In the newest update for mndocs (out on December 8), we’ve started experimenting with connecting mndocs with Microsoft Outlook. Essentially, the connection allows you to pick people from your Outlook contacts, and information about the person will automatically be populated into mndocs.  It’s currently only enabled for the probate forms, and it’s not perfect, but that’s generally because mndocs typically needs more information than what most people provide in an Outlook contact listing. But here’s how simply it works.

Choose "Select" to open Microsoft Outlook and browse your list of contacts.

First, open up the folder in mndocs for probate forms. For this example, I’m going to create a simple Probate Case File Information form. I double-click on that form, enter basic information and, when I get to the part of the interview to add “Participants and Others Involved in the Matter” I now have a new button labeled “Select”  (see screenshot). Click on that button and Microsoft Outlook should open to your contacts. Browse your contacts for the right person and double click on the listing. Basic information should then be transferred over to mndocs.

I say basic information, as we have only added basic functionality right now. It brings over the name of the person as well as the person’s address, but not much else. That functionality, however, should help speed things up and cut down on data entry errors, assuming you have the right information already entered in Outlook. You will also still need to do a bit of cleanup, such as adding the state (it doesn’t get that down correctly right now) and gender (which I don’t list in my Outlook contacts and it therefore cannot transfer information that I haven’t recorded).

But, it’s a feature we will increasingly look toward improving and rolling out to the other practice areas. We just need to hear from you how well it works and what other information you may want it to bring in to mndocs. Let us know.