Do you work in an office in which attorneys are unaware of the enormous workflow stoppages they unwittingly create in their wake? This will be the first in a series of articles in which I tackle some “big picture” problems like this one which plague offices large and small.
The lifeblood of a law firm is producing documents. Those of us in the technology field know that attorneys will reach out to tech support the very moment their ability to produce documents is hampered in any way. Whether by eMail, snail mail, or courier service, making sure those original, executed contracts get certified by end-of-business today is paramount. Attorneys could help themselves and everyone they work with by becoming more familiar with document production software instead of bragging that they know Microsoft Word© “just enough to be dangerous.”
Many concepts in word processing software are easily understood and, once you apply them, can save your team hours of effort and frustration. Read on for a brief lesson in the easiest way(s) to prevent problems with your documents.
Copy At Your Own Risk
Taking excerpts from outside documents (a “source document”) and bringing them into firm documents (your “destination document”)—or even taking excerpts from internal documents—can wreak havoc unknowingly. If you learn how to modify just a few habits you can stop creating major headaches for your staff.
When you copy paragraphs (or even just some text) from a document or a website (or even a text-ready PDF), you are copying more than just the words. You are copying formatting information for the text and the paragraph in which it resides, and this may unintentionally over-write settings in your destination document. There’s no need to change the way you copy text from a source document, but inserting or pasting the text into your destination document should be considered a precarious proposition.
Paste It “Special”
Pasting the copied text should always be done using a special process. If you just dump it in, it will dump more than you intend. A best practice is to navigate to your destination document and place your cursor in the location you want the text to be inserted, but instead of using keystrokes (like “Ctrl + V”) or a right-click menu to paste the text, use the drop-down menus on your toolbar. Under the “Edit” menu, select something called “Paste Special” or “Alternate Paste,” which often has an indicator (like an ellipsis…) to show that there will be more choices to come.
In the pasting options window which opens next, choose anything which includes the word “unformatted.” Accept your choices and paste the “source” text by clicking “OK.”
This tip is especially important when pasting entire paragraphs because bringing external paragraph formatting (or Styles, covered in a upcoming Tech Tip) into destination documents can also bring major problems, like unwanted changes to your paragraph numbering.
Inserting text using this method will allow the new unformatted text (from a source document) to pick up the old default formatting from its surrounding text (your destination document), which is what everybody wants. As an added bonus, the document will not become unwieldy going forward.
Why Bother?
It’s true that pasting text or paragraphs using these recommended steps may take a little longer, but after you familiarize yourself with the menu locations and selections, you’ll soon become expert (using keystrokes can make the process almost as fast as the old way).
It’s worth taking the time to master this new technique because:
- word processing professionals will gain countless hours of productive time previously wasted re-formatting documents
- your document is more likely to remain stable and bug-free
- your paragraphs will be numbered the way you intend
- your document will look the way you want it to
Insert Numbered Paragraphs Using A Special Feature
Now that you know how to help keep your document squeaky clean, here’s a bonus tip to thank you for reading this far. Whenever you’re appending text by typing it in directly or adding space in which to paste text, use caution, especially with numbered paragraphs. A best practice is to click into the existing paragraph directly above your insertion, but at the end of the paragraph, after the last period. Hit enter to get an additional paragraph, but if the paragraph numbering is wrong, don’t try to fix it. Just insert three asterisks (***), or some such symbol that your word processing professionals can easily find, and let them adjust the numbering scheme.
Avoid trying to fix the paragraph’s auto numbering (when you cannot select the numeric characters, they appear on the page automatically) or trying to turn off the auto numbering so that you can input the number manually (when you can select the characters). It’s best to leave the auto numbering alone, even though it’s wrong, and input manually the correct number beside it. Adding repeated symbols (***) will alert your secretary who can correct the auto numbering for you.
Exercising caution when working with numbering or when pasting content is worth the investment. Make these techniques a part of your routine and the members of your team will appreciate your efforts to keep documents clean and well-functioning.
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