First, I think it's important to note that before you begin using custom stamps, you discuss the possibilities and applications with your supervising attorney. There are times they will be appropriate to use and times they will not. Personally, I think they're an incredibly useful tool given the fact that so much is done via email now and that many businesses are aware of "going green" (not to mention saving time and money!).

You may want to create a custom stamp so that you can show your supervising attorney how this works. It's pretty easy to do. Start by creating a document in Word. I used a text box with a thick border, and entered text in the box (about 14 pt, bold) that said "Approved as to Legal Form" with a line for the attorney's initials underneath. I printed that document then wrote in "SAMPLE". I then scanned that document in and opened it in Adobe.

At this point, you'll have your little object on the page, looking quite lonely and forlorn in that vast whiteness. Go to the Document menu, then click on Crop Pages (or the shortcut is Shift-Cntrl-T) and increase your margins until your image is nicely framed. Save this with a name you'll remember, in a place you'll remember, because this will form the basis for your custom stamp.

Open a document in Adobe Professional (anything’ll do).

Click on View, then Toolbars, then Comment and Markup. This will open the comment & markup toolbar as a small floating dialog box. Click & drag it to the top of the doc & that’ll make it a regular toolbar on your page.

Click on the small triangle next to the “stamp” image to get the drop down menu, then click on Create Custom Stamp.

Click on the Browse button and go to the document you saved earlier (your scanned stamp). Click on it, then  click on “Select”

When you click “OK”, it’ll take you to the Create Custom Stamp dialogue box. You can create a new category – I called mine “Legal”, then enter whatever name you want for this stamp – I called mine “Approved”.

Then, whenever you want to add the stamp, you click on the triangle next to the stamp image on the toolbar to choose your stamp. It'll attach to your mouse so you can then position it on the page wherever you would like (don't cover up text!) and click to "stamp" your image on the page. The next time you use it, all you have to do is click on the stamp image and it’ll automatically pull up the last stamp you used. Handy, dandy little feature!

Something that almost every paralegal will have to do at one time or another is Bates stamping. When I first heard that term, I thought it must be some very complicated way of numbering. In actuality, it is a fairly simple concept. It is numbering documents in a way that allows you to quickly find specific pages. For instance, if you have a document that has eleven exhibits, you would number the pages that make up those exhibits sequentially, not renumbering for each exhibit. Bates numbering usually is 6 digits long, and it used to be done using an automatic numbering machine (I've got two Cosco stamps in my drawer right now!). With the stamp, it was a long, slow, tedious process. Thankfully, we now live in a world where technology can be harnessed to make our jobs so much easier!

To begin, scan your documents or combine your documents to create one PDF document.

Open your document and click on “Advanced” on the menu bar.

Go down to “Document Processing” and then you will see a list of options.

Choose “Bates Numbering” and then “Add”. That will take you to the Bates Numbering dialogue box.

Click on the button to “Include all open PDF documents” and then select your file.

Click on Next, which takes you to the Add Header and Footer dialogue box.

Click into the Text box where you want the Bates Number to appear (we usually use the Right Footer Text box).

Then click Insert Bates Number. There you can specify the # of digits, the start number, and any prefix or suffix you want (we usually use 6 digits, with whatever start # we need - in case this is a second batch of documents that should start with the next # in the sequence - then we use a prefix of UM).

Click on OK to return to the Add Header and Footer dialogue box. Check the appearance in the preview screen to make sure it appears the way you want. You may have to change the font (towards the top of the dialogue box).

Then click OK and you’re done!

"You have expressed medical liens with regard to our clients, [husband] and his wife, [wife: name misspelled], these people have health insurance."

Take Action - There are many things businesses, schools, and home users can do to practice cyber security during National Cyber Security Awareness Month and beyond.

• Make sure that you have anti-virus software and firewalls installed, properly configured, and up-to-date. New threats are discovered every day, and keeping your software updated is one of the easier ways to protect yourself from an attack. Set your computer to automatically update for you.
• Update your operating system and critical program software. Software updates offer the latest protection against malicious activities. Turn on automatic updating if that feature is available.
• Back up key files. If you have important files stored on your computer, copy them onto a removable disc and store it in a safe place.