{"id":1333,"date":"2017-02-28T11:30:27","date_gmt":"2017-02-28T16:30:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/?p=454798"},"modified":"2017-02-28T11:30:27","modified_gmt":"2017-02-28T16:30:27","slug":"simple-changes-to-everyday-programs-to-help-lawyers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/2017\/02\/28\/simple-changes-to-everyday-programs-to-help-lawyers\/","title":{"rendered":"Simple Changes To Everyday Programs To Help Lawyers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-414067\" src=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/04\/scream-at-computer-legal-technology-tech-angry-upset-associate-woman-lawyer-300x198.jpg\" alt=\"scream at computer legal technology tech angry upset associate woman lawyer\" width=\"300\" height=\"198\" \/>We use these tools every day, but most of us still stumble and do things that are inefficient or clumsy. Here are some shortcuts and tips on how to use the most common law office software tools better.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Word<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A few months ago, I discussed <a href=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/2016\/07\/how-to-format-pleadings\/\" target=\"_blank\">how to make beautiful pleadings<\/a> and why it\u2019s important. Here are a few shortcuts. When you open Word, your default is not set to the local rules of court formatting. It\u2019s set to Calibri 11 point font (trivia: a point is 1\/72 of an inch. 72 point font is 1 inch printed out) and 1.08 line spacing. Those defaults are in stored in a template file. You can change that template file though to Times New Roman (or a significantly similar font) 12 point, double space\/exactly 24 space so your text lines up in your pleadings all the time. Here\u2019s how:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Open Word<\/li>\n<li>Go to C:Users[your user name]AppDataroamingmicrosofttemplates<\/li>\n<li>Find the Normal.dotm file<\/li>\n<li>Make changes as you see fit<\/li>\n<li>Save your changes<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>While you are in there, here are a few other things to do. Create styles for things you format most. At the tip of your screen, there\u2019s a section for styles. It\u2019s the key to having uniformly beautiful documents. Click the little drop-down arrow at the bottom right corner to open up the menu and create a new style.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-454800\" src=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/02\/styles-2-300x82.jpg\" alt=\"styles 2\" width=\"559\" height=\"153\" \/><\/p>\n<p>For example, you probably don\u2019t write your letters double-spaced, unless you are a 4<sup>th<\/sup> grader. You probably want your letters single spaced. So, create a style for letter text. Create a style for top level headings in your pleadings, sub headings, and maybe sub sub headings. Create a style for block quotes and pleading body text. Just create these styles, but don\u2019t worry about customizing them yet.<\/p>\n<p>Once you have them all created, now you can style them. Type some random text. Apply the formats you want. For example, for letter text, make it single space, but add some additional line spacing in between paragraphs. Once you have the font and spacing options you want, highlight the text you just formatted and from your style menu, right click on the style you created for letter text and choose \u201cUpdate [xx style] to match selection.\u201d That will customize your style to match the section you have highlighted.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-454801\" src=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/02\/styles-3-300x150.jpg\" alt=\"styles 3\" width=\"300\" height=\"150\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Do the same for block quotes (justified text, single space, maybe 10 point font), Heading 1 (Bold, Outline numbering with Roman numerals), Heading 2 (bold, outline numbering with capital letters), etc. until you have all of the formatting styles you want.<\/p>\n<p>Now, when you are typing a document, be it a letter or a pleading, you can format the document easily and uniformly with just a few clicks. It\u2019s important to note that the table of contents feature in Word only works if you use heading styles. You can\u2019t just type some words and bold them and put a Roman numeral in front of it. You have to use styles or it won\u2019t show up in the table of contents.<\/p>\n<p><strong>PowerPoint<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Let me blow your mind a little bit. PowerPoint is a fantastic presentation tool. It\u2019s just that no one knows how to use it right because we all use it in the way Microsoft intended us to use it. Confused? Whenever you create a new slide in PowerPoint, it gives you the following format:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-454802\" src=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/02\/ppt-300x171.jpg\" alt=\"ppt\" width=\"535\" height=\"305\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Title at the top, then a text box below for you to add your bullet points to drive it home. Here\u2019s what you do.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>For every slide, click on the dotted-line boundary of the title box. Your cursor will turn into a four arrow star and the box will have a solid line around it instead of dotted lines.<\/li>\n<li>Press Delete<\/li>\n<li>Do the same for the text box on the bottom with bullet points.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Your slide is now a blank canvas. This is what you want. You can insert text boxes or graphics into your slides, but don\u2019t stick to the format of \u201ctitle followed by bullet point list\u201d because it is almost always the worst format for an engaging presentation. Instead, think about putting full-screen pictures with one or two words on a slide, or maybe use the insert shapes button to draw a simple timeline. Sticking to the original script is an absolute sure way to bore your audience.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Adobe<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The last hint is super simple. In adobe, Go to the Edit menu and drop down to Preferences. From there, click on General from the selection on the left and choose \u201csingle-key accelerators.\u201d This lets you use shortcut keys. This is particularly helpful if you are using Adobe in<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-454803\" src=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/02\/adobe-300x127.jpg\" alt=\"adobe\" width=\"619\" height=\"262\" \/><\/p>\n<p>This lets you use shortcut keys. This is particularly helpful if you are using Adobe in trial. Now, just press the \u201cZ\u201d key and you have the zoom tool. Press the \u201cU\u201d key to choose your highlighter. So, you can zoom in on a portion of a document and highlight it without having to fuss around in the menus and finding the right tool.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Just the Beginning<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ll post some more tips later in a part 2. In the meantime, let me know if there are any tips or shortcuts that you use in your practice.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong><em>Jeff Bennion is a solo practitioner at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jbennionlaw.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Law Office of Jeff Bennion<\/a>. He serves as a member of the Board of Directors of San Diego\u2019s plaintiffs\u2019 trial lawyers association,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.casd.org\/index.cfm?\" target=\"_blank\">Consumer Attorneys of San Diego<\/a>. He is also the Education Chair and Executive Committee member of the State Bar of California\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/lpmt.calbar.ca.gov\/LPMT\/ExecutiveCommittee.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">Law Practice Management and Technology <\/a>section. He is a member of the Advisory Council and instructor at UCSD\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/extension.ucsd.edu\/programs\/index.cfm?vAction=certDetail&amp;vCertificateID=211&amp;vStudyAreaID=111\" target=\"_blank\">Litigation Technology Management<\/a>\u00a0program. His opinions are his own. Follow him on Twitter\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jbennionlaw\">here<\/a>\u00a0or on Facebook\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jbennionlaw\">here<\/a>, or contact him by email at\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:jeff@trial.technology\">jeff@trial.technology<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p class=\"summary\">Some shortcuts and tips on how to use the most common law office software tools better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":629,"featured_media":414067,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[1039,346,1621,7,1622],"class_list":["post-1333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-adobe","tag-jeff-bennion","tag-powerpoint","tag-technology","tag-word"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Simple Changes To Everyday Programs To Help Lawyers - 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He serves as a member of the Board of Directors of San Diego\u2019s plaintiffs\u2019 trial lawyers association,\u00a0Consumer Attorneys of San Diego. He is also the Education Chair and Executive Committee member of the State Bar of California\u2019s\u00a0Law Practice Management and Technology section. He is a member of the Advisory Council and instructor at UCSD\u2019s\u00a0Litigation Technology Management\u00a0program. His opinions are his own. 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He serves as a member of the Board of Directors of San Diego\u2019s plaintiffs\u2019 trial lawyers association,\u00a0Consumer Attorneys of San Diego. He is also the Education Chair and Executive Committee member of the State Bar of California\u2019s\u00a0Law Practice Management and Technology section. He is a member of the Advisory Council and instructor at UCSD\u2019s\u00a0Litigation Technology Management\u00a0program. His opinions are his own. Follow him on Twitter\u00a0here\u00a0or on Facebook\u00a0here, or contact him by email at\u00a0jeff@trial.technology.","url":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/author\/jeffbennion\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/629"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1333\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}