Basic Word Skills for Legal Professionals
The skills you need to succeed in The New Legal Normal
Are you:
- An ex-WordPerfect user coming to Microsoft Word with some trepidation?
- A solo practitioner running your law practice sans assistant?
- A paralegal, legal assistant or other law office staff member who's being crushed under a heavy workload in the face of layoffs or hiring freezes?
Whether you've worked with Microsoft Word for a while or are brand new to it, it could seem as though Word is designed to be intimidating. All those buttons across the top and dialog boxes and menus ... what are you supposed to do with all that?
If you work in a law office, you probably spend a large percentage of your day sitting in front of a computer, and what time you don't spend sending emails is spent with Microsoft Word. After all, so much of legal practice involves creating and editing documents.
But just because you use something every day doesn’t mean you’re getting the most out of it. And with the way law practice is changing these days, you can’t afford to miss any opportunities to extract the maximum performance and productivity out of the tools you use every day.
Think about the last document you edited. How much time did you spend looking for certain features or struggling with the bad formatting that someone else put there?
Considering how much of your day is spent in front of Microsoft Word, and how important efficiency is becoming in law offices everywhere, doesn’t it make sense to learn how to use this tool well so that you can deal successfully with your ever-increasing workload?
Why most Word training is a waste of time
Oh, you’ve tried to learn Microsoft Word on your own. You took that all-day training class your firm offered, only to be so overwhelmed you forgot most of it by the time you got back to your desk.
Or, you bought a book. But you’re too busy actually working to read a manual. Or maybe you’ve searched for help online, only to find confusing and conflicting instructions.
You're not the problem - the training is
You see, traditional ways of learning how to use software set you up to fail. Classroom instruction dumps too much information on you all at once. Most software manuals are reference books for experienced users, not instructions for beginners.
And searching for help online? Forget it. Even a simple search brings back screen after screen of confusing (and often outright wrong) instructions.
Where can you get the help you really need?
You know you need to update your skills to do your job better. After all, it’s frustrating (and time-consuming) to struggle with even basic tasks in Microsoft Word. If only someone could take you by the hand and show you, step-by-step, how to make Microsoft Word do your bidding (and maybe even translate your WordPerfect tasks to Microsoft Word) . . .
I've been where you are
Hi, my name is Deborah Savadra (a.k.a. the Legal Office Guru). I’ve worked in and around law firms for over 20 years as a legal secretary, paralegal, and software trainer.
Like a lot of you, I started off with WordPerfect. Back when I began working in a law firm, WordPerfect was still in the DOS version. (Yes, I am that old!)
Geek that I am, I learned all sorts of ways to get the most out of WordPerfect. I had my “WordPerfect Function Key Claw” perfected, I programmed macros right and left, and when I wasn’t doing my own work, I was walking around helping the other staff with their WordPerfect challenges. I made WordPerfect sing!
But then came the day I left the legal field. In the “outside world,” they only used Microsoft Word. I was forced to adapt. I took classes, pored over software manuals, and generally figured it all out (often the hard way).
Fast forward a few years. After moving into software consulting and training, I found myself drawn back to working with law firms. And because I had so much Microsoft Word experience under my belt, I became the “go-to girl” for anyone still having trouble making the transition from WordPerfect (and trust me, a lot of folks are still struggling).
So I’ve seen (and heard) it all: the hair pulling, the fist pounding, and every other variation of “Word Rage.” I’ve been asked every question, seen every formatting foul-up, and performed major surgery on some seriously messed up Microsoft Word documents. (I’ve also stopped several people from throwing their computers out the window!)
I've made the leap to Word - and I can help you make it, too!
Of course, being the “Word expert-in-residence” in a law firm, I get a lot of the same questions over and over again. So, to keep from repeating myself, and to save a little time, I started a blog of Microsoft Office tutorials. That way, I could often refer people to a specific blog post (often with video) when they had a question. It made my expertise available when I wasn’t.
But blogs are, well, … disorganized by their very nature. What you need is a systematic, step-by-step way to learn Microsoft Word.
Here's what we'll cover in the course
I've started from the absolute beginning with this course, because:
1. I don't want to make any assumptions about what skill and knowledge level you're currently at; and
2. You'd be surprised how many time-saving tricks you can pick up by truly understanding how Word works from the ground up.
Your first lesson about the ribbon came in very handy when I had a formatting problem and spacing problem. By hitting the little arrow in the lower right corner on Indent and Spacing Section of the Page Layout tab, I discovered that the problem text was centered or justified (I don’t remember which) which caused a line with a few words to be spread out with wide gaps between each word. THANKS!
Tom
So here's exactly what you'll be learning in this course:
A complete tour of The Ribbon interface
I'll show you (in 6 lessons) some key things you'll need to know going forward in the course, such as what Microsoft calls certain Ribbon features (e.g., launcher arrows, etc.). Plus, how to hide/unhide the Ribbon, add commands to your Quick Access Toolbar, and navigate quickly through your document with the mouse or keyboard. We'll also cover the Backstage View, where you can not only print your documents but also set up Word to work with you rather than against you. (That's the goal, right?)
Working with Documents: The Basics
These 7 lessons will cover everything from starting with a blank document, beginning with a template, saving your document, opening existing documents, and basic typing and editing. (I wasn't kidding about starting from scratch!)
I'll also show you how to insert special characters like ¶ or § or ° (and even set up some shortcut keys for future use) and some tricks for copying/moving text around without messing up your existing formatting.
Formatting Basics
Here's where the rubber really meets the road for most Word (users (especially those coming from WordPerfect): formatting. Within these 8 lessons, we'll cover page formatting (portrait vs. landscape orientation, margins, etc.), paragraph formatting (justification, line spacing, etc.), and character formatting (font, size, italics/bold/underline, etc.). Plus, how to keep certain text on a particular page, how to insert and edit headers and footers, and how to put a watermark behind your text.
Footnotes & Endnotes
Inserting a footnote (or endnote) is pretty straightforward: go to the References tab and click Insert Footnote (or Insert Endnote). But then what? Within these 4 lessons, we'll cover troubleshooting long footnote formatting issues, reformatting the separator line and continuation message, working with converted WordPerfect footnotes, and using the Footnote Text and Footnote Number Styles to globally fix formatting so you'll never have to fix footnotes one-by-one ever again!
Tables & Columns
Sometimes, you have to arrange text side-by-side. For that, word has tables and columns. But which do you use when? I've got 12 lessons that will show you all the ins and outs of inserting and modifying tables; adding, deleting, splitting and merging table rows, columns &cells; changing table margins & borders; sorting rows and setting a header row to repeat on all pages, and converting text to table and vice versa. Plus, you'll also learn about configuring side-by-side columns, even in the middle of your document.
Finalizing Documents
Don't hit the Print button yet! You've still got to check spelling and grammar and use Word's Document Inspector to strip out any potentially compromising metadata before you send that document out. Then, you can print or PDF your document, plus produce any envelopes and labels you need for mailing. These 6 lessons will show you how.
Final Exam
Need to demonstrate your proficiency to an employer? The Basic Word Skills for Legal Professionals course ends with a graded final exam to test your knowledge of what's covered in the lessons. Take it as many times as you need to get a good score, then print your certificate for your personnel file!
Here's a behind-the-scenes tour of the course:
Is this course right for you?
No course is for everybody! Here's who I've found have the most to gain from my Basic Word Skills for Legal Professionals course, versus those who would not benefit from it.
This course is right for you if:
- You're a new or very basic Microsoft Word user who's not comfortable with basic document creation, editing and formatting.
- You're coming to Word from WordPerfect and need someone to "translate" essential features from WP to Word.
- You're a solo practitioner working without an assistant who needs to cut the amount of time you spend drafting or editing documents.
- You prefer to hand off document revisions to an assistant but would like to learn basic Word editing skills to cut turnaround time when your assistant's not available.
- You're a law firm staffer who is buried under an ever-increasing workload and looking for faster, better ways to produce documents.
This course is NOT right for you if:
- You're an intermediate-to-advanced Word user who's already fluent in document creation and formatting.
- You're looking to learn intermediate-level features such as Styles and Building Blocks (I have other courses covering those features).
- You're a lawyer or other billable law firm employee who is not okay with spending potentially billable time learning new skills.
100% MONEY BACK GUARANTEE
Take 10-15 minutes to go through one lesson each work day, and I guarantee you'll be working faster and smarter with Microsoft Word from now on. If you don't agree, I'll refund your money, no questions asked, so long as you request your refund within 60 days of purchase.
FAQ
Here are some answers to frequently-asked questions about my courses:
How do I get access to the course once I sign up?
Where do I log in?
How long do I have access to the course?
What if I don't like the course - can I get a refund?
Didn't find the answer you're looking for?
Why should I buy this course instead of signing up for a service like Lynda or Udemy?
Are the lessons downloadable?
Can I see an example lesson?
Do you cover the Mac versions of Word?
Bonus Section
Sign up for Basic Word Skills for Legal Professionals and you'll also get:
Fast Formatting Fixes Report
My 22-page illustrated tutorial (which includes links to demonstration videos you can view online anytime) shows you how to fix even the most frustrating formatting problems in your Word document so you can get back to work faster.
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Priority access to the instructor
Every lesson contains a feedback form that sends a message to me with a subject line that gets automatically flagged for immediate attention. Use it to ask questions, get clarification on the lesson, or give me feedback on how I can improve a lesson or the course in general!
Yes, I want to work better, faster and easier with Word!
Basic Word Skills PLUS Styles Course
Go beyond basic skills and get even more leverage with Word Styles
$
84.00
All of the Basic Word Skills PLUS:
Popular
Basic Word Skills for
Legal Professionals
Essential Word skills for anyone working in the legal field
$67.00
What you'll learn:
Basic Word Skills PLUS
Brief Builder's Workshop PLUS Pleading Paper
Basic Skills plus formatting tricks for briefs & other long documents
$
84.00
Everything in the Basic Word Skills course PLUS:
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