At LegalTech West Coast last month, keynote speaker D. Casey Flaherty admonished the audience, warning that that the days of attorneys just getting by with minimal computer skills are coming to an end. Smart lawyers understand that getting up to speed with their most frequently used technologies translates into time and money-saving efficiencies, and happier clients.
Becoming computer savvy no longer means hunkering down at night with cumbersome print manuals. It’s all about finding the most targeted, up-to-date information you need online. Where? Your best bet may be YouTube. Yes, YouTube, home of every conceiveable kind of cute cat videos. They co-exist with plenty of well-designed tutorials for every computer skill lawyers need to hone. On YouTube, you can find them faster, and for free a compelling deal that often beats high-priced webinars or live programs (but you can expect a commercial before you get to the course).
Recently Law Technology News spent an hour on YouTube, searching for some of examples of strong videos that can help tech-adverse lawyers become more proficient with that troika of popular business applications: Microsoft Corp.’s Word, Excel and Outlook. Here are just two examples of available series:
Video series: Microsoft Office 2013: "Quick Start Guides" Word, Excel, Outlook.
Viewing time: 17 minutes (average) for each lesson.
Vibe: Nothing stodgy about this teacher’s presentation. Bernardo Arocho of BJTechNews laid-back approach delivers the skivvy minus the hype present in some of the Microsoft vendor-branded YouTube channels.
Takeaway: While the emphasis is on learning the new features of the latest version of the Office suite, Arocho does a good job of comparing the 2013 version to earlier Office versions important information for users whose companies are preparing to migrate to Office 2013.
Video series: Microsoft Office 2013: "What’s New: Word, Excel, Outlook"
Viewing time: Eight minutes or less for each lesson
Vibe: SimonSezIT.com‘s conversational approach takes the sting out of learning all the details about many of the new Microsoft features. (We couldn’t find the identity of the narrator, but he has a charming accent that we think is from somewhere in the United Kingdom.)
Takeaway: This company, founded in 2008 by Chris "Simon" Calder (IT director of The Los Angeles County Museum of Art), does an exceptional job of walking users through Microsoft’s first cloud-based version of Office. The video using a variety of frequently encountered scenarios to help them maximize the flexibility available when working within the cloud. With 255 videos in its YouTube catalog, this channel also offers for-pay videos concentrating on specific tasks, such as working with PDFs and other frequently used Excel, Outlook, and Word functions.
GENERAL TIPS
See the entire video inventory of a channel provider by clicking on the name of the provider (e.g. BJTechNews).
Find other channels with similar topics in the YouTube-suggested list that resides in the right frame of the channel’s site.
For optimum viewing, watch video tutorials in the full screen mode, choosing the high definition option.
Signing in to YouTube is not necessary for viewing the videos.
Use the YouTube search box to find other computer tutorials. Refining your search to 2013 titles will avoid pulling up outdated results.
Get interrupted while watching? Pause the video by hitting the arrow midscreen. When you are ready to resume, simply hit the pause icon again.
YouTube on-demand instructional videos offer free high quality and convenient learning options for a wide range of computer tools. With new videos being uploaded daily, you may be foolhardy not to take advantage of them.
