Are Your Word Documents Dirty?

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Ask yourself these three questions:

  1. Have you ever worked on a Word document that was fairly large for example 100 or more pages with different numbering levels, charts, tables, you know the works, and it was perfectly fine until you got your hands on it and started editing and then, all of a sudden, the numbering is no longer consecutive and your paragraphs have shifted?
  2. Have you ever had a pleading you were working on and needed to meet a court deadline and all that needed to be done is to update the Table of Contents but when you do, you get the dreaded “No table of contents entries found”?
  3. Have you ever been working late at night on a document, making editing changes and for the life of you, you are unable to figure out why the paragraphs do not align with the prior paragraphs?

If you’ve answered Yes to any of these questions, it means you are the proud recipient of a “dirty” Word document.

What is a ‘dirty’ document?

A “dirty” document is a Word document that has been passed around from firm to firm and has picked up coding that can conflict with the way a Word document is supposed to function. These type of documents affect all Word users in your firm, staff and clients alike.

This is especially true for Word users who are not experts and cannot navigate through the many hurdles needed to be jumped in order to get the Word document to work properly.

It’s a global problem.

Unfortunately, dirty Word documents are not just a U.K. problem, it is a worldwide problem. Law firms are now operating globally with offices in different locations, which means this problem is not just local but global and with Microsoft Word being the number one word processing application used, the problem is not going to go away anytime soon. So, what can you do to curtail this problem? The best way to help minimize dirty documents from surfacing and resurfacing in your firm is to know about them in the first place.

How do you fix a ‘dirty’ document?

You do not have to be a Word expert in order to recognize a dirty document. There are some steps you can take to minimize disruption in your editing process:

  1. Check your document for unused styles by opening up the Styles pane (Home tab – Styles)
  2. Ensure that your document is not using the same style name for both numbering paragraphs and text paragraphs by putting it in Draft view (View tab – Draft)

If you do not know how to do this, reach out to your in house document specialists or check out the many resources the Document Excellence Group has to offer! These resources will help guide you in the right direction. Do not attempt to revise the document yourself if it is a “dirty” document as you may cause more harm than good. Reach out to your Word experts and get your document stable, clean and edit ready! You will be so glad you did!

Click here to download a PDF of this article.

About DocStyle

Headquartered in Miami, FL, DocStyle LLC is a Limited Liability Company delivering a new and innovative solution for structured PDF conversion and Word styling automation.  Our organization is dedicated to the development of legal oriented software and technologies. Our mission is to develop comprehensive tools to aid the collaborative efforts of professionals.

Poor Quality Legal Documents and How to Avoid Them

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“None of our products offer a magic button. Although legal documents may originate from templates or are repurposed, ultimately each one is unique.” This is how the conversation started, shortly after a law firm finished evaluating DocStyle a while back.

Let’s start from the beginning through. The firm had a document that was giving them trouble, so with serious time constraints they went looking for a quick fix and found us. They knew something was wrong but did not know what exactly, so we coordinated a support call.

We quickly began referring to it as The Ice Cream Document, because it resembled an ice cream cone with all kinds of different flavors piled high. We looked at this “problem document” and realized that each layer was a separate document all mashed together as one.

It was huge, 400+ pages huge! Inside we found mismatched numbering, multiple TOC’s, broken references, duplicate definitions, inconsistent formatting, you name it. A copy and paste nightmare, fundamentally it was just a bad document that happened to look okay at first glance.

The term Frankendocument is another way to describe it. Defined as “An aggregate document that is composed of other documents that shouldn’t be included as a single document. This is usually done to satisfy internal politics and reflects the inefficiency of egos and idiots in businesses and government organizations.”

Now, I’m not a fan of name-calling and I love mint chocolate chip, so we’ll stick with ice cream for now. A firm reaching out for help is exactly what we hope for during first use. The conversation however quickly turned into a discussion about how to automatically fix the problems within.

In the years leading up to designing software I would consult firms, so please allow me to offer some advice. LegalTech will never be able to make your practice more efficient if you don’t understand how Word itself works to begin with.

It can be easy to end up with a problem document. Complimentary document solutions can help accomplish tasks faster, ensure uniformity, and consistency. Tools however will never replace fundamental best practices.

The learning curve they were struggling with was with Microsoft Word itself. Typically, larger law firms have Document Processing assets and Office Training resources available. These resources are invaluable and a real competitive disadvantage for smaller practices.

Since a full-time staff is not always an option, the lesson here is to make time for regular training by experienced professionals. Yes, it is an additional expense, but will save countless (non-billable) hours trying to repair documents that may look good but do not behave properly.

Not only will ice cream documents delay your internal turn-a-round, when you send them out, they reflect poorly upon your firm. Contrary to popular belief, poor document quality will cost you clients. Especially as consumers of legal services become more tech savvy.

Prioritizing Technology Competence Education, Can Attorney’s Reap the Benefits?

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Are you an Attorney who’s struggling to keep up with technology in this fast-paced seemingly ever-changing landscape? Has your firm implemented new products in the past, only to watch those projects fail miserably with little or no end-user adoption? Facing these challenges must first begin by recognizing and identifying problems you may not even know you have.

Today, “Technology Competence” has become a skillset of strategic importance for all Legal Professionals. How can anyone expect to be a driving force behind progressive change within their firm if they don’t have a basic understanding of why technology works in the first place? Being able to prioritize your own education in emerging tech, to improve upon how you deliver services for your clients, must be considered critically important, just as Continuing Legal Education is. Only then will you truly be able to work with technology experts to ensure a better design for your practice and ultimately improve customer experience.

Your tech stack (LegalTech and other technologies) is nothing more than a collection of tools, which enhance your natural abilities. It’s extremely important to first plan the best transition away from whichever legacy process you have that’s failing, to a new one which incorporates modern tech and can work well for you. If you dig in and really embed your own legal knowledge, you won’t make the mistake of choosing the wrong solution or rolling out a vanilla install that’s not tailored to optimize your workflow. This is where most law firm deployments that fail, do. They don’t conform software selected to match their own re-imagined internal processes, before, during, or after making a purchase decision. Lack of proper training leads to poor adoption, with excuses like “I don’t have time to learn this”, or an overall acceptance of risk aversion as it relates to embracing change.

When projects fail, it’s human nature to look for someone to blame, and we do this almost instinctively. These failures typically begin prior to evaluation, where internal workflows are not well understood or defined by everyone involved. The negative judgement that ensues is self-defeating and must be stopped, or better yet prevented from ever happening in the first place. If self-reflection leads to awareness, understanding, and ultimately actionable knowledge, then it’s easy right? Not so fast, because if you’re reading this then you’re an Attorney who never found the time to prioritize technology education.

The question “Where do I begin?” is very relevant and can be seem daunting at first. The truth is experience can often be found all around you. Here are five ways you can improve your skillset starting today, and almost all of them are 100% free:

  1. First, let’s consider the very people you work with and depend upon such as Legal Assistants, Paralegals, Document Specialists, etc. Embrace them, as they can help you gain insight into what doesn’t work, or critical processes that are currently being overcome inefficiently or manually. They are a bridge between the Law, your clients, and technology. They have hands on experience using your existing tools, while juggling the day-to-day business requirements of the practice. These exceptional professionals are all too often overworked, yet for inexplicable reasons are underutilized when it comes to planning and adopting new solutions.
  2. Not every firm has depth here, but if you’re fortunate enough to benefit from an internal IT Dept., they too want you to participate in healthy and supportive ways. They may not have specific legal knowledge; however, you will find great value within these individuals as well. Technical personnel can ensure security is maintained, while helping you to explore the boundaries of what’s possible with specific products. Interoperability between platforms is also important to understand. Your IT Team will know what added value can be achieved by connecting products together. Be sure to include them in all phases of the project and ask lots of smart questions. They are your first line of defense and will support your new solutions long after it’s put into production.
  3. Likewise, technology manufacturers have a vested interest in your success with their products, they want to empower you with an intimate understanding of how to best leverage their solutions. Brushing them off as “Vendors” or “Salespeople” will only limit your understanding of both their products and where they sit within their respective competitive markets.
  4. Look to peers who have taken the initiative to expand their own horizons or professional consultants who offer their expertise as a service to the Legal Industry at large. Legal Solution Providers come at a cost, but work with many different types of law firms regularly. Their experience spans different areas of practice, organization sizes, complexity of infrastructures, etc. In addition, they can connect you with other clients who’ve implemented similar solutions and can share their experiences with you directly.
  5. Finally, the internet is filled with useful guidance, everything from articles like this one, to podcasts, broadcast seminars, experienced influencers, LegalTech Journalists, and industry events. Join forums, follow experts, and proactively participate in open discussions as often as you can.

The problems we’re trying to solve will always be challenging, but if the goal is to move faster and deliver higher quality results to more clients, your direct involvement is the only way forward. As children we learn very quickly that square pegs don’t fit into round holes. For technology to align, Attorney’s must be willing to take a long hard look at old workflows and processes.

The most successful projects begin by prioritizing your own education. After all, you have the legal knowledge, and LegalTech tools exist solely for your benefit. Taking a leadership role with technology adoption is not only a prerequisite for successful projects, but also the best way to guarantee returning meaningful long-term value from your investments.

Although this excerpt was written 2500 years ago, I believe it’s an appropriate ending to this article. “One who knows neither the enemy nor himself will invariably be defeated in every engagement.” Tzu, Sun. The Art of War & Other Classics of Eastern Philosophy. Thunder Bay Press, 2016

Why Styling Word Documents Matters

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Why are styles so important anyway?

Styles are the heart and soul of Microsoft Word, a vital part of efficient document processing. Applying
them to paragraphs provides a way to link multi-level numbering, define basic formatting and quickly
edit content within your documents. Unfortunately, many professionals use Word as if it were a fancy
typewriter. Do you use and rely on Microsoft Word every day without even a basic understanding of
Styles, their significance, importance or how to apply them effectively?

There is an old proverb that goes: “If you’re not using Styles, you’re not using Word.” In theory, styling a
document once should solve all our problems. However, after decades of storing documents inside
archival systems, much of the content we need has already been written. We now have a wealth of
information at our fingertips just waiting to be repurposed.

Due to the overwhelming complexity of Microsoft Word, specifically how paragraph numbering and
styles work, most legal documents are improperly styled or worse, directly formatted. Other
possibilities include; legacy documents perfect for your brand-new matters were styled by someone
else, or there’s a need to collaborate with outside counsel who apply their own styles, thereby changing
the document altogether.

How do we solve these problems?

These hypothetical scenarios happen every day and cost legal organizations a significant amount of
time, which in turn costs money. If we remove the mystery, complexity and repetitive nature of
Microsoft Word, we empower people of all skill levels. We’ve identified four key areas to focus on,
which if addressed will save a significant amount of time.

Cleanup

The importance of having streamlined cleanup tools cannot be emphasized enough. Cleaning up a
document is one of the most time-consuming tasks for any professional, taking focus and attention
away from the truly important work. Just like rebooting a computer, starting fresh in a clean container is
often the easiest way to resolve most frequent and common problems.

Numbering

The synergy that exists between numbered lists and styles is complicated and all too often
misunderstood. Defining multi-level numbering properly and building outline schemes into styles can be
a challenge even for the most advanced Word Processors. In order to address these problems,
synchronizing numbering and styles, so they work together instead of independently is imperative.

Styles

Building Styles in Microsoft Word is the single most important aspect of assembling a well-structured
Word document, period the end!

PDF vs Word

A PDF file is essentially an electronic printout of your document, whereas Microsoft Word has been
designed for ease of editing. This fundamental difference in architecture requires a deep understanding
of how Word works in order to get content out of PDF and into Word as quickly and accurately as
possible.

Document Processing Needs Love Too!

These invaluable resources (people and processes) cannot and should not be neglected. Focusing on
automation, implementing the right software, standardizing on DEG’s Standard Styles Framework for
legal documents and delivering quality training will drastically improve efficiencies inside your firm.

About DocStyle

Dedicated to the development of practical legal-centric productivity software solutions, our mission is to design comprehensive tools that aid the collaborative efforts of legal professionals everywhere. DocStyle focuses on improving efficiencies in two ways, legal focused PDF to Word conversion and processing Word documents quickly with automated intelligence.

DocStyle Prepares for Coronavirus

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Throughout our lives, we are faced with new challenges.  They are never easy; however, our commitment and thoughtful decisions guide us as we navigate through them.  Today we face a different kind of threat, one we have no effective defense for, COVID-19.  As fears over Coronavirus mount here in the US and around the globe, it is our responsibility to meet this crisis head on, by remaining calm and taking thoughtful preventative measures.

As CEO of both DocStyle LLC and Evolution Software, LLC, my first responsibility is to ensure the health and safety of our people.  Therefore, effective immediately staff will no longer be required or expected to report to either our New York, NY or Miami, FL offices.  All staff will work from home where they can reduce their exposure by alleviating mass transit, while simultaneously caring for their families.  Personal Time Off “PTO” will be suspended throughout the duration of this crisis.  We do not want anyone counting hours or worrying about their paychecks.

Delivering great customer service starts with having a sound operation and healthy productive people.  For this reason, we have focused on ourselves first.  As they say during the safety briefing on an airplane, “secure your own mask before assisting others.”  However, make no mistake, our customers are equally important to us.  Being supportive as they adjust and operate within this new realty is our mission now.

Therefore, we will be providing additional assistance for customers and the legal community in the following ways:

  • Individual licensing for all products will temporarily extend to include customer employee’s personal devices during this crisis.
  • Direct support will be provided for all existing customers who need to install or maintain NOVO Compare, PuR MetaData or DocStyle onto supported home computers.
  • As legal technology experts, senior members from our company will be available to share knowledge with firms. Free consultations will be available for anyone struggling with assembling plans that ensure staff can work from home effectively.  If our experience can aid you in your time of need, it will be our pleasure to help and point you in the right direction.
  • Our software is easy to deploy and quick to learn; therefore, discounts will be provided to anyone displaced by the Coronavirus who may be using a competitive solution. If for some reason your firm/company cannot facilitate work from home access, we will be happy to setup a temporary month to month subscription at reduced costs.

Until the spread of the virus subsides, we will not place our people in harm’s way.  All upcoming events which we were planning to exhibit at, or attend will be cancelled until further notice.  Having assessed the risk vs reward for both ourselves and customers, we believe it would be irresponsible to consider in-person events at this time.  Likewise, all in-person customer visits are indefinitely suspended, they will be replaced with virtual engagements.  Over the next six months, we will monitor the health risks and re-engage when conditions change for the better.

We have geographically diverse operations and have taken great care to build redundancy into our business model.  I cannot promise that our operation will be unaffected as more people fall ill over time.  We will do everything within our power to ensure continuity of service, so you can maintain your professional career and obligations to your clients.  As prepared as possible, our thoughts and prayers are with you, your families and hopeful for a quick return to normalcy.

By Chris Cangero
Chief Executive Officer/ Co-founder

Startup Hub Take-Away’s from ILTACON19

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A Little About Me
As a professional who’s been part of the Legal Tech community since I officially started my career in 1999, exhibiting at ILTACON has been a long-time goal of mine.  My father was a regional Sales Director for Wang Laboratories, responsible for the legal vertical throughout the US during the mid-1980’s.  So much like being born into a New York Yankees baseball family, I had very little choice and ended up finding my passion delivering technology to the Legal community throughout my career.

Opportunity on the Horizon
This year, we introduced our brand-new company and solution DocStyle to ILTA’s membership as part of Startup Hub at ILTACON in Orlando, FL.  Those of you who do not know, Startup Hub is a special program and opportunity extended by ILTA for select emerging technology businesses with Legal specific solutions to bring them before the industry.  There’s an application process which starts months in advance of the event, in the end eight solutions are chosen and prominently displayed.  I must take a moment to acknowledge and thank Donna Payne, CEO of Payne Group, Inc. who first informed me about Startup Hub and encouraged us to apply.

Having just returned from ILTACON, I can already tell that Startup Hub has been an invaluable way to generate awareness about our solution and boost us out of the early stages of business.  Year one is always the most difficult as you’re literally pumping every nickel you have into design, development and go to market initiatives. This leaves very little room within the budget for an event like ILTACON, yet I knew we absolutely needed to be there.  Frankly without the Startup Hub program I can’t see how we prioritize it over other operational needs, so I am extremely grateful.

ILTACON is widely recognized as the premier event in Legal Tech, and as such generally draws a Big Law crowd.  As a Startup Hub Exhibitor, the challenge was not so much in addressing the costs involved with getting to the show, rather with positioning our product as well as we can to maximize our exposure.  To make the most of the opportunity and our investment as a first time Legal Business Partner, we needed to position our solution so that it appeals to all firms, while emphasizing the benefits for Enterprise.  Knowing who your audience will be at ILTACON is more important than with other conferences, as typically it’s the technology support leadership personnel from large firms who are found in attendance.

The Experience
ILTACON is a very long conference, which was described during Orientation as a marathon, not a sprint.  Opening night for most begins Sunday with a cocktail reception, followed by a theme night on Monday introducing the attendees to the vendors on the exhibit hall floor for the first time.  This year’s theme was “A Whole New World of Possibilities-A Journey through Classic TV.”  Getting into the spirit Adrian and I dressed up as Crockett & Tubbs from the classic TV show Miami Vice, representing DocStyle’s Miami roots with pride and a little humility.  This turned out to be a fantastic ice breaker which would setup the next few days allowing for more relaxed interpersonal engagements with attendees.

As a first-time Exhibitor this year I found tremendous value throughout the event.  In years past with previous ventures, I’ve participated as an exhibitor at other events.  My takeaway in terms of contacts established and new relationships made can only be summarized as exceptional.  Leaving Orlando with just about ¼ of the typical contacts, I can already confirm without hesitation the remarkably higher quality found within each connection made.

The real value of ILTA is in the relationships and networking opportunities, as there are very few hours within each day that do not offer educational sessions or after-hours interactive events.  The attendees we met were more knowledgeable overall and were able to connect with the intended benefits our approach to the business challenges we believe DocStyle solves.

Because of the technical competency of the attendee’s, we found a deeper skill set from Business Partners exhibiting, who as well send their best and brightest.  Because of this, we were able to forge relationships during the event and start new partnerships right away.  The venue itself could have been better, there were challenges navigating the expanse between hotels and difficulties finding session rooms.  Overall though, if you planned out the event in advance, your experience should have been very fulfilling as was my own.

Take-Away
At the end of the week, we left with a renewed sense of excitement and reaffirmed the positive impacts we anticipate DocStyle will have within Legal as we press forward.  We discussed new ideas and received all kinds of feedback, most of which I consider invaluable.  Aspects of these conversations have already found their way into the planning process for future iterations of the platform.  Although I did not make it to every session or networking opportunity, the ones I attended were rich in value.  I know I’m starting to sound like an ILTA spokesperson, however I had a wonderful experience, one which I will remember for years to come.

By Chris Cangero
Chief Executive Officer/ Co-founder