Word’s Email Merge Feature: Tricky, But Handy
Have you ever wanted to send an email to a list of people, but personalize each one? Do you need a quick way to send your resume to over a hundred firms for your summer job search? Microsoft Word’s email merge feature will help you out.
Using email merge is pretty easy. All you do is type your document in Word. Then you select Tools > Letters and Mailings > Mail Merge. In the right pane, select “E-mail messages.” Simply follow the remaining prompts to complete your email merge. You will select a list …
Use Skype and PrettyMay for Automated Phone Messages
Have you ever needed to make several phone calls, saying the same thing during each call? Perhaps you needed to repeat your 15 second pitch while making networking contacts. Maybe you were calling a list of people to cancel a meeting or conference. Regardless of the reason, Skype and PrettyMay will help.
What’s Skype?
Skype is a way to make phone calls using your computer. You can learn a ton about it by going to official website or by checking out …
Picasa Provides Image Management for Lawyers
How do you organize and manage your images? Do you name them by hand, search for them in “thumbnail” view, and lose track of them more often than not? Picasa is the solution for you.
Provided by Google, Picasa is a free program that can organize, manage, and edit all of the images on your computer. You can “label” your images, organize them into folders, add descriptions, search for them, print them, and much more. All from within Picasa.
How does it work?…
LinkedIn Can Network Lawyers to Each Other and to Clients
I must be behind the times. I had never heard of LinkedIn until yesterday. If you are like me, you might be missing out on a great tool for lawyers.
What is it?
LinkedIn provides an online method to network. Simply register for a FREE account, enter a few facts about yourself (occupation, employers, education – as much or as little as you want), and you can instantly connect with people like yourself.
Minutes after I registered, I was able to see lawyers from both my summer firms, as well …
Properly Capitalize Excel Text With “Proper”
Today I was working on a huge Microsoft Excel spreadsheet that contained a column of law firm names. Most of these names were in all caps, instead of only capitalizing the first letter of each word and leaving the rest lowercase. I wanted them properly capitalized, so I struck out to find an easy way to do it.
Proper() to the rescue! Simply put, proper() converts text to its proper capitalization. All I had to do was something like “=proper(a1)” and the firm’s name was automatically converted to only having the first letter of each word capitalized. …
Using Outlook Tasks for “Getting Things Done” (GTD)
If the phrase “getting things done” (or GTD) is foreign to you, I would strongly suggest that you read up on it. Basically, it is a time management system that focuses on recording things that need to be done, getting them out of your mind, and letting you focus on the tasks at hand. There are tons of online resources on GTD, but I’ll just point you to Wikipedia’s entry.
Out of all the task management programs and systems there are, I am stuck to Microsoft Outlook. Why? Simply put, I …
Exchange Lawyer and Client Info – The Information Ring
How often do you forget to give (or get) a business card from a new person you just met? Perhaps you remember the person’s name, but you cannot find their phone number anywhere. Did you just meet a great new lawyer contact at a bar association gathering? Perhaps you ran into a potential client. With a simple handshake, your information needs are solved.
The “Information Ring”, from designer Hideaki Matsui, solves the problem of exchanging information between two people. Simply wear the ring and shake hands. As …
Print Anywhere Using PrinterAnywhere
Thanks to Law Student, I found this awesome new program that lets you print on your home printer from anywhere you have internet access: PrinterAnywhere.
Basically, you just install the program on your home computer that is connected to your printer, then set the printer to “shared” (within PrinterAnywhere). Then, you install the program on your mobile computer. Whenever you want to print using your home printer, simply use PrinterAnywhere to send your print job over the internet to your home printer. Neat, right?
Two Computers?!?!
The downside to this …
Instant Messaging in the Law Office
Got IM? Do you use an instant messaging program without your employer’s knowledge? Is IM crucial to your daily productivity? Could you survive a single day without your favorite IM program?
I ran across two articles today that intersect on this controversial subject. Thus, I wanted to highlight them and try to link them together. But first, let me be fair and mention that I have not used IM for about 4-5 years now. I am definitely not an IM proponent.
What do you do with it?
First, Web Worker Daily has an …
Being a Connected Lawyer, with Technology
Grant Griffiths has a great article over at Home Office Lawyer that explains his take on being a “connected” lawyer. Obviously, in today’s age, this entails effectively using technology to remain in contact with clients and courts. Two of his tips that I really like revolve around synchronizing multiple computers (to make sure all your files are up-to-date) and the virtue of using videoconferencing. This is definitely a must-read.
[tags]legal andrew, lawyer, attorney[/tags]
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About Andrew Flusche
Lawyer, bicyclist, husband.
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