Elevate your presentation with precision by drawing attention to crucial portions of your documents, leveraging the callout, highlight, annotate, and zoom tools to deliver an impactful narrative.
Use TrialPad's annotation tools to make your evidence and your argument come alive. Annotation tools can be used alone, or in combinations, and can be done ahead of time, or on the fly in court. Here is a quick rundown of all the tools, and some common ways to use them.
The Callout tool brings attention to a section or sections of a document by enlarging or "calling out" that section. When you select the Callout tool, you'll see a palette appear in the document preview window. This will allow you to choose a colored border for your callout, if desired. Use your finger or a stylus like Apple Pencil to drag from the top left corner of the section you want to call out to the bottom right. As you move your finger or stylus, you'll see a grey box representing the area that will be called out. Lift your finger or stylus and the callout will animate on your screen. You can use one finger to move the callout up or down (or side to side if you've created a vertical callout). Tap the callout with two fingers at the same time to close it.
The highlighter is perhaps the most classic tool in a lawyer's annotation toolkit. The highlight tool in TrialPad defaults to yellow, but you can choose neon blue, green, or magenta to draw attention to a specific area. Like the callout tool, you'll use your finger or a stylus like Apple Pencil to drag from the top left corner of the section you want to highlight to the bottom right. As you move your finger or stylus, you'll see the highlight form in the shape of a box. Lift your finger or stylus to complete the highlight. Remove your highlight by tapping the Undo or Clear buttons at the bottom right of the document preview window. On Mac, you'll find those two options in the Edit section of the menu bar.
The Pen tool in TrialPad is used to create a visual annotation, rather than to make notes for yourself on the document. (Check out the Note tool to do that!). The Pen has various weight (pen thickness) and color options, and allows you to draw freehand or in a straight line. Freehand drawing is great for circling a section on a photo, or tracing a route along a map. The straight line option allows you to neatly underline or cross out important text, or draw a sharp arrow. Remove your pen annotation by tapping the Undo or Clear buttons at the bottom right of the document preview window. On Mac, you'll find those two options in the Edit section of the menu bar.
The Redact tool in TrialPad is useful for last-minute redactions, or to block out entire sections of a page so that you can focus on specific sections of a page. You can choose to redact in black or white. Like the Callout tool, you'll use your finger or a stylus like Apple Pencil to drag from the top left corner of the section you want to redact to the bottom right. As you move your finger or stylus, you'll see the redaction form in the shape of a box. Lift your finger or stylus to complete the redaction. It is important to note that redactions in TrialPad can be removed by selecting Undo or Clear. You can use DocReviewPad to create permanent redactions on your documents.
The laser tool in TrialPad is a favorite among many TrialPad customers! If you are presenting to a TV or monitor, a physical laser will not be useable. Instead, use the laser in TrialPad to point to an important location on a photo or phrase on a document. The laser has four color options that can be chosen in the palette once you've selected the tool.
At any point during your presentation, you can zoom in on your evidence by using the multi-touch gestures you are already familiar with on your touchscreen device. You can pinch with two fingers to zoom in or out. Double-tap the top or bottom of a page to zoom in and make it fill the width of your screen or to back out to its original size.
Elevate your presentation with precision by drawing attention to crucial portions of your documents, leveraging the callout, highlight, annotate, and zoom tools to deliver an impactful narrative.example, you might choose to callout a paragraph on a document, then highlight a particular phrase in that paragraph. TrialPad is designed so that this type of annotation can be performed very intuitively. Just tap the callout tool, select the paragraph, then tap the highlight tool, and highlight the phrase. This works well with highlighting and underlining too!
However, there are some times you may wish to use a particular tool multiple times without having to re-select the tool. We've got you covered! You can lock the tool ON by tapping the pin on the tool palette. Pinning the palette will allow you to continue using the selected tool, even choosing different tool options. For example, you can highlight a section in yellow, then select the green color and highlight a different section in green. To stop using the tool, deselect it in the toolbar by tapping it again, or select a different tool.
Annotations made in the Documents Tab are not automatically saved. This means you will be able to walk through a multi-page document, annotating as you see fit, without having to worry about clearing your annotations for the next witness. As soon as you leave the document you've been using, any annotations you've created will be cleared. You can save your annotations by designating the page or document a Key Doc. You can easily do this by tapping the key button at the top right of the document preview window. You can also swipe left on the document name, or tap "…" next to the document name to make it a Key Doc. A version of your document with the annotation will be saved in the Key Docs tab in TrialPad. You can have unlimited versions of a page or document saved in your Key Docs tab.
Shahrad Milanfar, Esq. is a pioneering attorney whose dedication to visual storytelling and cutting-edge technology brought him to the LIT SUITE many years ago. Shahrad says, "If I can tell you a story you might remember 30%, but if I match it with visuals you’ll remember 60% or more." Learn more about how Shahrad uses TrialPad: https://www.litsoftware.com/blog/featured_pro_shahrad_milanfar
For more details on how to present with TrialPad, here’s a video that reviews all the tools and how to use them: https://support.litsoftware.com/trialpad-presenting-evidence
Learn more about presenting wirelessly on our Help Center: https://support.litsoftware.com/how-do-i-use-trialpad-to-present-evidence