The Mac Lawyer

Guest Post :: Daylite Is Like Origami

Today, I am pleased to present the following Guest Post from Marnï "The MacAngel" Melrose, which she discusses Marketcircle's outstanding productivity suite, Daylite:

I’ve been teaching Lawyers and their staff how to use Daylite for seven years, and it just keeps getting better and better. I teach my clients to make Daylite their steel trap. Everything goes into Daylite, including their own personal lives, and their entire business is coordinated and conducted out of Daylite.

I really don't know of anything out there that can tie in everything like Daylite does in a multi-user environment at Daylite's price point on the Mac platform. Trust me, I have looked; I suffer from NGA (next greatest app disease) myself. And of course, Apple's App store in iTunes isn't helping me any with that. But as hard as I've searched, I still haven't found anything that can compete with Daylite. I've even found a way to follow David Allen's GTD "Getting Things Done" in Daylite. 

Daylite is like origami. 

What I do know is that Daylite is daunting for some folks, and I completely understand. Think of a blank piece of paper. What do you do with it? Well, it depends who you give it to. If you give it to most people they won't know what to do with it, they will "draw a blank". If you give it to someone who makes Origami, you are going to get a beautiful piece of art back. It's the same sheet of paper. You just have to know where to make the folds. Daylite is a lot like that. If you give it to me or another Daylite Partner, we know where to put the data so that you can get it out again in a useful manner. 

Of course, I'll be the first to admit that I am completely biased. In addition to teaching people how to use Daylite, I've actually been using Daylite in my own business for seven years. It is because of Daylite that my business has changed to what it is today. I used to go out and do general Mac tech support onsite with clients. Daylite helped me to see where most of my income was coming from and so in January of last year I started to shift my business focus to nothing but Daylite. 

How Lawyers Practice Law and Serve Clients with Macs -- Really!

As my readers are aware, I presented two seminars at the ABA TechShow 2008 this past March in Chicago.  One was "How Lawyers Practice Law and Serve Clients with Macs -- Really!" which I co=presented with Jeff Richardson.  Our written materials from that session were recently republished in the September 2008 Law Practice Today webzine, as follows:

While most lawyers are wedded to the PC, these two lawyers enumerate the advantages of the Mac, for work, for home, and for the pure enjoyment of it.

For over a decade, every one of the hundreds of press releases issued by Apple has ended by noting that “Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh.” Apple’s critical role in the early days of personal computers is beyond debate, but for a period of time in the 1990s, Apple seemed to have lost its way. Its computer lineup was confusing, its market share reached an all time low, the company’s stock price fell to $5 a share (in current share prices), and Dell CEO Michael Dell famously quipped that if he owned Apple, “I’d shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders.” 

Since then, the company has had a resurgence. Apple’s computers and software have received rave reviews, its market share is at the highest point since the Mac was first introduced in 1984, Apple has taken over the digital music market with the ubiquitous iPod, the company is already a formidable presence in the cell phone market with the iPhone introduced just last year, and at the time of this writing (January of 2008) Apple’s stock price has risen to over $200 a share.

With a record number of people now switching from PCs to Macs, the question for lawyers is: should you switch too? And if you do, should you maybe just switch for your home computer, or also for your office as well? Most importantly, what do you gain and what do you lose by making the switch?

DriveSavers to the Rescue!

Once upon a time back in the late summer of 2007, there was a Mac-using attorney was preparing to make a big presentation to a statewide legal association.  Everything was going well, until his hard drive spontaneously committed suicide only days before his presentation.  To make matters worse, this lawyer didn't have a recent backup of his hard drive.

After talking with the folks at AppleCare and visiting a Genius at his local Apple Store, this poor soul faced the sad reality that it seemed as though all of his data was lost.  Then, he learned about DriveSavers, and after discussing his situation with them, he decided to give them a try.  The ailing hard drive was shipped to California for diagnosis and testing, and after a few days, some of the once-lost data was recovered and returned to the lawyer.

There are many morals to this story:

1. Backup all of your critical data, and do it regularly.  There are several excellent backup programs, but I prefer SuperDuper! because it is very easy to use and it makes bootable copies of your hard drive.
2. Have a second alternative to your backups, such as OS X's built-in Time Machine.  Trust me, you can never be too safe with your data, and this second method is quick, easy, and invisible.
3. If you are faced with data loss, despite the two recommendations above, utlize a top-notch data recovery service, like DriveSavers.  They are not inexpensive by any means, but how much is your data worth to you?
4. Never admit that you were dumb enough to not have a backup of your data, even if it's blatantly obvious that your blog post was about yourself...

If you are interested in learning more about what goes into a data recovery company, you should read Macworld's interesting profile of DriveSavers, which was published last week.  It closely examines all aspects of the company, from its roots to its newest complex, and it features its use of Macs throughout its history.

Reflections and Recommendations on Notebook Cases and Sleeves

This past Spring, I decided that I wanted to stop carrying so much "stuff" with me every day.  Up to that point, I had been using an STM Alley shoulder bag every day, and I really liked it.  It was just big enough for my MacBook and most of the accessories I needed a daily basis or when traveling.  But when I thought about it, did I really need all of those things on a daily basis?  Video adapters, remote controls, USB drives, etc. were all nice to have, but I rarely used them except when traveling or doing presentations.

After looking at several sleeves, I decided to give the InCase Neoprene Sleeve a try.  Although very basic, it provided excellent protection for my MacBook, and it was very lightweight.  I could also squeeze a legal pad, very thin file, or magazine into the sleeve if necessary.  After a few months, I found myself wishing that it had a little pocket or some way to carry smaller items, but it was certainly more than adequate for its intended purpose.

When I got my MacBook Air in June, I decided to look for a new case. The InCase Sleeve would work fairly well, but it did not hug my new Air snugly enough for my taste since it was designed for the thicker MacBook.  Plus, I was still hoping to find something with that little pocket because I had gotten the Verizon 3G USB Modem, which I want to keep with me at all times.

After looking at all of the bags on the market at that time, I decided to give the Marware Sportfolio Sleeve a try.  This sleeve hugs the Air like a glove, providing excellent protection, and it has an external "Orca-skin" pocket which can snugly hold an iPhone, USB modem, or other similarly sized items.  The list price of this sleeve is less than $35, and I highly recommend it if you are looking for something that provides great protection along with a little bit of storage space.

Levelator Corrects Volume Levels

One of the programs mentioned on the MILO Podcast published earlier this week is Levelator.  This program adjusts the audio levels within your podcast or other audio file to compensate for variations from one speaker to the next.  It is cross-platform (OS X, Windows, or Linux), and it's free from The Conversations Network.  Macworld gave version 1.4.0 of this program 4 mice (out of 5), and my co-hosts swear by it.  You can check it out by clicking HERE.

Narrator Can Help Lawyers Review Documents

Macworld recently published an article on "Mac Gems" in which it mentions the program Narrator (v. 2.0.2) from Dejal.  This program utilizes speech synthesis to read out marked passages using specified voice attributes.  These voices can include not only OS X's built-in voices, but also a variety of others that can be downloaded.

Because the completed audio file can be exported to iTunes, you can listen to it on an iPod or iPhone, no matter where you are.  For attorneys, I believe that this program could be used in several ways, including speaking depositions.  You can quickly and easily assign voices for the attorney(s) and the deponent and listen to your depositions while away from the office.

Narrator earned 3.5 mice (out of 5) from Macworld, and you can learn much more about this product and even download a demo version by clicking HERE.

Parallels vs. VM Ware Fusion

For some time, I have had both VMWare Fusion and Parallels Desktop for Mac on my MacBook.  As part of my Mac "diet" to slim down the data on my hard drive, I decided that I would only have one virtualization program on the MacBook Air, so that meant that one had to go.

I have used both programs, and there are things that I like about each of them.  They offer very simliar features and options across the board.  However, I have used Parallels more frequently and for a longer period of time.  Nonetheless, I wanted to give Fusion a fair opportunity before making my final decision.

I used the VMWare Importer Tool to pull a copy of my Parallels "virtual pc" into Fusion so that I could compare apples to apples (no pun intended). It did a pretty good job, after about 40 minutes, of pulling all of the programs, etc. into a Fusion virtual machine.  I installed the "Tools" functionality in Fusion, and I then began my comparison.

Both virtual machines used approximately the same amount of disk space (21 GB).  Both took approximately the same amount of time to start up and allow me to begin using the Windows programs, and the programs themselves seemed to run at a comparable speed on both virtual machines. 

Unfortunately, the VMWare Importer did not bring my print settings into Fusion, which proved to be a huge problem.  In fact, I tried for over an hour to configure the settlngs to be able use our network printer at the office, but in the end I gave up.  To be fair to Fusion, I also tried to print from another Fusion virtual machine I had previously installed, and it wouldn't allow me to print either.

So in the end, I decided to stick with Parallels and not install Fusion on the MacBook Air.  It should not be so difficult to set up printing in Fusion, and that ultimately proved to be the tie-breaker for me.  I invite you to submit comments as to which virtualization option you prefer and why.

Office Suite Smackdown :: PowerPoint 2008 vs. Keynote '08

This is the final installment about Macworld's recent series of articles comparing Apple's iWork '08 and Microsoft Office 2008 to determine which is superior.  Here, we will take a look at Keynote '08 and PowerPoint 2008, as reviewed by Franklin Tessler.

Mr. Tessler found that Keynote’s workflow and overall feature set remain superior to PowerPoint.  However, he did note that PowerPoint has caught up to Keynote in many areas and surpassed it in some.  Personally, I have used both and I believe that Keynote is one of those programs that makes it worth getting a Mac to be able to use.

Source:  "PowerPoint 2008 vs. Keynote '08" by Franklin N. Tessler, published at Macworld.

Office Suite Smackdown :: Excel 2008 vs. Numbers '08

This is the second article about Macworld's series of articles that comparing Apple's iWork '08 programs with their Microsoft Office 2008 programs to determine which is better.  Rob Griffiths conducted this analysis of Numbers '08 versus Excel 2008.

Mr. Griffiths concluded that while Numbers can create a prettier spreadsheet, Excel is simpler to use.  Specifically, he found that Excel offers more formulas, features, and tools to help with actually building the spreadsheet. 

He specifically cited the following concerns about Numbers:  its inability to simply show a formula’s variables as you enter it; its lack of keyboard support in selecting ranges when you’re entering formulas; its lack of custom number and date formats; and its limited conditional formatting abilities.

Source:  "Excel 2008 vs. Numbers '08" by Rob Griffiths, published at Macworld.

Office Suite Smackdown :: Word 2008 vs. Pages '08

Macworld recently published a series of articles that compared Apple's iWork '08 products with their Microsoft Office 2008 counterparts to determine which was better. In the word processing segment, it was Jeffrey Battersby's analysis of Pages vs. Word.

Mr. Battersby concluded that unless you are changing the way a text document looks (where Word’s document themes offer a distinct advantage), Pages is equal to or better than Word for everything from basic word processing files to sophisticated page layouts.

Source:  "Word 2008 vs. Pages '08" by Jeffrey Battersby, published at Macworld.