A Tablet PC makes sense for a lawyer

I was very interested to 7inch tablet pcsee that my friend Dennis Kennedy has come out in favor of the Tablet PC computing platform. Dennis knows as much about legal technology as anyone you'll meet, and he's not one to recommend a technology that isn't practical or "ready for prime time." Thus, his favorable comments about Tablet PCs are strong evidence that the platform has finally arrived.

I have been using a Gateway Tablet PC for six or eight months, and I agree wholeheartedly with Dennis' assessment. Indeed, my Tablet PC has become my favorite piece of equipment -- the tool I enjoy using the most. Here are two reasons why:

First, a Tablet PC is an ideal way of taking computerized notes in a meeting, deposition or conference. Many lawyers feel uncomfortable banging out notes Android Tablet pc on the keyboard of a laptop computer when other business and professional people are sitting across the table. That's understandable, because it can be difficult to type on the keyboard of a computer sitting in your lap, and placing the computer on the table requires you to lean forward out of your chair and creates a wall between you and the person facing you. It's much more natural to make handwritten notes on the screen of a computer lying in your lap, just as if you were taking notes on a yellow legal pad.

Second, it's now feasible to use a Tablet PC in that way because the software has finally arrived. With programs like Microsoft OneNote and MindJet MindManager -- not to mention "applets" like Windows Journal and Sticky Notes -- you can take handwritten notes on a Tablet PC in a fluid and natural way while a meeting is in progress. Later, you can organize, clean up, edit and convert the handwritten notes as necessary to make them more useful, or simply leave them in their original form as the computer-based equivalent of pages from a legal pad. That may seem like a "high tech" approach to a simple task, but once you have enjoyed the confidence and convenience of knowing that all of your notes wholesale tablet pc china are on your computer (not stuck the back of a Redweld), you'll probably decide that it's exactly the kind of help you want from your technology.

In each of those respects, a Tablet PC is a good fit for the practice of law.