Technicalities
By Pamela L. Crosby
If there are any of you who feel as
though your growing experiences with
today’s technologies is very much like a
trip with Alice down the rabbit hole, this
column is for you. Our purpose here is to
familiarize you with many of the features
present in today’s technologies that we
hope will make your day easier. We invite
your comments and suggestions as we
focus on improving skills and gaining new
perspectives on technology as it affects a
paralegal’s daily tasks. Keeping a Positive Outlook The following applies to Microsoft® Office
Outlook® 2003 and 2007. If you are like most paralegals, I will bet
you have occasions where you wonder
where your time—even your day—went.
How many times have you looked back on
your day and wished that you had some
way to keep track of all of the things you
did that day? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if
you could see how much time you spent
on each task you performed during the
day, regardless of whether you spent the
time (1) drafting or revising a document, (2) talking on the phone, or (3) taking that
elusive break? If you use Microsoft Outlook
2003 or 2007, you have access to a little
known feature that can grant—at least
partially—your wish.
Journal is a feature in Outlook that can record or keep track of the dates and times you (1) interacted with Outlook
contacts, (2) created or made revisions to Office documents, (3) participated in conversations, meetings, or remote sessions, or
(4) received faxes, meeting requests or cancellations, or a task request. You can also use it to simply take notes or to locate an
Office document you’ve worked on if you’ve forgotten where you saved it, because Journal not only remembers the date and time, but
it remembers the place where you stored the document. Maximizing Journal’s capabilities might require a few minor tweaks to your
routine, but I think you will find that these small initial investments in time provide a large payoff later. Here’s how:
Automatic Time Tracking. Journal can be set to automatically track the time you spend preparing, modifying, and
reviewing documents in Microsoft Office System programs (Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, etc.). To set Journal to track your
documents, select the Microsoft programs you wish it to track by clicking on the Tools menu in the main Outlook window and
selecting Options. Midway down the Preferences tab is a section entitled “Contact and Notes.” Located in that section is a
“Journal Options…” button. From the Journal Options window select which items, contacts, and files you wish Journal to record.
Once designated, Journal will faithfully track any tasks you perform that fall within these parameters.
Manual Entry of Documents. Want to record something that isn’t included as an automated item? Do you work on Corel®
WordPerfect® or OpenOffice.org documents? Would you like to record a telephone call? Need to jot down a quick note? Journal
can do all of that and more. Open Journal (you can click on “Go” in Outlook’s menu—you will find “Journal” at the bottom; the
shortcut keys are [Ctrl]+8, or you can add the Journal view button to the Navigation Pane by clicking Add or Remove Buttons at
the bottom of the Navigation Pane, then clicking Journal). Once Journal is open, click on “New,” and an untitled Journal Entry
will appear. Fill in the Subject and select the Entry Type from the drop down list. You can categorize your entries or, if you
would like to be able to sort your manual entries by a specific project or client, fill in the Company with the client’s name
or a couple of words that describe the project. Start the timer if you wish to time your entry. Save the entry when you are
finished and Journal will add the new entry to its database.
View Your Entries as a Timeline. The Timeline view is the default view in Journal. You can view your entries by Day
(including Today), Week, or Month. To change the view click on the appropriate button on Journal’s toolbar. You can also
change the way your timeline view (or any view) looks. To customize the view, click the View menu, point to Current View, then
click Customize Current View. Click Other Settings then select your desired options.
Tracking E-mails from a Specific Contact and Other Neat Things. Associating an Outlook contact with a Journal item
allows you to track emails from certain clients or contacts. If you use the predefined By Contact view in Journal you can
easily locate the items for a specific contact. You can also manually add travel time, expense items, or any type of item you
can think of to Journal to help you analyze and manage your time.
Viewing and Retrieving Information. Of course, just storing data is not the answer. Being able to use it effectively
is. At the end of a long day (or week!) when you suddenly realize that you have been busy every minute and not had time to
record your time, Journal can save the day. If you have set Journal to (at the very least) automatically track your documents,
you can go to Journal and review which documents you worked on and how long you worked on each one. This feature alone has
saved me many times.
If you would like more details on how to use Journal, Que Publishing has a sample chapter available to the public on their web
site that is entitled “Staying Organized With the Outlook Journal.” It is available as a PDF download at http://www.quepublishing.
com/content/images/0789729563/sa mplechapter/CH15_9563.pdf.
Developing a Loyal Entourage
The following applies to Microsoft® Entourage® 2004.
If your firm uses Macintosh® computers, you may be using Entourage rather than Outlook. Entourage is Microsoft’s email client
and personal information manager for Mac OS 8.5 and higher. Entourage 2004 introduced the Project Center, a feature that can
view—in a single location—any e-mail messages, notes, documents, or contacts related to a particular project. Project Center is
integrated with Word, Excel, and PowerPoint but you can also add documents other than those created in Office.
While Project Center has a few features that might be similar to Journal’s, it is not Outlook. The main focus of Entourage is
on keeping individual projects (and individuals!) organized and on schedule. Of course, a project can be anything that requires
planning—everything from preparing responses to discovery and document productions to coordinating an inhouse CLE seminar
sponsored by a vendor. Any event that needs planning and has deadlines can benefit from Project Center’s unique capabilities.
Project Center will handle many types of information connected to a project: contacts, calendar events, e-mail messages,
electronic documents, notes, and even scrapbook clips. Here are a few ways you can use Project Center to keep track of your tasks
and assignments:
Automatic Document Tracking. For each new project you set up, you can direct Project Center to automatically create
“Project Watch Folders” on your hard disk to store your project information. Project Watch Folders can help you stay organized
and on-schedule by storing Entourage messages and documents related to the project and tracking or “watching” for any changes
in these folders (whether items have been deleted, revised, or added). The two folders Entourage creates for each project are
the Entourage Project Watch Folder, which stores e-mail related to the project, and the Finder Project Watch Folder, which
contains documents and “aliases” or shortcuts to documents that are associated with or linked to the project but stored
elsewhere on your computer.
Once you have set up your project, one of the simplest ways to add a Note, Task or event to your project is to select or
highlight the item then click the Projects toolbar icon and select the project name from the list. You can, however, add more
than just Office documents to your project—you can add any preexisting item to your project. Manual Entry of Documents. The
Finder Project Watch Folder can store many types of documents associated with your project, including scrapbook clips and
files that have been created in applications other than Office applications. Adding documents to a project is quick and easy.
Click the Files tab in the Project Center. Click Add, then browse to the desired document and select it. You can also store a
document in the Finder Project Watch Folder by using the drag and drop method and once you do so, that document is
automatically associated with the project. By way of example, if you had downloaded some PDF files containing case law for a
project to a certain folder, to add these documents to your project you would simply drag the original document icon or its
alias into the Project Watch folder on your Desktop. Scrapbook clips can be assigned to a project by clicking on the clip to
select it, then clicking the Projects button in the Organize pane and selecting the desired project from the list.
View Your Entries as a Timeline. Project Center’s main page displays as a visual timeline covering a one week
period. If you use the Project Center to create a calendar event, that event is added to both your Entourage Calendar and your
project schedule on the Project Palette and becomes viewable from other Office applications.
To limit your view to those events that are associated with a particular project, click the Project Events button on the
Schedule tab. To restore your Calendar view to display all of your events, click the All Events button; both of these toggle
buttons are located on the right side of the screen above the calendar on the Schedule tab.
Tracking E-mails from a Specific
Contact and Other Neat Things. Entourage can be set to link to a
specific contact and automatically
“track” any messages sent to or
received from that contact. One of
the least confusing methods of
doing this is to open the contact’s
record in the Address Book, and
once the record for that contact is
open, click the Projects toolbar icon
and select the project’s name from
the list. To create reminders, use
tasks. For example, you might create
a task to remind you to make
hotel reservations for witnesses.
Create a new task by clicking New
and then clicking Task. Create a
name for the task and specify when
the task should be completed.
Another neat feature is the notes
feature. Since the Notes to Self box
is immediately visible in the upper-
right hand corner of the Project
Palette, you can use this area to help
you plan and also to remember a
prior train of thought. For instance,
you might want to jot a note to
yourself about collecting and establishing
a database of local vendors in
case of an emergency during an outof-
state trial. This feature makes it
much easier to pick up where you
left off last time you worked on your
project.
Viewing and Retrieving Information.
Although Project Center is a component of
Entourage, it is accessible from any of the
Office applications. To view a list of all the
projects you have created, click the Project
Center icon in Entourage. To open any of
the files you’ve associated with a project,
just go to the Project Center’s File tab and
double-click the filename. If you think the file list is out of synch or not showing all
of the files you’ve associated with your
project, click the Refresh button on the
Files tab.
Finally, at the bottom of the Project
Palette is a customizable list that you can
use to display new and recent e-mail messages,
tasks due this week or past due,
items from categories that you specify,
important Entourage or Microsoft Messenger
contacts, and recent notes or files.
This is a handy way to give prominence to
certain types of information that you most
want to keep an eye on while you are
monitoring your project.
More on the use of Macs and Microsoft
Office 2004 in a law office can be found at
Ben Stevens’ web site and blog at
http://www.themaclawyer.com/the_mac_la
wyer/2006/10/source_mac_offi.html. You
may also be interested in joining the Macs
In Law Offices group at http://groups.
google.com/group/milogroup. Taking advantage of the tools available
to you is not only smart, it is essential to
your success. If you have not already used
the Journal feature in Outlook or the Project
Center in Entourage, try it out. One
recovered time entry for preparation of an
Excel spreadsheet or a Word document
might convince you that the time you
spent setting up Journal was worth it. And
being able to locate that crucial document
for your boss within moments of his
request to find it may convince you that
Project Center was just the assist you needed
to help you stay organized and productive.
And while it may not truly be magic,
your attorneys may think your improved
productivity is. Pamela Crosby is a Litigation/Trial Paralegal
for Kessler & Collins, P.C. in Dallas,
Texas. Microsoft, Microsoft Office Outlook,
and Entourage are registered trademarks of
Microsoft Corporation in the United States
and other countries. Corel and WordPerfect
are trademarks or registered trademarks of
Corel Corporation and/or its subsidiaries in
Canada, the United States and/or other
countries. Mac and Mac OS are trademarks
of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and
other countries. All other trademarks are
the property of their respective owners. |
