Control Excel page breaks with Page Break Preview
If you have an Excel spreadsheet you’d like to print but you don’t like where the page breaks are occurring naturally, using Page Break Preview is hands-down the easiest way to fix it. Here’s how.
Build reusable headers and footers in Microsoft Word
Some of the most frequently recycled text in legal documents is header and footer elements such as letter headers, Page X of Y page numbering schemes, continuation messages, etc. Don’t remake these every time! Make them once and save as a Quick Part so you can re-use with two clicks.
Quick Parts vs. AutoText
A reader emailed me with an example of how she was using AutoText to create form letters. While her template was a really ingenious use of AutoText (and clearly took a lot of work), I would say that a combination of Quick Parts and Content Controls would be a bit more user-friendly. Here’s how I put this together.
Change your brief’s base font in one step
Does your court require a specific font style or size for your briefs? There’s a right way and a wrong way to meet that requirement. Here, I’ll show you the most foolproof way to reset your brief’s default font.
Why won’t Word single-space my text?
One of the most frequent distress calls I get from Word users is, “Why won’t Word single-space my text?” If that’s what’s tripping you up, here’s what’s really happening.
Resetting table cell margins and text alignment
Need to give the text in your table a little breathing room? I’ll show you how to customize the interior margins, both for the table as a whole and for individual cells.
Show, hide or print tracked changes WITHOUT creating a new version
Word users often think they have to accept all the tracked changes in their redline to a new copy to see how the document would look in its final form (what I hear referred to as a “clean copy”). Not true! You can control whether the Track Changes markup shows on the page without altering the status of the marked changes. Here’s how.
3 ways to create a deposition summary in Word
So you’re creating a deposition summary where you list the page numbers to the left and the testimony description to the right (and maybe some other information on the right as well). How on earth do you format that? Here are three ways you can accomplish that.
Import contact lists into Outlook
Outlook contact groups can be a handy way to organize groups of recipients like a case’s email service list or an organization mailing list. If you don’t already have your proposed contact group’s email addresses in your Contacts folder, here’s a way to import them quickly.
How to schedule an outgoing Outlook email
What if you want to send an email but control the day and time it goes out of your Outbox? You can do that with Delay Delivery in the Outlook desktop client and the
How to copy Styles from one document to another
Does another Word document have Styles you wish you could use in your current document? Good news! You CAN copy Styles from one document to another. Here’s how.
7 Table Tricks You (Probably) Don’t Know
If you use tables in your Microsoft Word documents, you may not know about these 7 formatting and/or functional tricks for getting the most out of your tables. Plus, view a free sample lesson from the Tables section of my Basic Word Skills for Legal Professionals course.
The four dates you can embed in your Word documents
One of the most fun discoveries that new Microsoft Word users make is the self updating date. If you’ve already uncovered this, you know exactly what I’m talking about: you click a couple of times, and suddenly you’ve got today’s date embedded in your document, and it will update itself every time you open the document. But what if what you want isn’t necessarily today’s date? What if you need the document to reflect the date it was last saved, or printed, or created? The good news is, you can get any of those with a couple more mouse clicks and a little know-how.
How to hyperlink in a Word document
If you want to give a reader of your Word document or Outlook email the option to jump to another document, another place in the current document, a specific web page, or even start a new email to a certain email address, here’s how.
3 ways to print document excerpts
I’m willing to bet that, if you’re hitting the Print button, you’re wanting to print the entire document. But what if you just want a copy of a particular section or set of pages? Here are three ways to print a document excerpt.
Six Style Settings You Should Be Using
If you’re starting to use Styles to format your Word documents, you’re probably confused by all the settings you have to choose from. Here are six I recommend you use regularly.
Compare vs. Combine: What’s the difference?
I’ll admit it: I’m a fan of Track Changes. But some people just don’t want to use Track Changes. Whether they simply don’t know how to use it or they’re just plain wary of it, they usually just send you a revised version of whatever you sent them, leaving you to figure out exactly what they did. Or, they do use Track Changes, and now you have two or more redlines to review. Here’s how (and when) to use Compare Documents versus Combine Documents.
4 Digital Tools That Will Help Your Small Staff Run Like a Much Bigger Firm
Mastering Microsoft Word will take your legal firm a long way toward efficient document creation. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the ways technology can help your legal practice. Here are four tools your small firm can use to simplify processes, break out of the hourly billing trap, and improve both client service and your bottom line.
Inserting a highly-customized Table of Contents
Carol wanted an automatically-updating Table of Contents in her document. But she couldn’t use Styles (the preferred and easiest method) to populate it because of some formatting issues. I showed her how to use TC fields to get around those limitations, and now I’ll show you (with step-by-step video).
Hack TOC to create Points & Authorities
The one thing Microsoft Word’s notoriously WON’T do is a Points & Authorities format for a Table of Authorities. Or will it? We’ll explore in detail one Legal Office Guru reader’s creative solution to this problem and offer a sample file for you to practice her technique yourself.
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