Three Underutilized Text Editing Features in Microsoft Word

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!

Paste Special

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.

Format Painter

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.

Clear All Formatting

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.

LTI CLE: Legal Tech is Not Optional

The Harris County Law Library’s Legal Tech Institute is pleased to announce a special visitor, D. Casey Flaherty, a recognized leader in legal tech innovation and the creator of the Procertas legal tech audit. Please join us on Monday, August 19 and 11:00 am for a CLE presentation called Legal Tech is not optional. Mr. Flaherty will share his insights about using technology in the practice of law and will highlight how the Procertas Legal Tech Assessment, which is available to all for free at the Harris County Law Library, can help attorneys work toward legal tech competence. Texas attorneys will earn one hour of CLE credit and .5 hours of ethics credit for attending. Join us!

Text-to-Speech Options

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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!

Harris County Attorney Ryan unveils Digital Education Nook at Law Library

The Law Library was pleased to welcome Harris County Attorney Vince Ryan to unveil the latest addition to our digital outreach initiatives —the Digital Education Nook. We were also joined by Gabe Baker, Community Outreach Specialist for the Office of Lina Hidalgo, Harris County Judge, to introduce the Law Library’s latest effort to promote digital inclusion.

“The Digital Education Nook is a section in the Law Library where visitors can sit down and watch on-demand video content,” said County Attorney Ryan.  “These videos cover a wide range of topics relevant to both the general public and to practicing attorneys.”

With content like a self-help collection, which is made available in collaboration with the Texas Office of Court Administration, self-represented litigants in Harris County can now have access to short tutorials on legal processes, such as “How to file a case?” and “How to appear in court?”, regardless of their ability to afford computer equipment or pay for home broadband or mobile data plans.

Attorneys can watch, learn, and earn Texas continuing legal education credit for free via videos of experts who visit to share their knowledge at live programs in the Harris County Attorney Conference Center.  The programs are recorded and then made available for viewing through the Digital Education Nook.

“We’ve found that recent graduates still struggling with student loan debt and small firm attorneys without a big budget benefit tremendously from the free opportunities to stay up-to-date with the latest technology,” said Sears. “Since these are the folks who frequently serve individuals who might otherwise have to represent themselves, we try to focus on expanding training opportunities for small firm attorneys.”

See the Harris County Attorney’s Office press release to learn more and visit the Law Library’s webpage for details about the Digital Education Nook.

Google, Privacy, and You

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The subject of a recent opinion piece in the New York Times discusses the “privacy paradox,” a sort of cognitive dissonance that compels us to share information about ourselves on every available platform while simultaneously cursing the technology that makes our compulsive sharing habits so addictive. That paradox can have wide-ranging implications for the legal community, which now has an ethical obligation to “remain competent in the practice of law, including the benefits and risks associated with relevant technology.” The ubiquity of Google makes it necessary for lawyers to understand the impact it can have on the clients being served. For example, when Google periodically pings your device to track your location even when your device-location feature is turned off , it might implicate jurisdictionally-specific privacy rights or contract law, as a recent investigation by the attorney general of Arizona suggests.

Mapping a device’s location is only one tracking method commonly employed by prominent tech companies. Google tracks you in all sorts of ways through apps, it’s Chrome browser, and more. The information is used to facilitate marketing efforts, including sales to third-party marketing firms, and to integrate your online experience. A recent New York Times op-ed by Google’s CEO provides the company’s view on protecting data privacy while using the data collected to create a more customized economy. At its annual developer conference just weeks ago, Google reinforced its commitment to privacy with the launch of two new efforts — better cookie controls and guards against fingerprinting. Additional trust-building measures are likely in the works (including security features in the redesign of Gmail), especially as increasing numbers of users defect from Google to alternative browsers like Brave and Vivaldi.

The takeaway for legal professionals: Follow news about Google and keep reminding clients who find themselves in a privacy paradox about how information is used in the information economy.