Anyone who has used LexisNexis Time Matters® for a while knows that one of its major strengths is its ability to display and filter data in a myriad of ways. Master lists, sub-lists, Power Views, forms, timelines, and calendar views are but a few examples. We have found, though, that some of the features providing specialized views of Time Matters data often go unused simply because people are not aware of their existence.
For example, have you ever noticed the Journal options under the Calendar pull-down menu? Nestled there are the Personal Journal, Contact Journal, and Matter Journal. While the Contact and Matter journals display information that can easily be viewed in other parts of the program such as Power Views and QuickTabs, the Personal Journal offers a unique and user-configurable view that is tied to the selected Staff and logged-in User rather than to any particular data record such as a matter. As such, the Personal Journal adds a unique way for a user to view pertinent records of any type for a defined date period. To open it, use the Journal button on the main toolbar, choose it from the Calendar menu, or press Ctrl+J on the keyboard.
The default Journal view in Time Matters is called “Today” and displays the calendar (events and to dos) for the user’s default Staff, along with notes, emails, messages, and phone calls for the current date (see graphic). 
For many, this is sufficient; personally, I like my Journal to be more forward-looking, so I have created a custom view that shows calendar items for the next week. Users can add multiple views (this week, this month, etc.) and easily control the number of columns, record types included, filtering, and which fields to display for each record type.
One of the slickest capabilities of a view like this, showing multiple record types, is that it is very easy to create specified relationships between records simply by dragging the icon of one record and dropping it onto a different record. Some examples of this would be relating a document to an email or an event. The Relationship Code box pops up and, if you have created a list of these codes, you can choose one to characterize the nature of the relationship between the linked records.
Custom Journal views can be set up for each user so that no one is stuck with someone else’s idea of the perfect view of current Time Matters data. For help with setting up your ideal configuration, you can contact one of our consultants or email [email protected].
You may also reach us via our toll-free number at 877-357-0555.
Jack Schaller has been active in the field of law office technology since 1989, and has worked with a variety of commercial accounting, legal billing, practice management, and document management software products during his twenty plus years in the software consulting field. During his tenure as a software consultant he has garnered many sales and service awards for his work with legal software products. Jack is a frequent presenter at legal conferences and seminars, and is a regular contributor to TechnoLawyer and other technology publications.