Here’s a handy browser extension to add to your toolbox: FireShot, an add-on that captures entire webpage screenshots – even scrollable areas.

Install FireShot in just a few seconds, then screenshot any website just by clicking the “S” icon in the top right corner of your browser and selecting an option:

Once you click an option, there will be a short pause, and a new tab will open up, allowing you to work with your screenshot: edit, save to various formats, add text annotations, share, copy to clickboard, print, etc.

The first time I saved an image, I was …

Shut down, shutdown
Don’t confuse these.

You shut down your computer in anticipation of the firmwide shutdown by the IT department.  On a similar footing, log in and login.

Surveil
This is like the awful liaise.

Surveil is a misguided back-formation from surveillance, but an ugly and unnecessary one; just say watch or follow.

Well wishes
Where on earth did this expression come from? You wish someone well, but send good wishes. Well wishes awkwardly places an adverb where only an adjective should go.

Impressed
The partner was impressed by the associate’s memo…

Is there a podcast or YouTube channel you’d like to keep track of or display using RSS? Determining the RSS feeds for videos and podcasts can be tricky. Here are a couple of tips on how to find the RSS feeds for YouTube channels and playlists, and podcasts on iTunes or Soundcloud.

To determine the RSS feed for a  YouTube channel:

1. View the page source for the YouTube channel (right click on the page and click “view page source”
2. Do a search for the text “channelID” and copy the value next to it. It will look something like this: UCqoH4oSIEttrjmasHPBx5Ug

You’ve already been advised in a previous post not to say outside of or inside of. The of is both unnecessary and incorrect in each case.

Of creeps in elsewhere, where it should not. As in the shudder-inducing off of, Please, just off. Or perhaps from (I got it from the internet, not off of).

Or as in It’s not that big of a deal. You mean It’s not that big a deal (although not much of a big deal).

Where you should be using of is with the verb enamoured: …

Not long ago, as I was working with some RSS feeds, I was dismayed to discover that suddenly, Firefox wouldn’t display them. Instead I was being prompted to save or open the file using another program. What a pain!

Turns out that with the release of Firefox 64, Mozilla dropped support for feeds and live bookmarks.

Luckily I found a solution without much hassle. There are several add-ons that will restore this functionality to Firefox. I picked one called Feed Preview that had good reviews. So far, so good; feeds are displayed cleanly and elegantly. Here’s what the Slaw Tips …

The general rule of thumb is that acts are amended (or repealed) by acts and regulations are amended (or repealed) by regulations. Some acts do explicitly state that they can be amended by regulation, although what can be amended is usually minor (e.g. making changes to a schedule to an act).

An example of this can be found in British Columbia’s Workers Compensation Act:

(4.1) The Board may, by regulation,

(a) add to or delete from Schedule B [of the act] a disease that, in the opinion of the Board, is an occupational disease,
(b) add to or delete …

I recently made a couple of small purchases that made a big difference: new charge cables for my phone and tablet. And as soon as I started using them, I was kicking myself for not having bought them sooner.

My old cables had been on their very last legs: they still worked, but one was starting to become loose at a connection point, and the other had actually lost a piece of casing. They weren’t charging as quickly as they once had. Plus, their lengths weren’t ideal either–both had always been just a bit too short for the locations I …

If you were paying attention to the last installment of the Canadian Law Blog Awards (aka Clawbies) this past December, you  probably noticed that podcasts are more popular than ever. The top prize even went to a podcast this year!

Today’s tip is to expand your professional development horizons past print and in-person, and check out a podcast.

A good place to start is with the outstanding productions that were mentioned in the 2018 Clawbies:

• The Docket by Michael Spratt and Emilie Taman
• IdeaBlawg podcast by Lisa Silver
• Lawyer Life Podcast by Darlene Tonelli and Mike Anderson
• Diversonomics Podcast by

Basis is, basically, bad. Why, you ask? It’s one of those words that lawyers love to use, but one that renders their prose flabby and verbose. Instead of on a temporary/permanent/daily/whatever basis, just write temporarily, permanently, daily etc. While adverbs are not a hallmark of vigorous prose, a single word is better than four.

A related word is based: Where are you based?, people ask; I’m based in Toronto. Doesn’t this sound affected? Why can’t it just be live? Perhaps based sounds more cosmopolitan and jet-setty (put another way, pretentious)?

More along the lines …

With travellers at Canadian airports and border crossings subject to increasing scrutiny,[1] it is important for lawyers and Quebec notaries to have an understanding of how the privacy interests of their clients may be impacted by legislation and policies developed to address public safety issues.  Legal counsel should also understand that their profession does not make them immune to policies and processes that could impact information otherwise subject to solicitor-client privilege.

Canadian lawyers and Quebec notaries travelling internationally with electronic devices face increasing uncertainty about how those electronic devices will be treated by border agents on apprehension by Canadian Border …