Recently we blogged about a new feature on IntelliConnect, PDF reproductions of printed case reports.  Since then a few of our customers have asked for more information on the feature, in particular whether older cases will have the option added to them. 

The official word from our Editors In Chief is that contingent on current web deadlines being met, we aim to have the PDF versions of the following in IntelliConnect by the end of April:

• Australian Tax Cases 2004 – 2008
• Australian Company Law Cases 2004 – 2008
• Australian Family Law Case 2004 – 2008

We will then assess usage of and customer feedback on the Print to PDF function before scheduling further development.

Another new feature that has sparked interest is the “last reviewed” date.  This datestamp appears at the top of a paragraph of commentary and indicates when that particular paragraph was last reviewed. 

Several customers have expressed interest in how this works.  Does it apply to individual paragraphs or complete chapters?  When will “last reviewed” dates be available for all content?  Our legal Editor In Chief Peter Rodrigues provided the following explanation of the “last reviewed” date.

The date is updated when we have reviewed the paragraph for currency and either changed the substantive content of the paragraph because a change was necessary, or decided that it does not need changing.

Our goal is to update our content as closely as possible to developments occurring. This means that there are times where an external author or CCH writer will update specific CCH paragraphs, because a development has only impacted those paragraphs. They will then update the last reviewed date for those particular paragraphs. There may, therefore, be instances where it has only been necessary to update a particular CCH paragraph and its relevant last reviewed date. Where the author or writer has reviewed the content of paragraphs surrounding those that they have actually updated, they will update the last reviewed date accordingly.

External authors and CCH writers also review entire chapters or sub-chapters in one go to ensure that the entire content of that chunk of content is up to date. In those circumstances, the last reviewed date is amended for every CCH paragraph within that sub-chapter or chapter.

The “last reviewed” date that is displayed is dependent on a field of metadata being updated by an editor/writer. Because we have only recently made it compulsory for an editor to update this field, some of our content may currently have a date that indicates it was last reviewed quite a long time ago, even though that content may have been reviewed more recently. It is also possible that some commentary content will have no last reviewed date at all because this metadata field has not been completed.

We are in the process of updating all our last reviewed dates so that they do accurately reflect when we last reviewed the content. As we have a lot of content this process will take some time.

There are more feature updates planned for IntelliConnect in the months to come, so watch this space or contact your CCH representative for more details.

Regular IntelliConenct users may have noticed a few changes over the past few weeks.  While most folks were away on holiday over the new year, the IntelliConnect team were busy adding some new features.  Here’s a look at what they were up to:

Search Results

Scanning through a list of search results is now easier thanks to the inclusion of source details in the title of each result.  Here’s a quick summary of the changes:

• - Legislation results now displays the title of the Act
• - Rulings and releases display the issuing body and the issue date
• - Case results now display the citation, court and date of the judgment
• - Commentary, news and other secondary sources now display the title of the publication

IntelliConnect's new-look search results

Printing for Court

PDF reproductions of printed case reports are now available for online case reports.  Most cases from 2009 have court-ready versions, and all cases from 2010 onwards will also have this option. CCH is also looking into progressively adding Print PDFs for older cases.

To print a case for court, simply go to the full text of the case you are looking for and click on the “Print PDF” link that appears under the party name. A PDF reproduction of the print version will open in a new window.

Printing the "print" version of a case

Printing via the “Print Menu” will continue to provide an online version of the document for printing, rather than the court-ready version.

You may notice that very recent cases may not have a “Print PDF” option yet. That is because we update the online product faster than the print version – and we can’t reproduce a print version of the case until we’ve actually printed it! The links are added once the print update is published.

One of the great things about IntelliConnect is that we will be continually upgrading it and adding features according to what our customers want.  Be sure to keep an eye out here for more IntelliConnect news in the future.