Lawyers process information. Think of information as your stock-in-trade. Historically, much of the information processed by lawyers existed on paper. As the centuries changed, so did the form of information. Today, information exists in both digital and paper forms. Digital information can be stored, manipulated, analyzed and managed far more effectively and efficiently than paper-based information. Some day, the vast majority of information will be created and maintained in digital format. In the meantime, the information that comes to lawyers on paper can be converted to digital format.

Digital information can exist in many formats. Just as paper bearing information may exist in bound books or on the backs of cocktail napkins, written in a variety of languages and myriad styles, digital information can exist in a variety of media as well as formats. We are not so concerned with the media (e.g., floppy disk, CD-ROM, etc.) as we are with the format (e.g., JPEG, TIFF, PDF, etc.). The conversion of existing stocks of paper-based information into digital information involves choosing a format. Basing the choice of a digital format on what you as a lawyer can do with the digital files leads one to ask what tools are available for working with those files and how easily and universally those files can be shared with other people. With Adobe Acrobat™ you can convert paper-based documents into digital Portable Document Format (PDF) files and then work with those files in many of the same ways you have spent a lifetime learning. PDF files can be shared with anyone who has a copy of the free Adobe ReaderÔ program.

Acrobat lets you convert paper to PDF using a scanner. It also allows you to perform optical character recognition on image-only PDF files created by scanning turning them into files with searchable text and an exact image of the scanned pages. You can also convert other digital file types to PDF. With Acrobat installed on your computer, virtually any file (word processing, spreadsheet, etc.) that can be printed to paper can be converted to PDF.

In addition to using Acrobat to create PDF files, the program makes those files truly useful. For example, bookmarks and sticky notes can be added to image-only files. If the files have a text background, they can be highlighted, underlined, and strike-through. PDF files with background text can be searched while image-only files can not be. However, information contained in the "Document Summary" or in notes attached to image-only PDF files can be searched. PDF files can be reviewed and annotated; the annotations, in addition to being searchable, can be summarized and published to PDF with just a few key strokes or mouse clicks.

Acrobat allows lawyers to work with digital documents in much the same way they work with paper documents. That does not mean that Acrobat will replace your word processor. Just as you cannot effectively edit a paper document you cannot effectively edit documents using Acrobat. You can mark them up, like you would a paper document but the real work of editing remains in the domain of word processing applications. While Acrobat adheres to many of the familiar techniques we employ to work with paper-based documents, it allows lawyers to work with digital documents more efficiently, more effectively and with greater mobility than can be achieved with paper-based information.

Top