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Major Updates Coming this Year
The two major updates you can expect from us this year are:

• The mid-year Judicial Council Forms update release in June and
• The end-of-year legislative and 2010 Judicial Council forms release in December.

Future Enhancements
Federal Civil Litigation and Federal Criminal Defense - Watch for these two volumes to debut in the third and fourth quarters of this year.

Future WebUpdates
Our resources right now are focused on getting ready for our June Judicial Council Forms update release.

Past WebUpdates
Here is a review of the recent WebUpdates we provided to you:

• Local forms update - We updated local forms in the Conservatorships, Family Law, and Guardianships volumes.
  
• Workers’ Compensation - We updated the Stipulations with Request for Award form pursuant to user suggestions.
• Real Estate - We added the old HUD-1s back to this volume alongside the revised versions. We received a tremendous amount of negative feedback about the new forms. HUD is very clear that the new versions we shipped last month are the current versions and the old version is now outdated. However, they are allowing the use of the old HUD-1 through the end of the year. So, unless HUD changes directions, the new versions will be mandatory for everyone January 1, 2010.
• Lipman’s Wills & Trusts- We revised paragraph references in the Durable Power of Attorney forms.
• Certified Mailer Feature - We updated this feature so it correctly calculates your certified mail rate after the USPS new postage rates went into affect May 11.

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Since this update will rely heavily on the WebUpdate process we recommend that:

1. Each computer/server/laptop with a ProDoc installation should have Internet access. If all your computers are on a network, only the server needs access to the Internet for the WebUpdate.
2. You provide for high-speed Internet access. Some of our updates are quite large and a dial-up connection may be impractical. And, a dial-up connection requires that you establish your Internet connection before opening ProDoc in order for WebUpdate to work—easy to forget to do.

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Customer Questions from the Last WebNotes
The following questions were from ProDoc customers like you in response to last month's ProDoc WebNotes.

Q: We are receiving an error message in Word indicating the ProDoc macros have expired as of March 09.  How can we eliminate this message every time we open Word?
A: This is an easy fix. Open ProDoc. Then click on Customize - Options - Word Processor. Then click on Install a ProDoc® toolbar in Microsoft _ _ _ _ _. If you are asked if you want to replace an existing toolbar, click yes. This process will update the macro and you'll no longer see the error message.

Q: Does ProDoc offer eFiling services in California?
A: We offer eFiling in Texas through the state-wide eFiling system. However, nothing similar exists in California. A number of California jurisdictions provide their own eFiling options. And, a number of vendors enable attorneys to submit their filings to the vendor over the Internet and then the vendor files the documents at the courthouse for them. There is also the proprietary eFiling system that is in a pilot stage by the Division of Workers' Compensation (DWC). This is a proprietary system and filers have to go through that system to eFile documents to the DWC. And, yes, I expect that eFiling will be mandatory within a year or so—OCR faxing is probably only an intermediate step.

Q: Would love TIL to have prompts to input proper numbers with calculators. Would also love to have more options; i.e. principal reductions and stepped interest with calculators.
A: The TIL (Truth-In-Lending) features are on our long-term enhancement list but they are relatively low priority. We've also considered adding an amortization chart generator and payment calculator features but, in the meanwhile there are many free sites on the Internet for these purposes. Check out some of your options at: vertex42, Mortgage Calculators, MyAmortizationChart.com.

Q: I am using ProDoc for the first year of my law firm.  If I cancel my subscription at the end of the year, will the documents that I created this past year be deleted?
A: All the documents you draft in ProDoc will stay with you in the event you end your ProDoc subscription. Word processor documents will be in either .WPD, .DOC, or .RTF (depending on your word processor) and graphic forms will be in .PDF format. You can find those documents in the location specified in your ProDoc Options & Settings. The default location for this location is C:\Clients.

Q: When I was working with a colleague I noticed that his ProDoc looked really different from mine. Are there multiple versions of ProDoc available?
A: The different look in your two ProDocs is because one of you is using the Quick Start Assistant (QSA) to generate your documents. It simplifies the process but it prevents you from using many of the time saving features available to you in ProDoc. Let's assume that it is you that is using the QSA. To change to the Quick Click Menu method (much more efficient), do the following: Open ProDoc, click on Customize and then on Options. On the Options and Settings page, choose Miscellaneous Personal Settings in the Personal Settings area, and then click the button by Quick Click Menu (Advanced). Click OK to exit. You'll now be able to use additional time-saving features like default answer sets, forms sets, etc.

Q: Spacing/formatting issues, particularly in estate planning docs in Lipman’s, are a frustration. The wills, and trust documents frequently look very odd, with unnecessary spaces of 1/3 to ½ page sprinkled throughout the documents. What can be done to fix this?
A: This happens in Microsoft® Word only and is a formatting issue. There is a relatively easy fix on a document-by-document basis. Open the completed document, go to Edit, Select All (which highlights the entire document), then go to Format, Paragraph, Line and Page Breaks, and uncheck everything. You may need to double click on each box that is shaded green. You may also want to go back through the document and highlight certain provisions that you want to keep together. After highlighting any paragraphs you want to keep together, reverse the process and recheck Keep Lines Together and Keep with Next.

Submit your ProDoc question(s) >>

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This is a heads-up for you to prepare for those changes.

• Upgrading your computer operating system - If you are using ProDoc on a Windows® 98, Windows® NT, or Windows® ME operating system, you will need to upgrade it. We're releasing an enhancement to the ProDoc database that only runs on Windows® 2000, Windows® XP, or Window® Vista.

FYI, XP has reached the age that free service is no longer available for it. And, after early next year Microsoft will probably end all XP service except for providing critical updates for another year afterwards.

Internally, we are testing ProDoc on the new Microsoft 7 operating system that is a candidate for release and our team has good words for it - they like what they are seeing much better than they like Microsoft Vista.

• Moving to broadband internet service - You should have high-speed Internet access. Some of our updates are quite large and a dial-up connection will probably require a very long time to download the update. A dial-up connection also requires that you establish your Internet connection before opening ProDoc in order for WebUpdate to work.

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Customer Support: Fast and Professional Certified Mail
The ProDoc Certified Mailer feature makes it easy to print labels for certified mail.  You only need a printer and certified mailer forms.  You can select contacts from your database to include in the mailing and add contacts that are not in your database.  The program does the rest.

Read more about using the ProDoc Certified Mailer feature >>

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Practice Tip: Smaller Firms Think Outside the Box on Billing
Midsize and small firms, as well as solo practitioners in a wide range of practice areas, including patent law, animal law, business law and bankruptcy, are responding to the tanking economy by doing everything from adopting flat rates and packaging legal services to bartering their work in limited situations. This article comes to us in Law.com.

Read Smaller Firms Think Outside the Box on Billing >>

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Tech Tip: Controlling Spam in Your Inbox
Spam is the bane for everyone with an email account and a number of small firms tell us they need a way to control it. Here are several proven options for you to consider:

• POPFile -This is a free program that classifies email for you prior to it arriving in your inbox.
• MailWasher - The free version of this product enables you filter spam, view emails without fear of opening a virus, and even bounce back unwanted emails.
• SpamAid - It's low cost and it is a Microsoft Outlook® add-on designed to help you control spam.
• MyMail - If you want to reduce spam but are concerned spam filters hijacking important email, this may be the solution for you. The sender must verify him/herself before your email is delivered, something that spammers are not able to do.
• Sendio - Like MyMail, Sendio is a sender verification program that should enable valid email senders to email you without the fear of their email being hijacked by a spam filter.

There are many other options available that you may wish to research. Use a search term such as spam blocker review and you will find plenty of sites that contain reviews of various spam blocking options.

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Tech Tip: Save Money on Mobile Computing
Wi-Fi is great when you've found a hotspot. Aircards, however, offer greater roaming ability - and are expensive. If you have a Verizon wireless phone you have a free software option that enables you to gain internet access for your laptop computer through your cell phone. If you have an unlimited minutes plan, this solution means virtually free mobile Internet access.

• Learn about VZAccess Manager >>


• Download the free VZAccess Manager >>

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Tech Tip: Free Screen Capture Software
There are times you need to capture an image on your computer and the Windows Print Screen function just doesn't cut it. This is particularly true if you need just a small portion from the screen and you don't have image editing software to crop the screen capture to just what you need.

If it is a standalone image you can always right click on the image and save it. However, we are talking here about capturing a section of information from a web page in an image format that you can use elsewhere. That is when you need a screen capture tool. Here are a couple of freeware options for you to consider:

• ZScreen - This product enables you to capture full screen, window, and full screen images.


• ScreenHunter - This nice little free product has several handy features but the free version does not seem to have an adjustable region capture function so you capture only what you want on the screen.

Read reviews of other screen capture software products >>

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