Becoming A Word Legal Expert 2

[jbl1167]

I want to become a Word Processor Operator. I have experience working as a legal support analyst and as a programmer. I need to get a very high level of Word proficiency and learn the legal formats. Do you have and idea of books or internet resources that can help me to get these?

Thank you

 

[eyec]

one resource should be

http://practice.findlaw.com/

as for learning Word in a legal field; first learn Word either thru the Dummy Series, college courses, and lots of hands on.

good luck

 

[fumei]

PayneConsulting publishes a book Word 2003 For Law Firms. Also 2002. I notice that they have in fact sold oud! They are only offering a PDF of it now. That is impressive. A book sell out.

Nevertheless, eyec is correct. You need to know Word itself. A "very high level of proficiency" is just that, regardless of any specialities like legal documents.

Hint: for efficiency in ANY formal design structure (as legal documents are), learn to design, configure, and USE Styles. Styles are the true power behind Word.

faq219-2884

Gerry
My paintings and sculpture

 

[dodomcsc]

jbl1167,

I agree wholeheartedly with Gerry and eyec. Learn Word....AND learn Styles.

Gerry mentions Payne Consulting, and he is SOOOOOOO right! I had VBA training through Payne Consulting back in the late 90s (forgotten more than I learned from not using it much....lol) and I attended an informational seminar hosted by Donna Payne about a year before Office 2003 was rolled out.

Donna Payne is a HOOT!!!!!! She reminded me of a hippy from the 60s (not that I'm that far off from being the same).

She, and her staff, are EXTREMELY knowledgeable on utilizing Word for legal settings and their books are excellent!

Also excellent from Payne are their programs: Metadata Assistant, Bates Lable Assistant and for legal numbering, their Numbering Assistant.

The law firm I used to work for as a Help Desk Analyst rolled out all three of those product firmwide (1500 + users at the time....a big law firm), and the secretaries....and everyone loved the numbering assistant. It is style based and wonderfully 'tweak-able'.

But those 'helpers' are no substitute for knowing the inside and out of numbering and styles. Microsoft based the whole idea of Styles on the fact that you should only have to do the 'formatting' of the document once and then use those styles to apply that formatting.

Prior to Microsoft utilizing Styles most people used something like WordPerfect 5.1 (for DOS....GREAT program for functionality in any word processing scenario). WordPefect was, and still is, known for it's Reveal Codes. This allowed you to place formatting exactly where you wanted it...you want bolding, you turned it on before the word you wanted bolding and then turned it off aftewards and you could actually see the coding of how that worked.

The problem with that method (Wordperfect's) was because of how that coding was actually used. It is all dependent on print drivers. In Wordperfect, especially the older versions, you had to have a specific WordPerfect driver for the printer you were printing to. Why? Because those 'code's used in WordPerfect were what was used to send a signal to the printer in the printer's language to turn on/off formatting. Like the above example, when you turned on the code for bolding, that sent a signal to the printer to turn on the printer's bolding and then when the document turned off the bold code, the signal was sent to the printer in the printer's language to turn off the bolding. An efficient way of formatting on the fly (but you DID have to remember to turn off formatting!!!!), but totally dependent on the fact that WordPerfect programmers had to have the coding from the printer manufacturers to be able to create the printer driver for the WordPerfect program. If they didn't have the coding, you pretty much chose a printer that was generic enough or close enough to the printer you were actually using and then hope for the best as far as the final output of the document on paper.

With Microsoft Word's Styles, the program uses the Windows print driver and all that extra 'coding' for formatting isn't strewn throughout the document (if the document was formatted using Styles). A much more elegant solution to formatting, but one highly misunderstood, though more and more people are getting on the Styles bandwagon.

The other GREAT thing about Styles is that you create the style once and then you can re-use it over and over again....and even SHARE styles between co-workers which makes standardization of document production a sweet thing to behold!

So, jbl1167, grab any/all documents from Payne Consulting, take some classes if needed and go get 'em!

dodomfcg

 

[fumei]

This is a little slippery. Word is in fact MORE dependent on the printer driver that WP. In fact Word, is totally dependent on the printer driver. In fact, Word can not work at all without a printer driver!

If you have NO printer on your system, either local or network, you still MUST install a printer for Word to work.

Everything you see in Word is interpreted through the installed printer driver. Everything. This is why a document can look different on different machines. Even those using the same physical printer...if one machine is using a different driver.

Nevertheless, the document interpretive functions are far superior with Styles. The key to dodomfcg's comments is the if you use Styles.


faq219-2884

Gerry
My paintings and sculpture