Support For Mac

General

The Lexbe eDiscovery Platform (LEP) currently supports Safari, Chrome, and Firefox for Mac. We strongly suggest having at least two browsers installed, especially if having problems in a particular browser. 

Uploading Files  

Once Settings have been set, click on the Add files button at the bottom and select the files to add from the user's local system. The Mac does not allow the option of dragging batches of files from the computer directly into the Upload Documents page. Click on the Add files button to select and bring documents to the Upload dialog box. From the upload window click the Cancel button to interrupt the file upload in progress. Progress is shown for each individual batch and for the entire upload. Do not close the upload window before the upload completes or the upload will be interrupted.  

Configure Safari to Open PDFs inline

Safari can open PDFs in the browser window using a PDF Browser Plugin. In order to install this plugin, open the Safari browser and select the following link: http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/9542/pdf-browser-plugin. After completing the installation, upon opening Safari the user will be able to view this plugin under the Help->Installed Plug-ins menu. This will cause the PDF to display inside the Safari window using its native PDF viewer. Close the Preferences window and login to LEP, go to Browse to view all documents within the current case and select any PDF file to be opened in a new tab.

Acrobat/Reader 8 also supports viewing PDF files inside Safari windows on Mac OS X and will only run on Mac OS X 10.4.3 and later. It does not support any other browser (such as Firefox or Chrome).

Configure Firefox to Open PDFs inline

Firefox can also open PDFs in the browser window using the same PDF Browser Plugin. The initial steps on how to configure Firefox are the same as from the Safari browser. After completing the installation, on opening Firefox the user will enable or disable this plugin under Firefox->Preferences->General->Add-ons->Manage Add-ons. Close the Preferences window and login to LEP, go to Browse to view all documents within the current case and select PDF file to be opened in a new tab. This will cause the PDF to display inside the Firefox window using its native PDF viewer. 

This enables PDF support and editing features in Safari and Firefox web browsers.  If the user cannot see the Find function, use keyboard shortcut "Command F," type the word to find, and hit enter. Problems may persist because Acrobat or Adobe Reader 8 automatically install themselves as the default PDF viewer for Safari and Firefox on the Mac OS X.  To disable, start Acrobat or Adobe Reader, go to Preferences->Internet and uncheck the Display PDF in Browser option. This will cause the PDF to display inside the Safari/Firefox window using its native PDF viewer.

Configure Google Chrome to Open PDFs inline

To preview a document, there is a PDF plugin on the Mac that allows for the inline viewing of PDFs in Google Chrome. Make sure you have the latest version of Chrome. To view, type "about:plugins" in the website address box and select "chrome://plugins." There should be a disabled plugin called Chrome PDF Viewer. 

If the user does not see this plugin and needs to install it, follow these steps:

Open Google Chrome and go to Chrome->Preferences->Extensions.

Click on Get more Extensions and install PDF Browser Plugin 2.4.2-Version: 2.4.2 or the latest version available.

Close the Preferences window and login to LEP, go to Browse to view all documents within the current case and select PDF file.

How To Preview Native Documents in Firefox/Safari Without Leaving the Browser

To view native files on Firefox and Safari, install any open-source application suite compatible with Microsoft Office. The application called iWork is recommended by Apple for the Mac OS X.

Configure Firefox/Safari to Open Native files Inline (Preview-iWork)

See Viewing Native Files for more information.

Configure Google Chrome to Open Native files inline

Chrome can be configured to automatically open native files.  See Viewing Native Files for more information.  

Have Multiple Browsers on Mac

Best practice is to have more than one browser configured for use with LEP (e.g., Safari and Firefox).  If problems occur, switching browsers can sometimes resolve an issue.  Multiple browsers also aid support staff in troubleshooting configuration problems.

How to Create a ZIP file on Mac OS X  

Select the item or items you want to compress and choose File->Compress.

Control-click an item and choose Compress from the shortcut menu.

In a Finder window, select one or more items and choose Compress from the Action menu (looks like a gear). If compressing a single item, the compressed file has the name of the original item with the .zip extension. If compressing multiple items at once, the compressed file is called Archive.zip.

Double-click the .zip file to uncompress (expand) an item. 

Other versions of Zip creation programs for Mac may work, but we have not tested them and do not support them. 

How to Create a RAR file on Mac OS X  

One RAR utility available for Mac and similar to WinRAR is SimplyRAR.  You can use this to create zip files of files, folders, or both. After installation, follow these steps:

Select the item or items to compress. Select multiple files and folders by holding down the Shift key (for multiple items) or the Command key (for several individual items), then click.  After file and folders are selected, right click and select Compress 'XX'. A window will appear indicating that the Mac is compressing the files or folders. Depending on the size of the files or the folders, this could take a couple minutes. Once finished compressing the files or folders, there will be a zip file.  This will contain all of the files and folders selected to be compressed.

Control-click an item and choose Compress from the shortcut menu.

Select Compress Items.

Find the newly created .zip archive in the same directory. If compressing a single item, the compressed file has the name of the original item with the .zip extension. If compressing multiple items, the compressed file is called Archive.zip.

Considerations:

Archives are part of single archive and cannot be separately extracted or renamed.  They must be extracted as a group.

They should not be extracted on a flash drive as there may be insufficient space  They should, instead, be extracted on a local HDD with sufficient space.

Archives are encrypted and password protected for security in case a flash drive is delivered incorrectly or lost in transit.

The RAR format is preferred to ZIP because of better encryption, splitting ability, integrity of archive creation, and consistency of support.

How to Unzip/Extract and View File Containers (ZIP or RAR files)

The default Mac unzip utility uses the Zip 32 bit algorithm for maximum compatibility while Lexbe uses the 64 bit Zip algorithm to allow archives larger than 2 GB in size.  The default Mac unzip utility will therefore not work with Lexbe zip files. Instead, you need to use a 64 bit compatible unzipper such as The Unarchiver.  Please follow this link to download The Unarchiver:  The Unarchiver

 

Sometimes unzipping files on the Mac will result in a new .zip.cpqz file or unzip to show only a single file. Lexbe uses the newer Zip64 archive format. The default Mac unzipper is not Zip64 compatible. To avoid this issue and actually unzip the archive, do the following:

 

From the Safari menu select Preferences and then uncheck "Open safe files after downloading". Firefox and Chrome do not need this step.

Download the zip file from LEP.

Locate the downloaded file in Finder and Control-click the file. Select Open With and select The Unarchiver.app. Do not use the Archive Utility.app (default).  If The Unarchiver.app is not installed, select App Store and search for and install The Unarchiver.app. This will unzip the archive and show all the files.

JavaScript

Check if JavaScript is enabled in order to allow websites to display properly. If using Safari or Firefox, follow the steps below:

Safari:

Click the Safari menu at the top and select Preferences.

Click Security and check the box next to Enable JavaScript.

Close the Preferences window to save the settings.

Firefox:

Click the Firefox menu at the top and select Preferences.

Click the Content tab and check the box next to Enable JavaScript.

Close the Preferences window to save the settings.

Browsers Cache

When experiencing problems with a browser, the first thing to do is clear the browser's cache, cookies, and history.  After clearing the browser's cache and cookies, exit completely before attempting to access LEP again.  See Clear Cache for more information.

Safari:

From the Safari menu, select Reset Safari.  From the menu, select the items to reset and click Reset.  As of Safari 5.1, "Remove all website data" covers both cookies and cache.

Firefox 3.5 and later:

From the Tools menu, select Clear Recent History.  From the "Time range to clear" drop-down menu, select the desired range. To clear the entire cache, select Everything.  Click the down arrow next to Details to choose which elements to clear. Click Clear Now.

Document View Troubleshooting 

See Document Viewer Troubleshooting for more information or contact Professional Services.