Crafty Counsel's How To: Microsoft Office Hacks
This is a series that was born on Twitter and LinkedIn. A few friends of Crafty Counsel started chatting about how they’d taken years to learn what felt like some fundamental tools within the Microsoft Office suite - despite using Word, Excel and Powerpoint almost every day. The consensus was that there might be more to be gained by lawyers learning how to get the most out of Word, than getting up to speed on the latest in AI and other funky technologies. This series will be run on an ongoing basis - contact us if you’d like to take part.
With thanks to our contributors so far:
- Rosie Burbidge, Partner at gunnercooke
- Adam Curphey, Innovation Engagement Manager at Reed Smith
- Leanne Bentley, Operations Director at Bluebird Support Services
- Alistair Wells, Partner at Woodfords
- Jack Shepherd, Legal Tech Associate at Freshfields
- Niall Mackle, Solicitor at Burges Salmon
- Francois Coppens, General Counsel at Riaktr
- Senne Mennes, Co-Founder of Clausebase
P.S. If you want to keep up to date with the latest Crafty Counsel content, news from the sector and updates from the legal community then subscribe to our newsletter here!
Word: Switching between lower and upper case
Need to switch text from all lower to all upper case? Don’t type everything again....
Editing a PDF Document
Has the other side sent you their draft document in PDF format again? And you...
Powerpoint: Fix Wonky Lines
“A wonky line in a Powerpoint presentation - it’s the equivalent of dropping your tray...
Powerpoint: 30 second structure chart
“You love Powerpoint. You just don’t know it yet.” Here’s how to make a structure...
Word Show / Hide: Keeping Words Together (Part 2)
Text floating across two pages, with massive gaps in between? That’s where your Show/Hide button...
Fill in a template using mail merge
Do you want to populate a template contract using an existing database rather than typing...
Word Show / Hide: Keeping Words Together (Part 1)
Many lawyers don’t much like using the Show / Hide button in Word. But, it’s...
Excel Conditional Formatting
Excel spreadsheets don’t need to be ugly. Make them come alive. Trust yourself to Jack...
Word: Cross-referencing and field shading
“Error - reference source not found.” Look familiar? When working in a long Word document,...
Powerpoint: Combining Shapes
Soon, the day will come - you’ll want to make a beautiful new shape in...
Get to Grips with Excel Formulae
“Excel is like getting into a freezing swimming pool - you just have to dive...
Using Split View on Microsoft
We all know that working in a long document can be unwieldy - especially if...
Moving Rows in Word tables
Hands up if you’re a lawyer who loves using tables in a Word document, instead...
Undo + Redo
We all make mistakes. Perhaps that’s why Bill Gates and co invented the undo and...
Navigating your document by keyboard
What’s a pro tip that will save you time on your Word document? Navigating around...
Get your game on with these shortcuts
Alright, folks - for many of you, these will be basic shortcuts. But, others of...
Formatting Page Breaks - Obsessional Stuff
“One my minor obsessions.” Why does Rosie care so much about formatting? Well, what kind...
Customisation - "It's magical"
Rosie says that customisation is only one her favourite things in Microsoft Word, ever -...
Automatic numbering - be frustrated no more
“Automatic numbering - one of the most frustrating things lawyers face in their day to...
Track Changes on Microsoft Office
Don’t you just hate it when you’re marking up a document in track changes and...
Format Text on Word using Format Painter
Isn’t it annoying when you have blocks of text that don’t look alike - particularly...
Filtering Track Changes on Word by Author
Wouldn’t it be so much easier to just see changes from one person on a...