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| TrialPro II Presentation System | |
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With increasing exposure to multimedia presentations, there will come a day when jurors and judges will expect the multimedia experience. If you have not already started to use multimedia presentations, chances are you have run into an attorney who does, perhaps on the opposite side of a trial. When you decide to jump into the pool, you will need hardware and software to support your creation of multimedia presentations. TrialPro II Presentation System gives the attorney and support staff the ability to organize a variety of anticipated trial exhibits ranging from documents to depositions to video clips, not to mention graphics, pictures and synchronized deposition transcripts. In addition, the program allows you to emphasize specific portions of the exhibit, preview the exhibit, link exhibits for presentation and present the exhibits in a courtroom using a variety of presentation hardware. Although the program’s designers intended it primarily for courtroom use, the software’s organization and presentation capabilities make it useful in other areas of practice such as negotiations, mediations and teaching. The system consists of a database application, a toolbar builder, a presentation viewer and Timaro PTS-LT Synch software for synchronization of video depositions and associated transcripts. TrialPro II has relatively minimal basic hardware requirements: an Intel Pentium or 100 percent compatible CPU; 24MB RAM; a Video Graphics Adapter/Super Video Graphics Array (VGA/SVGA) display card (800-by-600 resolution); any fully MCI-supported or DirectX MPEG player (software or hardware). TrialPro II will work with any Windows compatible bar code reader or pointing device (mouse, touch screen, light pen). A word of caution — in my experience, whenever you work with multimedia graphics, the bare minimum hardware requirements generally translate to less than optimal performance. If it’s your intention to use multimedia presentations in your law practice, you will want them to look good and work smoothly. A more substantial computer configuration will facilitate that result. TrialPro II was designed to work with Windows 95, 98, 2000 and NT 4.0. It does work with XP; however, according to the publisher, you might receive an “unknown provider” database message if you install the software on a computer with Windows XP. The same message also has appeared on systems with Microsoft Access 2000 or 2002 installed. It’s recommended you install TrialPro II prior to installing Windows XP to avoid this problem but no suggestions are offered by TrialPro regarding the resolution of the Microsoft Access conflict. As my current laptop came with Windows XP Professional installed, including Office XP (which includes Access 2002), I bit my lip and inserted the CD. I did encounter some minor installation problems relating to the demonstration data, but I didn’t get the “unknown provider” warning or encounter any other problems with the software operation. TrialPro II allows you to incorporate exhibits into its database, reorganize them for presentation, modify them and then use the program as the master program to control the presentation. Your exhibit database can include MPEG and other full-motion video formats, computer animations, charts, graphics and pictures. You also can include third-party files such as Microsoft PowerPoint, portable document format (PDF) files, Microsoft Word, Apple QuickTime as well as Macromedia Director. The database’s organizational structure looks somewhat like an Access spreadsheet. You can access the database through Windows Explorer and drag-and-drop to bring exhibits into the database and organize them. Once you have the exhibit in the database, you can enlarge portions of it for display. You also can highlight portions of the document, identify them with arrows or augment them with sticky notes. The user selects the desired features through the self-explanatory toolbar buttons. The program is designed to allow the attorney to handle preparation and presentation of multimedia materials without technical assistance. The outside of the box states: “The software is designed for non-technical personnel to easily produce presentations, review exhibit material in preparation, display evidentiary media, and modify presentations in a do-it-yourself, automated environment.” This is of particular importance to solo and small firm practitioners or attorneys who don’t have a full support staff to assist in trial presentation. The lack of a good tutorial and introduction, however, detract from its initial value. The existing Quick Reference Guide helps some, but falls short of the mark. TrialPro II offers many excellent features, but it also suffers from one serious shortcoming — learning to use the program isn’t an easy task. The software comes with a User’s Guide; however, the guide works much better as a reference resource than as a teacher. The guide doesn’t do a good job of introducing you to the software to get you up and running. The guide does help you solve a problem once you have started using the program and have run into a wall with a particular feature. The good news is once you figure out how to use the program, it works well and without great difficulty. In fact, after I learned how to use it, I enjoyed playing with its features and the flexibility the program offered for organizing and making a presentation. |
Innovative Design & Engineering
Associates Inc. (972) 948-8070 www.trialpro.com
Price: $599; $199 for standalone TrialPro
viewer (presentation module) Reviewed by Jeffrey Allen, a general practice attorney with an emphasis in real estate, business transactions and litigation based in Oakland, Calif. PROS CONS VERDICT |
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