Have you ever received the following error message when trying to open Amicus: "A connection with the server could not be established. Please check your network connection or contact your network administrator. Amicus Attorney will now start in offline mode. Do you wish to continue?"

Should I click Yes or No? And why does this happen so often on my laptop?

I always recommend to my clients that they click on No - whether they are on a laptop or a desktop computer. If you get that message, you need to find out why you do not have a network connection. If you continue to work in offline mode, and do not modify anything in your office, there should be no problems. However, if you work in offline mode for a long time, then go online, you may have to decide what to do with certain items that have been modified offline and online. And the window that opens can be very confusing - and can cause lost data, if you don't do the right thing!

First of all, if you are on a desktop computer, then you definitely need to find out why you are not being connected to the network. Especially if you can access the Team50 folder (see the next paragraph). However, on laptop computers, this problem seems to happen much more often, and usually you DO have a network connection. (It has something to do with the polling of the network - it just hasn't made that handshake yet). But the good news is that there is a pretty easy way to keep this from happening.

I created a shortcut from the Team50 drive in My Computer on my desktop. Now - every time I boot up my laptop, if I see the icon with a red 'X' on it, I know for sure that I will get that error message if I try to open Amicus. So the first thing I do before trying to open Amicus is to double-click on the shortcut icon to the Team50 drive, then close it. That's it - I don't see that error anymore opening Amicus.

Of course, if I forget and see the error message, I click on 'No'. Then I double-click on the shortcut icon, close it, and then open Amicus.

There was a great article in the November 2005 issue of Maximum PC called 'Happy Birthday Windows!' - listing all of the Windows editions from 1995 to today. For those of you who are still using Windows ME - here's some food for thought.

The rest of the Windows editions were listed, with their various improvements, and how they helped PC users. However, the paragraph about Windows Millennium Edition (ME) said this:

"The less said about this dog, the better. Windows ME was an ill-conceived and ill-executed attempt to juice more life out of DOS-based Windows. In reality, ME did little but cause serious PC users to grind their teeth. DOS was still lurking in the wings, although MS went to so much trouble to hide it that some applications wouldn't work properly. Windows Media Player was tightly integrated with Windows in much the same way Internet Explorer was in Win98. The one high point of ME was System Restore, which would let you roll back a broken OS to a pre-saved restore point."

So if you are still using Win ME, please please consider changing to a more stable system - for your user's benefits - and your sanity.

This list was gathered from two separate articles - one in Law Technology News (January 2003), and the other from a website article from (July 1998), and then I modified the list from my own experiences. Hopefully, you don't see these mistakes at your firm.

1. Blame all your computer problems on hardware - assume that your existing I.T. people know enough about all of your software to make it all work perfectly.
2. Hire friends or relatives to work on your network - and pay them very little.
3. Don't bring in any certified software consultants to help with your software - but if you do, argue and complain about their fees.
4. Skimp on training - expect that your users will just "figure it out on their own".
5. Treat I.T. as a "cost" instead of a benefit to the business.
6. Don't keep any documentation on your hardware or software - hope that your users and/or I.T. people will just remember everything.
7. Expect your hardware and software to run flawlessly - don't plan for any potential problems./li>
8. Install new hardware and software and tell your users to "go for it". Don't prepare your users for any new technology, and let them decide whether or not they want to use it.
9. Don't communicate the business plan or goals of your firm.
10. Invest heavily then spend nothing for years.
11. Be resistant to change, and by all means, don't get your users' input on what works and what doesn't.

How often do you get e-mail messages from friends or co-workers about a virus - and it asks you to pass it along to everyone that you know? Like the one about Microsoft sending you a $245 check, or the one about the flesh-eating Costa Rican bananas?

These are both urban legends that spread like wildfire over the Internet. There are many other virus hoaxes and chain letters that have been causing havoc on the Internet - causing slowdowns - sent by unscrupulous people who have nothing better to do than to make our Internet lives a nightmare.

So how do you find out whether these messages are real - or just a hoax? Here are a few sites that you can use to find out whether a suspect e-mail is really a hoax or urban legend, or whether a virus warning is real.

Real Virus Warnings

• Symantec AntiVirus Research Center - www.symantec.com/avcenter/index.html
• AVP Virus Encyclopedia - www.avp.ch/avpve
• Network Associates Virus Library - http://vil.nai.com/vil/default.esp
• F-Secure Virus Info Center - www.datafellows.com/virus-info

Virus Hoaxes

• Computer Virus Myths - www.vmyths.com/hoax.cfm
• Symantec AntiVirus Research Center - www.symantec.com/avcenter/index.html
• F-Secure Virus Info Center - www.datafellows.com/virus-info
• CIAC Internet Hoaxes - http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org

Chain Letters and Urban Legends

• Urban Legends And Folklore - http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/internet/a/current _netlore.htm
• Urban Legends Reference Pages - www.snopes.com
• CIAC Internet Chain Letters - http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org

For those of you who use WordPerfect, you may be wondering how to remove the blank lines in a template - for example, in the inside address for a letter. By the way, this is not only in Amicus, but in any WordPerfect template.

In order to keep a blank line from appearing if a field is blank, you can use the 'IFNOTBLANK' and 'ENDIF' merge codes. Your document will need to be set up as a Merge document first - so that the Merge Toolbar is displayed.

If you do not see the Merge Toolbar, you will need to perform the following steps:

• Select Tools - Merge
• Click on Form Document - Create Form Document - Use File in Active Window - OK
• Click on No Association - OK (Non-Amicus users - select the appropriate Merge data file)
• Click on Cancel to close the Merge window

Let's use the scenario of an inside address without a company name. With your cursor below the name field (or the title field, if used), click on the Insert Merge Code button on the 'Merge Toolbar' and select More. Type ifn and click on Insert to select the IFNOTBLANK(field) code. Type the number (or name) of the field code in the dialog box that appears, and press Enter (or click on OK). (In Amicus, the Company Name field is 7 - if you do not know the field code number or name, you can add it later.)

Amicus users - Click on the List Merge Fields button from the Amicus Attorney Tasks toolbar, click on 7 (Contact Company Name) from the 'Contact Basic Information' category, and click on OK.

Non-Amicus users - Click on the Insert Field button on the Merge toolbar, select the Company Name field and click on OK.

Click back in your document. On the next line of your document, insert the ENDIF code from the Insert Merge Codes window. Select the field code that should appear just below the Company Name - in Amicus, you would select Field 13 (Contact Street). Then on the next line, you would select the City, State and Zip fields. Just be sure that you do not enter a Hard Return (HRt) in between the ENDIF code and the Field(13) code.

The 2 line codes (Company Name and Contact Street) should look like this:

IFNOTBLANK(7)FIELD(7) ENDIF FIELD(13)