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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…

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 [or TrialSmart, which will also synchronize depositions, and is my choice in terms of functionality] 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).

[Update: Here's a video from Clarity Legal Software's site that details how you can import RealLegal .ptx files. It still involves the need to export from their free reader software for Windows. Solutions for that issue are to run Windows in BootCamp, use a emulator like Parallels or VMWare Fusion to run Windows alongside OS X, or if you have a limited use for Windows and don't want to pay Microsoft for a copy of it, I recommend Codeweaver's Crossover software detailed below.]

[Another Update: It is important to choose the correct XML file type when importing into DepoSmart. If importing RealLegal files, you need to choose "RealLegal E-Transcript XML" or the import will fail. See image below.]

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.

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.

[UPDATE: A more direct path to creating a .pdf with Acrobat is to use Crossover to run the viewer as described above, then from within the viewer select File>Save As>Ascii (which is just a plain text file or .txt) then use Acrobat to 'Create PDF from a File' using the resulting text (.txt) file. Once you have Crossover set up, this whole process will take just a couple of minutes. All the formatting, including page and line numbers is retained.]

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.