents for a certain case. The possibilities are endless

Looks good. Going to trial it and see how it fares.

IGTD version 1.4.0.1 available

Update to IGTD released.

IGTD

Being a naturally disorganised person I have tried all sorts of task list/to-do/diary/project management software. I am not however a natural GTD person. However, IGTD may be the answer to my prayers. This is what’s great about this little gem:

1. It’s free.

2. It’s very simple to use. Underpinning IGTD is the distinction between “contexts” ,”projects” and “tasks”. A context might be a label such a “home” or “work”. A “project” sits below a context and for me usually denotes a particular case. Tasks speak for themselves.

3. The inbox. For me just making sure I record what I have to do in the first place is problem. I can have something in my mind one minute, but if the phone goes I can lose it. Whilst many programs offer sophisticated tracking and task management, they often make the simple recording of a task more difficult than it should be. ITGD uses an inbox system which allows tasks to be created without too much hassle. This system works like a dream if you have the beyond-wonderful Quicksilver installed. If you do creating a task is as simple as hitting your quicksilver trigger, pressing “.”, typing your to-do out and then sending to IGTD, which in my case can be done by hitting “p”. Marvellous.

4 . Integration. IGTD integrates with Mail, Safari and more. Want to action a mail message? Simply pressing “fn” + “f6″ puts the message into your IGTD inbox.

5. Works with .Mac syncing.

This is an amazing little program. The developer, a young chap called Bartek, has nailed the fundamental issue: how to allow the user to record what needs to be done extremely rapidly in the first place.

Simplicity aside, IGTD has very sophisticated processing and reviewing features that allow tasks to be shaped once recorded: tasks can be delegated and made contingent on others.

Along with Quicksilver, IGTD is, for me essential. What’s quite amazing about IGTD is that the developer says that this is his first program. Can’t wait for more.

On more thing, it seems to me that GTD software is aimed at people who are already pretty good at GTD. This software seems to me to be one of the first that works for people who are not.

MS Office XML conversion utility

MS are moving to the .XML format. In the meantime you can use Office Open XML Converter. With it you can convert Office Open XML files to a format that is compatible with Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac and Microsoft Office v. X for Mac. You can choose to convert and open one file, or convert a large number of files.

This version of the Office Open XML Converter can convert the following Office Open XML file formats:

Word Document (*.docx)
Word Macro-Enabled Document (*.docm)
These files are converted to Rich Text Format (RTF), which can be opened in Microsoft Word 2004 and Microsoft Word X.

Get it here