At the request of a number of members, below are the responses I
received re my original request for evaluations of the AIA documents on
disk.
Byron Hill
Bowditch & Dewey
Worcester,, MA
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We have subscribed to these for years. Very stable program, haven't had any
problems. Besides the current forms, under the "Help" menu, the program
contains the following:
Overview document
Document synopses
Commentaries
List of documents in program
Instruction sheets
Guides to supplemental conditions
We have the program loaded locally on a computer in the libary, as it is not
designed to run on a network. The biggest issue we have with the program
is that attorneys want to work on documents in Word or Wordperfect, and you
cannot transport the forms to any other word processing programs. You have
to work and save and print documents within the software only, which means
you cannot modify the forms that much (for copyright purposes of course).
You can strike out text and it will print with a line through it and you can
add your own text also.
In general, we have found it very useful to have this program around.
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We do have this. Here are my thoughts on it.
>
> The program can only be installed on one hard drive only, so only one
> person can use it. This is inconvenient and puts a significant burden on
> the one secretary who has access to it.
>
> AIA documents generated by the program can be opened electronically only
> by another person with the program. Consequently, documents generated
> cannot be e-mailed to clients that do not have the program. Conversely,
> the only way to read electronically generated AIA documents is to have the
> program, so in that sense the program is valuable.
>
> All changes are always shown as marked (there is apparently no way to
> "accept" changes so that the document is "clean."). I understand from
> Marilyn Brockman that, from the word processing perspective, the program
> has a number of quirks and unique features that require some time to
> master.
>
> Marilyn Brockman, who works with the program regularly, may have some
> additional observations about how the software works. She can tell you if
> instructions and notes are also available.
>
> Despite its limitations, we have found that having the software available
> is extremely valuable, and enables us to respond quickly and efficiently
> to client requests.
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Mixed experience. Had to run it as a stand alone PC at another firm,
because its requirements were buggy -- but this was three years ago.
I recall having to borrow a historical version after we got the software.
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I used it two years ago at my previous firm and have not used it since.
I recall that it was not user-friendly and the documentation was poor.
Also, if one is not familiar with the print format, the CD is much harder
to use. However, my firm still purchased it since it is better than only
having a set of books "with legs."
After about two weeks of calling the AIA at different times and locations,
I was able to obtain a demo copy. I suggest that you try the demo before
buying it.
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We purchased the disk, and then returned it. While you could fill in the
blanks in the forms, we couldn't make any changes on the forms to tailor
them to our needs. That didn't go over well with the attorneys who wanted
the disk.
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I don't know the answer to your question, but I do know that
you can't put it on a network. It's strictly a one user, one
machine product. We had no use for that. ;-(((
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