Turn Windows features on or off

In Windows 10, in the 'Programs and Features' settings, you'll see an option to 'Turn Windows features on or off'. Many of these features should only be enabled as you need them in order to avoid needlessly slowing down system performance.

One of the more interesting features is 'Windows Subsystem for Linux' which you can use to run Linux software. Of more practical importance for the litigation support professional are those under 'Print and Document Services'. These are necessary for printing on a network using certain protocols. If you want to connect a phone line to your PC and use it to send faxes, you'll need to check off 'Windows Fax and Scan'. The 'Microsoft Print to PDF' feature is very handy and will let you convert any document to a PDF file.

I have noticed that a few websites still work better using Internet Explorer. So while Microsoft no longer supports it, you can enable it here if you really need it.

There's also an option to enable version 2.0 of PowerShell. Scripts written for this version are not backward compatible with the newer versions of PowerShell, the latest being PowerShell 7.

Sending Multiple Outlook Emails with Multiple Attachments Automatically

Michael Dew, a lawyer up in the Great White North, has done American legal professionals a big favor by creating a MS Excel spreadsheet which can be used to send multiple emails in MS Outlook to different recipients, with each email having different attachments. See this post on Legaltree: https://www.legaltree.ca/node/2243 .

I downloaded the spreadsheet this evening and was able to successfully use it to send out emails to different recipients with different attachments in each email.

Michael provides very detailed instructions on his site, in this YouTube video, and within the spreadsheet itself. These are the key areas in the spreadsheet you have to edit:

1. On the right side enter a draft email between the two pink rows. Use fields entered in curly brackets to pull data from the columns listed below the second pink row.

2. These fields will have to be placed on the same rows on which the subject line and email recipients are listed on the left.

3. It's possible to enter multiple email addresses in a single cell separated with semicolons.

4. In the cells shaded in yellow at the top left below the instructions, you can list up to 3 attachments that you want to have added to all of the emails that you are sending:

5. Below list on the first row for an email, the first attachment; the command 'Send' or 'Save'; the subject line; the recipient emails; CC emails; and BCC emails in columns B to G.

6. Then on subsequent rows in column B enter the paths for additional attachments for each email. Be sure to put 'Additional attachment' in column E for additional file path for all of the attachments after the first. Leave the other columns blank.

The macros in the spreadsheet allow Excel to send commands to Outlook. But 'Outlook Object library' and 'Microsoft Scripting Runtime' must be checked off in Visual Basic. Go to Tools . . . References:

When you're ready click the green button to send (or save as a draft) each email.

The emails will be sent automatically, with each opening up and sending by itself on your PC - not in the background. You'll get a message when all of the emails have been sent.

As always, I tested out this method tonight and confirmed that it worked correctly. Michael's tool may be particularly useful in sending out subpoenas to be served via email.

Text Field Sizes in Relativity

Fields in Relativity can be any one of several types including date, whole number, decimal, currency, single choice, multiple choice, single object, multiple object, and date fields. Very often an admin will set up fields to hold text. Either long text fields to hold the full text of a document, or a field with numerous entries such as an email recipient field, or fixed length text fields to hold other email metadata fields, file names, and document ID numbers.

When using fixed length fields, keep in mind that they have certain limitations. No fixed length text field can hold more than 4,999 characters. If Unicode text is used in the field, the limit is 4,000 characters. Unicode text may be selected for the field so characters in non-Latin alphabets can be used. Unicode can be used for Arabic, Greek, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Cryllic, Thai, and many other languages. [Only fixed-length text, long text, single choice, and multiple choice fields support Unicode.]

The default length for a fixed length text field is 255 characters, and Relativity recommends that this field be no more than 400 characters.

In addition you need to be sure that all of the fixed length text fields for any single object don't exceed more than 8,060 bytes (or 8KB) in total data size. Check the field usage for an object in order to confirm that this limit is not exceeded.