FinPlan's Divorce Planner prepares two types of reports. One group shows support and cash flow information and the other group presents tax calculations. All of these detailed reports are the direct result of the facts of your case. The reports will change reflecting any change in the case facts you insert. As you alter the number and who shall receive the benefits of the dependency exemptions by simply clicking on the recalculate icon, a new tax consequence appears for your consideration. Likewise, as you insert or remove alimony from your case analysis, support and cash flow amounts will change as well as the tax consequences. As many as three alimony alternatives can be displayed in a side-by-side report.
Those who like to see pictures and graphs will not be disappointed because as you request recalculations for the variables in your control the results will not only be reported in raw numbers but also in percentages, pie and or bar graphs if you wish.
This program will calculate for you the exact amount of alimony needed to get one spouse to the exact amount of budget cash needed to maintain the family.
Gone are the days of using slide rules, tax tables within certain ranges, guessing who best would be served in claiming the child dependency exemptions, etc. Help is here to easily calculate exact tax consequences, correct statutory guideline child support and appropriate, if any, amounts of alimony.
More information about Fin Plan can be obtained at finplan@wwa.com, fax 630/554-1769, 1-800/777-2108.
By Jay Giusti
You may have heard about a new top-level domain becoming available for Internet Web addresses, and the March 2001 issue of ABA Law Practice Management has a good description of new ones particularly including .pro that is intended for professionals such as attorneys. Mark Tamminga's article explains how the new domain will require some sort of certification, presumably proof-of- bar membership in good standing. Details are to be found at www.registrypro.com. This an other Internet-related topics are likely to be explored at the ISBA Intellectual Property Section Council's program.
Recommended
Version 5.0 of Adobe Acrobat has been announced. Features include options to permit saving text in Rich Text Format (RTF), extraction of images from PDF documents to be saved as TIFF, JPEG or PNG formats, ability to specify Post Script level 1, 2 or 3 compatibility, and to convert fonts from TrueType to PostScript Type 1.
Security features are also enhanced. Third-party digital signature mechanisms such as offered by Entrust or VeriSign are supported. If you know an intended recipient's public encryption key certificate, you purportedly can now restrict a PDF file so that only that person (or, perhaps, member of a limited audience) may open it. Group editing via Web browser access may be supported depending on your particular network's level of support, including Microsoft Office Server (Windows networks). Interface improvements include customizable toolbars similar to MS Office applications. Update price is $99; list $249. Minimum operating system software requirements are Windows 95 OSR 2.0 or later; or MacOS 8.6 or above (some features require 9.0.4 or later). Release expected Spring 2001; pre-orders being taken as of this writing.
Adoption of Acrobat as a platform-neutral Internet standard is likely to broaden in the next several years, and the United States' second-largest software company's endorsement of private key/digital signature technology is a strong indicator that electronic filing of court documents is on the horizon. Even if you have no desire to generate digital documents, you'll probably want to take advantage of the free Acrobat Reader application by downloading from Adobe's Web site, although many software applications now include Acrobat on installation CDs.
Strongly recommended
As attorneys increasingly turn to computer-generated visuals to bring points home quickly and effectively to relatively unsophisticated fact finders, opponents may find it increasingly difficult to assure that the relationships argued to be revealed are those which actually exist among the data, or are portrayed accurately. For those of us having taken only a college statistics course or two, two books by well-respected researcher Edward Tufte may be useful: The Visual Display of Quantitative Information (Graphics Press 1983) and Visual Explanations (Graphics Press 1997), both available in hardcover to be ordered online such as from Amazon.com.
Visual Explanations includes a broad range of examples to illustrate how data can best be presented and enhanced in graphic format, such as presenting data from the Challenger shuttle explosion investigation to demonstrate the most effective approaches to convey likely association among causation data.
Interesting chapters include "Explaining Magic" and "Multiples in Space and Time." Litigators more concerned with accurate portrayal of statistical information in graphic format should consult The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, with discussions showing excellent examples of false conclusions drawn from misleadingly-visualized data ("chartjunk"). The theory of data graphics begin with what Tufte posits as the fundamental principle of good statistical graphics: "Above all else show the data." He notes that "a large share of ink on a graphic should present data-information, the ink changing as the data change,"offering the corollary "erase non-data-ink, within reason," proceeding to illustrate many instances of successes and failures.
These books won't substitute for a technical background equal to your opponent's experts, or make you a visual design professional, but will probably help you better understand and explain deficiencies in over-simplified visuals, perhaps even restrain your own unconscious contribution to chartjunk which Tufte notes is multiplied more than ever by computer graphics.
Both are strongly recommended
Finally, by now OS X (as in Roman numeral X) should have been publicly released by Apple Computer, and personal computing as you now practice it on any platform will inevitably be changed as a result, at least through imitation.
OS X is a modern implementation of a Unix-based multi-user, multi-tasking memory-protected system, hiding behind a sophisticated user-centered interface. It's been many years since I've observed jaded audience members gasp and cheer during operating system demonstrations (much less beta versions) but it actually evoked cooing and clapping from the usually formal and reserved French at a computer trade show in Paris last September. Advance upgrade orders are now being taken by various vendors for $99, but it will be shipped on current Macintosh hardware starting in summer.
Highly recommended
How to create fractions in Word and WordPerfect without using the math feature
By Marilyn Monrose, Legal Word Processing "Doctor"™
You don't need to use the Math features in Word and WordPerfect to create fractions. Here's a simple and more practical way to do them.
We'll be using "7 5/8" as our example.
Creating Fractions in Word 97/2000
1. Type the fraction "7 5/8."
2. Highlight the numerator number "5" and superscript it, by clicking <Format>, <Font> and checking <Superscript>. Hit <OK>.
3. Highlight the denominator number "8" and make it "Three" or "Four" point sizes smaller than the size you're currently using for the document. For example, if the default font size for the document is "12" points, then the denominator should be "8" or "9" points. You really have to judge it for yourself to see which size looks best.
4. The fraction should now read as "7 5/8."
Easy enough, right? Now learn how to format fractions in WordPerfect.
Creating Fractions in WordPerfect 6.0/6.1/7/8/9
1. Type the fraction "7 5/8."
2. Highlight the numerator number "5" and superscript it. Click <Format>, <Font>, then select <Superscript> from the <Position> box. Hit <OK>. Unlike Word, WordPerfect shows you what the point size is for the superscripted text in the <Font Point Size> box.
3. Highlight the denominator number "8" and make it the same point size as the superscripted numerator. For example, if the numerator is "7.2" points, then make the denominator "7.2" points.
4. The fraction should now read as "7 5/8."
This is the easy way to create fractions in Word and WordPerfect.
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Marilyn Monrose, the Legal Word Processing "Doctor,"™ temped for ten years as a legal word processor at many of New York's top law firms. Now a computer trainer, she is also the author of two very successful and simple, step-by-step, hands-on training guides entitled ADVANCED WORD 97 FOR THE LEGAL USER MADE EASY and ADVANCED WORDPERFECT 7 & 8 FOR THE LEGAL USER MADE EASY. Ms. Monrose can be reached at 212/579-9306 or e-mail: Legaltraining@dialalesson.com.
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