Ending Citation Frustration
For lawyers, the simple copy/paste task often ends up taking on a life of its own. Why? Formatting. MasterFile’s Drafting Minion drops perfectly formatted testimony into motions in one click.
How to correctly Bates number PDFs and native files
Bates numbers are not outdated. They just need to be used correctly to number TIF, PDF, and native files. See how, and why, MasterFile makes it simple.
How to split PDFs into logical files
Dozens of products let you split a large PDF file into smaller PDFs based on a number of criteria. That’s all well and good, but being able to simply extract pages has no relevance to managing evidence, key facts and extracts within each document that’s inside the large PDF file now on your screen. MasterFile splits and loads large PDF files for you automatically, so you can focus on what matters most – case analysis and case strategy.
How to create better case chronologies and legal timelines
As any litigator or investigator that’s handled a complex matter knows, getting control of the stacks of evidence, facts and legal issues can be quite a challenge. MasterFile is designed to let you easily manage case information in matters of any complexity to build stronger cases and ultimately, win more. In this short article, we explain how to create legal timelines and case chronologies that can give you an edge in court.
Working efficiently with views
Views are where you find what you’re looking for in MasterFile. There are over 50 different views that slice into your case evidence, facts, issues and more. You can create your own too. Since they’re one of the keys to using MasterFile efficiently, we’ve put together some tips making views more useful and enjoyable.
Using full text search
One of MasterFile’s most valuable features is its full text search engine. You can perform simple Google type searches or Boolean searches or if you turn on the proximity option, even searches like ‘car PARAGRAPH wheels’ which finds documents in which ‘car’ and ‘wheels’ appear in the same paragraph.
MasterFile and Practice Management Systems
Linking your MasterFile databases to your practice management system is as simple as filing MasterFile’s NDL file(s) as a new document for the relevant client and/or matter in its document’s tab. When you double click or open the relevant .NDL “document” shown in the client or matter’s documents tab in your practice management system, the related MasterFile database opens.
Using doc-links
MasterFile has only one linking technology — doc-links. One of MasterFile’s most valuable features, they’re simple to understand and easy to use. It doesn’t matter why you’re linking or what you’re linking — they’re used for everything. MasterFile’s doc-links substantiate argument, provide security over e-mail, eliminate file links, and more. They let you link work product, evidentiary documents, transcripts, extracts, or facts to any other document, extract or fact. They’re self-descriptive so there are no short names (as in CaseMap) to remember, and because MasterFile stores everything in its database, unlike external document file links, they never break.
Working with profiles
Document, extract and fact profiles are to MasterFile what e-mail messages are to e-mail — without them your database is empty! Learning their features, how they work together and how they relate to views will help you get the most out of MasterFile. Here are some tips we hope you will find useful.
Bookmarks and shortcuts
Like browser bookmarks and desktop shortcuts, you can create shortcuts to MasterFile databases and critical information for instant access. In this post, we show you how to do that in MasterFile’s “Favourite Bookmarks” panel and on the Windows desktop — using simple drag and drop.