New TurboLaw Time and Billing Video Tutorial: Customizing Templates
July 28, 2008
Once again, we are very pleased to announce the release of another video tutorial for TurboLaw Time and Billing. This time, the tutorial covers customizing the templates for bills and statements.
Unlike our previous video tutorial, this one concentrates solely on the customization of the templates used by bills and statements. It shows you:
- How to alter the formatting of text
- How the template’s repeating sections are used to create the final document
- How to re-position and re-size elements
- How to insert pictures (such as a corporate logo)
- How to modify the information that appears in the footer of the document
- How to preview your template before saving your changes
As well as lots more!
You can visit our video tutorial section to view the video, or just click here to view the tutorial in a new window.
New TurboLaw Time and Billing Video Tutorial: Working with Bills
July 18, 2008
In our continuing efforts to make TurboLaw Time and Billing as easy-to-use as possible, we’re proud to announce our latest video tutorial, titled “Working with Bills.”
This video tutorial walks you through the process of creating a bill in TurboLaw Time and Billing, and also explains how to use some of the advanced features of our template system to customize bills to your liking.
We hope you enjoy it!
New Video Tutorials for TurboLaw Time and Billing
July 2, 2008
We are very happy to announce two new self-help video tutorials for TurboLaw Time and Billing:
- How to Network TurboLaw Time and Billing
- How to use Microsoft® Word and Mail Merge to create labels, envelopes, and letters to clients
You can also find both of these new video tutorials in our How-To Videos section.
The first video tutorial will guide you through how to save your TurboLaw Time and Billing data file onto your network so that you can open it from multiple computers. If you were unsure as to how to use TurboLaw Time and Billing on your network, this short video will answer your questions.
The second video tutorial will guide you through using the “mail merge” feature of Microsoft Word to create a mail merge document from your TurboLaw Time and Billing client list. This can be used to create many types of mail merge documents, such as mailing labels, envelopes, and letters.
You can also use the mail merge function in other programs as well, such as Microsoft Works, Corel® WordPerfect®, StarOffice™/OpenOffice.org Writer, etc. The basic principle is the same, although the specific steps will vary - consult your product’s help file or documentation if you are not sure.
We hope you find these two new video tutorials helpful!
Tips for Attorneys: Getting Your Documents Read
May 12, 2008
We all know about the power of the written word - after all, “the pen is mightier than the sword.” But the words we write don’t do much good if people don’t take the time to read them.
There has been a large amount of research done on how different fonts affect how people read a document, both in print and on the computer screen.
- Text Font Readability Study
- Typeface Readability
- Readability - making pages easy to read by design
- Literature Review - Serif vs. Sans Serif Legibility
Although many of the articles linked here are primarily concerned with legibility on the web, the same rules apply to people reading documents on a computer screen - and it is important to note that different rules apply to the computer screen as opposed to the printed page.
Font, Typeface, What’s the Difference?
Generally speaking, there are two types of fonts - Serif and Sans Serif. Serif fonts are the “classic” fonts, like Times New Roman. They are the fonts you typically see in newspapers. “Serif” refers to the little flowing marks at the edges of the letters. Sans-serif, on the other hand, simply means “without serifs.”
Serif fonts tend to work best in print; sans-serif fonts work better on-screen (and especially when the size of the text is small).
Although we highly recommend reading the articles linked above, here is a summary of the tips they offer for making sure your documents are actually read:
- Use an appropriate font - serif for print, and sans-serif for on-screen reading.
- Choose and appropriate font size - a small font may let you cram more information onto a page, but a larger font makes it easier to read.
- Don’t use lots of different fonts - it is visually distracting. Use just two or three fonts, at most.
- Use fonts consistently - use one font for body text and another for headings. Don’t swap the two half way through your document.
Don’t go overboard with bold, italic, and underline emphasis. If you need to emphasize an entire sentence, try using bold instead of underline, as it is easier to read and is less visually jarring.- If your document will be read on the computer or on-line (such as a web page), avoid using underlining - people will mistake it for a link that they can click on.
- Left-aligned text is easiest to read. Justified text (where the computer automatically adjusts spacing to make each side of the paragraph line up) is only effective with really long sentences, and the uneven spacing can make it hard to read.
- Don’t write entire sentences or paragraphs in ALL CAPITALS. It decreases the contrast between letters, making it harder to read. If you must draw attention to a section of a document, consider using a box to draw an outline around the text, or (if your document will only be viewed on the screen) use a background color.
- If you have long sections of your document, consider breaking it up a bit - use headings and sub-headings to break up long sections of text. Newspapers and magazines - whose livelihood depends on people actually reading their text - know this better than anyone. They will go so far as to take a quote from the text and put it in the margin in big letters, just to break up a long expanse of text.
If you follow these simple tips, you can ensure your documents are both legible and easy to read - which helps ensure that they actually are read. After all, you’ve gone through the trouble to produce your document with the expectation that it will be read - you might as well take a few extra steps to help make it a little easier on your readers.
What’s the difference between a bill (or invoice) and a statement?
April 25, 2008
Let’s face it - the English language can sometimes be imprecise. You get a cell phone bill, but you get a credit card statement. Both itemize the charges made to you - so which one is it, a bill or a statement?
While we can’t make the English language any better, we can at least shed some light on the distinction between bills (or invoices) and statements as they relate to TurboLaw Time and Billing.
In TurboLaw Time and Billing, a bill (also called an invoice) is just what you’d think it is - an itemized list of work done for the client, and how much they owe you for it. For example, a bill might have the following items on it:
- Spent 3 hours in court: $450.00
- Travel expenses to meet with client: $75.00
- On-site meeting: $250.00
- TOTAL DUE: $775.00
This is like a bill or invoice that you might get when you purchase something. We tend to call it a “bill” because you “bill” for your services, while you get an “invoice” for goods - but in practice the two terms are generally interchangeable.
A bill doesn’t say anything about money that might have already been paid - it simply lists the work or expenses you’ve done and how much they total up to.
On the other hand, a statement in TurboLaw Time and Billing is a “statement” of the status of the client’s account at a particular point in time. Each line item on a statement represents either a bill or a payment. As such, it doesn’t offer as much detail as a bill - but it does show payments made towards the account. Statements are often sent out on a regular basis (e.g., monthly - like your credit card statement) to show your clients where they stand (and if they still owe you any money). For example, a statement might have the following items on it:
- Balance forward: $85.67
- Bill #123: $290.00
- Payment #82: $50.00
- TOTAL BALANCE: $325.67
This shows that the client had a balance due of $85.67 from before the period of this statement (if you send out statements monthly, your statement period is usually “the last 30 days”) and that in that time, a bill for $290 was produced, but the client sent in a payment of $50, resulting in a final balance due of $325.67.
To see a sample bill and statement, click on the images below.
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- A Sample Statement
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- A Sample Bill
Hopefully this helps clear up any confusion about what the difference is between bills, invoices, and statements. As always, if you have questions about any TurboLaw product, you can call us at (800) 518-8726 or email support@turbolaw.com.
Ask The Geek: How do I type in documents where it doesn’t carry over to the next line?
April 3, 2008
Many thanks to longtime TurboLaw Document Software customer Candice McKenna-Imlach for today’s question.
In Microsoft Word, in order to keep “typing lines” under each line of text it is necessary to use Word Tables without text wrapping. This means that, when reaching the end of the table cell where text is typed, it is necessary to Tab (advance) to the next form field in order to continue typing text.
Microsoft has some very good (and very free) on-line training courses for learning how to deal with tables in Microsoft Word - here are some courses you can take to learn more about how to use Microsoft Word and tables to make complex page layouts:
More courses are available from Microsoft by clicking here.
Have a question for the geek? Send it to us at askthegeek@turbolaw.com!
Ask The Geek: How can I send documents in PDF format?
March 10, 2008
To send documents as PDFs (which stands for “portable document format“), you need a program to create PDF files - there are several available on the Internet for free, as well as some from commercial software vendors. The company which popularized the PDF format is called Adobe, and they sell a program called “Adobe Acrobat Professional” which allows you to create a PDF from just about anything. They also give away for free a program called “Adobe Acrobat Reader” which allows you to view a PDF and print it out (although not create a new one).
The best part of a PDF file is that just about anyone can view it - whether using a PC, a Mac, or some other type of device, chances are he or she can open a PDF file and view it. There are PDF viewer programs written for virtually every type of computer ever made, so when you send a PDF, you can generally be assured that the recipient can view it. Over the years, it has become the de facto standard for printable documents on the Internet.
Another great benefit of PDF files is that they strip out all the hidden “meta data” in your documents. You may have heard about “meta data” - this is the data inside your documents that you normally don’t see, but that may contain sensitive or personal information you don’t want disclosed. Creating a PDF naturally strips this information out - which makes PDFs a simple, easy solution to the problem of “meta data.”
Have a question for the geek? Send it to us at askthegeek@turbolaw.com!
Macros and Word 2007
February 7, 2008
If you have recently upgraded to Word 2007 (part of Microsoft Office 2007), you might have noticed that just about everything looks different - and the controls for macros are no exception.
The first time you open a TurboLaw document, you’ll see a “Security Warning” appear near the top of the screen, as shown below.
Because TurboLaw documents use macros, if you don’t enable the macros, the documents won’t work the way you expect.
If you click on the Options button, you’ll see a screen like the one shown below.
You’ll be able to see that the document has been signed by Promethean Software Corporation (the makers of TurboLaw), and some other details.
In order to enable the macros, you must select “Trust all documents from this publisher.”
Once this is done, click OK. The macros will now be enabled, and you can continue using TurboLaw. You won’t have to perform these steps again (unless you get a new computer).
If you’re using an earlier version of Word, the steps to enable macros haven’t changed - you can view the steps in our Help Center article on “How to Enable Macros.” If you can’t choose “Trust all documents from this publisher,” or if that option does not even appear, then you may not have the necessary certificates installed. This Help Center article describes how to install the needed certificates.
Ask The Geek: How can I get rid of junk mail (or “spam”)?
January 23, 2008
Unfortunately, the only guaranteed way to stop all spam is to not use e-mail. Spam is a part of life now, but you can take steps to reduce the amount of spam you get:
- Don’t publish your e-mail address on the Internet anywhere. Or, if you must put it on the Internet, write it out as “john at NOSPAM myaddress.com” instead of “john@myaddress.com”. This will help prevent automatic programs from collecting your address.
- Be careful whenever a website asks for your email address. Consider using a 2nd address just for on-line ordering and so forth - this way, all the spam goes to the 2nd address and you can just delete it from time to time.
- Use a good spam filter. Most email programs have some sort of ability to sort emails as they arrive - look into the features for your program. Microsoft Outlook has its “Junk Mail” folders, and if you use Microsoft Exchange in your office, there are many programs your IT person can load onto the sever to reduce spam before it even gets to your inbox. If you use Mozilla Thunderbird or Eudora, just start marking junk email as “junk” by using the buttons for it in these programs. They will “learn” to recognize spam over time and filter it for you.
Hopefully these tips help you deal with the avalanche of spam we all have to deal with these days. Good luck!
Have a question for the geek? Send it to us at askthegeek@turbolaw.com!
How To Add Footnotes/Explanatory Notes to Financial Forms
January 8, 2008
In our continuing effort to provide the absolute best customer service possible, we’ve just added a new video to our Self-Help Video collection called How to Add Footnotes/Explanatory Notes to TurboLaw Excel-Based Financial Forms.
The most common TurboLaw forms that are Excel-based are (for Massachusetts) the Rule 401 Long and Short form, as well as the Child Support Guidelines Worksheet.
We hope this video will help clear up any confusion on how to add footnotes to TurboLaw’s financial forms.
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