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| HotDocs Standard Edition 6.2 | |
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The practice of law is document intensive. A seamless integration of your firm’s document management system, document assembly program and records management application is integral to the success of your law firm. The new upgrade of LexisNexis’ award-winning document assembly solution, HotDocs, provides outstanding functionality and customization features. It goes a long way toward providing successful assembly, automation and management of your firm’s standard documents. HotDocs is a full-featured document assembly program from LexisNexis. This means it will assist your law firm in automating documents you use repeatedly. This type of application can be essential for the creation of routine court filings, wills, estate plans and contracts, to name a few. HotDocs is extremely easy to install. I didn’t have problems installing it on a Windows XP machine, 2.4MHz processor with 500MB RAM. After the flawless installation, I used the tutorial. It’s offered in a Portable Document Format and isn’t difficult to follow — even for those who lack computer savvy. It’s very thorough and includes 13 different lessons to demonstrate the product’s functionality. The tutorial could have been a bit more animated or user friendly, but it’s not a major complaint. HotDocs runs on the two most common word processing systems — Microsoft Word and Corel WordPerfect. I am using it on Word without any issues. Upon installation, HotDocs installs a button on your word processor’s toolbar for easy access. HotDocs allows you to assemble documents by two methods. You either can use a template to assemble a customized document or you can insert clauses from a clause library into your document. Assembling a customized document is rather straightforward. First, the user answers a set of questions regarding the subject matter of that document. These questions will be variable questions such as names, addresses or dates. They also could be multiple choice or numeric questions. The answers will be merged with the document template when HotDocs assembles the document. Both the questions and the template can be customized by the user. LexisNexis also offers templates for sale for various state and federal regulations. The clause library allows you to create a list of customized clauses you use when creating documents such as contracts and wills. The user creates these clauses, stores them in a library and can select them as necessary to build a document. This is extremely useful when developing standard contractual documentation (i.e., for real estate transactions). After customizing a template for a standard contract, I assembled a document. It was quick and saved a considerable amount of time. HotDocs is flexible and has the capability to merge both the clause library and the document templates if necessary. I definitely recommend HotDocs for your law firm. It’s easy to use, and the automation of documents is a timesaver. It provides uniformity for standard documents. LexisNexis also provides a considerable amount of help for its users via its Knowledge Base, an online user forum. It also provides 24-hour technical support, seven days a week. No law firm would be complete without it. |
LexisNexis Price: HotDocs Standard Edition 6.2 is $250. An upgrade starts at $50. Windows 98/ME/NT/2000/XP. Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher. Microsoft Word 97/2000/XP/2003 or Corel WordPerfect 8 or higher. 64MB RAM required, 128MB RAM recommended. 24MB hard drive storage for the application; more required for your documents. Reviewed by Adam C. Nelson, Esq., a senior consultant for IBM Security and Privacy Services. PROS CONS VERDICT |
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