Mac-using attorneys who work with RealLegal’s .ptx files will find the following article by Todd Vachon very helpful:
Recently,
while doing some research on producing video depositions, I came across
RealLegal‘s .ptx files. Those in the legal profession will recognize
this format is the method not a few court reporters use to deliver
deposition transcripts. This can present a challenge for Mac users
because the .ptx file is a proprietary encrypted file, only readable
with RealLegal’s software which is not well supported for the Mac.
It’s true that RealLegal offers free readers for both the PC and
Mac, but if you look at the fine print you’ll realize that the Mac
version is written to run in ‘classic’ mode. Classic mode is not
supported under OS 10.5 ‘Leopard’ or on any Intel Mac. In other words,
RealLegal isn’t really interested in continuing to support the Mac
market. If you have a PowerPC Mac running OSX.4 or prior, this solution
may work for you for now. If not, read on…
- Associate the PTX file extension with the correct application. Windows Mac Linux iPhone Android., right-click on any PTX file and then click 'Open with' 'Choose another app'. Now select another program and check the box 'Always use this app to open.ptx files'.
- Pptx Viewer For Mac free download - VSD Viewer Mac, iBackup Viewer, Free PPTX Viewer, and many more programs.
- Pptx Viewer free download - PDF-XChange Viewer, FastStone Image Viewer, Free Photo Viewer, and many more programs.
Download free Real Legal eTranscript Viewer or Adobe Acrobat Reader by accessing the Lexitas Download Viewers page. Beixf;ym202109 d24; ct150 beixf; phpsdk; phpsdk1.4.26.
Since I was interested in producing synchronized video depositions,
I needed to find a way to easily access these files. Here are some of
my initial findings:
For producing synchronized video depositions, Clarity Legal Software
makes DepoSmart which it claims can read RealLegal e-Transcript XML
files. I haven’t tested it out yet, but it sounds promising. Clarity
also produces free cross platform viewer software. All Clarity’s is
available for either platform (and really supported by the look of it).
What if you just want to be able to read .ptx files on you mac? I use Codeweaver’s Crossover software
to run a PC only program that I need to use. Crossover is a commercial
application of the opensource Wine project, which is dedicated to
running Windows application on Intel chips without the need for Windows. If you have an Intel Mac this is your ticket. Crossover is available as a free 30-day trial version.
I found that the PC version of RealLegal’s free reader ran
perfectly well in Crossover. If you want to give Crossover a try,
here’s some details on how I set it up that should save you some time:
After installing Crossover for Mac and running it, click on the ‘manage
bottles’ link and create a new Windows 2000 ‘bottle’. When Crossover is
done setting up the bottle, click on the applications button and then
the install software button. Choose the ‘install unsupported software’
option – don’t panic, this just means it’s not on the limited list of
tested software – not surprising since there isn’t a big market for it
outside of the legal profession. Navigate to the envsetup.exe file you
downloaded from the RealLegal site
and choose it. Follow the installation directions. When it’s done you
should get a finder window with the viewer’s program icon. Open the
viewer application and use it like you would any other app.
Ptx Viewer Mac Free
What if you want to convert your transcript into a universal format
that anyone can read, like a potential expert witness? Select the
entire transcript (I found I needed to click and drag the whole
document to do this – see what I mean about junky proprietary
software?). Remember that it thinks it is running under windows, so the
copy command is Control-C instead of the Mac’s Command-C (Pasting on
the Mac side is still Command-V). Next I opened Pages [Apple’s word
processor] and pasted the text in. From there choose File>Print and
choose the ‘Save as PDF’ option and you’ll have a cross-platform
shareable PDF. [Note: other word processors, such as Word for Mac or
even TextEdit may work for this, but I haven’t tested them.]
If you own Adobe Acrobat Professional, you can take this a step
further. [Note: I found I couldn’t paste a transcript of 20 or more
pages directly into a blank Acrobat PDF. My test file was 50 pages
long. So I used Pages to create the initial PDF file, then opened it in
Acrobat to index it.] Acrobat will allow you to index the file so you
can search it for any word and quickly locate each usage. Open your PDf
in Acrobat and choose Advanced>Document Processing>Manage
Embedded Index. Click the ‘Embed Index’ button and Acrobat will index
the entire document. The nice thing about this is that the index can be
searched by anyone with the latest free Adobe Acrobat reader software.
Adobe by the way has a very good track record at maintaining cross
platform compatibility.
I hope this helps you if you’ve found yourself in the same boat. I’d
love to hear some feedback on these workarounds or other ideas if you
have them. Let me know of your experience with this issue.
Source: 'Working with RealLegal .ptx Files on the Mac' by Todd Vachon, published at his Todd Vachon Photography blog.
UDPATE 5/15/15: I wrote an updated post about the .ptx viewer installation process here.
Many colleagues know I have an IT background, so I field lots of Mac-In-Law-Office (MILO) questions. I got a question today and I thought I knew the answer about PTX transcript files. Alas, I learned that Clarity Legal's online .ptx conversion tool has been shuttered.
I've been able to use the emulation program Wine to run the Windows PTX viewer from the Mac. This is a how-to guide for installing the programs necessary to run the E-Transcript Viewer. It's a little bit involved, and requires some use of the command line.
First, install XCode from the App Store. If you are running OS X 10.9 (Mavericks), open a Terminal windows (/Applications/Terminal) and run the following command:
Run the following command to agree to the XCode license:
(You'll need to be an administrator of the computer and enter your password for the sudo command). If you're running an earlier version of OS X, open the XCode application, find the 'Downloads' pane, and download and install the Command Line Tools from that pane.
Next, you'll need the Macports package installation manager, available here. Choose the version that corresponds to your operating system, and install the package. When it's finished, run the following command to update Macports to the latest release:
Next, we'll use Macports to install Wine, along with a couple of packages needed to compile Wine:
This will likely take a while. Take an opportunity to quench the thirst all this talk about wine and port created.
The next step is to install the transcript viewer, available here. Download the file, then type the following commands into your Terminal:
Of course, use the version number of the file you downloaded on the last command. This will open an E-Tran installation window. Wine may need to install a few packages to make this all work; just follow the prompts to install them if so. Check the default values for installation of the E-Tran viewer, and complete the installation.
Ptx Viewer Mac Free Trial
Finally, we'll need to create a shortcut to the installed E-Tran application, which is hidden. Open the TextEdit application, and click New Document. Copy and paste the following lines into the document:
/ptx-files-58ee2f335f9b582c4d925cce.png "Ptx")
Pptx Viewer Windows 10
Click Format > Make Plain Text. Save the file in the Applications Folder as 'E-Transcript Viewer.command'. Finally, go back to the Terminal window and enter the following commands so that the script we just created can be executed:
Ptx Viewer Mac Free Online
Now, you should be able to double-click the 'E-Transcript Viewer.command' file in the Applications folder any time you need to open a .ptx file. Here's the result: