Infoware specializes in Microsoft Office automation helping law firms and other organizations leverage their technology investment with enhanced tools and streamlined processes. We have developed world class expertise in Microsoft Word customization, template development and document standards. Infoware’s flagship product, WordLX, provides functionality to automate and extend the capabilities of Microsoft Word in the practice of law. We are also experts in delivering solutions using Word, Excel, Access, SQL Server, Outlook & Exchange. 


Skills Requirements:

• Extensive use of the MS Office suite 2003/2010
• Good knowledge of VBA and the Word object model
• An understanding of the modern security issues in Win 7 and Server 2008 from a developers perspective
• Experience in developing both in VB6 and Visual Studio .Net 2008/2010 environments (VB.net required, C# would be a ++)
• Knowledge and some experience developing with SQL Server and/or MySQL

Absolute requirements are good logic skills and the ability to work independently as well as in a small team environment.  Good communication skills (both written and verbal) and the ability to interpret, understand and perform to end-user requirements are also required.  Products developed must meet customer requirements and expectations with respect to functionality, timelines and budgets. The ideal candidate will possess these skills at an equal level with programming skills.

New Payment Option for Legal Extensions for Word (Word LX)

• lock prices in for four years
• equalize your annual payments
• easier budgeting

Under this option there will no longer be an additional upgrade charge and you can choose to upgrade to the current version of Word LX at any time.

As the successful candidate, you will  work with our law firm clients to help them use and deploy Infoware products and solutions. This is a blended role of support and service, which requires a unique individual who has a deep understanding and passion for document automation technologies as well as strong interpersonal skills.

• Provide Training on Infoware Products as well as Microsoft Office
• Create e- tutorials and training materials
• Provide Infoware product implementation services
• Provide Quality Assurance testing for Development projects
• Develop Product documentation, user manuals, and how to and quick start guides.
• Provide Product demonstrations to current and perspective clients

• Post-secondary education preferred, particularly in Education, IT or Marketing
• Minimum 2 years Customer training experience
• Expert in Microsoft Word/Office software
• Entrepreneurial spirit
• Hard and efficient worker
• Team player
• Exceptional communication, interpersonal and support skills
• Experience in application troubleshooting
• Understanding of key online marketing strategies and concepts is an asset
• Proficiency with complex IT/software solutions is a plus

Some background on Documents and Templates
The ongoing relationship between a document and its template seems to be a misunderstood thing. Its true that when a document is created the styles and other formatting information is copied from the template along with document variables and document properties.  But the relationship is not that short lived.  Templates can also contain Autotext (Building Blocks for newer versions of Word) and Macros as well as custom toolbars (prior to Word 2007) and Custom Ribbon elements for Word 2007 -2010.  To continue to have access to these automation elements after the document is created there needs to be a continuing link between itself and its Template.  This link is a hard wired path stored inside every Word document providing the location and name of the template that was used to create the document.

For many users the Template that is used is the built-in one that comes with Word: Normal.dotm (Normal.dot for 2003 and previous).  This template is special and Word always knows how to find it.  Any time a document is opened that was based on normal.dotm, Word associates it with the normal template that is in use by the current user. Things get more interesting when you have a set of templates created to standardize the look and feel of firm documents, often these are created for branding purposes to ensure that all client facing documents have a consistent look and feel.

Workgroup Templates
Microsoft provides the concept of a Workgroup location that is the obvious choice for storing a firm's standardized templates and this location is often placed on a network location by the IT support organization as a simple way to give everyone access to this shared set of standardize templates.

The issues with using a network share as the location for storing Workgroup Templates arise from the ongoing relationship between the document and its template. The use of a network share to store workgroup templates will result in a large number of open network file connections; one for each template associated with every document that all users on the network have open. If you intend to use this approach you should also know that since the templates in the workgroup folder will be open and locked while anyone has a document opened it will be difficult to schedule a time in a 7/24 environment to replace a template with an updated version.

In Word 2007-2010 docx format the path to the template can be seen in the 'word\_rels\settings.xml.rels' xml sub document.  An example of on is shown below:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="true"?> -<Relationships xmlns="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/package/2006/relationships"><Relationship TargetMode="External" Target="file:///I:\CLIENTS\T\Turing,%20Babbage%20&%20Hal\Word%20LX\LX2010\Templates\blank.dotm" Type="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/relationships/attachedTemplate" Id="rId1"/></Relationships>

Note that the path in the above example uses a mapped drive letter rather than a UNC path.  Since the path is stored using a mapped drive letter, users will not experience the long pause symptoms of Word not being able to locate the attached template should the mapped drive not be available. This is because the underlying OS will time-out the request to open the template on drive I: immediately as it does not have to resolve a DNS server name to discover that it is not available. After the time-out Word temporarily substitutes normal.dotm for its template and the user is none the wiser.

In older version of Word (2003 and previous) the path to a document's template was usual stored as a UNC path even if the Workgroup path was configured using a mapped drive letter.  This can cause some big problems if a server name is changed of if the document goes travelling to another network!

If you use a network share as the Workgroup path and use a UNC path (\\Server\share\...) as the Workgroup path setting, you will experience significant delays in opening documents that were created using the templates on that share if it becomes unavailable because the server name changes or the document is located outside the authoring network in a location that does not have access to the original UNC path.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="true"?> -<Relationships xmlns="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/package/2006/relationships"><Relationship TargetMode="External" Target="file:///\\server\share\CLIENTS\T\Turing,%20Babbage%20&%20Hal\Word%20LX\LX2010\Templates\blank.dotm" Type="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/relationships/attachedTemplate" Id="rId1"/></Relationships>

 It appears that Word 2010 will remove the 'settings.xml.rels' setting when you save a document that has had a problem finding a UNC path connected template when you next save the document. This fixup results in the document being associated to the default template normal.dotm. This is not true in Word 2003 and previous versions of Word.  To “repair” this document you can either provide access to the template in its original location or attach another template from a new location.

Bottom Line
If your using Word 2003 or previous, just don't do it!
If your using Word 2010 and your convinced you want to put Templates on a network share you need to make sure that the Workgroup path setting uses a mapped drive and your users must be willing to take the perfomance hit and you need to be prepared for increased network trafic and server loads!

We are pleased to announce that we have created a new senior management position and that Alan Dingle has joined us as Managing Director.

Alan’s experience in product development and management, strategic planning, marketing, communications, and business management will assist us in building future plans for Infoware. Alan will be responsible for furthering the company’s vision and strategy and will lead the ongoing evolution of Infoware as a company devoted to understanding customer’s needs and to developing new products and services to better meet those needs.

Alan comes to Infoware with extensive experience in the legal technology industry. He has held senior leadership positions at LexisNexis Canada, most recently Vice President Business Development. He has worked with firms across Canada on implementing legal technology solutions in the areas of client development, research, practice management and litigation services. Having worked as part of the senior management team at Quicklaw for many years in Ottawa he relocated to Toronto when Quicklaw was acquired by LexisNexis. Since then he has been responsible for the LexisNexis suite of products and services including PCLaw, Quicklaw, Time Matters, CaseMap, Concordance, and others.

Alan looks forward to hearing from as many Infoware customers as possible and would be happy to receive suggestions and ideas, discuss issues or concerns, or to schedule a meeting to review your current relationship with Infoware.

We are very excited to have Alan join us and look forward to working together as we build our plans for the future. Please join us in welcoming Alan to the Infoware team.

We’d also like to advise you that we have launched a new web site at www.infoware.ca. Please visit the site and provide us with any comments or suggestions you may have.

An update was released on January 10, 2011 for Ontario Litigation suite subscribers.

This version contains updates to the main template correcting issues with case profile builds being reported by our users.

These issues only affect Inform versions pre InForm 2010 and should not be installed on machines running InForm 2010.

If you have any further questions regarding this update, please contact us at Infoware Support.

An update to the OntSSCrt form suite was released December 31, 2010 for InForm suite subscribers.

This version (v3.16) comes as a result of O. Reg. 440/10 includes the following changes which are effective January 1, 2011:

Updated Forms:

• 1B - Request for Telephone or Video conference
• 7A - Plaintiff's Claim
• 8A - Affidavit of Service
• 9A - Defence
• 11B - Default Judgment
• 11.2A - Request for Clerk's Order on Consent
• 11.3A - Notice of Discontinued Claim
• 13B - Consent
• 15A - Notice of Motion and Supporting Affidavit
• 20A - Certificate of Judgment
• 20E - Notice of Garnishment
• 20E.1 - Notice of Renewal of Garnishment
• 20F - Garnishee's Statement
• 20G - Notice to Co-owner of Debt
• 20H - Notice of Examination
• 20I -  Financial Information Form
• 20J - Warrant of Commital
• 20M - Affidavit of Default Payment
• 20Q - Notice of Garnishment Hearing
• 20R - Notice of Termination of Garnishment

 If you have any further questions regarding this update, please contact us at Infoware Support.