If you are running Exchange 2003 and you have applied SP2 then your Out Of Office replies may not be sent. This is actually a hard problem to detect because the Out of Office replies work for internal users but not for external email senders. So an external user would have to actual inform you that they did not receive the Out of Office autoreply which is somewhat of a Catch 22 since they probably don’t know you are gone.
The service pack changed some of the settings to make it ‘more secure’. To enable Out of Office replies for external users go to the Exchange System Manager >> Global Settings >> Internet Message Formats >> Default (or if you renamed this), right click and select properties. Go to the Advanced tab of the properties page and check ‘Allow out of office responses’. That should do it.
A few months ago I posted an article on Windows Home Server’s initial rollout here. Today I stumbled across a hilarious piece of marketing material by Microsoft entitled “Mommy, Why is There a Server in the House?” It’s a parody of many recent children’s books. Obviously it is part of a viral marketing campaign, and I supposed just by posting it here I’m helping their cause, but it’s very funny and worth checking out.
Below is a direct link to an online version of the “book.”
Although the adoption of Vista has been slow for businesses in general, I think it has met particularly stiff resistance in the legal community. Still, Vista is becoming more prevalent in every market and knowing how to use it efficiently can make everyone’s workload a lot less frustrating to confront. To that end I thought it might be helpful to take a look at the keystroke shortcuts that come with Vista. Although using a few keyboard shortcuts won’t ease the transition to Vista completely, every little bit helps.
I have run into this question regarding Time Matters calendars and grouped events on many an occasion. This might clear up some questions for those not familiar with this feature:
1) There are two different kinds of groups. There are user groups and there are staff groups. You should be able to put a staff group in the staff field of an event record and have it assign the event into the individual staff calendars as long as those staff members are a member of that group. This type of group is created by going to the File Menu and choosing Database, Groups. When you create an event with the group, there are 2 things you need to make sure of. A) The group staff must be the first staff in the staff field and B) when you select the group, make sure the check box “Keep Together as a Group” is NOT checked. This is only true for the “Group” type staff. The other thing to remember is that when you want to see a grouped event on your calendar with everyone’s individual records, you need to right click and choose “Show Members – Expanded”.
2) The other type of group, the user group, is set up for using instant messenger or email and is based on the user login. This type of group is set up under File, Setup, User and Security, User Groups.
3) When you want to delete a grouped record, keep the following in mind. If you try to delete the record and get a message asking if you also want to delete linked records, that is because that event was set up by a user as a grouped event and you are not on the “master” record to delete it. If you go to the event list in Time Matters, there is a symbol that looks like a little sun to the right of the day field (i.e. Friday*). The little sun symbol indicates that it is a master record. If you delete that record, it will ask you if you want to delete all linked records. If you say yes, it will delete everyone’s event associated with it. If you are not on the master record, it will ask you if you want to delete the record and unlink from the master. If you say yes, it will leave the rest of the grouped records alone and only delete the specific record you are on.
Here are other event symbol explanations:
Symbol
Description
!
Events have a time conflict.
¤
Event or ToDo is part of a Group of records and is the Master (or Parent) Record.
.
Event or ToDo is part of a Group of records and is a Grouped (or Child) Record.
§
Record is part of a Schedule Chain.
@
Record has an Alarm set.
$
Event or ToDo has been Billed. This symbol appears in the Status column. To use this symbol, on the main menu bar click File > Setup > General > Program Level > Lists and select the Show $ in Status Field check box.
Okay, okay, so this isn’t directly related to legal technology, but it is interesting. Tech Republic is a great source for all things “tech” and it’s no surprise that’s exactly where I found the article. Take a look at it…just for fun if nothing else.
There varying opinions and sometimes FEAR on using the Email feature of Time Matters. Personally, I believe that if it is set up and used correctly, it is a GREAT feature to be using. But there are specific ways to use it most effectively and to limit instability. It has to do with the setup and the processes used. Remember, Time Matters was never designed to be a full blown email program – the same as Outlook was never designed to be a full blown case management system.
If the purpose of Time Matters is to centralize ALL of the data regarding a particular case or matter, why wouldn’t you use the Email feature? No one is going to be able to open your Outlook email to see whether or not that client responded to a very pressing question.. it really needs to be in the database.
Some hints: Set up the personal inbox for a MAPI (Outlook) email account, but follow this process for using it. 1) Open your Outlook Inbox first, remove any email that is not client related by deleting junk or moving other important non-client related email to specific folders in Outlook. 2) After you have taken these steps, open your Inbox in Time Matters and save your client related email back to its proper matter/case. 3) Keep your Time Matters Inbox as CLEAR as possible (don’t use the folders in the Time Matters Inbox).
There were recently questions posted to a list serve regarding Time Matters 9 and the searching capabilities compared to Version 8 and also whether or not to upgrade to Enterprise. The question also referenced not needing the new features of Time Matters 9 other than faster searching.
To answer the first question, the searching is faster in Version 9 because they have added a feature which indexes your data regularly and uses the DTSearch engine. The global/conflict search is extremely fast. You may not need other features in Time Matters 9, but there are some that you may really like, such as the Archive Wizard or the User Defined Record Types (UDRs).
The second question on whether or not to use Enterprise really depends. There are a lot of factors to be considered for this decision. How large is the current database? How extensively is the program being used? Are you experiencing slowness? The upgrade to Enterprise (in my opinion) is never a bad thing. It is faster and more stable. But whether or not it is truly needed would really be determined by what your current needs or issues are.
Test your actual internet speed at www.speedtest.net. The site allows you to test your actual internet speed you are receiving from your ISP. The test is done through an easy to use graphical interface and you get ping, upload and download speeds. So you can see if you are actually getting what you are paying for from your ISP. I have also used the test to troubleshoot network problems - network traffic problems can be hard to diagnose and this test can eliminate many possiblities.
Everyone has certain things that drive them a bit crazy in their profession. Today I’d like to share one of mine with you (sounds fun, doesn’t it?). Managing IT projects – it’s just not done well for many firms. Whether it’s a lack of experience from the firm’s IT consultant or if the firm just doesn’t want to invest in project management I don’t really know, but I’m seeing more and more good projects fail because of it. Often firms spend so much time and effort researching the right project, determining the right time to do the project, and finding the right people to help them with the project, that when it comes time to do the project there’s almost no emphasis on actually managing the project. Why does this drive me a bit crazy? Because so many good IT projects fail from simple lack of management. At its core, project management is communication. IT projects require good communication of goals, timelines, resources, and expectations. Without these it’s almost impossible for a project to succeed fully. So the when you’re ready to move forward with your next IT project, don’t forget the management - it could save you lots of time and money.
Microsoft announced the pricing for their new server software line, Windows Server 2008. The product is scheduled to be released in late February 2008. Eight versions will be available, though the distinction between two sets of three versions focusses on whether the product includes the new Hyper-V virtualization technology. This PC World article outlines the pricing for all versions of the product: PC World.
Although it is slated for release in the first quarter next year, as with most products, we stay away from implementing bleeding edge solutions. It’s especially important to wait awhile to ensure stability in server software as the server is the heart of your network. There were no announcements related to a Small Business version of the product, which generally trails behind the standard server releases by atl least 6-9 months.