25 Technology Tips for Illinois Legal Aid Advocates Gwen Daniels gdaniels@illinoislegalaid.org...

25 Technology Tips for Illinois Legal Aid Advocates

Gwen Danielsgdaniels@illinoislegalaid.org

Illinois Legal Aid Online

Resources For Legal Information & CLE

1. Getting MCLE Credit for Free

•http://www.illinoislegaladvocate.org/mcle•Free:

▫Archived webcasts with free MCLE credit▫Live webcasts with free MCLE credit▫PLI audio and webcasts with free MCLE

credit▫CBF Legal Aid Academy in person trainings

with free MCLE credit

2. Communicate Through the Discussion Groups•Sign up to Listservs through “My

Subscriptions”•Participate via email•Participate via discussion group tab•Archives posted to discussion groups

3. Online Legal Resources▫ Cornell University’s Legal Information Ins

titute▫ ABA’s LawLink▫ ABA Law Blawgs Directory▫ National Support & Law News Feeds

4. Work Faster With HotDocs

•HotDocs interviews ask questions to fill out forms

•Save client answer files to use again for future documents

•Attorney HotDocs produce text files that can be edited

For Attorneys

Advocate forms include:•Divorce•Simple Will•Civil Procedure Forms•Powers of Attorney

Advocate LibraryPro Se Library

For Clients

Client forms include:•Divorce•Orders of Protection•Guardianship•Fee Waiver•Security Deposits

Working with What You Have: Tips for Getting More out of Office & Google

5. Outlook – Calculate “Tickler” Dates•Use special instructions in “Start Time” to

calculate important dates!

Outlook – Syntax for Calculating “Tickler” Dates

• Days▫30 days before 3/23/2010▫30 days after 3/23/2010

• Weeks▫6 weeks before 3/23/2010 [or 6 wk before

3/23/2010]▫6 weeks after 3/23/2010 [or 6 wk after 3/23/2010]

• Months▫5 months before 3/23/2010 [or 5 mo before

3/23/2010]▫5 months after 3/23/2010 [or 5 mo after 3/23/2010]

6. Four Ways To Better Manage Your Inbox•Flag Email that Needs Follow-Up and A

Task Will Automatically Be Created•Use Categories to Group Emails with

Visible Color-coding•Use Folders to Organize Information•Create filters to keep less important email

out of your inbox•More tips:

Managing Information Overload

7. Keyboard Short-cuts: The Standard Short-cuts “You should know by now”

Short-cuts

Open a new word doc; Open a previously saved doc

Ctrl+N; Ctrl+O

Closes the active window, but does not Exit Word Ctrl+W

Closes Microsoft Word (or other open program) Alt+F4

Searches for specified text in the active document Ctrl+F

Selects all text and graphics in the active window Ctrl+A

Remove selection from active document (place on clipboard)

Ctrl+X

Copies the selection to the clipboard Ctrl+C

Inserts the contents of the clipboard at the insertion point (cursor) or whatever is selected

Ctrl+V

Saves active document with its current file name, location and format

Ctrl+S

Prints the active file Ctrl+P

Undo the last action. Reinstate the last action. Ctrl+Z; Ctrl+Y

Format / Unformat text (Bold, Italic, Underline) Ctrl+B, Ctrl+I, Ctrl+U

Word Keyboard Shortcuts

Keyboard Short-cuts: Diacritic MarksDiacritic Mark Keyboard Short-cut

The acute accent – (café or fiancé)

Ctrl+ ' (quote) before typing the vowel.

The grave accent - (là or où) Use Ctrl+ ` (tick) before typing the vowel.

The circumflex accent – (côte, fête)

Use Ctrl+Shift+ ^ before typing the vowel

The tilde - (piñata, jalapeño) Use Ctrl+Shift+ ~ before typing the letter.

The umlaut- (Chloë, naïve) Use Ctrl+Shift+ : (colon) before the vowel

The cedilla – (façade, soupçon)

Use Ctrl+ , (comma) before the letter

The ring – (the Angstorm symbol - Å)

Use Ctrl+Shift+@ before the letter

The compound AE - (hæmoglobin)

Use Ctrl+ & before a

The German S - (straße) Use Ctrl + & + s

8. Find Information Faster With Desktop Search

9. Getting More out of Google

•Set your preferences: http://www.google.com/preferences?hl=en

•Use the Advanced Search: http://www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en

10: Specialized Searches in Google•US Government Search:

http://www.google.com/unclesam •Blog Search:

http://blogsearch.google.com/•Book search: http://books.google.com/•Product Search:

http://www.google.com/products

Internet Tools To Make Work Easier

11. Zamzar

http://www.zamzar.com/

12. Google Mobile

•Send a text to “Google” (466453 ) for:▫Flight status▫Restaurant locations▫Driving directions▫Sports scores▫Translations▫Weather▫Web snippets

http://www.google.com/intl/en_us/mobile/default/sms/index.html

13. EverNote

http://www.evernote.com

14. Free and Cheap Online File Storage•http://www.box.net •http://www.drop.io

15. TaDa Lists

•http://www.Tadalist.com •Quick and easy web-based to do list•Free•Can be private or shared with people you

trust or publicly

Chat, Conferencing, Meetings & Webcasts

16. Meeting Wizard

http://www.meetingwizard.com

Send a meeting request to your colleagues….

…and review the responses

17. Campfire: Free Chat Room

http://www.campfirenow.com/

18. LegalMeetings

http://www.lsntap.org/aboutlegalmeetings

19. Webcasting Through Illinois Legal Aid Online

Contact Susan Muirhead at smuirhead@illinoislegalaid.org

Collaboration & Project Management Solutions

20. Central Desktop

•http://www.centraldesktop.com•Free for small groups (up to 5 users)•Nonprofit discount for larger use•Supports:

▫Project Management (To Do Lists, Milestones, Collaborative Document Editing, Calendars)

▫Wikis▫Help Desk/Trouble Tickets

21. BaseCamp

•http://www.basecamphq.com•Free version supports: messages, to do

lists, milestones, writeboards, and chat

22. Zoho.Com

•http://www.zoho.com/•Free versions of:

▫Wikis▫Project Management Tools▫Online Document Management

23. WriteboardCreate Invite

Versions Track & Edit

24. Microsoft Office Live Workspaces•http://workspace.officelive.com/•Integrates with Microsoft Office•Upload Office documents that can be

shared

25. Adobe Acrobat Share

•http://share.acrobat.com •Share files•Connect: Online workspace for up to 3

people•Create online documents using Buzzword

More Tips & Resources

•Visit http://www.lsntap.org for this year’s 50 Tech Tips Powerpoint from the Equal Justice Conference

•Visit http://www.illinoislegaladvocate.org and go to the news section for monthly tech tips from ILAO, usually published the last day of each month