Archive...

[jon1965]

Re: Personal Financial Information - KEEP IT TO YOURSELF

Well maybe you could have fun when sending a letter written by word by putting author:F*** off or something like that.

Mind you the whole world knows who I am and where i live, I have left it on enough documents

[Nibbler]

Re: Personal Financial Information - KEEP IT TO YOURSELF

Probably a lot of equivalents for Windows, but if you are on Linux this is handy for checking and striping metadata from common file formats: https://mat.boum.org/

[labman]

Re: Personal Financial Information - KEEP IT TO YOURSELF

That's the posh word I was looking for, 'metadata'. I know of definite instances where that has been changed to make it look as though the author was someone else.

Metadata

Whenever you create, open, or save a document in Microsoft Word, the document may store information — known as metadata — that you had no intention of including or disclosing (this also applies to Microsoft Excel spreadsheets and Microsoft PowerPoint® files). Metadata is used for a variety of legitimate purposes, and it adds functionality to the editing, viewing, filing, and retrieving capabilities of Microsoft Office. However, if some of this information is passed on to inappropriate parties (for example, opposing counsel), that disclosure can create adverse consequences for you and your client. In order to avoid these consequences, you should make yourself familiar with the types of metadata contained in your documents and take steps to remove it whenever necessary.
Some metadata is readily accessible through the user interface of each Office program. Other metadata is only accessible through extraordinary means, such as opening a document in a low-level, binary file editor.
Some examples of metadata that may be stored in your documents

• Your name
• Your initials
• Your company or organization name
• The name of your computer
• The name of the network server or hard disk where you saved the document
• Other file properties and summary information
• Non-visible portions of embedded OLE objects
• The names of previous document authors
• Document revisions
• Document versions
• Template information
• Hidden text or cells
• Personalized views
• Comments

[Tools]

Re: Personal Financial Information - KEEP IT TO YOURSELF

Master webmaster eh? Saves me a job lol

[FlamingParrot]

How to upload documents to your thread

STEP 1: Digitizing: getting your documents in digital format The first step is to get the paperwork in digital format. There are two ways to do this: Scan it - if you have access to a flatbed scanner, you will get better results using this method. Scanners are optimised for documents and you can fine tune settings to obtain the best quality, they come with their own editing software. Take a picture - if you haven't got access to a scanner, you can use a digital camera or mobile phone to take a picture. Make sure the document is lying flat on an even surface. A plain background works best. Zoom in until the document fills the screen and try to hold the camera or phone parallel to the subject. Ambient light works better than Flash.

	It is important to remove all personal details that could be used to identify you, this can be done either before you scan the document or take a picture of it, or afterwards, it all depends on the method you are using to digitize the image.
	If you have access to a photocopier, either at work, or you have a multi-function printer/scanner/copier at home, the easiest thing to do is to photocopy the document and cover up the areas you don't want to show with bits of paper, which you can tape to the document. You can also use opaque tape (such as masking tape).
	Make sure the paper or tape you are using is thick enough and doesn't let you see through it. Black marker pens are often semi-transparent and let you see through. If you haven't got a copier, you may not want to apply tape or deface you original documents with markers.
	If you are using a scanner, scan as a JPEG and use the image processing software that came with the scanner to paint out your details in white. If you scan as a PDF, you may not be able to edit out your details unless you have a program that lets you edit PDFs.
	If you have a document that's several pages long (such as a set of terms), your personal details may only appear on the first page. In this case, you could scan the rest of the document as a PDF, as long as it does not contain anything that can identify you.
	If you are taking a photo, cover up your details by placing bits of paper on top of the document as it lies flat. Make sure all details are covered but also check that you are not covering up anything important, such as the date. Do not leave out any small print on the edges of the document, these details can often be useful.
	Details you should remove include: Your name and address Email address and/or phone numbers(s) Account number Reference number Claim number and password on particulars of claim Employers, bank and credit card details on application forms Previous addresses and any other personal information supplied on application forms Vehicle registration number, where applicable Your signature on any form or agreement Barcodes
	Details you should leave visible include: Date (particularly important for default notices and particulars of claim) Name of creditor or DCA Claimant's name on particulars of claim Small print on the edges of agreements and terms, unless they contain a barcode

NOTE: This is only the beginning, next post will be step 2: editing documents

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Need a guide to Uploading documents to LB & off site storage and linking.

How to upload documents to your thread

STEP 2: Editing documents to remove unwanted details

There are many ways to edit documents, depending on the software you have on your computer:

• If you have a scanner or a digital camera, it will have come with some image editing software such as Photoshop Elements.
• MS Paint is a basic image editor that comes with Windows.
• Online image editors you can use on most browsers.
• Photoshop, Paintshop Pro or Gimp. With multi-page documents such as agreements, your details are likely to be present just on the first page, in which case the first page can be scanned as an image and the rest as a PDF.

Most image editors share the same basic tools and you don't need to get fancy to edit documents. A paintbrush or eraser is all you really need to remove details. A selection tool and paint bucket also come in handy.

Scanning to PDF, especially multi-page documents, generally produces better quality, smaller files, however, unless you have a suitable PDF editor, you may find it hard to edit PDFs. Beware of editors that place white boxes on top to cover up text, the writing will still be visible below the white box and will often flash on the screen long enough for people to see it, furthermore, people who have certain software such as Illustrator will be able to view the text in full.

If you scan to PDF, you can use this free PDF editor that converts PDFs to editable text documents (Word and plain text formats) as well as to JPEGs which can be edited using an image editor: http://www.pdfmate.com/pdf-converter-free.html

Editing documents using MS Paint - Paint can edit bmp, jpg, gif, png, tiff and ico files.
Using pixlr online photo editor - can edit jpg, gif, bmp, png, psd files

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Need a guide to Uploading documents to LB & off site storage and linking.

How to upload documents to your thread

STEP 3: Adding documents to your post

Documents can be added in either of two ways:

1. Using the attachment facility to upload files to the Legal Beagles server. There are some limitations associated with the attachments facility, one is the maximum allowed file sizes, limiting the resolution of the files you can upload, the other is a maximum of 5 attachments per post.
2. Using an external image hosting service and linking to your files from your post. There are several websites where you can upload your images for free. Bear in mind those external sites are not linked to Legal Beagles in any way, anyone can upload and view files hosted on those sites, so it's important to make sure you remove all personal information. If you experience problems using the LB attachment facility, this method should solve the problem.
   

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Need a guide to Uploading documents to LB & off site storage and linking.

Using the attachment facility to upload documents

	You can attach documents to your posts via the attachment facility. When you do this, the documents get uploaded to the Legal Beagles server.
	You need to be in Advanced mode to upload documents. To enter Advanced mode, click the button.
	Once you are in Advanced more, scroll down past the Post Icons to the Additional Options box. Under the heading Attachments, click the button. A new window will open as below. If you scroll down, you will see details for more file types.
	You can use the paper clip to insert an attachment at the cursor position.
	Note that the maximum allowed file size is 4Mb and there's a maximum of 5 attachments per post. The maximum dimensions for an image file in JPG format are 1000 x 1000 pixels. This should be enough for letters, but may not be adequate for documents with lots of small print, such as terms. You may need to use an external file hosting service if higher resolution files are required.
	Click , a new window will open showing your computer files. Locate the file you wish to attach, select it and click You will see your selected file next to the button: . If this is the file you wish to attach, click the button.
	Once the file is uploaded, it will be shown under Current Attachments:
	If you wish to attach more than one file, repeat the process above until you have attached all the files, then close the window.
	If you attempt to upload files larger than the allowed sizes, you will get an error message like the one below. You will need to reduce the size of the file as indicated.
	Once you have uploaded the files, they will be automatically attached to the bottom of your post. For image files such as JPEGs and PNGs, there will be a thumbnail preview. For documents such as PDFs, you will just see the filename and size. Clicking on the thumbnail will show a larger version, clicking on the name of a document will download the file to your computer.
	If you need to remove or replace an attachment, scroll down to and the window will open again. Click then to upload a new file if required. Click at any time to see the results.
	Limitations There are some limitations associated with the attachments facility: Images and documents cannot exceed the maximum allowed file sizes and dimensions. There is a maximum limit of 5 attachments per post.
	In addition to the attachments, you need to add some text to your post, it's not possible to have a post with just attachments and no text.
	If you want to display your attachments inline, place your cursor where you'd like the attachment to appear and click on the paper clip icon. A thumbnail of the image will appear at the cursor position. This works best with small images. The paper clip is only available in Advanced mode.

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Need a guide to Uploading documents to LB & off site storage and linking.

Using an external website to host your images and documents

There are a number of free image hosting services where images and documents can be uploaded. Some require you to create an account, others do not. There are some advantages to using an external host:

• It gets around the limitations associated with the forum software behind Legal Beagles, especially the file size issue. The 4Mb limit is adequate for most files and the maximum 1000 px dimensions work fine for images such as letters, however, there are times when you'll need to upload larger files.
• Using an external hosting platform also helps reduce the server load: images and documents take up much more server space than posts and loading large files can slow down the site.
• Some sites (such as Photobucket) offer mobile versions where you can upload images directly from your phone, handy if you are also using your phone to take pictures.

While it is important to ensure no personal details are visible on any document or image you upload to a public website, it is even more important if you are using an external file hosting service.

Listed below are some free image hosting sites, there are many more. Some allow only image files (usually JPEGs and PNGs), others also allow documents to be uploaded (such as JPEGs) None of these sites have any connection to Legal Beagles, which means LB cannot be held responsible for the content of those sites. External sites may go down, change their policies, stop operating or accepting new registrations at any time.

Site	Registration	Image file formats	Image dimensions	Documents
photobucket	Required	gif, jpg, jpeg, png, bmp	No maximum	n/a
tinypic	Optional but recommended to preserve images, otherwise removed if not viewed in 90 days.	jpg, png, gif, bmp	Max 1600 px	n/a
postimage	Optional	jpg, png, gif, bmp, psd, tiff	TBA	PDF

Work in progress...

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Need a guide to Uploading documents to LB & off site storage and linking.

Editing documents using MS Paint

Paint is an image editor that comes with Windows, so most people are likely to have it on their computers. (Mac users will probably have Photoshop and Linux users, GIMP).

Below is the Paint toolbar:



Click to open your image file.

Click and draw a rectangle around any text you wish to remove:



Make sure is set to white. With the area still selected, click The text will disappear.



Click and choose Save As. Give the edited image a new name. The image is ready to upload. :typing:



If you need to resize the image, click A new window will open. Enter the pixel dimensions in one of the boxes (for example, 1000 to use the LB attachment facility). Make sure Maintain aspect ratio is ticked to avoid distortion. Click OK and re-save the image.

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Need a guide to Uploading documents to LB & off site storage and linking.

Editing documents online using pixlr

Pixlr is an online image editor that supports most browsers and can be used on a Mac as well as a PC.

Point your browser to pixlr.com and click on

You will see the box shown below. Click Open image from computer. You can also edit files you have stored online by choosing Open image from URL.

The toolbox appears on the left hand side. There are many tools you can use to edit images. To remove bits of text, the easiest way is to use the eraser tool highlighted on the left. Click the eraser and you will see the following at the top of the screen: You can adjust the size by clicking on the little arrow below the number. Make sure the Opacity is set at 100. The solid, square brushes will work best in most cases. You will see an outline of the brush on your document. Adjust the size if necessary by repeating the steps above. Rub along the text you wish to remove, it will turn white. If you make a mistake, press CTRL+Z to undo.

Click File -> Save or CTRL+S to save the file. The default settings (JPEG, quality: 80) will work well in most cases.

If you need to resize the image, click Image -> Image size. Make sure the Constrain proportions box is checked and enter the desired pixel values.

Pixlr is a fully featured image editor. Under Adjustments, you will find useful tools such as Brightness and contrast and Levels. These may be useful to make text more legible and improve the quality of poor scans and photos, correct exposure, etc. Feel free to have a play and see the results on screen.

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Need a guide to Uploading documents to LB & off site storage and linking.

Using an photobucket to host your documents

You need to create an account to use photobucket. You'll need to provide a valid email address, choose a username and enter a date of birth. You can store up to 2Gb for free, which should be enough for the purpose of uploading documents. Additional space is available for a monthly fee. Free accounts are supported by adverts. Click "I'm OK with 2Gb" to proceed with the free account.

You can create albums if you wish to organise your images. Make sure the privacy setting is set to Private but do not set a password, otherwise we won't be able to see your images on the forum. To avoid being identified, don't use your real name on photobucket, because it will show up on the URL (link) to the image.

More to come...

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Need a guide to Uploading documents to LB & off site storage and linking.

Using PDFMate to convert PDF files to other formats.

	PDFMate offers a free version of its PDF converter that can be downloaded here: http://www.pdfmate.com/pdf-converter-free.html
	PDFMate can be used to convert PDFs to editable files: Word (.docx) and plain text (.txt) documents. It offers basic OCR (optical character recognition) to turn text in images into editable text, this feature is limited to 3 pages on the free version. Text- based PDFs can also be converted to Word or plain text files. Converting to Word will preserve appearance at the expense of editability, using lots of text boxes. This may make it difficult to work with the text. If you want to extract just the text and discard the formatting, convert to plain text (.txt) instead.
	You can use PDFMate to extract the text from scanned letters, you can then past the body of the letter as text on your post. This works well for most letters where the main thing is to know what they authors are saying, and the format of the letter is largely irrelevant.
	For other documents such as credit agreements, it's better to convert them to an image to edit out personal details using MS Paint, Photoshop, pixlr or the image editor of your choice, leaving everything else intact.
	If you are using the free version, you will often get a 'nag' box asking you to upgrade. Ignore and close it. :grin:

More to come...

[Amethyst]

Forums, Threads and Posts

>>>What is a community bulletin board?

A community bulletin board is an online discussion site. It's sometimes also called a 'board' or 'forums'. It may contain several categories, consisting of forums, topics and individual posts. The content on a community bulletin board is often created by the users or members of the site. They are used for support, to share ideas and for a variety of different topics. LegalBeagles is usually described as a forum.

>>>How is all this structured?

The bulletin board as a whole contains various categories (broad subject areas), which themselves contain forums (more specific subject areas) which contain threads (conversations or discussions) which are made up of individual posts (where a user writes something).

Usually the community home page has a list of categories and forums, with basic statistics for each - including the number of threads and posts, and which member posted the most recent message. This can be replaced with an activity stream which shows a stream of the latest posts, photos and other items shared.

>>>How do I find my way around?

When you click on a forum's name, you are taken to the list of threads it contains. A threadis a conversation between members or guests. Each thread starts out as a single post and grows as replies and comments are added by different users.

To start a new thread simply click on the + New Thread button (you may need the right permissions to do this).

Threads can be ordered in many different ways. The default is to have the thread with the most recent activity at the bottom. You can change this in your user control panel.

>>>Multi-page views

When there are more threads to display than will fit on a single page, you may see the 'Page' box, which contains page numbers. This indicates that the list of threads has been split over two or more pages. This method of splitting lists of items over many pages is used throughout the community.

>>>What are sticky threads?

'Sticky' threads are threads & posts determined to be important by moderators or administrators. They are listed at the top of the thread list and remain 'stuck' to the top of the listing, even if they haven't had any posts recently. Their purpose is to keep important information visible and accessible at all times.

>>>How do I read a thread?

To read a thread, click on its title. Each post in a thread is created by a member or a guest. You'll see some brief information about the member who created the post to the left of post message.


To post a reply to an existing thread, click on the Post Reply button. If this button does not appear, it could mean that you are not logged in as a member, or that you do not have permission to reply, or that the thread has been closed to new replies.


There will also be a Reply box at the bottom of the page. This is where you can quickly enter a reply as well. If you click the Quote link on any reply, the content of that post will automatically be added to the Reply box for you. Clicking Quote on multiple posts allows you to multi-quote those posts in a single reply.

>>>How do I find out more about members?

To view information about a particular member, click on the user name. This will take you to their public profile page.


>>>What is the Navigation Bar?

The navigation bar at the top of every page has links to help you move around. A 'breadcrumb' area at the top left shows where you are now. A form on the right allows you to quickly login. This allows quick movement from one section of the site to the other.


>>>Can I change the way the community looks?

You may be able to change the styling of the community by using the style changer in the bottom left of the page. This lets you choose different styles or themes which change the color scheme and appearance of the community. If this option does not appear, the board cannot be restyled.


>>>More help with using the forum


This can be found in the 'Site Issues' forum, and you can ask for help and guidance in that forum by creating a new thread. More general information can be found by clicking the FAQ link in the navigation bar. Or by clicking here

[Amethyst]

Complaints about statements/comments made on LegalBEAGLES consumer forum.

1. If you need to complain

Please read our Terms of Website use and Acceptable Use Policies.

If you wish to complain about any content posted on LegalBEAGLES consumer forum you should email us at admin@legalbeagles.info including your name and contact details.

Please include a link to the statements/comments you wish to complain about, set out what the statement/comments says and explain why you believe it to be defamatory, the meaning you attribute to the statement and what aspects of the statement/comment you believe are factually inaccurate or are opinions not supported by fact.

2. What we will do

LegalBEAGLES will confirm receipt of your complaint within 48 hours (working days) and if possible will contact the poster of the statement/comments complained about.

• If we are unable to contact the poster within 5 working days we will confirm this to you and remove the comments complained about within 48 hours of the end of this period.
• If the poster agrees to remove the statement/comments this will be actioned with 48 hours of their reply.
• If the poster fails to respond within 5 working days we will remove the statement/comments within 48 hours.
• If the poster refuses to give us contact information within 5 working days we will remove the statement/comment within 48 hours.
• If the poster does not agree to remove the statement/comments and gives us contact details we will confirm this to you, we will only pass on the posters contact details if they agree for us to do so. The statement/comment will remain on the website.

Information for Posters on LegalBEAGLES consumer forum.

If we receive a complaint about a statement/comment you have made we will contact you via your registration email within 48 hours of the receipt of the complaint.

• We will send you details of the complaint. We will not send you details of the complainant unless they give us permission to do so.
• We will give you 5 working days in which to respond to us.
• If you wish to keep the statement/comments posted on the website you should confirm this to us, and send us your full name, address and contact details.
• You should also tell us if we have your permission to pass these details on to the complainant. If you do not give your permission then we will hold your details and the complainant may chose to obtain a court order to obtain these details from us.
• If you do not supply us with your details or reply to us within 5 working days we will remove the comment/statement complained about.

For information

TERMS OF WEBSITE USE
6. NOTICE AND TAKE DOWN POLICY

If you wish to complain about any User Content posted on our site by a third party, or any other content which appears on our site, please contact us at admin@legalbeagles.info. Please precisely identify the User Content or other content about which you are notifying us, including the page of the site on which it is posted. You should also provide us with full details of your complaint and, if you are alleging copyright infringement, evidence that you own the copyright. We will then review the material and decide whether it complies with the content standards set out in our Acceptable Use Policy . We will deal appropriately with any User Content or other content which, in our opinion, violates those content standards. We will endeavour to inform you of the outcome of our review within a reasonable time of receiving your complaint.



ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY
5. MODERATION

User Content is not generally moderated, although we reserve the right to moderate it. We will not be responsible as author, editor or publisher of any User Content and we expressly exclude our liability for any loss or damage arising from the use of our site by any person in contravention of this Acceptable Use Policy. We reserve the right to promptly remove, or to disable access to, any User Content which we deem to be or which is notified to us as being potentially defamatory of any person, unlawful, in violation of any third party rights or in contravention of this Acceptable Use Policy.