5.07 Opticon Load Files

1.       The following is based on an actual subfolder name we received on a production by a vendor:

\BOX 3 - JOHN DOE & OTHERS DOCS REC'D FROM BOB SMITH; AL SMITH'S NOTEBOOKS, PAPERS\

2.       There are several big fouls here. In addition to the “&”, “;” and “’” (apostrophe) characters, there really is no purpose in a “significant folder name”. This was part of a series of subfolders that literally went eight (8) folders deep. Not only will the end user never see the folder name when reviewing their discovery, but one cannot load the cross-reference file into Opticon. Opticon requires a comma delimited load file.

3.       The example below shows problems we have seen historically:

1. Image key, “A001” and filename “001.TIF” do not match

A001,[VOLUME],D:\[VOLUME]\IMAGES\001\001.TIF,Y,,,

2. This first page of a document is missing a page count

A001,[VOLUME],D:\[VOLUME]\IMAGES\001\001.TIF,Y,,,

3. This page is missing the “,”s and possibly the begin document “Y” and page count

A002,[VOLUME],D:\[VOLUME]\IMAGES\001\A002.TIF

4.       Opticon load file extensions should be .LOG, .TXT or .RXF. Some software vendors used to create the log file output with an extension of .OPT. Opticon does not look for .OPT when displaying potential load files.

5.       Image Cross-Reference File – Filename Mismatch. The filename inside of the cross-reference file does not match the actual filename. Again, this could be a hiccup in processing. This is caught when we run our QC tests to make sure every file listed is actually on the server.

6.       Only images belong in the Opticon load file. Sometimes vendors will put the OCR files into the same folder as the images. This has, on occasion, resulted in a load file that references both the images and the OCR files. In the following example, lines 2 and 4 should not be included:

1. SMI0001,SMI001,D:\IMAGES\SMI0001.tif,Y,,,1
2. SMI0001.TXT,SMI001,D:\IMAGES\SMI0001.TXT,,,,
3. SMI0002,SMI001,D:\IMAGES\SMI0002.tif,Y,,,1
4. SMI0002.TXT,SMI001,D:\IMAGES\SMI0002.TXT,,,,

Every import line for every delivery should be formatted the same, irrespective of the technician who generated the load file. Right or wrong, at least the delivery is wrong in a consistent fashion from CD to CD. If the path information isn’t “plug and play”, Litigation Support has to modify the associated load files. Did the vendor not know or not care that their CDs contained inconsistent information?