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hundreds of articles by subject Featured: Writing Paralegal Resumes New: How To Discover Business Assets New: Criminal Motion Practice (with forms) New: Trends in paralegal training & programs. New: Getting Started as a Paralegal The Listserv is a free, e-mail discussion group. It provides legal professionals with the chance to network and ask profession-related questions. Featured topic: Billable Hours This long-running column examines ethics in the paralegal profession. Do you have an ethical dilemma or question? E-mail us today. Recently Posted: Avoiding Technology Traps
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Review Quick View Plus 10 January/February 2009 Table of Contents I have to admit that the latest release of a desktop file-viewing utility sounded a bit less than exciting, if not superfluous. My first thought was, “who would need that today?” Most legal professionals are armed to the teeth with the latest software to do just about any task, and file incompatibility problems are less of an issue (though still problematic, and at times cripplingly so). The longevity and steady evolution over the years of Quick View Plus, by Avanstar, Inc., evidences the market demand for such products, however. Debuting in 1996 as an after-market add-on to Windows 95 that sold for under $100, Quick View Plus 10 was released in August 2008. QVP’s core feature is the ability to view files in more than 300 Windows, Macintosh, Internet and DOS file formats. Simply click on the name of just about any file, and it’s almost instantly displayed in a side or bottom viewing pane, precisely as if it were opened in the program that created it, since QVP retains all formatting. Text, spreadsheets, databases, presentations and graphics viewed in QVP are eye-pleasingly sharp and crisp. Improvements include support for Windows Vista, Microsoft Word 2007, Corel WordPerfect X3 and Microsoft Outlook Form Templates. Downloading and installing QVP, much like the program itself, is quick and simple. There is no user manual needed, primarily due to its seamless integration with Microsoft Windows. The Graphic User Interface is immediately familiar, not overly complicated, and easy to use. Within minutes of browsing my hard drive and home network, I had the answer to the question, “who would need that today?” — everyone. I soon discovered that QVP is particularly suited for legal professionals, solving a host of needs. Primarily marketed as a tool for viewing, copying and printing just about any file, QVP shines even when file incompatibility isn’t an issue. Opening e-mail attachments these days is a risky proposition (what with viruses, worms and malicious macros), regardless of having the latest antivirus programs and spam filters in place. Even with safe e-mail attachments, opening software programs (to view sometimes a single file) is an unnecessary waste of time, burdens PC system resources, and usually requires the recipient to not only have a license to one of any number of specialty or legacy software programs, but often the correct program version. Because QVP integrates with popular e-mail clients, Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora and Lotus Notes users have the option to open only e-mail attachments they choose, saving time and increasing productivity. What’s more, files can be printed in QVP without having to be opened or even viewed first (Quick Print, accessible upon right-click of any file name), a feature I was particularly pleased to find. The ability to copy and paste from within a viewed file was a similarly nice surprise. The combination of these features alone makes QVP a powerful tool for legal professionals, and practically a necessity. QVP has been proven to be an amazing tool for forensic PC examination, saving thousands of dollars in software costs. With QVP, businesses are able to keep software expenses to a minimum (i.e., down to just the programs they actually need and use). Finding the right document or other data file
on your PC never has been easier or faster, since most file content
is only a mouse-click away. Text documents can be viewed in Draft, Though full-text searches are available for
text files, searching text in multiple folders isn’t an option. This
is unfortunate, in my view, and really one of the biggest obstacles
to doing away with the need for Windows Explorer altogether. Files
can be sent as attachments to an e-mail, directly from within QVP
(although, under Web browser integration also is an option, including Internet Explorer, Netscape and Mozilla Firefox, to permit viewing of foreign file formats within those programs (outside of QVP). QVP integrates with versions of Adobe Acrobat through Version 8. It also can view Acrobat files without the use of Acrobat. If, like me, you dismissed QVP out of hand, you might want to think again. Sure, many specialty programs offer free viewers for download (PowerPoint, RealLegal E-Transcript Viewer for depositions, and even Word, to name a few), but when was the last time you had one of those installed before you needed it? Even as a freelancer, when a program has this much to offer for less than $50, I have one thing to say: Sold!
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