Non-standard windows, such as Time Matters, seem to work best with a combination of spoken commands and mouse positioning. I noticed that Dragon NaturallySpeaking tends to favor commands that are actual word commands. By this, I don’t mean Microsoft word commands per se, but commands such as “File, save and close”. It does less well with picture icons or long, nonstandard, picklists. This may be a matter of training-my training Dragon, I mean. I was quite excited, however, when I successfully created a step-by-step command that allowed me to create a bill slip from an event record in Time Mattters. Still, it required that I highlight the actual event to to create the bill slip.
I’ve found so far that the Step-by-Step keystroke commands work the best in Time Matters. I’ve managed to create some useful new record commands and saving commands. The “Give Me Help” command is a G_dsend - the index is very easy to work with.
]]>In building document assembly interviews, I am constrained to balance simplicity of design with the complexity of reality. Make an estate planning system TOO SIMPLE, and the templates it produces will only be functional 80% of the time, requiring constant vigilance and tweaks of the final Word document. Make it too complex and the user will not know how to answer particular questions that appear unfamiliar out of the context of the documents they used to edit manually. The solution that I have come up with is a balancing act. Rather than push the complexity under the rug with a wizard, I script the dialogs with an “advanced” option that allows you to expose more complex questions in a particular area. Questions are carefully grouped under headers. There is help text both associated with the variables and on the dialog. With document assembly tools I can also add constraints that prevent bad data from being enter, such as an “division of assets” that might exceed 100%.
]]>Sometimes, Dragon NaturallySpeaking will mistake words for commands. For instance, when I used the word “tone”, Dragon read this as “Home” and proceeded to fly up to the “Home” key, ready to click. There are a few ways that I have noted that will allow you to avoid this issue. When you dictate a word that is read incorrectly more than once, you can use the “spell that” function to “train” your computer to understand the way you intone a particular word. If you mean to use a command, you can hold down the control (CTRL) key and Dragon NaturallySpeaking will understand that you do not intend to dictate that as a word. I have noticed that speaking in phrases of 3 words together with a pause after each tends to minimize the errors.. The best way, although probably not the easiest or fastest way, is to create user commands that will give you different ways of asking for common commands such as end of line or inserting a commonly used address.
]]>Having passed my exam, I decided to spend a week with the Dragon.
On Monday, I started. First impressions. Much like wizarding skills, working with Dragon is exceptionally cool but mastering it does require a degree of patience. Not because the program is difficult to learn-far from it. It is one of the most easy to master out-of-the-box products I have seen recently, The difficulty stems more from the wizard than the wand. However, if you can stick with it, I am assured that it can speed up your work considerably. I can already tell that my searches, whether on the Web or in my computer are considerably faster using Dragon Soft. Check back tomorrow for my further adventures talking back to my computer.
]]>This is all done without substantially altering the familiar look and feel of Amicus. But in the process, it truly transforms the product. Gone are the limit of 50 custom fields for Files and 20 custom fields for contacts (assuming of course you are using Premium Edition). In preparation for the session I prepared 3 custom pages with a total of 100 custom fields of various types including dates, picklists, checkboxes, text, and memo fields. I also added custom pages for contacts on the file. And I created two new record types. It was all done rapidly. I was able to define the field names, the prompts, the size of the text boxes, the location on the page, and even use alignment fields to make everything “pretty”. I was also able to add text label boxes to provide further clarification.
The fun begins
This would have been enough, but the focus of my presentation was document assembly. Amicus lets you access all the fields, including custom fields, in both “merge templates” and through HotDocs. The merge template builder gives you access to the custom data on the file with fields grouped by file type. If you are “rigorous” on your field naming, your field lists can self organize by subject area.
As for HotDocs, Amicus takes full advantage of the HotDocs API. You can use a default “map file” which will automatically create a HotDocs component file will all the data on the file (with the exception of custom records at the present time). This include all matter data, including custom fields, all data on the “primary client” including custom fields, basic information on people on file (in a repeat) and special fields for data on events, tasks, notes, calls etc. It creates a CMP file and will generate the requisite answer file without any mapping required. That doesn’t prevent you from creating your own custom maps to an existing set of HotDocs templates. Nor does it prevent an advanced HotDocs developer from creating his or her own master component file and using an INSERT command to bring the interview into the template.
Even more exciting is the ability made possible by SQL Server that ships with Premium Edition. You can create a database component in HotDocs and “query” the database for any data that is not coming over automatically. You can use the Short Filename in your query to go back and grab more related data. Or, you can build your own dynamic reporting system.
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ActiveDocs Opus facilitates the simple and effective creation of your essential business documents and the automation of a wide range of mission critical communications. A scalable, affordable, high-performance document production solution, ActiveDocs Opus enables you to quickly create accurate, professional documents that meet a variety of business needs.
Business Integrity launches ContractExpress.com, the world’s first premium document assembly product to be delivered exclusively as “software as a service,” requiring no set-up costs or infrastructure. ContractExpress.com builds on Business Integrity’s trusted DealBuilder technology, which is used by many of the world’s leading law firms and corporate legal departments.
- Rapidly automates legal and business documents
- Creates dynamic and interactive interviews
- Delivers to end-users instantly in the browser
- Displays real time document changes live to the user
- Supports all popular web browsers
- Handles both text and PDF forms
- Offers ‘try before you buy’ technology for your customers
Exari accelerates your contracts, reduces costs and risks, and streamlines authoring complex documents. .... With Exari, business people create their own legally pre-approved documents and agreements by completing a web-browser interview. It eliminates the need to wait for the legal department while still providing legal compliance and contract visibility. Exari saves time, lowers costs, improves document quality and minimizes risk. Exari contract creation and contract management solutions are used by leading companies to automate various document types including those used in sales, insurance, and banking.
GhostFill is no longer offered directly for sale. However, GhostFill is embedded in several applications, including AIA Forms, DWTA, and Nebraska Probate System V.
GhostFill is one of Korbitec’s flagship document assembly software engines, and has over the last decade been utilized in thousands of document-centric software solutions at law firms, banks, publishers and other institutions, world-wide.
Napersoft CCM (Customer Communication Management) solutions streamline business processes for document creation, personalization, publishing, distribution and archiving. Quickly & easily create complex real-time customer documents, including correspondence, letters, emails, notices, alerts and confirmations and distribute them via print, email or the Web.
Pathagoras™ is a multi-faceted document authoring tool. First and foremost, Pathagoras is a ‘Plain-text based’ document automation system. In just two clicks, using your current collection of documents, Pathagoras can present a list of forms or clauses on a designated topic. From that list, you would select an appropriate form, group of forms, or a subset of clauses to be assembled One more click presents your selections, fully assembled, onto the editing screen for final processing. No complex or time consuming setups are required. You can create automated documents within 5 minutes of installation. You will begin cutting document produc-tion time immediately.
PowerReuse is a document assembly software designed for boosting productivity for professionals (lawyers, insurance agents, real estate agents, project managers, sales, marketers and consultants) in small and medium-sized companies. Taking advantage of its patent pending technology, it organizes related Word, Excel and PowerPoint files into projects for better accessibility, updates many documents at a time and pastes pieces of text from the created library by simple drag & drop. The functions ensure accuracy and consistency of all your documents.
[With the CorrespondNOW module] customer communications are as personal as they get with this module, which allows you to create individual ‘ad hoc’ communications quickly and simply. Streamline correspondence creation, allowing your customer service teams to respond more quickly and efficiently to customer inquiries while bringing new levels of control to the desktop.
]]>WordFusion is an advanced web-based Document Assembly Platform. In very simple terms, WordFusion allows you to automate document templates, and then distribute them within your organisation or across the internet. WordFusion also provides work-flow management for the preparation, review, payment and finalisation of documents. This enables professionals from a number of disciplines to effectively collaborate on the production of a document. In essence, WordFusion is a project management tool, to connect you with your clients and other professional partners, to efficiently collaborate on the production of sophisticated and high-value documents.
In many cases, each attorney has his or her own assembly space. Each attorney or paralegal organizes his space differently, populating it with different parts. The actual organization is generally understood only by the individual. The implication is that the individual can be more efficient, but the individual is not easily replaced. And moreover, the individual cannot dramatically improve his productivity. Gains in productivity are “incremental” as opposed to arithmetic or exponential. These “workspaces” are often confined to the users “computer profile” which stores their favorite documents.
To help lawyers in these efforts, there are features of Microsoft Word and WordPerfect. There are some add-on tools that amounts to clause libraries with fill-in fields. These adhoc tools enable the skilled practitioner to be more efficient; but also entail a great deal of technical learning to accomplish for fairly limited productivity gains. This piecemeal approach to document production is doomed to limited gains. Such programs as Pathagoras, Microsystems D3, Ixio qShift, ThinkDocs, ClauseBank all embodied this approach.
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