[blindlaw] Change of topic, Legal Work on the Mac

Al Elia al.elia at aol.com
Fri Jan 13 00:18:58 UTC 2017 

I have found Nisus Writer PRo to be very accessible, and much easier to 
use than Pages or any of the free office products. I exclusively use 
VoiceOver on the  mac. Word 2016 is somewhat accessible, but needs a lot 
of work in my opinion.

I usually start off composing in Byword using markdown, as I find that 
easiest to navigate without initially worrying about formatting. I then 
use pandoc to convert that to a formatted word document, and use Nisus 
Writer to alter the formatting.

It's not streamlineed, but it works pretty well for me. I still always 
have a sighted person check the formatting when I'm done, though.



On 12 Jan 2017, at 17:34, Luis Mendez via BlindLaw wrote:

> Sai:
>
> Thanks for the very informative input. I haven't tried Google Docs, 
> and was not aware of NEO Office.  I'll have to experiment with these 
> programs.  I do hope that others chime in with their experiences using 
> Macs for legal work.  Generally speaking, I really like the Mac 
> hardware and appreciate Apple's pioneering work with universal design 
> so I would like to continue to support that effort, but not at the 
> expense of billable time.
>
> Luis
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: BlindLaw [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Sai 
> via BlindLaw
> Sent: Thursday, January 12, 2017 4:24 PM
> To: Blind Law Mailing List <blindlaw at nfbnet.org>
> Cc: Sai <legal at s.ai>
> Subject: Re: [blindlaw] Change of topic, Legal Work on the Mac
>
> I actually compose everything in Google Docs, except when I have to 
> review someone else's drafts, in which case I use NeoOffice (which is 
> free).
>
> I have really extreme light sensitivity, but fairly normal acuity and 
> no tunnel vision etc. Lighting completely controls whether I'm fully 
> sighted or functionally blind. It's an issue for navigation (I use a 
> guide cane and sunglasses / hat, sometimes a sleep mask if it's too 
> bright).
>
> However, I generally use the computer like a sighted person. I just 
> have the screen on low brightness and have a privacy shield installed 
> (which dims it a bit more and also provides privacy from people trying 
> to look at my screen from the side).
>
> I mainly only have to switch to voiceover mode if I'm outdoors in 
> bright light, since then it's stabbingly painful to use my eyes.
>
> So, I'm afraid my experience probably isn't going to be very helpful 
> to you from a blind perspective. I compose all my briefs fully 
> sighted, just in very dim lighting.
>
>
> I don't use much for legal drafting that's OSX specific.
>
> Google Docs works on anything. I have a couple template documents for 
> some specific things like FOIA requests (e.g.
> <https://s.ai/foia/template>), but mostly it's a lot of copying 
> previous filings that are similar (if simply to preserve formatting 
> and stuff like the case caption) and rewriting them.
>
> I use OSX shortcut keys a lot. Control-command-space rarely; only for 
> stuff like the pillcrow / paragraph symbol, which I think doesn't have 
> a normal shortcut key.
>
> On Chrome, I find Tabs Outliner (paid version) super helpful for 
> organizing active legal research into something like folders (e.g. one 
> window for checking cases cited in opposing counsel's motion, one 
> window per specific issue I need to research or manually Shepardize, 
> etc). Otherwise I'd have hundreds of tabs open, instead of just 
> dozens. (Not an exaggeration; that's what I did before I installed
> it.)
>
> Jumpcut is a nice little app that gives your clipboard history 
> functionality. E.g. if I copy one thing, then copy another, I can 
> press control-option-v, 2 to paste the first one. (Ordinarily it'd be 
> just overridden by the new clipboard entry.) I use that very 
> frequently. Again though, no idea about its accessibility.
>
> I use the terminal pretty frequently, including e.g. to do mass file 
> renames (using a small Ruby program I wrote), search for documents, 
> archive websites, scrape comments posted in Federal Register 
> rulemakings (also with a Ruby script I wrote) etc, etc. However, 
> unless you're very comfortable with Unix (and programming), that 
> probably isn't going to be helpful to you.
>
> I think most of the other stuff I run isn't particularly drafting 
> related — a lot of security / privacy software, various utilities, 
> backups, etc.
>
>
> Sorry I can't be more helpful here. My blind experience mostly only 
> include the part where you get whacked by signs and indoor stairs 
> because there's no indication at cane level, not to stuff like JAWS.
> :-P
>
> - Sai
>
> On Thu, Jan 12, 2017 at 1:57 PM, Dan Beitz via BlindLaw 
> <blindlaw at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>> Please respond on the list, rather than off-line, so we can read it.  
>> I am certainly interested to hear this.
>>
>>
>>
>> Daniel K. Beitz
>> Wienner & Gould, P.C.
>> 950 University Dr., Ste. 350
>> Rochester, MI  48307
>> Phone:  (248) 841-9405
>> Fax:  (248) 652-2729
>> dbeitz at wiennergould.com
>>
>> www.wiennergould.com
>>
>>
>> This email transmission and any documents, files or previous email
>> messages attached to it may contain confidential information that is
>> legally privileged.  If you are not the intended recipient or the
>> individual responsible for delivering this email to the intended
>> recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying, or
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>> attached to this email is strictly prohibited.  Should you receive
>> this communication in error, please notify us immediately by replying 
>> to the sender of this email or by telephoning us at (248) 841-9400.
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: BlindLaw [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Luis
>> Mendez via BlindLaw
>> Sent: Thursday, January 12, 2017 3:55 PM
>> To: 'Blind Law Mailing List'
>> Cc: Luis Mendez
>> Subject: [blindlaw] Change of topic, Legal Work on the Mac
>>
>> Sai:
>>
>> I switched to the Mac for a while, but found that the review and 
>> production of complex legal documents using Text Edit was Limiting 
>> and using Pages
>> proved challenging.   I subscribed to Office 365, but that didn't 
>> solve the
>> focus and other problems I encountered with the Mac O.S.   I do still 
>> use
>> the I.O.S. version while on the road, but have switched back to the 
>> Windows version of Office for heavy duty document production.
>>
>> I'm interested in your experiences with document production on the 
>> Mac.
>> Please feel free to write me off-line at luismendez.law at gmail.com if
>> you have time and the inclination to discuss this further.
>>
>> Luis
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: BlindLaw [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Sai
>> via BlindLaw
>> Sent: Thursday, January 12, 2017 2:55 PM
>> To: Blind Law Mailing List <blindlaw at nfbnet.org>
>> Cc: Sai <legal at s.ai>
>> Subject: Re: [blindlaw] Keyboard strokes for section symbol
>>
>> What OS?
>>
>> Option-5 in OSX.
>>
>> - Sai
>>
>> On Thu, Jan 12, 2017 at 12:51 PM, Nightingale, Noel via BlindLaw 
>> <blindlaw at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>>> Blindlaw,
>>>
>>> It's been a long time since I needed to use the section symbol in 
>>> Word.
>> Can someone tell me the keyboard strokes that I use?
>>>
>>> I would appreciate it.
>>>
>>> Thank you,
>>>
>>> Noel
>>>
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