Today's issue of TL NewsWire covers a legal proofreading add-in for Microsoft Word with special capabilities for briefs and other documents with citations (see article below), an inkjet printer with color laser muscle, and two task managers with their own unique approach to helping you get things done. Don't miss the next issue.
ADD LEGAL PROOFREADING CAPABILITIES TO MICROSOFT WORD
Your clients demand both efficiency and perfection when you draft briefs and other legal documents. More importantly, you demand a certain standard of yourself to maintain your reputation and prevent malpractice claims. But you cannot proofread documents endlessly — and even if you could, you'd still overlook something. A new Microsoft Word add-in addresses this dilemma.
American Legal Style for PerfectIt 3 … in One Sentence
Launched this week, Intelligent Editing's American Legal Style for PerfectIt 3 is a legal proofreading tool for Microsoft Word that enforces correct legal style usage across your firm.
The Killer Feature
Intelligent Editing worked with lawyer and law review editor Ivy Grey to create American Legal Style for PerfectIt. American Legal Style helps to enforce your style preferences and needs from popular references such as The Bluebook, Bryan Garner's The Red Book, Strunk & White's Elements of Style, Black's Law Dictionary, etc. As a result, PerfectIt can catch errors like a rogue space in "F.3d," "statue" when you mean "statute," "ex parte" when you forget to italicize it, and much more.
"I was drawn into this project because I know how it feels to draft documents under intense time pressure and worry about whether I've made style or consistency errors," Grey told us. "With PerfectIt, I feel confident that my work is clean and error-free, and I cut down on proofreading rounds that are often the cause of late nights and early mornings in the office."
Other Notable Features
You select American Legal Style from the PerfectIt icon on the Microsoft Word ribbon or toolbar. PerfectIt works like a spell checker, offering one or more suggestions for each error it finds. If it finds the error in multiple locations, you can correct every instance with one click. Among its capabilities, PerfectIt flags erroneous citations, misspelled legal words and terms of art, words that require italicization, and common dictation and speech recognition errors.
Multiple authors can wreak even more havoc on a document than dictation. Accordingly, American Legal Style for PerfectIt catches inconsistencies ranging from cultural variations (e.g., "color" versus "colour") to conflicting capitalization of defined terms.
PerfectIt can also improve the clarity of your writing by finding mistakes that elude spell checkers, suggesting plain English terms instead of legalese, and pointing out commonly confused or misused words. You can also further customize American Legal Style for PerfectIt to enforce your firm's house style.
What Else Should You Know?
PerfectIt works with Word 2003 and later (including Word 2016) and Windows XP and later (including Windows 10). PerfectIt costs $99 for one user with discounts available for volume purchases. Learn more about American Legal Style for PerfectIt 3.
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