Category Archives: Document management

ZeroPC Makes Cloud Information Management Easier

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Posted in Android, Document management, Evernote, File Management, iPad, Mobile and tagged , , , , ,

I am starting to see more about cloud desktops: virtual operating systems that you access through your browser that look like your normal desktop computer.  ZeroPC caught my eye because it offers some of the information management tools that I think are important for lawyers managing information with cloud-based services.  It has the added benefit of additional tools although it is not rich enough a desktop OS for a lawyer to rely on.

ZeroPC does an excellent job of relying on your pre-existing accounts and passwords.  When I signed up to ZeroPC, it used my Google account – which has a very strong password – rather than creating a separate username and password.  I prefer cloud services that employ this method because I trust mature cloud providers over more recent ones.

The service uses your Web browser and I was able to use it with Chrome on both my desktop and tablet.  You are presented with a Windows-like desktop when you access your account.  Unlike remote connection resources like GotoMyPC, where you are accessing your own computer, this is a virtual desktop running on a cloud server.  There is a button where the Windows Start button would be and icons on the desktop.  This is a cloud service, though and it enables you to manage your information across multiple services.

One feature that I like is the storage management.  You can connect your ZeroPC account to cloud file synchronization services like Dropbox, Box, Sugarsync, and Google Drive.  Once connected, you can move files from one account to another from within the ZeroPC interface.  I recently looked at another site that does the same thing.

Storage Dashboard in ZeroPC shows all of your accounts. It aggregates information to show you available space over all of your linked accounts, as well as used/unused space in each individual service.

ZeroPC does a good job treating multiple resources as one.  You can attach multiple e-mail accounts in the same way., creating a unified inbox.  It will auto-configure Google and Yahoo! mail accounts but you can add other IMAP mail servers as well.

It also provides another feature that I think can be powerful:  cloud search.  There is a search box at the bottom of the screen, on your virtual task bar.  When you search for files with the box, it searches across all of your connected cloud services for results.  This is not new – I’ve discussed both Cue Up and CloudMagic before – but ZeroPC has done a good job of providing it as part of a much more functional environment.

Search results from Evernote, Google Drive, and other cloud storage using an Android tablet and Chrome Web browser

This approach to a cloud desktop would seem to be useful for someone who had a variety of cloud-based resources that could be connected using ZeroPC.  It is distinctive because they not only provide the connections but a familiar interface in which to use them.  It appears to be based on a Linux operating system, and comes with a simple text editor, image tools, and other applications, like the tablet-familiar ThinkOffice productivity suite.  If you want to view a document, you can open it using the Google Docs viewer, for example.  There is even a Web browser on the desktop so that you do not need to open a second window or tab.

There is a free version so you would have to watch how much information you were transferring or storing in the extra space ZeroPC offers.  Paid versions offer additional benefits and features, mostly in the areas of bandwidth and storage space.

Citepin Legal Citation Management

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Posted in Document management, Evernote, Research Management, Research Notebooks and tagged , ,

This site jumped out at me because of the trend of pin-related sites, like Pinterest.  Citepin is a fee-based service that allows you to upload documents and then apply a set of metadata to them for easy retrieval.  It’s default fields include jurisdiction, so you can tag each document with the appropriate court, document type, and creation date.  If you don’t upload a document, you can still link to an online resource and apply appropriate metadata.  You can try out the site for 2 days and upload 500 MB, or sign up for 1 GB of storage for $36 a year.

The concept is interesting because it provides a shortcut to add law-specific metadata for quick retrieval.  I could see a lawyer using this for a personal knowledge management system.  But the metadata isn’t so rich that you couldn’t create something similar using tags or categories in a product like Evernote.

GMail Search with Your Personalized Web Search

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Posted in Document management, File Management, GMail, Google, Search and tagged , ,

You can join the GMail Search field trial to give this one a try.  Google will now return content within your Google Mail and Google Drive accounts to the right of your Web search results.  This is similar functionality to that of the cloud search tools like Cue and Cloudmagic.

If you have turned off search personalization, you need to turn it back on.  You should also consider using an ad block extension, since the personalized search results will appear below the ads on the right side of the screen.

Google Mail and Google Drive results for “cloud computing” from my personal accounts.

I am still playing around with this function.  To be honest, I don’t have that much in my Mail or Drive accounts, since I tend to use other cloud storage services.  I’m going to beef up my content in the Drive to see if I see any additional results.  This will help me determine whether it’s problems with the personalized search or lack of content that is resulting in the very uneven appearance of Mail and Documents items.

On a somewhat unrelated note, I noticed when I was testing this feature out that Google is defaulting to returning Google Drive matches if you type a search that includes documents in it.  This actually suits me better, since it means I can activate a Drive search just when I want it, rather than when Google thinks there’s something that matches.

Google Search returns matches from Google Drive at the head of your Web search results if you end your query with “documents”

Save Attachments to Google Drive with Chrome Extension

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Posted in Add-on, Document management, File Management, GMail, Google Chrome and tagged ,

A lot of things going on in the Googleverse that can improve your Google Mail experience.  The oldest in the backlog of items I’ve been meaning to write about is an extension that allows you save e-mail attachments directly to your Google Drive account.  You have always been able to View or Download to your local machine.  If you are using your Drive space, though, or want to have the attachment accessible for editing in Google Docs, this can be a handy shortcut.

Finding Files Faster in Windows

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Posted in Document management, File Management, Search, Windows and tagged , ,

Desktop search remains an underutilized and underappreciated productivity tool for lawyers.  Windows 7 has finally delivered a powerful search feature that will uncover content quickly.  In what seems typical, the default settings are not the most powerful.  Check out these tips to make sure that you’ve tweaked your search to be as useful as possible.  In particular, make sure the search is actually looking at the contents of the files you use, not just their names.  You can also create your own search shortcuts, so that when you hit the Windows button, there are other search choices.

Cloud search is always an option but if you use cloud as a synchronized storage medium, then it means those files also exist on your local machine.  If you can improve and use your desktop search, you will be searching the same content and may use it more than a cloud service.

MakeUseOf had a nice roundup of some lesser known search tools that you can use if you still don’t find Windows built-in search to be powerful enough.  These are not the typical ones you may have heard of, like Copernic or X1.  If you are finding yourself hunting around your hard drive for that file that you know you kept, improving your desktop search may be the best way to do it.

Cue (f/k/a Greplin) Updates, Adds Web Search Back

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Posted in Document management, E-mail Management, File Management, Research Management, Search and tagged , ,

Greplin changed its name to Cue and temporarily disabled its Web search, preferring instead to focus on its iPhone app.  It has now resuscitated its Web search as promised.  If you had a Greplin account before, it’s still there as are your earlier indexes.  They will be out of date and you need to relink your apps (Google Mail, Google Mail for Apps, Dropbox, etc.) to Greplin so that the indexing can recommence.

The interface looks more mobile-oriented, which is not surprising.  The search box and results are constrained in a very narrow column.  If you do a search across all of your cloud content and only want to look at one type of information – e-mail, or files, or contacts – the filter button is now within that same column rather than a separate set of tabs.

I miss the Google Chrome extension that enabled search from within the browser but it’s still a fast way to find information in my personal cloud.

Cue search results page

Cue search results page, showing a filter list of results for files found on Dropbox but excluding e-mails and contacts with the search term. In this case, I’m using IFTTT.com to copy Twitter messages to Dropbox that contain useful links in them. This search retrieves them all.

Greplin Goes, Cue Replaces Personal Cloud Search

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Posted in Document management, File Management, GMail, iPhone, Search and tagged ,

I was disappointed to find that Greplin was now offline and reshaping itself as an iPhone app called Cue.  They are promising to get the Web version back soon so hopefully we’ll see the same useful search across multiple cloud tools.  I posted about it here and here.  Cloudmagic is still out there if you’re primarily a Google Apps user.