Harris County Law Library
Microsoft Word for Legal Work
Join us tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. for a free Texas CLE called, “Microsoft Word for Legal Work.” This program is worth 1.0 of CLE, accredited by the State Bar of Texas. Register here.
Read more
Do you struggle to keep up with innovations in legal tech? Is a simplified media diet something you crave? Let the Harris County Law Library help you more efficiently track the latest trends in legal tech, while making the most of a powerful Microsoft Office product in the process. Learn to use more of the tools at your disposal, in an efficient and productive manner, to get the greatest benefit for yourself and your clients.
Most of us are unaware of the many features that make Microsoft Office products so versatile. Indeed, MS Office is the one-man band of software applications, but most of us do not play all — or even most — of its many instruments. For instance, did you know that Outlook comes equipped with its own RSS Folder? The RSS feed is not a new technology. This we acknowledge. However, using a content aggregator that’s already baked in to an application you access every day may just be novel (for a large number of Outlook users), and it’s smart!
Perhaps you already use an RSS feed to manage your media consumption, or perhaps you rely on Facebook and Twitter to get the scoop on what’s new in legal tech. Either way, you’re making an effort to consolidate your content. However, each of these information management solutions has its limitations. Social media feeds can be unreliable and full of distractions. News aggregators, such as Feedly and Flipboard (or the dearly departed Google Reader) can be terrific, but they must be accessed via individual apps. What if the updates on all the news sites you follow could be delivered directly to your Microsoft Outlook mailbox, allowing you to access your email and customized news feeds via one entry point? With a bit of tweaking, your wish can come true. Here’s how!
For more tips for the beginner, intermediate, and advanced user of MS Office, register to attend one of our CLE classes offered by the Law Library’s Legal Tech Institute. Microsoft Office applications are the focus of the following classes, which you can read about in the LTI Course Catalog.
Find and Format Legal Forms (Next Offered: November 14)
Microsoft Excel for Legal Work (Next offered: Deccember 5)
Microsoft Word for Legal Work (Next Offered: 2020)
Microsoft Word is a powerful tool with many features that never get fully utilized. The Harris County Law Library Legal Tech Institute offers a class called MS Word for Legal Work as part of our Hands-on Legal Tech Training Series. Please consult our online schedule to register for the next session of this class, which will be presented on Thursday, August 29, at 2:00 pm the Law Library’s Legal Tech Lab. As a preview of the types of features we demonstrate in the course, read on!
Use the Paste Special feature to Keep Source Formatting, Merge Formatting, or Keep Text Only.
Once you’ve copied a selection of text, you can simply type CTRL+V on you keyboard to paste it into your document. You can also click the Paste button in the Clipboard sub-ribbon, located on the Home tab. However, if your selected text is specially formatted and you wish to either retain that formatting in your pasted text or strip that formatting from your copied text, you can also use the Paste Special feature. This feature gives you the option to either Keep Source Formatting, Merge Formatting, or Keep Text Only.
The Format Painter allows you to easily copy the formatting features of one text selection onto another text selection. For example, the formatting characteristics of a section may display the text as 12 point Times New Roman font with bold, blue, italicized lettering. If you wish to apply these formatting characteristics to another section heading within your document, simply place your cursor in the source text, click on the Format Painter button on the Clipboard sub-ribbon, located on the Home tab. Your cursor will become a small paintbrush which you can them use to “paint” over the destination text, simply by highlighting it. The formatting features of the two section headings will now be identical.
The Clear All Formatting button, which is located on the Font sub-ribbon of the Home tab, acts as a text eraser, so perhaps that same 12 point Times New Roman font with bold, blue, italicized lettering needs to be stripped of all its embellishments. By simply placing your cursor within the text and clicking the Clear All Formatting button, you can return the selected text to its basic, plain, default format. It’s a quick and easy way to restore simplicity to your document and save you the trouble of manually changing each feature individually.
https://pixabay.com/vectors/speech-bubble-communication-speak-833379/
In order to better serve our visually impaired patrons, we at the Harris County Law Library recently explored our options for providing text-to-speech services. We were happy to discover three free tools: Otter, TTS Reader, and Microsoft Word. Each is described below.
Otter: Otter is more than just a text-to-speech application. Also included are a dictation feature and automatic, real-time transcription. The app and the basic plan, which offers 600 minutes of dictation per month, are free.
TTS Reader: Text To Speech Reader converts any text to spoken language. TTS will read your text in a natural voice. Choices include UK and US English in a male or female voice, in a range of reading speeds from Very Slow to Too Fast. Drag and drop files or paste content into the provided text box. TTS Reader will read aloud for you in whichever voice you select and at whichever speech you prefer.
Microsoft Word: The newest versions of MS Office (2016, 2019, and Office 365) include a Read Aloud feature, allowing you to listen to your document for better comprehension. Words will be highlighted simultaneously as they are being read. To use this feature, simply open Word, click Review tab > Read Aloud, or press Alt+Ctrl+Space on your keyboard. Click Play/Pause to start and stop the narration. Select Settings to change the reading speed.
If you are using MS Office 2013, there is another option for accessing the text-to-speech conversion feature. Follow the steps outlined here (and see image below) to turn this feature on in Word 2013.
Open Word
Click the “Customize Quick Access Toolbar” button which is located at the very top of your window above the Tabs (File, Home, Insert, Design, Layout, etc.) Select “More Commands”
On the “Choose Commands From:” dropdown menu, select “Commands Not in the Ribbon”
Scroll down to the “Speak” option, then click Add. Click Add when you are finished.
Now, highlight the text to be read aloud. Click the Speak Button, which looks like a small speech bubble, on the Quick Access Toolbar. Word will read your text. It’s that easy!
Due to popular demand, the Harris County Law Library Legal Tech Institute is proud to present its flagship hands-on training course tomorrow, August 30, at 2:00pm, in the dynamic setting of the County Attorney’s Office Conference Center. MS Word for Legal Work will be presented live by law librarians Elizabeth Bolles and Heather Holmes. Course participants will learn the ins and outs of America’s most popular word processing software. Key topics will include efile formatting, creating a tables of authorities, page and paragraph formatting, and protecting client data through simple metadata management. Each attendee will be provided a laptop for use during the class, and will receive personalized assistance. This session has been expanded so that law offices can send multiple attorneys and paralegals at once. Register through the Legal Tech Institute website.
What’s behind the name? “Ex Libris Juris” is Latin for “from the books of law” and much of the information here will relate to the legal information collected and curated by the Law Library. Additionally, “Ex Libris” has long appeared on bookplates – labels appearing inside the front cover of books – and has acquired the connoted meaning “from the library of” to show ownership of the book. Using this connotation, the phrase becomes “from the library of law” and better describes the posts about digital resources, event announcements, and research tips that will regularly appear here.
