Starting this thread to get feedback from the crew, and also share my research and experience, in using some of my recently acquired Macs for productive time drafting docs that can be shared via ethernet, or otherwise to my modern machines for finalizing and filing via things like eFiling for court docs, etc.
I really liked some of the old programs, and if I can design forms that will retain the formatting I want, or perhaps just draft the body of docs on the vintage machines and insert the body into the already modernly formatted legal docs, I may be able to take advantage of the simpler, more doc oriented interface and lack of distractions, such as stopping my workflow to draft and post this thread, because the browser tab was right there, and I have ADHD and procrastination issues when I work. Always have, back to when I was an honors level student. Just by law school and my early era of Mac use, I had learned to use my environments, both physical and electronic, to work through it and get done what I needed to to succeed.
So anyway, at the other end of an already long legal career, I am figuring I will use my G3 Beige and Blue and White powermacs, accelerated and modded for better performance, and a 3400c I am going to buff out, along with a Kanga (I have multiple offices, and I don't want to carry these old machines around), to sit/stand/move, do whatever it takes to get things done.
Back in the day, I preferred WordPerfect, and I will be using my machines to revive old work I can use as templates for new work. But I figure I will migrate all that work over to some version of Word (most likely, but I hate to honestly, as I would prefer to use Pages, but Word just syncs up with others better in the legal world) or ClarisWorks migrating to Pages, or something like that.
That is the initial idea. I may add other uses.
For context, I started drafting and some communication on one of my original compact Macs in the mid 80's. Did a lot of legal research via book back then, but was immediately getting into electronic legal research as it came on line, mostly via those old "Walt" terminals and boolean searches, "Shepardizing" etc. I used MacWrite, then later Word, then later WordPerfect. I continued to use my Mac to write in my first private jobs, though sometimes I had to be on the Windows side. But not often.
Ended up going out on my own and re-investing in the Performa Beige era, then my 3400c, then a variety of Powerbooks, iMacs, and ultimately MacMini's and MacBook Pro's.
Used (poorly) Various calendars along the way, back then. Started using that more in the Powerbook era. iCal, etc. Will probably stay modern on that. Especially because I use Clio now for law office management and billing, etc. That is one reason I will likely also use Word and Word plays nicer with Clio.
Ok, those are the vision boarding thoughts for now. Now, off the internet and back to drafting docs on my current MacBook Pro.
I really liked some of the old programs, and if I can design forms that will retain the formatting I want, or perhaps just draft the body of docs on the vintage machines and insert the body into the already modernly formatted legal docs, I may be able to take advantage of the simpler, more doc oriented interface and lack of distractions, such as stopping my workflow to draft and post this thread, because the browser tab was right there, and I have ADHD and procrastination issues when I work. Always have, back to when I was an honors level student. Just by law school and my early era of Mac use, I had learned to use my environments, both physical and electronic, to work through it and get done what I needed to to succeed.
So anyway, at the other end of an already long legal career, I am figuring I will use my G3 Beige and Blue and White powermacs, accelerated and modded for better performance, and a 3400c I am going to buff out, along with a Kanga (I have multiple offices, and I don't want to carry these old machines around), to sit/stand/move, do whatever it takes to get things done.
Back in the day, I preferred WordPerfect, and I will be using my machines to revive old work I can use as templates for new work. But I figure I will migrate all that work over to some version of Word (most likely, but I hate to honestly, as I would prefer to use Pages, but Word just syncs up with others better in the legal world) or ClarisWorks migrating to Pages, or something like that.
That is the initial idea. I may add other uses.
For context, I started drafting and some communication on one of my original compact Macs in the mid 80's. Did a lot of legal research via book back then, but was immediately getting into electronic legal research as it came on line, mostly via those old "Walt" terminals and boolean searches, "Shepardizing" etc. I used MacWrite, then later Word, then later WordPerfect. I continued to use my Mac to write in my first private jobs, though sometimes I had to be on the Windows side. But not often.
Ended up going out on my own and re-investing in the Performa Beige era, then my 3400c, then a variety of Powerbooks, iMacs, and ultimately MacMini's and MacBook Pro's.
Used (poorly) Various calendars along the way, back then. Started using that more in the Powerbook era. iCal, etc. Will probably stay modern on that. Especially because I use Clio now for law office management and billing, etc. That is one reason I will likely also use Word and Word plays nicer with Clio.
Ok, those are the vision boarding thoughts for now. Now, off the internet and back to drafting docs on my current MacBook Pro.
