California attorney David Sparks converted his law practice from paper to paperless long before many other attorneys did so, and along the way, he discovered lots of tips and tricks for making the transition. He compiled all of his advice into an ebook called Paperless, which I reviewed back in 2012. It was a great resource, and I know that many lawyers found it valuable.
David has moved away from producing electronic books and instead he now produces a series of what he calls electronic field guides, which are videos devoted to a topic broken down into lots of sections and chapters. I prefer watching one of David's video field guides over reading a book because he shares his screen, shows you what he is doing, and explains to you what he is doing as he is doing it. It is very easy to follow along. In the past, I've written about his iPhone Field Guide and his Photos Field Guide.
David has now returned to Paperless (the first book he ever self-published) and has released a new version of his Paperless Field Guide, this time as a video field guide. Of course, using mobile technology in a paperless practice is very different today than it was in 2012. The 2020 version is full of fantastic tips for reducing the paper in your life and going digital with the aid of an iPhone, iPad, and/or Mac. David shared a free preview of it with me, and it is excellent. If you want some tips for reducing the paper in your life, this is a fantastic resource that I am sure that you would find very valuable.
The video course includes 95 videos with nearly seven hours of content. David includes tips on converting paper to digital and then storing, editing, and sharing your digital documents. Although not written specifically for lawyers, he does include examples from his law practice.
The content is great, but I am equally impressed with how it is all presented. The video production quality is top-notch. Each video also includes a fantastic (optional) closed captioning system, which not only shows the words he is saying at the bottom of the screen but also lets you see all of the words in the video and jump to a specific part of the video. Plus, the full text of each lesson is presented below the video. This means that you can select a topic, skim the text of it, and then decide which topics you want to watch.
You can watch the videos on pretty much any device, but I liked watching it on my computer so that I can use my iPad at the same time to try out what David was describing. As you complete each segment of the course, a check mark indicates that you have completed a section. That way, you can feel free to jump around without losing track of what you haven't seen yet.
One section of the course gives you the option to download a PDF file containing all of the text in the course, broken down by chapter and section. So if you wanted to read an ebook, much like the 2012 version, you could do so. He also provides an ePub version that works on an electronic reader device. You miss out on a lot by reading instead of watching the course, but the PDF document makes it easy to search across the course to find out what section you want to go watch.
The normal price of the Paperless Field Guide is $29, but for a limited time you can take advantage of a $24 introductory price. If you want a helping hand for reducing the paper in your life and for making the most of documents once they are in a PDF format, this is a great resource. And kudos to David for creating his best field guide yet.
Click here for the Paperless Field Guide by David Sparks.
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This article won the TechnoLawyer Pick of the Week award on December 29, 2020. The editors of TechnoLawyer, a free weekly email newsletter for lawyers and law office administrators, give this award to one article every week that they feel is a must-read for this audience.
