PaperDesk

PaperDesk comes (unlike any of the other apps) in a free ‘lite’ version on the app store, so it may be worth a try to see if it fits your needs. Unfortunately, inking is not very smooth. There is a nice bookmarking feature, and a nice to-do feature including the ability to review all to-dos from multiple notebooks on the home screen. However, the to-do’s do not sync to a particular page in a notebook.

Exporting to PDF requires connecting to iTunes. There is no Evernote integration.

Paperdesk does have the ability to export directly to Google docs. It also includes the ability to use typewritten notes. Typewritten notes, unfortunately, do not wrap around hand written notes and ink almost seems to be a secondary input choice. The keyboard has a nice quick access toolbar for tabs, bullets and math symbols.

Palm protection, the ability to keep your wrist or palm from creating extraneous and unwanted marks on the paper, is weak. The icons and general layout are somewhat goofy and not at all iOS like. There are no discrete settings or preferences. Photos can be imported either from the photo library or the camera.

PaperDesk also includes the ability to record voice notes. However, the keyboard obscures the record button, making it difficult to begin and end recording. Sounds are actually linked to the typewritten words making it quick to jump to any particular point of the recording. For example if you typed out “four score and seven years ago” while recording, and then clicked on the word years, the audio would begin replaying whatever was spoken or recorded at that particular point when the word “years” was typed. This is similar to the functionality contained in other programs such as Soundnote for the iPad, and also replicates, to some extent, the functionality of having a LiveScribe pen. Unfortunately, the recording does not track handwritten notes and tracks only typewritten notes.

GhostWriter Notes.

Ghostwriter ($4.99) notes allows you to take notes either with pen or by typing on your iPad. The interface is much better than that of PaperDesk. There are a number of different papers which can be used and custom papers can be made from anything contained within the iPads photo album. PDFs can also be imported for annotation and markup, a great feature for filling out things such as standardized intake forms. Interface is relatively clean and straightforward, iOS like.

Export options are plentiful, including the ability to export through e-mail, Dropbox, Evernote, directly to a PDF viewer, by printing wirelessly to printers capable of communicating with iOS, as well as sending the note page to the iPad photos album. GhostWriter allows the user to insert blank pages into a notebook, and reorder the pages as you see fit. Each page is given the default description of the current date, but each page can also be renamed to a custom page name. There are, of course, a variety of pens, pencils and highlighters for use within the application. Unlike PaperDesk, there is no audio recording with GhostWriter. GhostWriter employs a zoomed handwriting feature. This allows the user to write with much greater detail than would normally be possible using a stylus or finger on a blank page. However, the ink contained within the zoom box is somewhat pixelated and difficult to read.

Penultimate.

Penultimate ($1.99) is perhaps the most iOS like of any of the applications. It is brutal in its simplicity which, depending on your view, is either the highest selling point or the biggest drawback. Penultimate has outstanding pen to paper feel, with the ink flowing smoothly across the page. It incorporates very, very good palm protection. Photos can be imported from either the iPad’s photo album or directly from the camera. Paper is limited to 3 styles, although additional styles are available for both free and via in-app purchase.

The main drawbacks to Penultimate are limited export opportunities. Entire notebooks or individual pages can only be exported as PDF files or as native Penultimate files and only through e-mail. Individual pages can be saved into the iPad photo album or printed via iOS capable printers. Overall, Penultimate is a beautiful app, accurately recreating the simplicity and presentation of a pen and paper notebook.

Note Taker HD.

Note Taker HD ($4.99) is perhaps the deepest of all these applications. The best of these features include the ability to select, cut and paste handwritten text, the ability to tag, flag and mark favorites for individual notes. Also, Note Taker HD can directly import PDFs and then mark them up. As with GhostWriter, this can be very handy for creating forms you want to fill out. Of course, to some extent, this inevitably results in duplicate data entry, the bane of the computing world. Note Taker HD also incorporates a zoom feature for creating handwritten notes. Again, this allows a great deal of detail and precision when writing in the Zoom box that is reflected on the full page.

The handwriting this passable, but not quite as smooth as Penultimate. Additionally, Note Taker HD lacks the ability to directly connect to Evernote. Finally, note taker HD is a somewhat complex piece of software is a trade-off for the depth of features. Although the layout is nice and presentable, it can be a bit offputting and somewhat counterintuitive at times as it diverges from standard IOS interface.

Noteshelf.

Noteshelf ($4.99) has truly amazing handwriting/pen and ink response. It also incorporates a zoom feature which allows, again, precision handwriting. The ink on the page is comparable to Penultimate. Noteshelf allows for palm protection to avoid inadvertent inking on the paper. The interface and layout is very iOS like, very intuitive, and customizable for lefty versus righty. There is a direct Evernote export. As well as Dropbox, iTunes, e-mail, iPad photo album, and print to iOS capable printers. Export format can be set to go as either individual images for each note page (which is the best way to export to Evernote as the handwriting will be recognized and then searchable) or as multipage PDFs. Page navigation is very nice and intuitive with a thumbnail drop-down for each page. Individual pages can be rearranged and reordered and individual pages can be moved/copied between different notebooks. Downsides to Noteshelf include the inability to import PDFs for annotating. Also, custom papers are, as with Ghostwriter and Penultimate, a separate in-app purchase for additional money. Photos can be imported directly from either the camera or the iPad’s photo album.

The big winner.

It’s a close call between Noteshelf and Note Taker HD. Note Taker HD has some superb features and is well worth considering if you need to fill out for right on top of an markup individual PDFs. However, if you want great inking ability, excellent export options, and ease-of-use note shelf is the way to go. If, on the other hand, you want to recreate as closely as possible plain ole’ pen and paper, go with Penultimate.

This is not an all inclusive list of note taking apps which use ink, just a review of those most frequently mentioned. Noterize sorta gets you there, and is free, but the inking isn’t that great although the app does do audio recording. Notes Plus is a nice effort, allows mixed typing and handwriting, as well as recording audio. But, the ink feel is a bit jerky, the export options and paper are both very limited as well.

A word about styluses (styli?).

Writing on the iPad with your finger will quickly become unbearable and unworkable. If you want to take handwritten notes, you will need a stylus. The Pogo ($10.98 Amazon) is workable, but has a spongy tip on it. The Kuel H10 ($12.99 Amazon) has an excellent tip which is nice and as precise as can be with a capacitive touchscreen such as the iPad has. Unfortunately, the Kuel 10 is also a stubby little bugger. I resorted to modeling mine by pulling the rubber grip off a regular pen and also extending the length by sticking an extension on the Kuel 10. Update: Received a Jot stylus from Adonit ($19.99) last night… by far and away the best stylus out there due to the length. Because it has a ‘hard’ tip, as opposed to the rubber and sponge of others, it does tend to make a tapping sound on the glass as you write. But, the Jot is a full-length, well balanced device. You ‘can’ make your own free Jot disc-style stylus if you have the time and DIY attitude (web page link, YouTube link). Why would you want to make your own? Because these things (stylii) get lost, because you want to use an old-well balanced pen you have lying around, because you’re cheap, because you’re a tech-head pioneer and slide rulers, pocket protectors and thick rimmed glasses have all gone out of style.

One particularly impressive piece of technology available to staff: a “presentation” device. This device consisted of a series of rackmounted slide projectors which could be operated so as to give the effect of “transitions” between slides.

This amazing slide projector had cutting edge features such as a 1300 lm lamp; forward and reverse control of slides; an RS-232 serial connector; random slide access via remote control or computer; a built-in dissolve feature (0 to 10 seconds); and it weighed in at a feathery light 26 pounds. All this for a paltry $1,560 (lens not included). Surprisingly, the manufacturer did not include the most important feature in the press release materials: an amazing capacity to consistently overheat and crap out 5 min. into a 20 min. presentation.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Recently, in the middle of trial, about to begin a cross exam of a witness, the TrialPad app, when reconnected to the cable at the podium, refused to display anything other than mirror mode.

The revolutionary software, this secret weapon, this huge advantage over my worthy but technologically handicapped adversary, was now not only worthless, but also a potential scuttling of my whole boat. Technology rigorously follows Murphy’s law: anything that can go wrong will go wrong.

Belt and Suspenders

In addition to having spare batteries for the remote, a spare bulb for the projector, a spare laptop/iPad in case it craps out, and your presentation on a spare USB drive you must have, more than any of these, a plan ‘B.’

Plan ‘B.’ The cross exam depended on a few key documents and prior testimony. Time to go old school. At every trial, the important exhibits (there should usually only be five and absolutely no more than ten of these) should be blown up and placed on foam board. Now, here’s the trick: get those blow ups laminated. This allows you to draw, write and highlight directly on the blow up with dry erase markers which can then be later erased. Next, always have a hardcopy of your exam outlines contained in your trial notebook. Last, always have hardcopies of the depositions. With these items in hand, you never need to worry that technology will fail you. You only need to question whether the time and money involved in technology are worth the the effort.

Note: The fatal bug in TrialPad appeared in a previous version and has since been corrected.

Anything You Can Do, I Can Do …

At its heart, TrialPad is a PDF viewer and organization tool. There are many PDF tools for the iPad, including iAnnotate. Both TrialPad and iAnnotate allow presentation of a PDF through a projector. Both TrialPad and iAnnotate allow markups to be displayed on the screen. Both TrialPad and iAnnotate allow the user to pinch-to-zoom the onscreen document. Both TrialPad and iAnnotate allow the presentation screen to be turned on and off.

iAnnotate, however, has quite a few more tricks than TrialPad. iAnnotate will search through an entire PDF file or group of files for any word. TrialPad only searches the ‘name’ of a document.

iAnnotate will pull in documents from Dropbox. Trial pad relies on the ‘seven easy steps’ kludge iTunes file transfer feature. The developers note that Dropbox support is ‘in the works.’

iAnnotate allows a ‘tabbed’ interface wherein you can project an exhibit or impeachment testimony while privately viewing your direct/cross examination outline on the iPad. TrialPad eschews tabs limiting the display to a single item. iAnnotate includes a large number of built in ‘stamps,’ such as arrows and callouts, and allows you to pick different highlighter and annotation colors. TrialPad sticks to a red pen and yellow highlighter.

TrialPad costs $89. iAnnotate costs $9.99.

Not A Replacement for Sanction, Trial Director etc.

Responding to these criticisms the developers claim that, rather than iAnnotate, a “fair comparison would be TrialPad against full featured desktop presentation software such as Sanction or TrialDirector.” Not entirely accurate. First, TrialPad has nowhere near the features of dedicated laptop trial presentation software. Second, by that standard, we could also compare iAnnotate against dedicated laptop presentation software. TrialPad would still lose in that comparison.

A Little Bit Buggy

TrialPad is also still very much a 1.0 release. TrialPad can annotate a document on the iPad while the projector remains blanked. During testing, the annotation appeared on the projector despite the screen being blanked. Additionally, PDFs sometimes appeared extremely pixelated on the iPad while rendering crisply on a projector. This made it very difficult to annotate with any degree of precision.

A Few Nice Standout Features

Simply put, by setting the price at a steep $89 the developers ignore the Apps ecosystem and economy. Not even Omni Group charge more than $39 for their highly polished, feature rich iPad app OmniFocus which syncs to the iPad without any iTunes kludge needed. Further, Filemaker’s Bento is only $9.99, Pages, Numbers and Keynote are also only $9.99. In short, TrialPad is a solid start and a potential winner, but in the end offers too little for too much money.

While prepping for a jury trial recently, it became apparent that we needed a better way to track responses, information, decisions to strike, strikes for cause, peremptories etc. during jury selction, a.k.a. voir dire. Bento seemed a perfect fit for this task.

The template is designed to work on an iPad and, accordingly, incorporates as many checkboxes and choice lists as possible so that there is minimal distraction during jury selection.  Jurors are sorted by juror number, and there are smart collections which filter as follows: Challenge for Cause; Plaintiff’s Peremptory (exercised); Defendant’s Peremptory (exercised); Remaining; Selected.  Several of the fields do allow text entry, such as the Notes, but other fields are intended to give you a quick fill such as ‘gut check,’ and ‘tort reformer’ drop down choice lists which allow a quick ranking of the potential juror.

The template works great on the iPad version of Bento with one exception, smart collections based on a ‘choice list’ field do not transfer over.  Accordingly, none of the smart collections in this template use the choice field to preserve functionality on the iPad. Enjoy and, if you come up with suggestions or modifications, please post in the comments.

Bento on the iPad is $4.99, although having the desktop version certainly is worth the cost and syncs with the iPad wirelessly.

Speaking of ‘jury work,’ there is an interesting iPad app out there that allows you to track the reactions of people who get seated as jurors during the course of the trial.  It is called JuryTracker and, if you were so inclined, you could track juror reactions as the trial progresses.  JuryTracker costs $9.99.  Also available as a commercial iPad only app is iJuror, a stand alone app for the iPad that assists in the jury selection process. iJuror is also $9.99.

For those unfamiliar with the product, Circus Ponies Notebook is a kind of outliner onsteroids. Specifically, the application operates on a “traditional paper notebook” paradigm while incorporating the benefits of an electronic medium such as a word index of all words contained in the notebook.

Notebook for iPad carries over from the Mac platform beautifully. Notebook itself begged for the existence of a tablet before the iPad came into existence. Now that the iPad is here, Notebook can really shine.

Notebook allows the user to take notes on a page in an outline format. Additionally, other electronic media can be incorporated onto the page. For example, an exhibit or pleading which exists in a PDF format can be dropped onto the page and either annotated/marked up using Notebooks annotation tools, or saved as a multipage PDF which will open for viewing. From a lawyer’s perspective, this allows building of a trial notebook, a notebook for oral arguments or hearings, or, a notebook containing all pertinent client/case matter information in one place. Ideally, the bulk of the heavy lifting would be done on a MacBook and then the individual Notebook would be synchronized to the iPad via iTunes.

Thus, while an amazing leap forward for lawyers generally, Circus Ponies Notebook still does have some limitations, quirks and bugs at this time. For example, the need to synchronize Notebooks via iTunes is a kludge.  Hopefully, the ability to synchronize via the ubiquitous Dropbox will come in a future release.

Additionally, synchronizing back and forth between iPad and Desktop Notebook resulted in all tabs on the MacBook side being changed to a solid black color. A few other quirks are that the spiral bound notebook paradigm as a graphical user interface can sometimes be difficult to understand if you are accustomed to working with the standard menu/icon paradigm of computers. Also, some of the display features such as the dual page display became stuck during testing, requiring a power down and restart of the iPad to clear the graphical display.

Some limitations also involve using Notebook while simultaneously using the iPad to present exhibits for a jury or bench trial. Right now, it does not appear that Notebook supports external displays. Accordingly, if during direct or cross-examination, the need arises to use the iPad to present a particular photo or PDF file, that file will need to be opened in another application such as iAnnotate, GoodReader or some other application. This has the downside of taking the lawyer away from the examination process, into another application to present the exhibit and away from the notes/examination outline. Hopefully, future versions will incorporate the ability to leverage an external display for exhibits, jpgs and the like.

Finally, Notebook seems at times a bit sluggish while running on the iPad. However, despite these initial small first-generation hiccups, Notebook by Circus Ponies is definitely worth the $29 and goes a long way toward filling a much-needed slot in any litigator’s toolkit.

On the other hand DEVONthink Pro desktop still remains a very powerful tool and, right now, is a huge bargain at 50% off at MacUpdate. If you haven’t bought a copy, $39.98 is a really good opportunity.

(1) alter the height and width of the pop ups; and, (2) pause, play and skip in the iTunes thumbnail. Genius and well worth the $7.99.

The Problem

The New York Times is running a series “Your Brain On Computers.” The problem, for lawyers who need to focus, comes down to this:

Scientists say juggling e-mail, phone calls and other incoming information can change how people think and behave. They say our ability to focus is being undermined by bursts of information.These play to a primitive impulse to respond to immediate opportunities and threats. The stimulation provokes excitement — a dopamine squirt — that researchers say can be addictive. In its absence, people feel bored.

In sum, and contrary to most critics, lawyers are mammals and ‘ooh, look, shiny’ still applies. The Times article is a great read and a highly recommended to anyone who thinks they don’t have this focus problem.

Pomodoro

Pomodoro Technique ™creates a limited time where you focus on a single task. Knowing that this will be the time during which you focus, you key yourself to that task. For 25 minutes, you focus on nothing but the task at hand. At the end of 25 minutes, you take a five minute break. During that five minute break, get up, stretch, get a cup of coffee, check your email return a phone call. But get back to it after 5 minutes for another Pomodoro.  Lather, rinse, repeat and create a hash mark on a piece of paper for each Pomodoro you complete.

Pomodoro, for you billable types, tailors nicely with the 2/10 (or even 1/10?) billable. Complete a Pomodoro, and you’ve finished up 4/10 of a billable hour. For you contingency types, Pomodoro can stop you from running wild with research and work on a case… there truly is no end to the amount of time you can spend on a single case.

Concentrate

Now, bring a little muscle to bear. Pomodoro technique relies on a kitchen timer with a ‘ding’ to let you know when to break. Concentrate, is a handy piece of customizable software that blocks whatever you want to keep you from being bothered. It will shut off your IM, your email client and, if you tell it do so, will block designated web sites or even all access to the internet. And, it will do this for a set period of time so that you can’t sneek back, just to check and see how much more oil has spilled on that live video feed.

Maclitigator recommends three different Pomodoro ‘types’ in Concentrate. All three shut down mail apps, set chat status to ‘away’ and play a ding at the end of 25minutes. First up, PomoGoogleOK. This Concentrate pattern blocks most distraction domains (you can add whatever you want) such as flickr, groups.google.com, metafilter, facebook, twitter, video sites and mail.google.com. This Pomo allows you to search and research as needed on the broad internet without getting sucked into any of the typical distractions.

PomoNoWeb does exactly what it says… no internet access at all.

Finally, PomoWestlawOnly does just that as well. All internet access except Westlaw gets blocked. Concentrate is $29 and well worth it.

One Last Step

Find the DND (“Do Not Disturb”) button on your desk phone. Push it when you start the Pomo. Find the sleep button on your cel phone. Push that button too. Find the door to your office. Close that. If necessary, tell your staff what you are doing and that you will be available later at a set time.

The Payoff

Two things occur when using this technique. First, at the ‘ding,’ you will probably find yourself startled or feel a bit interrupted, as if you were just getting into the zone. That’s o.k. Take the break. You’ll be eager to pick up where you left off and you might even gain some additional insight while walking around.

Second, if you do this regularly, you’ll begin to notice a flow. Working Pomodoro for a few days ends up creating the habit of working in 25 minute bursts and a certain ebb and flow will develop that carries over even when not formally running the clock.

OmniOutliner/Circus Ponies Notebook

Drafting argument outlines in a dedicated outliner works far better than the 1998 method of turning on outlining mode in Word. Both OmniOutliner and Circus Ponies Notebook (CPN) provide not only excellent outlining tools, but the ability to ‘attach’ your pleadings, exhibits, deposition transcripts etc. directly within the outline as a PDF file. For purposes of getting an outline onto the iPad, CPN provides the better approach until OmniGroup releases OmniFocus for iPad sometime this summer.

Circus Ponies is much deeper than a simple outliner.  Hyperlinks can jump across the entire notebook to cross reference other related items on different pages. Additionally, CPN provides a robust indexing of the entire notebook and advanced sorting and flagging features. Finally, and crucial to getting all this info onto your iPad. CPN offers two key export methods. First, the entire notebook can be exported to PDF with both page numbers and chapter-page numbers.  Second, the entire notebook, PDF attachments included can be exported as a website. That means that CPN will export your notebook as a fully hyperlinked document with PDF images, functioning expand/collapse arrows on the outline and any tabs added to the side as a self sufficient website.  From CPN choose File>Export as a Website>To Disk.  It’s easiest to do this if you create a ‘temp’ folder on your desktop and save the file there.  CPN kicks out an index.html file and a few folders.  Double click the index.html folder and you’ll open the notebook in Safari/Firefox.  Getting that notebook-as-website on your iPad and functioning is the next step.

Air Sharing HD

Air Sharing HD is the most direct method and highly recommended independent of this exercise.  Air Sharing HD creates a network connected hard drive accessible from your Mac.  Following theinstructions for the software gets you a mounted hard drive on the iPad where you can then drag and drop documents and folders through Finder.  Take the ‘temp’ folder from your desktop containing your Notebook as website and drag it to the iPad mounted hard drive. Next, from within Air Sharing HD, open that temp folder and tap on ‘index.html’ and your complete notebook opens. Tapping on any of the links, tabs or pages works just like a click.  Additionally, you get any PDFs saved inside the outline and, tapping on those PDFs opens them in full screen mode. Hit the ‘back’ button and your back to your outline.

A Second Method: iAnnotate PDF Approach

Another approach uses strictly PDFs. After composing an outline, print the file as a PDF. Then using iAnnotate, ‘import’ those documents. iAnnotate has a ‘server’ application that resides on your Mac. Designate a folder, and iAnnotate will upload all PDFs contained in that folder. This allows you to load not only your argument outline, but also related pleadings and documents. Most importantly, iAnnotate provides a tabbed interface, allowing you to switch back and forth between documents quickly. It is especially helpful that iAnnotate allows searching within a PDF if the document has been OCR’d. In testing, iAnnotate handled a 422 page record on appeal, two 40 page appellate briefs, the argument outline and a few pages of Utah Code Annotated with no problems. By contrast, using Air Sharing HD with CPN, opening the 422 page record on appeal as a PDF was noticeably laggy and slow, although it handled shorter documents just fine. Tablet Legal recently covered iAnnotate’s features in detail.

Both approaches are a bit of a kludge in terms of loading the iPad. Still, it remains much easier and more environmentally friendly than the old three ring binder approach.