When I decided to work with remote clients,  I figured I’d have to know something about computers.  And so I started with what I thought was the beginning; Microsoft Word.

I took training courses, read books and blogs, and played around for hours that now amount to days.  In all that time, one thing stands out as the most important, one thing that can radically alter how Word helps get work done. 

That one thing is understanding and formating your documents using Styles. 

This video is a good overview of styles.  I shot this video using Microsoft Word on a Mac but the exact same principles apply to the PC version.  Learning to format with Styles is worth far more than the time it takes.

• Watch the Rest of The Making Office Letterhead Video Series Here
• Check out Styles at Microsoft
• Legal writing: make yourself understood by making your writing easier to read by Sam Glover (summarizing the 7th Circuit's writing tips and describes learning styles, as the most important tip.)
• For comprehensive computer training I recommend lynda.com

Continue Reading...

To create documents many of us use Microsoft Word and to work with digital documents we use Acrobat.  Those two programs together with the features of the operating system is often all we need to do most things in a law office.  

Of all the things I have learned about computers and the web, this topic is perhaps the most important.  Styles gives complete control over the way documents look, allow simultaneous formatting throughout an entire document, and how Word creates tables of contents in seconds.  This movie is the first video in the Paperless Express Step 2.1 Making Office Letterhead which includes a video on tables of contents as well.

Continue Reading...

Some documents, e.g. anything submitted to a court, requires text, e.g. the the descriptive captions, that can be very difficult to format with spaces, return, and tab. Text boxes solve the problem very easily. A text box operates independent of the rest of the document so you can drag it around, put it where you like and have your papers look exactly how you like.  Word 2007 has a number of decorative text boxes that can be useful for letterhead or marketing materials but the "Draw text box" function from the insert menu is the basic item useful for pleadings...

Continue Reading...