Brief Formatting Tutorials
Getting ready to file a new legal brief? Here’s all the free and premium training on this site related to features like Table of Authorities, Table of Contents, and other brief formatting.
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From the blog
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…
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 Question: Forcing TOC entries to wrap at a specific point
I received a message from a reader earlier this week that went something like this: It IS kind of a complicated question, because the answer depends on which method he…
Table of Contents: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know
One of the things I’m on a rant about these days is loooooong documents. Complicated documents, like 20+ page contracts and appellate briefs and stuff like that. Why? Because they…
Does your Table of Contents need a do-over?
My friend Karen called me in a panic. “Bryan’s got this contract he’s editing [read: recycling] for a client. He’s added a new numbered paragraph, but it’s not showing up…
How NOT to count words in your Word document
Does your court require you to not only conform to word number requirements in your filings but to certify the number of words, either within the filing itself or in…
Why your headings don’t match your Table of Contents
While you can format your Heading Styles any way you want, that Style’s formatting doesn’t necessarily carry over to your Table of Contents. Here’s why.
How to autonumber exhibits with the SEQ field
A reader came to me recently with a dilemma: He needed to create a document that had lettered exhibits sprinkled throughout, in a format that looked like this:
The 6 Best Reasons to Use Styles
Once you get past the beginner level in Word, it’s tough to know what skills to master next. Here’s my suggestion: Styles. For my money, Styles can give you the…
Table of Authorities – The Ultimate Guide
From markup to insertion to fixing TOA formatting and entries, here’s a comprehensive guide to Table of Authorities in Microsoft Word.
7 Ways To Screw Up A Table of Authorities
Microsoft Word’s Table of Authorities feature isn’t exactly known for its user-friendliness. Nobody’s ever said the word “automagically” about it. And more than one enterprising software vendor has found a…
Reader Question: How to get footnote citations to show up in Table of Authorities
A reader contacted me recently with a real puzzler: What to do when a citation in a footnote doesn’t get picked up in the Table of Authorities. If you’re having…
How to recycle your [legal] briefs safely
What sort of evil stuff lurks in that text you just pasted over from your last magnum opus? And how’s it going to undermine your next court filing? Click the…
From the Comments: Cool TOA trick
Want your Table of Authorities entry to line-wrap at a specific point? A fellow Legal Office Guru reader shares her (fantastic) tip on how to accomplish that.
How to modify a Table of Contents in Microsoft Word
If your automatically-generated Table of Contents in Microsoft Word isn’t to your liking, you can fix it. From changing fonts to adjusting spacing and indentation, it’s all about modifying the…
Inserting a table of contents using styles
Building a Table of Contents in Microsoft Word is ridiculously easy if you use Styles to format your document headings. Here’s the quick-and-dirty tutorial on inserting an easy TOC…
Using sections to control page numbers, headers and footers
This is part two of a tutorial on how to control page numbers and page number formats using sections in Microsoft Word 2002-2003. Useful for changing page number styles…
Using Styles & Formatting
Got a brief or other long document? Ensure consistent formatting throughout with Microsoft Word’s Styles & Formatting feature.
Related video playlist
Brief formatting tips on YouTube
Here’s a playlist of my video tips on brief formatting published on YouTube (opens in a new window).