http://www.microsoft.com/2010/en/

We would love to get your feedback on the product.

For example your content could be XML and then if there was a legal standard for the style markup everyone could just apply their styles on the document content once the content is finalised!

Or is that too simplistic?

I have been speaking to some of our word experts about this and one or two little things came up like grammar consistencies but nothing a popup window on opening word couldnt explain , otherwise they think it would be ideal.

Any other downsides people can think of ?

http://ukdeg.org/

Another issue with “sending to the other side” is when the other side send it back the formatting is all wrong. I have been thinking for a while about some sort of central system which you would try and get every law firm to sign up to and post their styles on there. Then the firm who starts the document “owns” it and the other side have access to their styles and use them for any amendments. Ok so every law firm out there probably wouldn’t sign up but if you could get the UK top 100 atleast I’m sure it would help things – who knows maybe it could go global. Maybe you could have some kind of password per transaction if people had reservations about posting their styles to the world. Anyway the reason I’m linking it to this is maybe it could become part of a DocServe solution …. ?

The latest blog posting from No Option for Law Firm! highlights a number of key issues regarding document management, email management, security and collaboration for Lawyers.

Document management provides key components by providing version control, security, audit trails and tracking and now more features for email management. However, the issue remains that once a document leaves this repository environment, all control for documents vanishes. You lose version control, security, tracking, and of course any hope of collaborating efficiently.

The convergence of document management, office productivity applications, email and the dramatic rise of Microsoft SharePoint provides the perfect platform to deliver fully integrated real time document collaboration solutions. The key to the success of changing the way people work is by not changing the way they work.

Here at Workshare we are working to embrace this (r)evolution. We have been hard at work on a whole host of enhancements to make it easier and safer for people to come together and work on documents without changing the way they work.

For the better part of 2009 Workshare engineers have been taking a close look at Office 2010 and we are excited about the new enhancements that will enable Workshare customers to leverage a truly integrated collaboration platform. The next major versions of Workshare’s desktop and server solutions, codenamed Himalaya, will take advantage of many of the Office 2010 enhancements.

Workshare, as the name suggests, was founded on the concept of collaboration and sharing. 2010 is going to be a very exciting year and we can’t wait to start telling Customers about some of the exciting enhancements that are coming. The upcoming EMEA User Group meeting in London on December 8th is the first opportunity to get a sneak peak, and I’m sure events in the US are not far behind.

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