A1-Law / WCFMS Newsletter January 2002

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CAAA Convention
It’s in June in Squaw Valley.  Hope to see you there.

In This Issue
A1-Law Version 4.00 completed.  The New Support Forum.  More Questions and Answers, other things.

A1-Law Version 4.00
We shipped Version 4.00 today and you should receive your copy this week.  Version 4.00 marks a new beginning for several reasons.  First, Version 4.00 contains a lot of new features as well as some bug fixes and it's a huge improvement over Version 3.  Once you install Version 4.00, it will be possible for us to provide you with minor updates right here on our website.  These updates may be performed during the day without anyone having to exit out of A1-Law.  However, everyone must be out of the program when you install Version 4.00.

The concept of providing you with updates on our website makes it possible to provide you with minor updates as often as once a month rather than having to wait a while for minor updates and bug fixes.

Also, all of the newsletters through November 2001 are contained in the new version 4.00 help files.

A1-Law Version 4.00 Installation Warnings
Be sure that everyone is out of A1-Law and does not sign on until the installation is complete.  Also, have one person sign on first (the computer that performs the update) and then after everything is done and that computer gets to the main menu - then have everyone else sign on at their leisure.

The New Support Forum
Once again,, the more people that use the discussion forum, the greater the benefit to everyone.  The Support Forum will now automatically send you an Email any time you check the box to send Email for any replies to the thread you post on.  I automatically receive an Email for any posts on the forum.  There are several advantages to using the forum.  First, it's a great learning tool and everyone can learn from everyone else.  Second, it's possible that someone else may answer your questions before I even read the post.  Also, others may share how they utilize A1-Law in that situation.  I don't think people yet realize the true value of the support forum.  For more information, see the Support Forum.

Questions and Answers

Question:  How do I insert the case number in a form letter:

Answer:    One way would be to do it with the Code command as follows:

<<command = code alltrim(str(case.caseno))>>

Question:  I don't see the Summary of Settlement Conference Proceedings.

Answer:    It's the Pre Trial Conference form - contains new (10058) and the old 10082 in form letters.

Question:  I need to know how to enter the date of injury, parts of body, case caption, WCAB No, claim number, carrier and defense attorney in a letter.

Answer:    
Date of Injury
<<command = code trim(injury.adj1c)>>

Parts of Body
<<command = code trim(injury.adj1e)>>

Case Caption
<<command = caption,FromApps>>

WCAB No
<<command = code trim(injury.case_no)>>

Claim No
<<command = code trim(injury.i_claimno)>>

Carrier (including phone number)
<<command = code trim(injury.i_name)>>
<<command = code trim(injury.i_phone)>>

Def atty (including phone number)
<<command = code trim(injury.d1_firm)>>
<<command = code trim(injury.d1_phone)>>

Question:  Just installed A1-Law and it is really slow.  What should I check?

Answer:    There could be several things but start by checking to see if you have a virus checker like Norton Antivirus or some other.  Make sure your consultant has applied all of the exclusions.  It's easy to test this by just disabling the virus checker.  If that solves the problem, then you need to "tweak" it so that you have the virus checker running and A1-Law runs quick.  Add the exclusions - *.dbf, *.cdx, *.fpt, *.tmp, *.lib and also law.exe. Also, what version of Norton Antivirus do you have? There is a "consumer edition" version 5 and a "corporate edition" version 7. The consumer edition runs very slow on networks and slows everything else down as well.

Question:  I can not pull out dates from tables by using the code trim command. I need to use P&S Date in one of my forms, and <<command = code trim(case.psdate)>> results in an error message. Can you please help?.

Answer:    because it's a date field and not a character field - you have to use the "Date TO Character" function DTOC() instead of the trim command as follows:

<<command = code dtoc(case.psdate)>>

Question:  I wanted to copy (i.e. move) the new OCF forms into our form scheme
(i.e. move Pet to Reopen from 10089 to 1290)

How do I do this? Cutting and Pasting did not work.

Answer:    Highlight 10089 and right click on the printer and click Copy. By the way, copy and paste will work. But, below the Title of the form letter, you will see something that says Type. You must click this dropdown and change it from A1-Law to Court Form.

Question:  This morning when our office manager tried to send out a message she received the following errors.
Windows - Delayed Write Failed
Windows was unable to save all the data for the file 
\a1law\data\email2.CDX. The data has been lost. This error may be caused by a failure of your computer hardware or network connection. Please try to save this file elsewhere. The same errors for email2.dbx and email.cdx and email.dbx. Immediately afterwards all of the people who were connected to A1 Law - they were unable to quit out of A1 Law. I had to force quit out of each system. After the force quit they were 
able to sign on and go to their email boxes normally. Any ideas what happened?

Answer:    Sounds like another great post for the forum. Anyways, it sounds like a workstation tried to save information to the server and for some reason not all of the information got there (ie: an electrical glitch either at the workstation or the server, a glitch in the hub or something else). If it happened often, I would start to suspect a bad cable or a hard drive problem in the server or a virus or something else more serious. If it's a one time "freak" thing I would just not worry about it.

One thing though - due to the nature of this problem I would consider reindexing the files some time later today when everyone is off the system. Click on Start, Programs, A1-Law, Reindex

Question:  Getting Notes to print out a single page, or a blocked selection seems to not be possible. In fact, no matter what we try, or boxes we check, all of the extended notes print, in every category of extended notes. Thus, in those instances where the logged letters were included in a case to go into the second category of extended notes, those get printed out, in toto, as well.

Is this a glitch, or intentional? If intentional, we desperately need this changed. If a glitch, please advise if we can do anything.

Answer:    To print a blocked section of extended notes:

Go to a client card and click the Notes tab at the client card to view the notes you want to print. Highlight the notes and Right Click on the title Notes or Logs and click Print.

Question:   << Whenever anyone in the office attempts to get into the case record for XXX  they are confronted with a message window, with a header reading "File Cannot Be Locked": "Someone else is currently using the
CLIENTS\2500\2221\case table. Try again later." >>

Answer:    This was caused by a glitch (ie: power, network cable, someone turning off a computer in the middle of a write, etc). Click on Tools, Miscellaneous, Fix Locked Cases and enter the case number.

Newsletter Back Issues
Looking for some back issues?  You'll find them on our web site at http://www.appellsoftware.com. They have also been included in the help file in Version 4.00 up to November 2001.

Problems with Email Support
If you send me an Email and I have not replied within 48 hours please send a cc to Appell@AppellSoftware.com.  Better yet, feel free to post your question on the support  forum so that others can offer their input and suggestions and everyone can learn from everyone else.  You can access the discussion forum at http://www.appellsoftware.com.

Remote Access Programs / PC Anywhere
Better support can be obtained if you upgrade to PC Anywhere with DSL.  Check with your consultant about firewalls and security issues.  Some offices are upgrading from DSL to a T1 line which is even faster.  Most important of all, there is no substitute for a good backup.  Have you done your backup this week?

Next Month
More questions and answers especially for Version 4.00.

And now for my usual sign-off.......