Carol’s Corner Office Blog

Any legal secretary will tell you how tedious it can be to continually type in Interrogatory No. 1 or Response 1, and so on through thirty or more Interrogatories or Requests for Production of Documents. If you work in a larger firm that has a document assembly package in place or one that employs a scanner it makes your life a lot easier when it comes to this task. But for the small, boutique firm or solo practice it can still be a pain.

This is where AutoText comes in handy in MS Word. You can combine AutoText with another feature called AutoNumbering to make this whole process go a lot more smoothly for you with way less keystrokes and a lot less time. You can make the phrase an AutoText entry. The key to doing this is to enter the required number using a Field.

Follow the steps below to learn how:

1. Type the phrase you are going to use (i.e. Interrogatory No.), including the and bold attributes.
2. Click on Insert | Field.
3. Use the drop-down list under Categories and select Numbering.
4. The Field name you want is AutoNumLgl.
5. The Field properties is 1, 2, 3…
6. Check the Field Option for Display number in legal format without a trailing period.
7. Click OK.

Don’t forget to turn off the underlining and bolding attributes before you type in the colon!

Now, Select the entire phrase and Add it as an AutoText thusly:

1. Click on Insert | AutoText  New or use the shortcut Alt + F3.
2. This will open the AutoText dialog box.
3. 
4. Click Show Autocomplete Suggestions.
5. Under AutoText Entries, key in Inte or something that will be intuitive for you.
6. Click OK.

You can now start keying in the Word Interrogatory and tap the Enter key and keep right on on going!

Makes like a lot simpler doesn’t it?

We have all received e-mail at one time or another that has a list of fifty or so addresses of a group that we belong to and there may come a time when you have to send an e-mail to all of those folks as well, but you don’t know how to create the distribution list without tediously keying in all fifty or so addresses.

The good news is that there is a quick and easy way to accomplish this task!

Follow the steps below to learn how:

      Select and copy list of e-mail addresses.

      Open your Contacts folder.

      Click on File | New | Distribution List.

      Click on Select Members.

      In the Name of Distribution List box, key in a name that is intuitive for you for this group.

      Click on Select Members.

      The Select Members dialog box will open.

      At the bottom, where it says Add to Distribution List, you will notice a box that says Members.

      Click in the box and paste your list.

      Click OK.

      Click Save and Close.

It doesn’t get much easier than this!

If you are employed by a a law office there are times when you need to create a Table of Authorities for a pleading, such as an Amicus Brief. A Table of Authorities is used to to cite references to cases, statutes, etc. referenced in your pleading.

MS Word has the ability to quickly and easily create your Table of Authorities for you. All you have to do is mark the citations within your document and then tell MS Word to create your Table for you.

Follow the steps below to create your Table of Authorities:

1. Select the long, full citation that you would like to use.
2. Click on SHIFT + ALT + I, which will cause the Mark Citation dialog box to appear.
3. Make any formatting changes that you like to the text in the Selected Text box.
4. Use the drop-down Category list to select the category to which the citation belongs.
5. In the Short Citation box, edit the text to reflect the short version of the citation.
6. Click on Mark to mark the instant citation or Mark All to search your document and mark all instances.
7. Click on Cancel or Close.

Now all you have to do is click on the designated page for your TOA and click on Insert | Reference | Tables and Indexes and select Table of Authorities.

That’s it! You are finished.  Pretty cool isn’t it?  Most secretaries blanch at the thought of creating an automatic TOA but it is really quite simple.

This tip is for MS Word version 2003