SoftPowerhouse • +852 3111-2355 (Hong Kong) • SoftPowerhouse recommends ordering online at www.softpow erhouse.com • $99; trial version is available through the Web site • Windows 2000/XP/ Vista; supports Microsoft Office 2000, 2002, 2003 and 2007.

Pros: An excellent product for organizing documents and performing global changes; allows users quick access to groups of documents that are relevant in a case.

Cons: Help file is poorly written in places and is confusing.

Verdict: PowerReuse is a bargain at $99 and will be a valuable addition to a busy law office where organizing documents is a necessity.

Review

PowerReuse — Version 1.1

By Mary Girsch-Bock

January/February 2009 Table of Contents

If you have worked in a law office for any amount of time, you are well aware of the massive amount of documents that are required for every legal case, along with the necessity to organize these documents for easy accessibility. Getting and staying organized is essential for any para­legal, and with the help of PowerReuse from SoftPowerhouse, it’s easier than ever.

PowerReuse is a program that allows you to take Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files, and group them into a combined project file for easier accessibility and updating. You no longer have to open and access multiple documents from multiple programs. Using PowerReuse, you easily can update your saved documents in each file.

Some of the key features in PowerReuse include the ability to use a common interface that includes Word, Excel and PowerPoint features. You easily can switch between tabs to use each program interchangeably. When you have completed each document, you can save the files as a combined data file for quick and easy future access.

To begin a new project, just click on “New.” Enter your project name, and choose one of the three options available: New Files, where you can enter new data for your project; Import Files, where you can import files from previously saved Office files; and No Files, where you can create a new project without any existing files. To add a new file, simply click on “File,” then select “New,” to create a new file at a later date.

While being able to save all documents into a single project file is a great capability, the feature that makes PowerReuse a time saver for the attorney’s office is the Global Update capability that works by assigning global data fields throughout documents. You can assign a name to each field, and then enter the corresponding content information next to it. To do a global update, simply change the content information. In other words, you can enter a specific date, e.g., Sept. 12, that is found in all of your documents. If you later need to change this date to Sept. 23, simply enter the new date, and Power­Reuse will change the occurrences of the original date of Sept. 12, to the updated one of Sept. 23. To use this feature, simply enter all common data terms in the data fields. These then can be updated as needed. This is a great way for paralegals to record common text blocks such as dates, addresses and other user-defined categories, and later reuse or update them globally for use in another document that requires this information.

The Content Library provides users with a central location for storing all content that will be reused in the future. This makes it easy to locate and save blocks of text, allowing you to easily access these data files and paste them into other files when necessary.

The Project Explorer feature allows you to manage multiple project files. With an interface similar to Microsoft Explorer, Project Explorer allows you to manage multiple files, add or delete specific files from projects, and even move or copy files from project to project.

The unique design of PowerReuse makes it easy to switch between documents — just click on the relevant tab at the bottom of the screen to access any Word, Excel or PowerPoint files.

You can create multiple copies of your office documents by simply right-clicking on the tab at the bottom of the screen and selecting “Create Copy.” This allows you to quickly create new documents similar to the existing ones you have, as you don’t have to take the time to retype the same content and redefine data fields in the new document. You also can export all project data files directly into Word, Excel or PowerPoint files if needed. This flexibility allows easy data sharing between all relevant legal personnel and ensures that everyone stays updated regarding any document changes.

Although PowerReuse comes with an extensive help file, it can be confusing because of the style in which it’s written. I would recommend simply navigating through PowerReuse or spending some time entering demo data using the sample project files installed with the product. Doing that, you soon will find that you are able to navigate through the program with ease.

PowerReuse is affordably priced and a good fit for legal professionals looking for two things they never can have enough of — better organization and efficient document management.