Ever wonder why it’s a best practice for scanned .pdf files to be text-recognized (OCR’d) before they are shared? Let’s look at these two critical considerations. (There are more but I’ll stop at two.) First. A scanned-only document displays like a picture. It’s an image that you can only look at. You can’t “use” or…
Tag: Lori Shemka
Google (mis)Translate: What’s funny for Fallon fails those court users with limited English proficiency (LEP)
In Jimmy Fallon’s entertaining bit “Google Translate Songs,” The Tonight Show runs the English lyrics of well-known songs through Google Translate. The lyrics are translated into one of 100 languages and then re-translated back to English. Good-natured guests join The Tonight Show host in singing the now-jumbled English lyrics. On screen, the comedy bits are…
Capturing, linking, and citing a web page that displays live (and changing) data
Backstory Perma.cc, an online linking tool, reliably avoids the “link rot” perils that often frustrate future citation readers who “click” to non-operable or modified webpages. Perma.cc smartly generates moment-in-time permanent links (Pema Links) to cited webpages. These Perma Links and the captured content remain—even when the original cited webpages are later modified or deleted. There…
“Word enemas” or “were non-unanimous”: Is Otter.ai ready for the courtroom?
Otter.ai announced its collaboration with Zoom and the launch of an “Otter Live Video Meeting Notes” feature. You can be part of an online Zoom meeting and Otter.ai can generate real-time notes. With so many trial and appellate courts now using Zoom to live-stream their hearings during this historic pandemic, I wondered if this partnership…
Creating an eReference library
I own many physical books but they’re usually not convenient for when I need to consult them. Sometimes, I may be too lazy to pull one or two off the shelf and start flipping through the pages (Black’s Law Dictionary weighs a ton; The Bluebook invites many rabbit holes when time is short). And on…
Digital file names should inform
— not confuse. Every organization and each person has their own “system” for naming the electronic files they save on their own drives. This post is not about that. (Though I am available for organizational consultations.) This is an invitation to think about how you should go about naming digital files intended for the public…
“Let the clicked-on record reflect”
Hyperlink with care. When writing a brief, opinion, report, or other type of permanent document, including hyperlinks to online sources requires thoughtfulness and an eye toward future years. As a default best practice, writers should use perma.cc to create preserved and short links. Why? Think back to why you want to add the link. Hyperlinks…
Spell check matters!
No one is perfect and mistakes happen. This space included. But typing errors are often avoidable if we strive to use the already-available tools. I need to be reminded of this just as much as the next person. The reminder to use my word processor’s spell check—or at least be sensitive to the squiggly red…