Autocreation of calendar items/tasks for law firm

There are a coule of other newsgroups that may by worthwhile: Also try

microsoft.public.outlook.program_addins
microsoft.public.outlook.program_vba

and even take a look at
microsoft.public.office.developer.outlook.forms -- where some of the
regulars may have good ideas or suggestions on where else to inquire.

Don't go away, John -- post here as you make new discoveries. Too bad
there's isnt a newsgroup specifically for law-office users. I'm afraid the
postings on the ABA's tech groups has dwindled off.

John, thank you for the suggestion of Time Matters. Our school's law clinic
uses it, and I entered information while interning there. I think I will
start out with the old paper and pencil systems that I learned so long ago
as a paralegal; since I'll be going solo, I should not be pressed for time
initially. Once I've refreshed my law office management skills, I'll
transfer to new technologies.


Lady Dungeness


"Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]"
wrote in message
...
If you are looking for a custom solution, then posting to an Outlook
programming group would be your best bet. You can also look over code
samples at http://www.outlookcode.com to see if anyone has posted something
that you find interesting.

--�
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.

After furious head scratching, John Simons asked:

| Yes Milly, I had already Googled that and found the offerings
| wanting. It turns out that there is nothing that I could find that
| did an 'automatic' populating of the calendar based on a given date.
| There is one (CompuLaw) that calculates everything in their
| proprietary app and then will 'export' to Outlook. The problem is
| that their app doesn't support exporting to Public Folders and is
| very expensive. I am looking for an MVP or programmer who may have
| developed something that is a COM plug-in or something similar that
| works something like a macro that will automatically calculate dates
| prior to a set trial date and then automatically populate the Outlook
| calendar with those appropriate dates (a 'tickler' system as Lady D
| described). There are some very sophisticated case management
| systems that do this as well, but once again they are very pricey.
| In this case, Google was not a very good friend, but rather a tease.
|
| Anyone else who has something constructive to contribute?
|
| Lady D - should I contact you off-list to discuss your law-firm
| related needs?
|
| "Lady Dungeness" wrote:
|
|| Milly,
||
|| Those law office programs cost a lot of money. Especially for small
|| practices, why shouldn't we take advantage of the tools in the
|| Office suite? There's enough power in these applications to allow us
|| to meet our needs, with a bit of tweaking.
||
|| I think what OP was looking for was how to automate a tickler
|| system; when a trial date comes up, trial-prep deadline schedule
|| based on the case type, enter the trial date, and bingo, the
|| calendars are populated with calendar deadlines and schedules for
|| what to do, when to do it, and when the deadline is.
||
|| I'm willing to bet that OP already knew about the commerical
|| products on the market, the cost, and the conflicts they have with
|| already intstalled software such as Outlook.
||
|| These groups have gotten into a habit lately of saying "Google is
|| your friend." Just what is that supposed to mean? Does that mean,
|| don't post to our group because Google is out there? Then why not
|| close down the newsgroups?
||
|| Don't mean to be ornery; just trying to express my point of view.
||
|| Lady D
|| Dungeness are Crabby
||
||
||
|| "Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]"
|| wrote in message
|| ...
|| Geez - can't anyone do anything for themselves anymore??????
||
||
http://www.google.com/search?sourcei...uling+software
||
|| --�
|| Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]
||
|| Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
|| unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
|| reading.
||
|| After furious head scratching, Lady Dungeness asked:
||
||| John -- please stick around; I'm needing help with law-office
||| related issues, too;
|||
||| Lady D
|||
|||
||| "Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]"
||| wrote in message
||| ...
||| google is your friend.
|||
||| --�
||| Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]
|||
||| Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
||| unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
||| reading.
|||
||| After furious head scratching, John Simons asked:
|||
|||| I have a law firm client who is running SBS 2003 with OL2003 on the
|||| desktops. They are looking for a way to autocreate calendar items
|||| on the group calendar based on an upcoming trial date. These
|||| items can be a various time intervals prior to the trial date. Is
|||| there a way to autocreate (I assume using macros) these
|||| calendar/task items and/or is there an applet already out there
|||| that does this? thanks for any help you can provide.
||||
|||| John Simons
|||| Simons Computer Services

In all frankness, how is a new poster to know what is expected? There are
no rules for posting in these newgroups; no FAQ. The groups are offered by
microsoft, and it's only reasonable that a new posters would post the same
questions over and over every week.

Perhaps somene should make a FAQ and post it here weekly, or daily in the
case of groups with large volume. And then instead of responding in
frustration, simply say "I believe the answer is in the FAQ."

Just an idea.

Lady D


"Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]"
wrote in message
...
"Google is your friend" = do your own research and then post here if you
find nothing AND add that you have already searched the web and found
nothing that suits. That saying also goes for the hundreds of the same
questions asked and answered here weekly.

--�
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.

After furious head scratching, Lady Dungeness asked:

| Milly,
|
| Those law office programs cost a lot of money. Especially for small
| practices, why shouldn't we take advantage of the tools in the Office
| suite? There's enough power in these applications to allow us to meet
| our needs, with a bit of tweaking.
|
| I think what OP was looking for was how to automate a tickler system;
| when a trial date comes up, trial-prep deadline schedule based on the
| case type, enter the trial date, and bingo, the calendars are
| populated with calendar deadlines and schedules for what to do, when
| to do it, and when the deadline is.
|
| I'm willing to bet that OP already knew about the commerical products
| on the market, the cost, and the conflicts they have with already
| intstalled software such as Outlook.
|
| These groups have gotten into a habit lately of saying "Google is your
| friend." Just what is that supposed to mean? Does that mean, don't
| post to our group because Google is out there? Then why not close
| down the newsgroups?
|
| Don't mean to be ornery; just trying to express my point of view.
|
| Lady D
| Dungeness are Crabby
|
|
|
| "Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]"
| wrote in message
| ...
| Geez - can't anyone do anything for themselves anymore??????
|
|
http://www.google.com/search?sourcei...uling+software
|
| --�
| Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]
|
| Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
| unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
| reading.
|
| After furious head scratching, Lady Dungeness asked:
|
|| John -- please stick around; I'm needing help with law-office related
|| issues, too;
||
|| Lady D
||
||
|| "Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]"
|| wrote in message
|| ...
|| google is your friend.
||
|| --�
|| Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]
||
|| Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
|| unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
|| reading.
||
|| After furious head scratching, John Simons asked:
||
||| I have a law firm client who is running SBS 2003 with OL2003 on the
||| desktops. They are looking for a way to autocreate calendar items on
||| the group calendar based on an upcoming trial date. These items can
||| be a various time intervals prior to the trial date. Is there a way
||| to autocreate (I assume using macros) these calendar/task items
||| and/or is there an applet already out there that does this? thanks
||| for any help you can provide.
|||
||| John Simons
||| Simons Computer Services

We have tried FAQs and they have been a spectacular failure.

I guess I expect more common sense from new posters such as research (fast becoming a lost skill in the age of instant gratification) and especially DETAILS like Outlook/Office/OS versions and EXACT error messages. Most of the time I will simply skip over questions with oft repeated answers or questions posted in the subject without context or details.

You may find it acceptable but my time in these groups is limited by choice and habit and I will simply not reward poor habits with answers easily gleaned from a simple search.

YMMV.

--�
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.

After furious head scratching, Lady Dungeness asked:

| In all frankness, how is a new poster to know what is expected?
| There are no rules for posting in these newgroups; no FAQ. The
| groups are offered by microsoft, and it's only reasonable that a new
| posters would post the same questions over and over every week.
|
| Perhaps somene should make a FAQ and post it here weekly, or daily in
| the case of groups with large volume. And then instead of responding
| in frustration, simply say "I believe the answer is in the FAQ."
|
| Just an idea.
|
| Lady D
|
|
| "Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]"
| wrote in message
| ...
| "Google is your friend" = do your own research and then post here if
| you find nothing AND add that you have already searched the web and
| found nothing that suits. That saying also goes for the hundreds of
| the same questions asked and answered here weekly.
|
| --�
| Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]
|
| Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
| unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
| reading.
|
| After furious head scratching, Lady Dungeness asked:
|
|| Milly,
||
|| Those law office programs cost a lot of money. Especially for small
|| practices, why shouldn't we take advantage of the tools in the Office
|| suite? There's enough power in these applications to allow us to meet
|| our needs, with a bit of tweaking.
||
|| I think what OP was looking for was how to automate a tickler system;
|| when a trial date comes up, trial-prep deadline schedule based on the
|| case type, enter the trial date, and bingo, the calendars are
|| populated with calendar deadlines and schedules for what to do, when
|| to do it, and when the deadline is.
||
|| I'm willing to bet that OP already knew about the commerical products
|| on the market, the cost, and the conflicts they have with already
|| intstalled software such as Outlook.
||
|| These groups have gotten into a habit lately of saying "Google is
|| your friend." Just what is that supposed to mean? Does that mean,
|| don't post to our group because Google is out there? Then why not
|| close down the newsgroups?
||
|| Don't mean to be ornery; just trying to express my point of view.
||
|| Lady D
|| Dungeness are Crabby
||
||
||
|| "Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]"
|| wrote in message
|| ...
|| Geez - can't anyone do anything for themselves anymore??????
||
||
| http://www.google.com/search?sourcei...uling+software
||
|| --�
|| Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]
||
|| Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
|| unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
|| reading.
||
|| After furious head scratching, Lady Dungeness asked:
||
||| John -- please stick around; I'm needing help with law-office
||| related issues, too;
|||
||| Lady D
|||
|||
||| "Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]"
||| wrote in message
||| ...
||| google is your friend.
|||
||| --�
||| Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]
|||
||| Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
||| unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
||| reading.
|||
||| After furious head scratching, John Simons asked:
|||
|||| I have a law firm client who is running SBS 2003 with OL2003 on the
|||| desktops. They are looking for a way to autocreate calendar items
|||| on the group calendar based on an upcoming trial date. These
|||| items can be a various time intervals prior to the trial date. Is
|||| there a way to autocreate (I assume using macros) these
|||| calendar/task items and/or is there an applet already out there
|||| that does this? thanks for any help you can provide.
||||
|||| John Simons
|||| Simons Computer Services

Lady Dungeness wrote:

In all frankness, how is a new poster to know what is expected?

Perhaps you remember being is school and having the teacher assign you a
paper to write on something about which you had no knowledge. What was the
first thing you did? You went to the library and SEARCHed the available
resources for the subject. So, too, the first thing you do when you have a
question is use Google (or some other search engine) to look for references.

There are no rules for posting in these newgroups; no FAQ.

Well, actually, there is. Start he
http://www.microsoft.com/communities...ewsgroups.mspx

The groups are offered by microsoft, and it's only reasonable that a new
posters would post the same questions over and over every week.

In my opinion, I'm fairly typical in my usage of web services and I would
expect that anyone wanting answers to a question would try searching first.
I practice that as well.
--
Brian Tillman