Many lawyers regularly reach for their legal pads to start writing down lists and outlines for witness preparation, open and closing arguments, lists of assets, things that need to get done before a closing, etc. ECCO, which was for many years the most powerful PIM (Personal Information Manager), was very popular with attorneys. Stand-alone outlining programs like NoteMap are widely used in law offices. Time Matters has added the full functionality that you would expect in an outlining program, but also ties it into the rest of the program to provide a great deal more power.

Working with an Outline and Outline Elements

You can add a stand-alone outline, or you can relate the Outline to a particular Contact or Matter. Just like other related records, Area 1 contains information like the Date, Time Staff, and Code, as well as the Regarding fields.



The Description field describes the outline and will appear as the top level in the Outline section of the record.

The actual Outline is located in the bottom section of the Form. To start the Outline, you press the Add button which will add the first line of the outline. These lines are called “elements” in the Outliner. To add additional elements you can press the Add button or press Enter twice to add a new element at the same level as the one you are working on (the first Enter saves the element, the second adds the next element). If you want to add a “child” element (meaning it is indented one level in from the element you are currently working on) press the Insert key on your keyboard.

You can also use right click options to add and manipulate the outline elements.



From the keyboard, you can use the following keys:

• Enter – adds a new element; if you are editing an element, Enter closes the element and the next Enter adds a new element at the same level.
  
  
• Space – puts you in change mode for the currently highlighted element.
  
  
• Delete – deletes the current element.
  
  
• Ctrl-Down – moves the current element down one line (if you want child elements to also move, you will need to use the collapse button to collapse the child elements into the parent … then, when you move the parent, the child elements are also moved)
  
  
• Ctrl-Up – moves the current element up one line (see above for moving parent and child elements)
  
  
• Tab – Demotes an element (meaning that it moves to the next lower level, or to the right of the outline)
  
  
• Shift-Tab – Promotes an element (meaning that it moves to the next higher level, or to the left of the outline)

From the Toolbar, you can:



Move elements of the Outline up and down, promote or demote them, and/or expand or collapse a parent and child element. The numbered buttons on the toolbar can be pressed to show the various levels of the outline.

Pressing the Word button exports the outline to Word, and you can press the Printer icon to print the outline.

From the Edit ► Options menu, you can set to have each element spell checked when you complete the element.




Associating with Records

While just these features make the new outline record type a powerful productivity tool, the way in which the outlines can be used with the Time Matters’ work flow and process features is what truly sets it apart from stand-alone outliners.  Because Outlines are often lists of actions that need to be taken, or outline a process that needs to be followed, Time Matters lets you associate outline elements with any of its record types.

For example, after creating an outline that is a checklist of items that need to be done to start a case, you can associate each element with a Time Matters ToDo, Document, Event, Phone, or other record. There are two ways to create this association:

• Right click – if you right click on an element, you can Associate ► With New Record and then select the record type. A new record of that type is created, with the Description being filled in with the element text.

• Pressing the Associate Element button  – when you press this button, the Associate with a Record screen is displayed.

You can choose any of the record types, and then choose whether you want to create a new record or you want to associate with an existing record.

You can also press the small down arrow to the right of the Associate Element button, and then select the record type you want to add. This is the same as the right click action described above.



When you add the new record, the Description and Regarding fields are already completed. When you save the associated record you are returned to the Outline and the element’s icon is changed to give you a visual indication of the type of record that is associated with this element.



If you want jump to the associated record, you can press the Open Associated Record button  , or you can double click on the icon to the left of the element.

Once an element is associated with a record, you can work with the record or the element. A good example is a ToDo. Once you associate an outline element with a ToDo, you can work from the outline, from the ToDo List, from the Journal, from the Calendars, or anywhere else in Time Matters where you can work with ToDo’s. When you are done with your task, you can mark it Done from the outline or the ToDo.

From the outline you can right click on the element that has been completed, and select “Mark Associated Record Done.”



The outline element is displayed with strikethrough text, and the associated ToDo is marked Done.



You can remove an element’s association with a right mouse click, or by using the Associate Element button.



It is likely that you will want to create associated records from a number of the outline elements. Using the “Tag and Process” functionality in Time Matters, you can create any number of associated records at the same time. You first tag the outline elements that you want to associate with Time Matters records. When you press the Process button, note that you create new records, mark the elements as done, or remove the association.



Select “create new records,” and a dialog is displayed that lets you choose the type of record you want to add.



Choose whether you want to preview each record as it is created, or create them all without previewing them, and then determine what time and date you want to use. You can then enter the common fields that will be used for all record types. In addition to these fields, the outline element’s text will become the description of the record being added. When you press Ok the associated records are added and the icons are updated.