Widows and orphans can ruin your presentation
April 24, 2009
Widows and orphans are the terms used to describe a heading left on its own at the bottom of a page or a single line of a paragraph appearing at the top of a new page. Using widow/orphan control and Keep With Next codes ensures your documents are professional presented.
The Keep With Next code is a little known feature of Microsoft Word. The code is applied to a paragraph and used mainly for headings in a document to prevent them appearing on their own at the bottom of a page. Using the Keep With Next code means the document can flow without having to insert page breaks or empty line spaces, it will be less prone to errors in formatting and speeds up the process of producing professionally presented documents.
Word 2007: On the Home ribbon, click on the button to show the Paragraph dialogue box.
Word 2003: Click on Format-Paragraph
The option to choose Keep With Next appears on the Line and Page Breaks tab (pictured).
Increase your speed and use shortcut keys.
Press and hold the Alt key then press letters O, P, X.
If you use the show/hide feature (¶ button), you will see the small square dot at the beginning of your paragraph which means Keep With Next is applied.
If you liked this tip please leave a comment in the box at the bottom of this page.
Recession-busting advice from Britain’s Sales Trainer of the Year
February 19, 2009
One of our clients – Andy Bounds (we helped type his best-selling book The Jelly Effect for him) – has won the prestigious title of Britain’s Sales Trainer of the Year 2008/9.
One of the key reasons for his success is his unparalleled ability to help organisations sell more, especially in these troubled times (his clients won £3 billion last year!).
I asked him for some top tips on how to sell more in a recession. This is what he said:
- More than ever, it is imperative to deliver a significant, measurable return on investment (ROI) for your clients. They just will not spend unless they can see they will be in a better place after buying from you.
- This means, of course, that traditional selling messages – “about us”, “our credentials”, “why we are great” – won’t work any more, because they don’t highlight ROI.
- Instead, when talking to potential customers, our sole focus must be on them – not us – and the future value they want us to bring. To do this, simply ask lots of future-based questions, to find what’s crucial to them, such as:
- What are you looking to achieve here?
- How will you know it’s worked?
- How would you judge our working relationship to be a success? etc.
- Clarity on their desired future state will guide your ensuing discussions. After all, which legal practice would you buy from:
- Practice A: who said “We are experts in X, X and X, have X partners in X locations and are specialists in X”; or,
- Practice B: “When we spoke last week, you said that – in the current climate – your key focus has to be on your core business. You want to give all your time and energy to it. We can help you do that, by removing the current time you’re spending on certain legal issues, freeing you up to …”
It’s an obvious choice. Notice how the Practice B repeatedly used the word “you”. If you’re talking about the client, you’re helping them. If you keep talking about yourself, you’re selling. And nobody wants to be sold to these days.
It’s good advice, isn’t it? Simple, obvious and practical. Andy has lots of other free advice about wining business on his Resource centre – click here to take a look.
Or, if you feel your practice could do with an immediate injection of new business, go straight to the man himself on andy@andybounds.com.
A free template for you
January 27, 2009
At Document Direct we’re not interested in the font size, line spacing or how many pages your document has because our charges are not based on the cost per page. Instead, we operate a very fair system of charging by the length of your recording (your dictation). And to be more helpful to you, we will also design some templates so you don’t waste any of your precious time and you can just fill in the blanks.
Our standard pleadings template can be downloaded for free by clicking on this link:
Particulars of Claim template.
This template has a standard court heading, automatic paragraph numbering, automatic page numbering and a neatly aligned backsheet. Simply overtype to use it.
If you would like any help with using this template, or perhaps need some help in setting up standard documents then contact us for free advice.
Word processing and Practical Law Precedents
June 9, 2008
A good legal secretary will have excellent word processing skills which will help them understand how various documents and templates are set up so they can amend and alter the document without losing any formatting to font, paragraph spacing, numbering and automatic cross referencing. It’s vital that the document is presented clearly and consistently so that the law firm is represented professionally.
An example of how a legal document is formatted is a precedent from Practical Law.
- The document is split into sections: for the front sheet, table of contents and the body of the document.
- In each section the footer text will differ slightly and page numbering should start after the table of contents.
- The table of contents will automatically update to the text created in the body of the document by pressing the F9 key.
- Automatic numbering to paragraphs is applied using heading styles.
- Cross referencing throughout the document is applied which will automatically update if paragraphs are changed or added to.
Learning how to link and unlink headers and footers, create, amend and apply heading styles and insert and update cross referencing can easily be done with our online training courses.
Access to your own web-based learning course, online books and a mentoring service will give you everything you need to know to learn advanced word processing techniques.
In typical Document Direct style, we’ll arrange for you to have a sample course so you can try before you buy. Click here to learn more and to choose your sample course.
Legal Experience + Microsoft Training = Great Results
May 27, 2008
Being a great legal secretary isn’t just about typing letters. Experience and specialism in working in the various aspects of law, understanding the needs of fee earners and clients and how to support them come with experience and on the job training. Now that we have Microsoft Office 2007 (yes, another version) it is vital that practical skills are kept up to date so that we can give our best. After all, computers and software are the tools of our trade.
Microsoft Office 2007 (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook) can be learnt in depth, online, in your own time and a qualification awarded for module. You don’t have to be a whizz in Word or an expert in Excel to get yourself Microsoft certified.
Document Direct will work with the best legal secretaries who have proven experience and skills and if you’re one of them, we want to hear from you.
Microsoft Office training is now more important than ever
April 27, 2008
Remote working, from home or office, wherever that may be, is great for concentration, flexibility, comfort, time and costs. More and more people are taking advantage of how modern technology helps us achieve all of the above. But there can be a disadvantage to working alone too, and not one that’s easily spotted until you find you have a difficulty: the lack of help from other humans around you. How many times in the past have you just shouted “can anyone help …”; or “I’ve got a problem with …”
When you’re working alone, whether self employed or not, to have the correct training, knowledge and resources are an invaluable tool to help you get your job done.
Document Direct is helping more and more businesses with designing templates, creating banks of precedents, calculating Excel spreadsheets and designing PowerPoint slideshows. Our documents contain automatic cross-referencing, automatic tables of contents and other advanced word processing features. Our ongoing training ensures our skills are up to date to get the most from our techonology and you can too.
Microsoft Certificate Application Specialist (MCAS) is the qualification to have which will give you the skills needed to manage your remote office and it has never been easier to learn now that the whole course, libraries and exams are available online. Having an indepth knowledge of Microsoft Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint will mean you’ll never have to hold up your hand and ask for help, in fact, others might end up calling you!
If you’re interested in having more skills and knowledge about Microsoft Office then give us a call or email (you might even get a discount).
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