29 Wednesday Jun 2016
Posted in Legal Technology, Microsoft Office, Word
≈ Comments Off on Word Domination.
Dear Lawyers: It’s Not Word, It’s You, by Barron Henley, Lawyerist.com Blog
Here are two important facts about Microsoft Word:
Fact 1: 100% of the formatting problems you’ve experienced when drafting new documents can be completely avoided before they occur.
Fact 2: When editing a document someone else drafted, any formatting glitches can be resolved in just a few clicks, no matter how bad of a mess it is.
Unfortunately, the foregoing facts are true only if you have mastered Word.
13 Sunday Dec 2015
Posted in Brief Writing, Legal Writing, Table of Authorities
≈ Comments Off on How to Use Word’s Styles to Create A Brief’s Table of Contents.
Word Styles: Automating a Table of Contents, by Vivian Manning, Attorney at Work Blog
http://www.attorneyatwork.com/word-styles-automating-table-of-contents/
In her latest ‘Power User’ series, Vivian Manning has been showing how to use Microsoft Word Styles to produce documents much more efficiently. In her last column, she showed how Heading Styles can be used to structure and even reorganize documents. This time, she shows how to use Heading Styles to automate your tables of contents. No more retyping page numbers!
31 Monday Aug 2015
Posted in Legal Technology, Microsoft Office, Word
≈ Comments Off on One-Click Microsoft Word Macros.
Word Macros: Three Examples To Automate Your Documents, by J.D. Sartain, Max Productivity, PC World
Word macros are one-click wonders that let you program complex procedures to launch at your bidding. Here are a few examples to get you started. One creates your company letterhead; the second one inserts pre-formatted tables; and the third one defines and designs custom book formats. . . .
16 Saturday May 2015
Posted in Editing, Legal Writing, Readability
≈ Comments Off on The Rule of Short.
Manage Your Sentence Length, by Wayne Scheiss, Legible Blog from Legalwriting.net
http://sites.utexas.edu/legalwriting/2015/04/29/manage-your-sentence-length-2/
“The shorter the sentence, the easier it is to understand.” Practical Legal Writing for Legal Assistants. -CCE
What’s a good average sentence length for legal writing?
I once asked a group of lawyers at a CLE seminar that question. ‘Thirteen words,’ one lawyer volunteered. ‘Seven,’ said another. Wow. Writing about legal matters with an average of seven words per sentence isn’t realistic, is it? That means for every sentence of ten words, you’ve got to write one of four words to bring the average to seven. That would be tough.
But the instinct is right. Steven Stark, author of Writing to Win, says the more complex the material, the shorter the sentences should be. So what’s a more realistic goal? The experts say between 20 and 25 words:
- below 25—Wydick in Plain English for Lawyers
- about 22—Enquist & Oates in Just Writing: Grammar, Punctuation, and Style for the Legal Writer
- about 20—Garner in Legal Writing in Plain EnglishHow do you know your average sentence length?
You can program Microsoft Word to tell you. . . .
21 Saturday Mar 2015
Posted in Bates Numbering, Discovery, Document Control, Interrogatories, Requests for Admissions, Requests for Production
≈ Comments Off on Another Way To Number Discovery Documents With Microsoft Word.
Tags
Auto-Numbering, Bates Numbering, Discovery, Document Control, Interrogatories, Matt Albrecht, Microsoft Word, Remedial Action Law Blog, Request for Production of Documents, Requests for Admission
Making Numbering Interrogatories and Requests for Production/Admission Easy (with Video), by Matt Albrecht, Remedial Action Law Blog (with hat tip to Sam Glover, Lawyerist Blog, and Patricia Lyons)
Not surprisingly, Pat Lyons, RP, from Rhode Island, one of the sharpest paralegals I’ve ever met, knows a neat trick. Thanks, Pat! -CCE
Numbering requests for production and requests for admission is something that legal secretaries and attorneys loathe. It’s something that systems administrators loathe to see take so long to do. It’s an error-prone process that occasionally results in mis-numbering and confusion, and when mistakes occur, it just looks bad.
Microsoft Word has auto-numbering features that can make things like this easier. One way that we use auto-numbering is for legal-style numbered paragraphs. Properly applied to Styles in Word, numbered paragraphs are easy, automatic, and they update themselves. We use multilevel lists to accomplish numbered paragraphs, and it works wonderfully. . . .
28 Saturday Jun 2014
Posted in Bad Legal Writing, Brief Writing, Editing, Legal Writing, Legalese, Microsoft Office, Plain Language, Proofreading, Word
≈ Comments Off on Checked Your Readability Score Lately?
Tags
Above the Law (blog), Bad Legal Writing, Editing, Legal Writing, Mark Herrmann, Microsoft Word, Readabilty Score, Steve Dykstra
Expose Your Weakness — Now! by Mark Herrmann, Above the Law Blog
http://abovethelaw.com/2014/06/expose-your-weakness-now/
Think you can write? Do these four things.
First, pull out the last brief that you wrote.
Not that one — that’s the final version, edited by guys who could write. We’re looking for your work, untouched by others. Find the unedited draft that you first circulated. (If you don’t have a draft brief handy, that’s okay. Find the last long email that you sent to someone who matters — to the partner, the client, the general counsel, or the CEO.)
Second, click through this link, which will tell you how to enable Microsoft Word’s ‘readability’ feature on your computer. Enable that feature.
Third, let the readability feature score your work.
Finally, take a handkerchief and wipe the spit out of your eye. (I bet you didn’t realize that a computer could spit in your eye.)
You didn’t notice the spit? Here it comes: Compare your readability score to the average readability score for the works of bestselling authors.
I didn’t even know about Microsoft’s readability feature until I published a column on legal writing last month. I argued in favor of using short sentences and the active voice. A reader — Steve Dykstra, who’s a legal recruiter and budding novelist in Toronto — promptly sent me an enlightening email. Steve also subjected my work — my column on legal writing — to Microsoft Word’s readability test. Steve then told me how my column compared to the work of bestselling authors. . . .
19 Monday May 2014
Posted in Apps, iPad, iPhones, Legal Technology, Legal Writing, Microsoft Office, Word
≈ Comments Off on Reviewer 7 App — Microsoft Documents On iPad.
Review: Reviewer 7 — Review And Edit Microsoft Word Documents, by Jeff Richardson, iPhone J.D. Blog
For many years, there was no one, best way to review and edit Microsoft Word documents on an iPad, but there were lots of apps that could be used for the task, each with their own strengths and limitations. The landscape changed in March of 2014 when Microsoft introduced the Word for iPad app – a powerful app that can handle almost everything that you would want to do with a Word document on an iPad. Ever since then, I have wondered about the future of the other apps that handle Word documents. Some apps may be abandoned, but my hope is that others will find ways to distinguish themselves from Microsoft’s app.
That’s exactly what has happened with the new Reviewer 7 app. This a new name for an updated version of an app that used to be called Reader 7, and I reviewed it this past February. Reader 7 was created by German attorney Maren Reuter and her husband, who is a software designer, and I thought when I reviewed it that it was one of the very best apps for reading Word files on an iPad. The app’s name was changed because while it is still an excellent viewer, you can now get the app for free and spend $1.99 for the in-app Review Tools upgrade and then the app will let you create redline edits in a Word document. . . .
01 Saturday Feb 2014
Posted in Apple, Apps, iPad, iPhones, Legal Technology, Mac, Microsoft Office, Trial Tips and Techniques
≈ Comments Off on iPhone J.D.’s Latest.
Tags
Apple, Apps, Clifford Agocs, CourtDial, Daring Fireball, iPads, iPhone, iPhone J.D. Blog, Jeff Richardson, John Gruber, Joseph Hada, Legal Technology, Mary Der-Parseghian, Microsoft Word, Morgan Smith, Randy Singer, Shane Cole, Starwood, Trial Tips & Techniques, WiFi Zone
In the news, by Jeff Richardson, iPhone J.D. Blog
http://www.iphonejd.com/iphone_jd/2014/01/in-the-news230.html
As always, Jeff Richardson serves up a great collection for iPhone and iPad users:
06 Friday Dec 2013
Posted in Adobe Acrobat, E-Discovery, Federal District Court Rules, Legal Technology, Metadata, Native Format, Requests for Production, Trial Tips and Techniques, Word
≈ Comments Off on Was It Appropriate to Produce Word Documents as PDF Files?
Tags
.pdf, Bow Tie Law Blog, E-Discovery, Joshua Gilliland, Magistrate Judge William Hussmann, Microsoft Word, Native Files, Request for Production
Who Knew What When About the Form of Production, by Joshua Gilliland, Esq., Bow Tie Law Blog
http://bowtielaw.wordpress.com/2013/12/06/who-knew-what-when-about-the-form-of-production/
Magistrate Judge William Hussmann put a new spin on form of production analysis in Crissen v. Gupta: What form was discovery in and when was it in that form?
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