How many times has this happened to you?
You’re typing merrily along (or maybe not so merrily, but, hey, you’re typing), and whatever you’re drafting/transcribing has a list that starts with (a), then goes to (b), then to (c), etc.
And you type the open paragraph symbol, the letter “c”, and the close paragraph symbol, and as soon as you hit the space bar …
Where did that *#*@&#^! copyright symbol © come from?
Yes, AutoCorrect strikes again. And when it’s not correct, it’s wrong. Seriously wrong.
Fortunately, there’s a way to fix that. I promise.
Click here to read more …
One of the tactics I regularly recommend to users when transferring content from an old WordPerfect document is to use Paste, Special, Unformatted Text instead of just the plain Paste or CNTRL-V commands:
The advantage here is that Paste Special clears out all of the formatting so the newly-pasted text doesn’t mess up your nice Microsoft Word document.
The disadvantage? Well … it clears out all the formatting. And this can be a pain to re-do, particularly if you’ve got a long document with lots of case citations, etc.
What to do? Here are three tricks to keep in your Microsoft Word skills arsenal.
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If you’ve ever been working in a document (particularly one that’s been constructed with a lot of “cut and paste” from other documents) and wanted to make this paragraph (or this line or this heading) look just like that other one, here’s a simple trick.
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I’ll admit it — I’m not a big fan of the Columns feature in Microsoft Word. Not that there’s anything wrong with it, per se. It works fine (until it doesn’t). But in a legal office environment, I usually format blocks of information with tables because they’re a bit easier to control.
But I’ve seen lots of legal professionals use columns to format things like service lists in Certificates of Service. Hey, to each her [his] own.
So if you want to use this feature in your Microsoft Word documents, here’s what you need to know:
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Got a long brief or other document that has lots of headings, subheadings, etc.? You need Styles, baby.
No, not style — Styles.
The Styles function in Word is a handy tool for, among other things, setting up headings for different sections of a document. These styles serve a dual purpose: not only do they help keep document formatting consistent (i.e., all paragraph and subparagraph headings at a particular level, for example, will be consistent through the document), they can help later when you create a Table of Contents, since Word can use these styles to create the levels of your Table of Contents.
There are a couple of different ways to use Styles & Formatting (as the feature is formally known) in your document.
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Occasionally, you need to present information in a form other than paragraphs. Whether it’s a set of numbers or other obviously tabular data, or if you’re just looking to get the alignment of something just right, tables can help.
As usual in Microsoft Word (and most software programs), there’s more than one way to insert a table into your document:
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Once you reach an intermediate level of facility with Microsoft Word, you’ll want to start using headers and footers to do more advanced formatting. Sure, you can insert page numbers from the Insert menu, but what if you want to put the page number and the document name and the date/time stamp on the bottom of every page?
That’s where learning about headers and footers comes in handy.
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If you’re anything like me, one of the things you really hate is having to move paragraphs around in a long pleading (like a set of discovery requests). Fortunately, if you know your way around Microsoft Word’s Bullets & Numbers feature, at least you won’t have to renumber every paragraph by hand.
Using Bullets & Numbers’ pre-defined formats is very easy. The easiest way is to use the buttons on the Formatting Toolbar:
This gives you the basic, standard format. But what if you want some other format?
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If you’ve got a feature you use in Word pretty often, you probably hate having to go through the menu system to get to it. You know the drill: click on Tools, scroll down to Letters and Mailings, mouse across to Envelopes and Labels …
Do that enough times a day, and you’re ready to tear your hair out, right?
One easier way to handle such common tasks is to add a button for that feature to your toolbar. Here’s how:
Click here to read more …
