WHAT IT DOES: This form will help you generate your log and video order pages, to avoid paperwork printing/scanning and editing PDFs. The idea is to save these as PDF, but you could use it to print paper copies too. The page has quite a few features to make your job easier, such as a pre-depo checklist, read-in scripts, exit script for taking orders, etc. The overall strategy is simple -- fill out the form, submit, then save straight to a PDF document.

PDF DROPS: There is a "dropzone" on the right side where you can drop PDF files to automatically populate fields. You can drop PDF notices or Assignment Notifications. Try it with your PDFs, see what all it can get! Just check that the "answers" from the PDFs look right, since notices vary WILDLY, and frequently have junk mixed in alongside strings we're after.

THE FIELDS: Attorneys, firms, and court reporters can all be chosen with drop-down lists. This saves you typing and prevents typos.

Keep in mind that drop-down choices DON'T get submitted. They simply toss data into the fields. The editable TEXT FIELDS are what get submitted, so it's fine to just type info for new attorneys or pick other attorneys at the same firm and then edit the name. Same deal with reporters -- pick from the list if she's in it, or just type it in if it's someone we don't know yet.

Known attorneys: 7115.   Known firms: 865.   Known reporters: 252.

SEPARATING INTO TWO PAGES: Small jobs with two attorneys and not many on/off entries will fit nicely on one page, but the "Separate Log and Video pages" checkbox forces the Video Orders to start on page 2, and notes will move to page 1. This trick happens automatically if the number of attorneys is 4 or more.

SMART GUESSES and MATH DONE FOR YOU: The stopwatch icons for Start Time and End Time will guess sensible times based on when they are clicked. First click on Start Time gets you the next even half hour start time. For example, click at 925am => 930am. Click again => 10am. First click on End Time rounds to nearest quarter hour. Click again adds 15 mins. Example, 510pm => 515pm. Click again => 530pm. Stopwatches in the large ON/OFF table just grab the current time, but the 3rd and 4th cells of each row are filled in for you automatically. You don't have to add up segment times, or running totals per witness!!! Of course all these time fields are editable in case you click one late (or you forgot and had to ask the reporter -- been there!) Also you can edit them to exactly match the video length, if the total is a minute off.

OPTIONAL EXHIBIT SECTION: If you enter exhibit info, it will show up as an additional page. It drops out completely if no exhibits are entered. Check the little blue hover-over help icon in that section for more tips.

SUBMITTING: Submitting the form will be blocked until all the required fields are populated. Any problems are listed in a red box that gives you a to-do list of oversights you made. After a successful submission, the resulting page is ready to print. It might not look right until you get to the Print Preview, then the page breaks kick in, and you'll see where we're headed.

SAVING THE PDF: To save the PDF of the output page after submitting, use Control-P, and in the list of printers, choose "Save as PDF". Open "More Options" and UNcheck the checkbox to Print Headers, and CHECK the box to print background colors. Once you set those checkboxes, they'll stay that way for future jobs until you change them. Using the Print Preview, you can adjust the print size to fit things where they should be and you can adjust the print size to get it looking how you want it (including whether you need the Separate Pages checkbox or not).

CONTEXT HELP: There are little blue help icons sprinkled around the page. If you aren't sure what something is, try the hover-for-help feature if there's one for that item.

NOTE: You MUST print the PDF and send it in with the videos. Submitting the form does NOT send it to us over the internet.

Enjoy!