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.
Once you’ve gotten beyond the basics of Microsoft Word formatting, you’re ready for more advanced features. Here are two 17-second videos that prove Word can help you become a lot more productive.
During a recent interview, legal technology expert Dennis Kennedy was aghast at the continuing resistance of lawyers to even basic document assembly. Here’s an excerpt of that interview, including his suggestions for where lawyers should start.
Word makes some formatting decisions behind the scenes, some of which (in my experience) tend to get in your way while you work. Here are 5 options you’ll want to re-set in Microsoft Word for a smoother word processing experience.
In response to a prior post, one reader expressed one of her biggest frustrations with the Normal template: it’s hard to get changes to “stick” permanently. If you’re tired of continually resetting margins, fonts and paragraph spacing, here’s help.
If every document you draft starts with either a completely blank page or the last version of whatever you’re drafting, you’re missing out on the power of custom templates. Click the title above to see the essential elements of a custom pleading template, plus find out what digging in your sock drawer has in common with working in Microsoft Word.
Want to do things faster in Microsoft Word? These four time-saving features are where you will get the most bang for your buck. Learning these will shave time off daily repetitive tasks, making you more efficient (and maybe even helping you get out of the office earlier!). Click the link below to find out more about how these features can make you more efficient.
If you completed the first unit in this course, you know that there are two basic formats of Pleading Paper: Armed with this knowledge (and your familiarity with your court’s particular requirements), you’ve chosen which template to start with. But it needs adjusting, doesn’t it? So here in Part 2, I’m going to show you…
I’ve gotten a fair number of questions from readers about how to format pleadings with line numbers down the left, commonly known as Pleading Paper. Typically, they sound something like this:
“My text never quite lines up exactly with the numbers on the pleading paper. What’s the trick??”
“PLEASE work on the pleadings template! I’m sure I and many others would pay bonuses for your guidance.”
“Pleading paper instructions would be fantastic! I mostly work in California state and federal courts, and our office just reuses old documents to keep the pleading paper formatting. Unfortunately this brings along a host of other formatting issues, and while I’d love to be able to start from scratch I don’t know how. Any help you could give would be terrific, thank you!!”
“I am not sure of the technical name for it, but years ago law firms had stationery with double lines on left side of a page and one line on the right. I know Word can duplicate it, but I don’t how to add them or what it is called. I will try the [pleading paper] template, but is there a way to remove the page numbering on the side?”
“I wish WORD was like WordPerfect in that we could just add the pleading format into the document after the document is completed. Anyway, if you could help me figure this out it would be great. I recently added [a plug-in] to Word/Office which provides a host of automated functions, like cite checking, quote check, and table of authorities, which would make finalizing a brief a breeze. However, if I can’t get out of the WordPerfect format for my brief writing, I don’t see where all these extra functions will benefit me.”
Okay, okay, I get it, I get it! Clearly, my standard reply (which I used so often that I actually created an entry in Quick Parts in Outlook for it) isn’t getting the job done. So, while I would love to create a custom template (like I did for that last person above) for each and every one of you, there just aren’t enough hours in the day!
So, in lieu of becoming a template factory, I’m going to show you how to make some common adjustments to those musty old Microsoft templates (either the 25-line one or the 28-line one) all by yourself. And if you don’t see your particular question addressed in this series, by all means leave it in the comments at the bottom, and I’ll add the answer.
A Legal Office Guru reader wrote in, asking for help with some forms she’d been asked to create to . “Is there a way to autopopulate a field?” she asked. “I’d like it to work similar to Adobe [Acrobat], where if you give the fields the same name, the text in one will automatically fill up in all of the others. I’ve read something about making each field an REF field, but I don’t understand how to do it, and I’ve tried tons of Google search results. Can you help?”
To achieve that Adobe-like effect, I’d choose Word’s Bookmarks feature. Click the “Read More” link below for the full illustrated tutorial.
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