Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/9825
• Co-Authoring and Web-Based Applications Two of the most talked about features of Office 2010 are Web-based applications and features that allow simultaneous co-authoring of documents. However, what remains to be seen at this point for the legal industry is how the traditional document management systems will support co-authoring functionality and whether they will play nicely in the cloud with the Office Web applications. There is a great deal of buzz around SharePoint becoming the next legal DMS. In the meantime, the more than 85 percent of ILTA’s 2009 Technology Survey respondents who have an incumbent document management system will have to wait and see what will be possible in the short and long terms. Document management questions aside, the possibility of co-authoring documents is an exciting one for our industry. Some firms will be slow to adopt as they work through the workflow and business processes around collaboration; however, we know there will be others, including Fish & Richardson, who will leverage the co-authoring technology right away. Mersereau says, “We’re hoping that this will allow our teams to work on documents without e-mailing them to each other after each edit. We want to create a solution for our employees to interact and collaborate with each other and our clients.” As for the Office 2010 Web apps, we are most excited about the new Outlook Web Access (OWA) for legal. OWA in 2010 is updated to provide a more consistent user experience by carrying over more of the standard features that users are accustomed to having in Outlook, such as the calendar sharing and scheduling assistant functionalities. 26 Microsoft ILTA White Paper HIGH TOUCH USER ENVIRONMENT: • Customizable Ribbon Interface In keeping with the theme of user experience, top on the list of favorite improvements in Office 2010 is the ability for users to customize their own Ribbons. Furthermore, firm customization can be brought closer to the end user through a firm-specific tab or group. “The ability for our employees to customize the Fluent UI/Ribbons was a big plus in our decision to jump to Office 2010,” says Mersereau. In Office 2007, the only customization the end user could do was add buttons to the Quick Access Toolbar. Oxley also stresses the importance of this feature for Leonard, Street and Deinard. “We are ‘high touch’ with our users and allow them to customize their environments to a format that will work best for them,” says Oxley. • Outlook Productivity Benefits Speaking of Ribbons, Outlook 2010 has the Ribbon interface carried throughout the application, providing a consistent user experience across the Office suite. In fact, as an application, Outlook 2010 has the greatest changes over its 2007 predecessor. Conversation view in Outlook 2010 is one of the nuances garnering a lot of attention. Imagine an attorney having the ability to peruse an entire e-mail thread in a single view without having to search, scan or scroll to find related messages. Now imagine that attorney having the ability to ignore the entire thread with a single click. Some would say that’s a frightening prospect, while others would say it is genius. • Streamlined Views of File Features When it comes to using Word, Excel and PowerPoint more efficiently, Office 2010 again scores better