Last week I shared Word tips and tricks from a technology CLE I presented to the Legal Staff Section of the Oregon Trial Lawyers Association. This week, I’m sharing “The Best of Acrobat” from the same program.
Best Blogs, Web Sites, and Newsletters
Where would we be without these resources? Gurus Unleashed personally helped me solve the mystery of the missing fields in my Acrobat e-mail archive. (See below.) And I’ve visited Rick Borstein and Ernie Svenson’s blogs innumerable times. Subscribe to the RSS Feeds, request e-mail updates, bookmark these pages, do something to keep in touch with these resources:
- Acrobat Users
- Ernie the Attorney
- Gurus Unleashed
- PDF for Lawyers
- Rick Borstein
- Tips and Tricks Newsletter
Best Tutorials and Webinars
Learning Acrobat is the next step. Whether you’re using Version 9 or X, check out these free resources:
For a modest price, my next choice for training is Lynda.com:
Acrobat X
I have upgraded my home and work computers to Acrobat X and am loving it so far. (Hopefully the subject of a future blog post.) For now please indulge me while I briefly RAVE about the PDF to Word conversion capability. On a scale of 0-10, 10 being perfect, it’s a 9.9. But don’t take my word for it (no pun intended), click here to download a free trial. To learn more about Acrobat X, check out this Webinar, “Top New Features for Legal Professionals,” courtesy of Rick Borstein. Ready to upgrade, but not sure which version is right for you? Adobe has prepared this convenient comparison chart.
If you’re a Reader user, I hope you get on board to the full program soon. But at the very least, you should install the free upgrade to Reader X.
Adobe eServices
Not everyone is familiar with Adobe’s various eServices. They offer a number of online collaboration tools, including conferencing, document sharing, and printing to PDF. While you’re on the Adobe site, be sure to check out eSignatures – a free, easy, secure way to sign documents electronically.
Just For Legal Professionals
Here are just a few of the great posts penned by Rick Borstein illustrating how Acrobat can be used effectively in a law office:
- Bates Stamping
- Case Analysis
- Commenting
- Document Comparison
- Federal Courts Moving to PDF/A
- Metadata
- Redaction
- Scanning & OCR
If you are an eCourt filer, take it a step further and bone up on these best practices and potential malpractice traps:
My Favorite Tips & Tricks
I’ve learned my share of lessons about how to effectively create forms in Acrobat. Here are some of my other favorite tips and tricks:
E-Mail Archiving
Acrobat can save e-mail to an indexed, searchable PDF portfolio.
Convert selected messages, or archive an entire folder using these buttons:
The portfolio automatically captures attachments. Read more here. But when you create an e-mail archive, something seems to be missing from the default column headers in the PDF portfolio:
To add To, Cc, Bcc, and other fields, right-click in the column header row of the PDF e-mail portfolio, choose View > and select the fields you wish to make visible.
Thanks Gurus Unleashed!
If a Form Isn’t Fillable, Use the Typewriter Tool
Click on Tools > Typewriter in Acrobat to make any form fillable.
Redaction
When redacting, always make a copy first. Otherwise, you may get unexpected results. (This goes for metadata removal too.) Read more here.
Use Batch Processing for Efficiency
How? Read this post. Why? Because batch processing is a quick, efficient way to OCR, optimize, index, and manipulate scanned PDFs in a paperless office – batch processes can be run on a folder of scanned documents, quickly applying optical character recognition, ClearScan, indexing, file optimization and more.
Related Articles and Blog Posts
Can’t get enough of Acrobat? Check out:
- Acrobat.com Mobile
- Acrobat Tips and Tricks from the Experts
- Expert Tech Training – Quick!
- Greening Your Law Practice
- Is Acrobat Really Necessary?
- Is It Time To Go Paper-Less?
- Outlook 2010 and Acrobat 9 Don’t Play Well Together (Yet)
- Metadata 101 – What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You
- Snail Mail in a Paperless Office
- The Dangers of Metadata
Copyright 2010 Beverly Michaelis
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