Monitor: Hopefully you are now using a modern space and energy efficient flat panel LCD monitor instead of a clunky old CRT (picture tube) monitor. But don't forget that LCD monitors are not made from glass. Their plastic surfaces require special care.

First, despite the claim by papa Gus Portokalos in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," Windex is not a cure-all. In fact, the ammonia in Windex and other window cleaners can damage the plastic surface of an LCD monitor. Instead, use water, rubbing alcohol, or a commercial LCD cleaning fluid available at computer and office supply stores

Nor should any cleaning fluid (including water) be sprayed directly on the screen (whether the power is on or off). Finally, don't use a paper towel (wet or dry) to wipe the screen. The surface of many paper towels is rough enough to scratch the screen unless you are exceedingly careful.

To clean the LCD screen, use a soft cotton cloth. A clean cotton diaper will work. If a dry cloth does not completely clean the screen, apply rubbing alcohol to the cloth and wipe the screen with the damp cloth.

Mouse: Just as you should be using an LCD monitor, you should also be using an optical or laser mouse. An old-style opti-mechanical "ball" mouse is trouble waiting to happen. Optical and laser mice track better over a variety of surfaces and there are no mechanical parts to get clogged or fail. With an optical mouse, first turn off your computer or unplug the mouse. Then you can use a paper towel dampened with glass cleaner to gently wipe down the top, sides and bottom of the mouse.

Keyboard: When computer manufacturers switched from beige to black or charcoal gray keyboards several years ago, they saved many users the embarrassment of typing on a visibly filthy piece of equipment. But just because you can't see the dirt doesn't mean it isn't there (the persistent stickiness should be a clue). For a real gross-out, take your keyboard (first turning off your computer), turn it over, and shake it vigorously over your desk. You may want to first spread some paper over the surface of your desk to catch the debris (there will be some - maybe a lot). Once the loosest debris is out, turn the keyboard back over and spray between the keys with a can of compressed air (available at most electronic and office supply stores). This will remove dust, crumbs, and who knows what else that fell into your keyboard and got lodged between and under the key caps. Flip the keyboard over once more and shake it out again. Finally, spray Endust for Electronics or another cleaning fluid onto a soft cloth and wife the keys and chassis. You may need to use a cotton swap to clean in the narrow areas between the keys. Let the keyboard dry thoroughly before reconnecting it to your computer

Internal Components: Great care must be taken when opening your computer's case and cleaning internal components. The risk of damaging costly parts is higher than when cleaning external peripherals. You may want to leave this job to an experienced consultant. If you need help thoroughly cleaning your computer, contact us.

Digital files are not stored on you hard drive in the magnetic equivalent of paper folders. A single file can, over time, become spread over the surface of the disk platter. Pieces of the file may reside in many different sectors of the disk. This is called file fragmentation.

When that file is accessed (when you make changes to a contract or brief, for example), the read/write heads of the hard drive need to zoom all over the surface of the disk platter gathering pieces of the file to put together into an integrated whole. That process, although still very fast, takes longer than if the file is stored in contiguous sectors of your hard disk. If enough of your files are fragmented, the slowdown in the overall performance of your computer may become noticeable.

In order to reduce or eliminate disk fragmentation, you may want to run the Disk Defragmenter utility monthly. In Windows XP, go to Start>Programs>Accessories>System Tools. The click Disk Defragmenter. First, click on the Analyze button on the lower left. The program will check the extent of file and folder fragmentation on your hard drive. If Windows determines that the disk should be defragmented, a message will pop-up advising you defragment the drive. Click on Defragment to start the process. Depending on the size of your hard drive and the speed of your computer, the process could take several minutes to several hours. This is a good task to do as you are preparing to leave for lunch or head for home for the day.

Windows Vista has an updated Disk Defrag utility that includes a built-in scheduler so you don't need to trigger the process manually. To find Defrag in Vista: 1) Click the "Start Orb" 2) Click the Control Panel 3) Click "System and Maintenance" 4) Choose "Defragment your hard drive" from under "Administrative Tools" (at the bottom of the menu/list).

For a neat Vista shortcut that bypasses the above steps, simply press the "Windows Button" on your keyboard, type "Disk Defrag" and press Enter.

Using either method, the Disk Defrag utility will open. You can now alter or disable automatic defrag schedule or trigger an immediate defragmentation.

If the slowness of the XP or Vista Disk Defrag utility bothers you, there is a freeware alternative from Auslogics that works noticeably faster. It was highly recommended by the speed geeks at Maximum PC magazine.

If you need help with disk defragmentation or any other maintenance issue, contact your Affinity Consulting Group company.

The problem of accumulation of duplicate copies of the same file exists for all computer users. But it seems especially prevalent in law offices where identical (or nearly so) copies of a single document may exist on the server and duplicates on the computers of the partner, associate, legal assistant, and secretary assigned to that matter. Although hard disk space is cheap, that is no excuse for sloppiness.

There are a variety of utilities designed to search for, identify, and delete duplicate copies of files. A Google search will reveal most of them. One of the freeware options is DupKiller. DupKiller compares files based on name, last modification date or size. It also allows you to compare files by their contents and set what percent of two of more files must match to be considered a duplicate. Another free choice (recommended by PCWorld magazine) is DoubleKiller. DoubleKiller is a stand-alone executable that does not need to be installed, just extracted and run, and does not alter the system without the user's prior permission.

A duplicate removal utility is also useful outside the office as you try to keep your collection of digital photos, video, or audio files under control. In fact, because media files are so much larger than document files, eliminating duplicates of these files will yield much greater hard drive space savings. As always, carefully check the contents of the files identified as duplicates before deleting them.

If you have questions about removal of duplicate files or any other disk maintenance issue, contact us.

Sometimes your new computer comes loaded with "crapware" that starts on bootup and silently steals RAM and processing cycles, slowing performance of your new machine. Other times it creeps in slowly as you install various applications that fall into disuse, yet are still running in the background whenever you boot your PC.

These startup slowdowns are exceedingly common. We rarely see a computer, new or old, that doesn't have at least a few unneeded applications silently starting each time your start your computer.

There are many utilities designed to let you identify and halt these startup pests. For years, consultants have used MSConfig built into the Windows operating system to prevent selected programs from automatically starting. Unfortunately, the descriptions of the processes or applications listed under the Startup tab in MSConfig are cryptic and provide little guidance.

A bit more guidance is provided by Mike Lin's Startup Control Panel 2.8. This freeware program is small, simple, and does not add to the startup slowdown by running in background on your computer. Uncheck the boxes next to the applications or processes you don't want to run on startup. Of course, make sure you don't uncheck the startup processes for critical security programs such as your anti-virus, firewall, or anti-spyware programs. There may also be startup programs that are essential to the functioning of key peripherals such as printers and scanners. Don't disable those either.

You may want to prevent new programs from secretly adding themselves to your startup routine. Mike Lin also wrote the freeware utility Startup Monitor. StartupMonitor is a small utility that runs transparently (it doesn't even use a tray icon) and notifies you when any program registers itself to run at system startup. It prevents annoying programs from registering themselves behind your back.

If you are concerned about startup programs impairing the performance of your PC, or have any other questions about the technology you use in your law office, contact us for expert advice.

Startup Control Panel & Startup Monitor

Your folder structure may be a mess, making it difficult to find the folders and files you access on a regular basis. If those folders are on your local hard drive, you may have adequate security permissions to re-arrange and consolidate folders. If so, be very careful. Data can be lost as fast as you click your mouse. Do a full backup first.

If the problematic folder structure is on a network drive or server, you may not be able make any changes (nor should you without permission from your network administrator). But you can make it easier to find what you use regularly. The freeware program Folder Guide lets you create favorites and then browse easily to them. Once installed, just right-click on a folder to add it to your favorites list. Then access any favorite folder with just two mouse clicks.

Folder Guide

In Amicus Attorney 2008 Premium Edition (released last month), Gavel & Gown has ingeniously created a new method to quickly add a contact to your Amicus Attorney database. Since so much communication is done by email, many people put their contact information in their email signatures. With the new copy and paste intelligence, built into Premium 2008, you can copy an address, in a normal address format, from ANY other application and paste it into the lower left corner into the Contact Quick Edit Box as seen above.

After pasting, simply determine if it is to be applied to Business, Home or Other address cards and click APPLY. Instantly, your new address, phone number, fax number and email address is placed into the new "people" record instantly. With this new feature, adding new contacts (now called "people" records) couldn't be easier!

For questions about or assistance with Amicus Attorney, please contact Ron at rcarter@cni- incorporated.com or (513) 312-8381.

Gavel and Gown has revised their pricing on Amicus products effective 11-26-07. The prices are reflected in the following articles for Amicus Attorney 2008 and Amicus Accounting 2008.
For additional pricing information, please contact us.

Please contact either Carmen 513 368-0042 (crelatores@cni-incorporated.com) or Ron 513 312- 8381 (rcarter@cni-incorporated.com to order the upgrades or provide you with more information concerning the New Amicus 2008 Product Line and how it affects your existing installation.

Amicus Accounting 2008 is the new version of our Accounting product. It has many enhancements over the original Amicus Accounting, including easier navigation, the ability to change the Client on an existing matter, enhancements to Accounts Receivable interest, billing and reminder statements, a new payroll add-on option and a more powerful receipt function.

Pricing for Accounting will be $349.00 for the first license and $249.00 each additional license.

Upgrading from Amicus Accounting to Amicus Accounting 2008 $99 / license

 

Amicus Accounting 2008 Product Overview

 

Amicus Attorney 2008 Premium Edition is the ultimate in practice management, designed for legal professionals who want the best. Intuitive and easy to use, Premium Edition offers superior functionality and is powerful, flexible and scalable for firms of all sizes.

This comprehensive practice management solution integrates with most popular legal accounting programs and software tools. The Premium Edition features extensive remote access capabilities and robust security options with multiple levels of access and security control. The program also includes wide- ranging customization capabilities, centralized document management, plus a bi-directional link with Microsoft® Outlook® for synchronizing your Contacts and Calendar information with Outlook or PDA's.

Pricing for the 2008 Premium Edition will be $699 for the first license and $599 for additional licenses.

Pricing for upgrades is as follows

Upgrading to Amicus Attorney 2008 Premium Edition: 1st user / add'l users

• From Amicus 7 Standard Edition $249 / $199
• From Amicus 7 Premium Edition $249 / $199
• From Amicus Small Firm $349 / $299
• From Amicus Attorney V+ (Advanced or Client/Server) $349 / $299
• From Amicus Attorney V or below (Advanced of Client/Server) $499 / $399

 

Amicus Attorney 2008 Premium Edition Product Overview

Amicus Attorney 2008 Small Firm Edition is the latest version of Amicus Attorney built on the popular V+ (C++) platform. It is specifically designed for the solo and small firm market. It has significant enhancements over its predecessors. These include:

• a new navigation pane similar to Amicus 8
• a new Tasks module for managing To Do's all in one place
• real time spell check
• text expansion
• email signatures
• Outlook®
• email integration enhancements
• and the ability to run in Client/Server mode

This product is for firms with 10 users or less only. It is a superb upgrade for all V and V+ Advanced and Client/Server customers with 10 licenses or less.

Pricing for the Small Firm Edition will be $499 for the first license and $399 for additional licenses.

Please note that these two products are no longer bundled together.

They need to be purchased separately. Of course they still work together wonderfully.

However, it is important to understand that if you are upgrading from the old Amicus Small Firm, you will need to upgrade both the Amicus Attorney side and the Amicus Accounting side if you want to continue using both products.

Pricing for upgrades is as follows

Upgrading to Amicus Attorney 2008 Small Firm Edition: 1st user / add'l users

• From Amicus Small Firm $249 / $199
• From Amicus Attorney V+ (Advanced or Client/Server) $249 / $199
• From Amicus Attorney V or below (Advanced of Client/Server) $299 / $249

 

Amicus Attorney 2008 Small Firm Edition Product Overview

Below is a list of the current versions of important law office software supported by Cooperative Network Integrators, Inc..

 

Amicus Attorney: Downloads

• Amicus Attorney 2008 Premium Edition: v 8.0.0.2
• Amicus Attorney 2008 Small Firm Edition v 8.0.0.1003
• Amicus Attorney 7: build 7.1.0.8)
• Amicus Small Firm: v. 5.9.0
• Amicus Attorney C/S V+: v. 5.8.1
• Amicus Attorney Advanced V+: v. 5.9.1
• Amicus Attorney V: v 5.1.1

Amicus Accounting:

• Amicus Accounting 2008
• Amicus Accounting v 5.9.0

Amicus Accounting 2008: Update from the Internet via the Check For Updates function available from your Help menu or Maintenance module. Please refer to your Amicus Accounting Online Help for details.

Microsoft Office:

• Click here and select Check for Updates.

Corel Word Perfect:

• Click here then select your version.

email: rcarter@cni-incorporated.com

phone: 513-755-1377

web: http://www.cni-incorporated.com