AlphaDrive for Clio Windows Edition

Version 2.0.0 Help and Release Notes

Updated 2017-07-22

Welcome to AlphaDrive for Clio! This document contains help and version information for version 2.0.0

of the Windows Edition of AlphaDrive for Clio. AlphaDrive gains new features every month so make sure

to check our website for the latest information.

If you are considering AlphaDrive for your firm, this document will give you a brief overview of some of

the important highlights but we’d really encourage you to try it out first-hand. To get a completely free

trial, just visit our website at http://www.AlphaDriveForClio.com/ .

If you are already using AlphaDrive, the latest version of this document is available within AlphaDrive’s

“[Documentation]” folder (by default, A:\[Documentation]\).

AlphaDrive turns Clio into a network fileserver and gives you unlimited storage for all of your Clio

matters and documents. This allows you to work with all of your files directly through your computer

instead of having to download, edit, and reupload the files through the Clio website.

Not only do we hope that AlphaDrive makes it easy for you to access your Clio files, we hope that it

makes everyone in your firm faster, more efficient, and more profitable. We hope you enjoy AlphaDrive

and if there is ever a feature you would like to see added, please let us know.

Table of Contents Installing AlphaDrive for Windows ........................................................................................................... 3

The AlphaDrive AlphaBar ......................................................................................................................... 6

The “AlphaDrive” Menu ....................................................................................................................... 6

The “New” Menu ................................................................................................................................. 6

The “Communication Status” Button ................................................................................................... 7

The “Refresh Now” Button .................................................................................................................. 7

The “Quick Timer” Reminder ............................................................................................................... 8

The “View Files” Button ....................................................................................................................... 9

The “Launch Clio” Button ................................................................................................................... 10

The “Clio Throttle” Meter .................................................................................................................. 10

The “Find in Clio” Search Box ............................................................................................................. 10

The “Call Box” .................................................................................................................................... 11

The “Minimize” Button ...................................................................................................................... 11

The AlphaDrive File System ................................................................................................................... 12

Important Concepts ........................................................................................................................... 12

Data Syncs from Clio – Quickly But Not Immediately ...................................................................... 12

Clio-Linked Folders ........................................................................................................................ 12

The [Documentation] Folder .............................................................................................................. 13

The Document Templates Folder ....................................................................................................... 13

Matter Status Folders ........................................................................................................................ 13

Contact Folders ................................................................................................................................. 14

Matter Folders ................................................................................................................................... 14

Special Features .................................................................................................................................... 15

Historic File Protection....................................................................................................................... 15

Automatic Optical Character Recognition for PDFs (aka “Searchable PDFs”)....................................... 15

Additional Information .......................................................................................................................... 15

AlphaDrive Automatic Updates .......................................................................................................... 15

Frequently Asked Questions .............................................................................................................. 15

Limitations and Caveats ......................................................................................................................... 16

Maximum File Path Length / Disappearing Files ................................................................................. 16

Troubleshooting .................................................................................................................................... 17

Windows cannot access \\127.0.0.1@8881\DavWWWRoot\AlphaDrive\ .......................................... 17

Certain Files or Folders are not Visible ............................................................................................... 18

Destination Folder Access Denied ...................................................................................................... 19

Installing AlphaDrive for Windows In order to install AlphaDrive for Windows, visit http://www.AlphaDriveForClio.com and download the

latest version. When you run it, you may have a dialog appear that indicates the file is not commonly

downloaded. If this dialog appears, select “More Info” and then “Run Anyway” to launch the installer.

Once the installer has launched, there will be a brief delay, and then AlphaDrive will begin installing:

Once installation has completed, a Clio/AlphaDrive login screen will appear and request that you

authenticate AlphaDrive to Clio.

In order to continue, you must log in. Not logging in will prevent AlphaDrive from loading.

Once you are logged in, AlphaDrive will need to download certain data from Clio. The first time you log

in, this may take a while because the entire set of data will have to be downloaded. On subsequent

launches, only the changed data will be downloaded and it will load much quicker.

Once the data is downloaded, three different windows will appear.

The AlphaBar will appear at the top of your screen:

A listing of your Clio files will open on your A:\ drive:

And the AlphaDrive tray icon will appear:

Each of these is described in detail on the following pages.

The AlphaDrive AlphaBar The AlphaDrive AlphaBar is the black AlphaDrive bar that will appear on the top of your screen:

The AlphaDrive AlphaBar is a shortcut bar that allows you immediate access to common AlphaDrive and

Clio features. The major components are listed below.

The “AlphaDrive” Menu The AlphaDrive Menu is available by clicking on the word “AlphaDrive” in the AlphaDrive AlphaBar:

The following menu items exist:

• Settings Access AlphaDrive Settings

• About Information about AlphaDrive

• Release Notes Information about recent changes in AlphaDrive.

• Provide Feedback Send a note/feature request/bug report to the AlphaDrive developers.

• Exit Exit AlphaDrive

The “New” Menu The New Menu is available by clicking the word “New…” in the AlphaDrive AlphaBar:

The following menu items exist:

• Person Launch the Clio Website to create a new Person contact.

• Company Launch the Clio Website to create a new Company contact.

• Matter Launch the Clio Website to create a new Matter.

• Time Entry Use AlphaDrive to create a new Time Entry for a Matter.

• Document from Template Use AlphaDrive to batch-create documents from templates.

Within the “New” Menu, the “Document from Template” wizard may provide significant time savings to

your firm as it allows you to quickly create multiple documents for a matter.

To create documents that may be used as templates please see The Document Templates Folder.

The “Communication Status” Button The Communication Status button is the (normally) green checkmark in the AlphaBar:

In the event that there is an issue with AlphaDrive communicating with Clio (for example, due to

intermittent internet issues), the icon will change to either a Warning or Error icon and after a delay, the

request will be re-sent.

The “Refresh Now” Button The Refresh Now button is the green refresh icon that appears in the AlphaBar:

Clicking on it will cause AlphaDrive to immediately talk to Clio and ask for any new data updates:

Once the refresh is complete, AlphaDrive will have the latest version of all information (folders, files,

etc.). Please note that AlphaDrive automatically refreshes data in the background but this button may

be useful if you just created a new client or matter in Clio and they are not yet visible through

AlphaDrive.

Note:

If you already have a file window open, you may have to tell it to refresh as well in order to see the new

data. In order to do that, right-click anywhere in the folder listing and select “Refresh”:

The “Quick Timer” Reminder The Quick Timer is available by clicking on the word “Free” in the AlphaBar:

After the timer is started, the word “Free” will change to be the name of the client the timer is currently

running for. When you are done working, you can click the “Save” button to create a new time entry:

This time entry will be saved into Clio and associated with the matter.

The “View Files” Button The View Files button is the folder icon that appears in the AlphaBar:

Clicking this button will launch Windows Explorer and take you to your Clio Files:

These files are accessible on your A:\ drive by default.

The “Launch Clio” Button The Launch Clio button is the globe-link icon that appears in the AlphaBar:

Clicking this button will open your web browser to the Clio website.

The “Clio Throttle” Meter The Clio Throttle Meter is a diagnostics tool that provides status information about communications

with Clio:

By default, Clio can receive approximately 5,000 requests from AlphaDrive per hour – this is more than

enough for nearly any situation. This meter shows the status of the communications. When the mouse

is hovered over it, precise statistics are shown in a tooltip:

The “Find in Clio” Search Box The Find in Clio search box will search Clio for your given word/phrase:

Once you have typed text in and pressed the Enter key, your web browser will launch and take you to

the Clio search page with results for your term.

The “Call Box” The Call Box is a tool for offices that utilize a Voice-Over-IP phone system such as Skype or Vonage:

After selecting a client, your computer’s default “Call” program will be launched using the contact’s

phone number.

Notes:

• If the contact has multiple phone numbers, multiple entries will be shown in the list indicating

the different numbers.

• The search box uses “fuzzy” matching and will also return contacts that have a similarity to the

name you have typed. This allows the search box to find contacts even if you misspell a name.

The best matches are always returned at the top.

The “Minimize” Button The Minimize Button is the last button in the AlphaBar:

Clicking on the Minimize button will hide the AlphaDrive AlphaBar. To show the AlphaBar again, Right-

Click on the AlphaDrive tray icon and select “Show AlphaBar”.

The AlphaDrive File System Once AlphaDrive has fully loaded, your Clio files will be available from your A:\ drive (default) and can be

accessed through Windows Explorer using a window similar to the following:

The default drive letter that AlphaDrive uses is configurable through the AlphaBar > AlphaDrive >

Settings > General > Drive Mapping.

Important Concepts There are a few important concepts that you should be aware of when working with your Clio Files using

AlphaDrive.

Data Syncs from Clio – Quickly But Not Immediately Whenever you make changes through Clio, the change will synchronize back to AlphaDrive, but the

change may not take effect immediately. To make the change visible immediately, use The “Refresh

Now” Button from the AlphaBar.

Whenever you make changes directly through AlphaDrive, that change will take place immediately on

Clio and on your computer however, that change will still need to synchronize back to other AlphaDrive

users in your firm. For them to make this change visible immediately, after you make a change (such as

adding a file or renaming a contact or matter), they should use The “Refresh Now” Button from the

AlphaBar.

Clio-Linked Folders AlphaDrive is a convenient way of working with your Clio files. It works by accessing data from Clio and

“reinterpreting” it as either a file or folder on your local computer. Some of the folders and files that

you see are “Clio-Linked” and must be specifically edited through the Clio website. For example, if you

have a Contact-Linked folder named “Smith, Bob” and you wish to rename the folder to “Smith, Robert”,

AlphaDrive will not allow you to rename the folder directly and will display an error message. To

appropriately rename the folder, you should rename the contact directly through Clio and then use The

“Refresh Now” Button to make the change immediately visible on your computer. The most common

Clio-Linked folders are the Templates Folder, Contact folders, and Matter folders.

The [Documentation] Folder The documentation folder contains AlphaDrive documentation that may assist you in getting started.

Specifically, the latest version of this document is available through the [Documentation] Folder.

Information

Located in: AlphaDrive Root (i.e. A:\)

Named: A:\[Documentation]\

Contain items like: A:\[Documentation]\AlphaDrive for Windows Documentation.pdf

Permissions

This folder and all subfolders are read-only and cannot be edited in any way.

The Document Templates Folder The Document Templates folder contains document templates which can be used to create

standardized documents through Clio and AlphaDrive. Using AlphaDrive, you can create documents

from these templates by selecting New > Document from Template.

Information

Located in: AlphaDrive Root (i.e. A:\)

Named: A:\Document Templates\

Contain items like: A:\Document Templates\New Client - Representation Letter.docx

Permissions

The Document Templates Folder cannot be deleted or renamed. Files can be created within it

but subfolders cannot. Files cannot be renamed within the Document Templates folder.

Matter Status Folders The Matter Status folders contain all of the matters (grouped by client). These folders allow your view

to not be cluttered by matters (particularly closed ones) that you may not be interested in on a day-to-

day basis.

Information

Located in: AlphaDrive Root (i.e. A:\)

Have names like: A:\1. Matters – Open\

Contain items like: A:\1. Matters – Open\Smith, Robert\

Permissions

Matter Status Folders cannot be moved, deleted, or renamed. Folders and files cannot be

created directly within the matter status folders. To create a new folder within a Matter Status

folder, create a new matter through Clio and press The “Refresh Now” Button.

Contact Folders Contact Folders contain all matters that the contact is associated with.

By default, Contact Folders use a Last Name, First Name naming convention, however, this can be

adjusted by going to AlphaDrive > Settings > Advanced > Contacts and choosing a different format.

Information

Located in: Matter Status Folder (ie. A:\1. Matters – Open\)

Have names like: A:\1. Matters – Open\Smith, Robert\

Contain items like: A:\1. Matters – Open\Smith, Robert\Divorce & Custody

A:\1. Matters – Open\Smith, Robert\342-SMITH-DIVORCE

Permissions

Files and folders cannot be directly placed within a Contact folder. Renaming or moving a

Contact Folder must be done through Clio. To rename the folder, use the Clio website to edit

the contact and provide an updated name. To move the folder into a different Matter Status

folder, use the Clio website to edit the associated matter and provide a different status.

Matter Folders Matter Folders contain all files and subfolders that are associated with a matter.

By default, Matter Folders are named according to Clio’s Matter Number naming convention, however,

this can be adjusted by going to AlphaDrive > Settings > Advanced > Matters and choosing a different

format.

Information

Located in: Contact Folder (ie. A:\1. Matters – Open\Smith, Robert)

Have names like: A:\1. Matters – Open\Smith, Robert\Divorce & Custody

A:\1. Matters – Open\Smith, Robert\342-SMITH-DIVORCE

Contain items like: A:\1. Matters – Open\Smith, Robert\342-SMITH-DIVORCE\Pedition.docx

Permissions

Renaming or moving a Matter Folder must be done through Clio. To rename the folder, use the

Clio website to edit the matter and provide an updated matter number or description. To move

the folder to a different client or a different status, use the Clio website to edit the associated

matter and provide either a different status or a different contact.

Special Features

Historic File Protection Some attorneys and paralegals do not use AlphaDrive or Clio’s Document Templates feature and instead

work by opening an old document, replacing names and specifics, and then saving a copy of the

document as a new file. Sometimes when this happens, instead of clicking File > Save As, a person might

accidently click File > Save and accidently overwrite the contents of an old file.

Historic File Protection offers protection against that accident by automatically marking old files as

“Read Only”. To configure Historic File Protection, go to:

AlphaBar > AlphaDrive > Settings > General > Historic File Protection

Automatic Optical Character Recognition for PDFs (aka “Searchable PDFs”) Some firms work extensively with scanned documents. Optical Character Recognition allows scanned

PDFs to automatically have their contents converted into indexable text that can be searched or

copy/pasted.

In order to enable this feature, go to:

AlphaBar > AlphaDrive > Settings > Optical Character Recognition

In order to use this feature, you must have a paid account with OCRWebService.com. If enabled, all

PDFs will be automatically sent to OCRWebService.com for processing prior to being stored in Clio.

Additional Information

AlphaDrive Automatic Updates When a new version of AlphaDrive is released, AlphaDrive will automatically update in the background.

New updates come out approximately once per month.

Frequently Asked Questions How much storage do I get when I use AlphaDrive?

Clio provides all Clio users with unlimited storage through AlphaDrive.

Limitations and Caveats

Maximum File Path Length / Disappearing Files In Windows, there is a limitation on the maximum length of a path when accessed over a WebDAV

network connection. Because of this, you should avoid using extremely long path and folder names

otherwise certain files and folders will not be visible.

In order to work around this, you should use concise names. For example:

A:\1. Matters – Open\Smith, Robert\00006 - Candy Investments, LLC\Candy Operating

Agreement\Candy Restructure (working file)\1. PCD Transport, LLC REDEMPTION AND

CONTRIBUTION\PCD Legacy Member Assignment and Conveyances\

May be more concisely named:

A:\1. Matters – Open\Smith, Robert\00006 - Candy Investments, LLC \Legacy Member Assignment and

Conveyances\

Troubleshooting

Windows cannot access \\127.0.0.1@8881\DavWWWRoot\AlphaDrive\ Issue:

When trying to access your A:\ drive, Windows displays the following error:

Cause & Resolution:

This issue occurs because AlphaDrive must be running in order to use your A:\ drive.

Launch AlphaDrive and authenticate it to Clio. Once you are logged in, your A:\ drive will become

available again.

Certain Files or Folders are not Visible Issue:

Certain files or folders are not visible through AlphaDrive.

Cause #1 and Resolution:

If the files or folders were recently created by another user, you may need to use The “Refresh Now”

Button.

Cause #2 and Workaround:

If the files and folders have a very long path name (i.e. A:\1. Matters – Open\...\...\...\...\etc), you may

be experiencing a limitation in Windows. Please see Maximum File Path Length / Disappearing Files.

Destination Folder Access Denied Issue:

When trying to perform certain operations you receive a dialog stating “You need permission to perform

this action.”

Cause:

This dialog is AlphaDrive’s way of indicating that you cannot perform the specified operation. The most

common causes of this dialog appearing are:

• Trying to create a folder or file in an invalid location such as directly inside of a Contact Folder.

• Trying to rename a Clio-Linked folder directly through AlphaDrive instead of through the Clio

website.

For more information on file/folder permissions, please see the section on that specific folder.

End of Document