Hey, I can't see my Register (or Release) button!

I know I left it here somewhere.

This happens mostly when you are trying to transfer your software from one computer to another.

You step through the process, launching the software and going to Help, Register - but you don't see the Unregister or Release Registration Code button.

What has occurred is the text in the window is too large to allow the buttons to be displayed.

For the time being, we are going to shrink the text to make the buttons visible.

We need to open the Display options from the Control Panel.

Here is one method.

1. Click the Start button and choose Control Panel.
2. Then double-click the Display option.

You should see two (or more) radio buttons that allow the changing of the text size.  We want the Default - 100% option.

(See screenshot below.)

Then click the Apply button.

Now when you step through Visionary's Help, Register process you will be able to see the buttons.

(Obviously, when you are done, you can reset the text size back if needed.)

Questions?  Answers - Support@VisionaryLegal.com

thanks,
chuck

How to transfer a case, long version

Ok, I don't have a small case, no video, etc.

How do I transfer my case?

Ok, there are several options that can make your case transfer process easier.

Your process will be a take-off on the basic process, except we will peel out some portions.  (And handle your video files in a best practices manner.)

So, on the Backup Data window, uncheck the Image files and OCR files checkboxes before clicking the Backup button.

This will create a much smaller backup file (and finish much faster).

Once this finishes, we need to use Windows copy-and-paste process to grab the remaining files.

We want to copy the following directories from within our original CaseID directory:

•  IMAGE (everything in here), you can zip this directory if that helps.
• OCR (again, everything in here), you can also zip this directory if that helps.
• VIDEO (again, everything in here), there is NO reason to zip this directory, it won't help.

These directories should be copied to your external drive.

Now on your laptop with the external drive connected, restore the case - same as before.

You will also need to copy the remaining files.

Since the case has been restored onto the laptop, you will have all the necessary directories laid out for you.

Copy (or unzip) the various files into their corresponding locations.

A tip is to keep the external drive with you, so that you do NOT need to copy the video files to another laptop in case of failure.


If there are any questions, drop us a line at Supprot@VisionaryLegal.com

thanks,
chuck

How to transfer a Visionary case to your trial laptop

Uh-oh! We're going to trial.....

Now how do I get my case from the office to the court?

I am going to make the assumption (I know, I know) that your case currently resides on your network and you want to take it to court on your laptop.

I am also going to assume that you have been following our best practices for file locations, etc.

And one more assumption, you are going to use an external drive for the transfer process.

---

The basic process is to create a Case Backup file and restore that on the laptop.  Then copy over any other necessary data.

For a small case with no video:

1. On your desktop computer connected to the Visionary location on your network.
2. From the Case Selection screen, single click the specific case.
3. Either right-click and choose Backup or click the Backup button on the menu bar.
4. In the Save Case Backup File As window, choose your external drive.
1. Leave the filename to the CaseID.vbk default.
2. Click the Save button.
5. In the Backup data window; leave everything checked, do not add a password and click the Backup button.

You now have a complete case backup file on your external drive.

Connect that external drive to your laptop.

1. On your laptop with the external drive connected.
2. From the Case Selection screen, click the Restore button on the menu bar.
3. In the Open window, browse to, and select, the case back up file that you just created on your external drive.
1. Click the Open button.
4. The Restore data window will be displayed with information about the case.
5. Click the Restore button.

You are ready to go to trail.

At this point all Visionary case related changes need to be done on the laptop.

Two tips:

1. The case backup process will fail if there are people in the case during the process.
2. Do not try to save the Case Backup file to a thumb drive.  If not using an external drive; save the Case Backup file to your local computer and, when the process completes, then copy it to your thumb drive.

As always, if there are any questions, do not hesitate to send an email to Support@VisionaryLegal.com

Thanks,
chuck

How to create video clips from NON-SYNCED VIDEOOOOOOOO!

In keeping with the (ghostly) spirit of the season, here's a real treat.

Recently I was asked about playing clips in trial of a non-synced video file.

Well, Visionary 8 can do that.

Here's a quick write-up with the process.

First, use Windows Explorer to copy the video file in question to the <driveLetter>:\vs_data\CaseID\Video directory.

Then in your Visionary 8 case, use the File, Import, Video/MultiMedia File. Browse to and select this video file.  Give it a nice Description.

In the list of Other Multi-Media Files, double-click this video file to start it playing in the video window. Stop the video playback. (This step sets the active video file for non-synced video files.)

Next create an IssueBuilder.

Click on the Add Transcript Video Clip icon to bring up the Video Clip Editor window (it's the one that looks like a sheet of paper with a video camera on it).

There are several methods to set your start and stop points with the Editor.

1. As your video is playing, click the Mark In at the start and the Mark Out at the end.
2. Drag the scroll bar to the appropriate location and use the Mark In and Out buttons.
3. Type in a value for thse two points.
4. Use the (real) little up and down arrows to move the Mark In and Out points.

You can also use this to edit the start and stop points of the video clip.  The Play Start and Play End buttons play about five seconds of either the start or stop points.

(This is the same video editor that is used to trim regular (synced video) clips.)

Click the Save As New button.

Repeat as appropriate.


As always, drop me an email at Support@VisionaryLegal.com if there are any questions or comments.



chuck

How to convert a Word .doc file to a nice text file

"We received a Word.doc file from the transcriptionist, how can we use that in our legal software?"  Or worse "We go to trial on Monday and only have a Word .doc file, sync this!"

Have you ever run into this before?

We all know that exporting a Word .doc file does not always get us what we want for use in our legal software.

Recently a friend came to me with the questions above and asked what I could do.

The following write-up provides two possible solutions.

Use Words Save As process to save the files as “Plain Text (*.txt)”.  During the process choose to “Insert line breaks”, I left the other options to default.

QC this text file real good, ensure the line numbering is correct; always 1-25, no line number duplication, no missing line numbers, etc. It is MOST important for any automated process that the data going in is consistent.  GI-GO applies.

So now you have a nice text file, every line with a consistent line number but no page numbers.

Here you have two options.

One, redo the entire line numbering and insert both line numbers and page numbers appropriately.

For this option, we first need to remove all the existing line numbers and blank spaces before the text.

(Most text editors (NotePad++, TextPad, etc.) allow you to select a column of text using the Alt key and highlight process.  (I just tested it on an email and in Word; and holding the Alt key while selecting vertical text – selected a column of text.))

(You could also use a search and replace process to do this.)

Once you have all the line numbers and leading spaces removed, use the Page and Line utility that we include with the Auto-Syncer installation.  In the c:\Program Files (x86)\Visionary\Utilities directory is a program called – oddly enough - PageLineUtil.exe.

Launch that program; set the Source File, Destination File and the Page information and click the Build New File button.

Voila! You have a nicely formatted text file with line and page numbers.

Two, use a text editor that supports Regular Expressions.  (I use TextPad, as it supports the “\i” increment parameter.)

Open the text file and use Search/Replace.
Search for (without the quotes) “(\r\n1 )”
The opening and closing parens create a group; the “\r” and “\n” look for the carriage return and line feed characters; the “1 ” (the digit one with a trailing space) matches line number one only (not 10, 11, etc.).
Replace with (without the quotes) “\r\n.\r\nPAGE  \i\r\n.\1”
The “\r\n” create new lines; the “.” and “PAGE  “ adds that text as applicable; the “\i” adds an incrementing number; the trailing "\1" adds back in the group from the Search - the stuff within the parens.

YOU MUST USE THE REPLACE ALL FOR THE “\i” INCREMENTING TO WORK. IF YOU CHOOSE REPLACE, THE INCREMENTING PARAMETER NEVER GETS PAST ONE.



Personally, I would use the search and replace process because I think RegEx are gnarly.

Whichever method you choose, the most important thing in the entire process is that the text files is correctly formatted.

So there you have it, two methods to easily use transcriptionist-type files.

As a service to non-Visionary software users, I am including a link to the Page and Line Utility program mentioned above.

All rights reserved, use at your own risk, blah, blah, blah....

Visionary Page and Line Utility.

Drop me a line at Support@VisionaryLegal.com if you have questions.

chuck