ADAUGEO™ EXTENSIONS
MACROS FOR MICROSOFT WORD

DEPLOYMENT

We provide our suite of macros for Word as a package bundled with the consulting and training services required for your upgrade to Word 2010 upgrade (or conversion from WordPerfect) as to application and configuration of the native software. Our aim is to deliver solutions, not merely sell software.

We review each and every aspect of the macro package in detail with you in order that you may make informed decisions about which components to enable for your Microsoft Word upgrade and how those components will be configured to reflect the unique requirements of your law firm.

That review includes:

• assist you with planning every aspect of the upgrade to Word 2010, or WordPerfect-to-Word conversion
• advising as to “best practices” for use of Microsoft Word, considering your firm’s unique requirements
• evaluating any pre-existing in-house solutions you may wish to bring forward and planning how those solutions will be integrated with our tools
• evaluating your requirements as to integrating Microsoft Word with other applications
• assist you with evaluating third party solutions where our solutions package does not cover a particular requirement
• assist you with developing a training plan for the Word environment as a whole.

The pricing also includes the time we spend getting the system enabled for you and training your people to assume maintenance after the production release. We work with you very closely during the pilot and pre-production phases.

SOFTWARE ENHANCEMENTS

We have yet to roll out our package of Word macros without making at least some modest level of enhancements to address client-specific requirements.

That is, in fact, exactly how the package has evolved since over the 20+ years it has been in play, the original version having started out with WordPerfect 5.1 in the late 1980’s. Our clients provide good ideas, and we respond.

If you ask for small enhancements to our solutions and we agree with them, we toss them in for the package price. For large installations where it is known ahead of time the firm will be seeking substantial enhancements, we factor that into the package price and budget hours for that purpose, and we toss the smaller enhancements in on “our dime”.

By following these practices, we meet the exact requirements of our clients and simultaneously advance our software. It is a “win-win” situation for everyone.

If you ask us for a substantial enhancement that we don’t wish to incorporate into our solutions, we would take that on as a custom component to add into your version of our system and you would be given access rights to edit that project. We try to avoid that route whenever possible because it leaves you with custom code to maintain.

MAINTENANCE AND CUSTOMIZATION

Our solutions are highly customizable through database settings and ini keys (both at the system level and at the user level).

Your independence is important to us. We will take on the routine maintenance for very small firms without an IT department, but for larger firms we prefer to train your people to carry out routine maintenance without our assistance. We are always here if you require us for support but do not wish to leave you in a position where you are totally dependent on us.

Unless you wish to add in some of your own Word macros, no programming experience of any kind is required for routine maintenance for Adaugeo™ Extensions or Adaugeo™ Numbering. During initial deployment, we may program some custom functions into the system for you, and it is our practice to design such functions in a way that allows maintenance via database or INI key, not via code.

If you ask us to add a custom component that we see will require a programmer for routine maintenance, we would discuss that with you before proceeding and look for alternatives that enhance the objective of ease of maintenance for you going forward.

FRENCH-CANADIAN USER INTERFACE

To accommodate the language laws of the Province of Québec, our dialogue boxes and ribbon customizations will automatically toggle from English to French at run-time.

Through INI file settings, you can choose to adjust the language automatically depending on the language Word is currently running in, or you can force it to either language.

You can also configure the system to allow each end-user to choose the interface language.

PACKAGE OVERVIEW

Your document automation solutions may be comprised of all or parts of our core solutions package, which includes a generous set of tools to aid with repetitive tasks relating to legal document production, including but not limited to:

• Customizable Ribbons
  
  Through database settings, you can modify our ribbon to arrange our tools as best suited for your environment, and you may add your own custom solutions. No XML scripting is necessary, and all the call-back functions are pre-programmed.
  
  To add your own macros, you merely edit an existing database row to specify the caption, image, screen tip, supertip, and the name of the macro to run.
• Numbering Tools
  
  Our paragraph numbering solutions package, Adaugeo™ Numbering, forms part of the basic macro package.
  
  See our Legal Numbering page for details.
• Template Macro (Assemble Documents from Master Templates)
  
  Our “Template Macro” is our simplified tool for creation of new documents from master templates. It provides an easy-to-use and easy-to-maintain template selection interface and some basic procedures to:
  
            • fill author information from a shared database, and
            • fill address information from Outlook Contacts or another 
              external address sources
  
  “Master Templates” are templates that transcend practice areas and apply to all (or most) users. Hence, the listing should be relatively short, generally including templates of this nature:

  firm correspondence templates (fax, letter, memo, account, etc.)
  office forms
  “blank body” affidavits, statutory declarations
  government forms that transcend practice areas
  mail labels, sheet, labels, envelopes, backing sheets

  Maintenance of master templates and the template macro does not require programming knowledge of any kind. The design has been intentionally simplified so that users with intermediate Microsoft Word skill can carry out routine maintenance.
  
  We offer two additional solutions for document assembly – those being solutions for practice-specific templates (precedents): (1) our document assembly engine with built-in document programming language (see our Document Assembly page for details) and, for small firms, the Precedent Retrieval Macro .

• Integration with 3rd Party Document Assembly Software
  
  If you prefer to assemble documents with third party document assembly software, we can integrate that process with our tools.
  
  If you agree with our strategies for “managing” templates (or a variation thereof) (see our Word Templates page), we can intercept the creation of documents from the third party application and automatically take steps to advance those objectives.
• “Template Tools”
  
  If you choose to adopt our template management strategies (see our Word Templates page), our built-in macros for “post assembly template tools” may be configured for your environment.
  
  Generally these macros cover repetitive tasks frequently done with firm correspondence, including:
  • Update letterhead / logo graphics to current version
  • Toggle a letter between printed letterhead and “pseudo” letterhead
  • Create envelope or mail label by extracting from letter on screen (including correct placement of client-matter number, author initials, attention lines, delivery notations and privacy notations on the envelope)
  • Our “Print Letter Macro” can be enabled, allowing you to, in a single step: print originals & copies, set the printer paper bins as appropriate, add to the copies: acknowledgement of receipt stamps, and/or “pseudo” letterhead, and, after the print, restore the letter to its original condition
  • Add party to letter or fax (drawing from Outlook or other external address sources)
  • Quickly shrink or expand a letter to fit the page in a way that doesn’t depart from the corporate image the firm wishes to project with the layout of a firm standard letter.

  All of “template tools” can be configured with database settings, INI keys and maintenance of autotext entries resident in the master templates (no programming required).

  See also our Word Templates page and the downloadable PDF for details.

• Footer Macro / Document ID for Document Management Systems
  
  Our “Footer System” integrates with your document management system to insert document identification footers automatically and keep those footers current.
  
  If you choose to enable the automatic aspects of the footer system, you may configure it to:
  • intercept the initial save, save-as, or save-as-version for the purpose of footer handling
  • intercept documents as they are opened from the document manager and automatically sync the document ID footer with current profile information
  • automatically update DM footers at print time

  The executable Footer Macro either stands in lieu of, or as a supplement to, the automatic processes for footer handling.

  The executable footer macro is also helpful for firms without a document manager because it allows novice or casual Word users to quickly insert footers into multi-section documents without requiring the user to understand the complexities of Word sections and footer linkage.
  
  The footer choices visible to the end users are maintained fully via database settings. To add a new choice for end users, simply add a new row to the database.
  
  We do not use the native building blocks feature for the footer macro choices because that feature is not sufficiently flexible to meet our objectives for ease of maintenance and flexibility. Therefore we prefer to leave that feature wide open to be used as a personal productivity tool.

• Print Macro and Paper Tray Automation
  
  If we surveyed our users to ask which macro is the favourite, it wouldn’t surprise us at all if 95% of them chose the print macro. It is impossible to cover this macro adequately within the limited space available here, and we refer you to the PDF download above for more detailed information.
  
  Our print macro presents a single user interface for users to access all features normally addressed at print time.
  
  Key features include:

  • Automatic paper bin selection. This is handy where a firm has multiple shared network printers of different types, and especially so where the firm uses pre-printed letterhead.
    
    Users need not know which printer bin to choose – they need only know what type of paper they require. The macro takes care of setting the document’s paper bin properties according to database information for the current printer. You maintain a database of your printers, and you can opt to maintain one record per printer, or one record per driver, or a combination of both (a record for named printer trumps a record for a driver of the same name).
  • “Saved Print Jobs”. The saved jobs feature lets users record all choices at the print dialogue, and subsequently re-apply those choices for subsequent print jobs.
  • “Printer Favourites”. This feature is handy where users routinely print to a variety of printers and/or alternate print devices, including: photocopiers, fax drivers, PDF drivers, colour printers , local printer vs. network printers.
    
    “Favourites” can be quickly chosen by the user (without sifting through the list of network printers), and they can be configured to tell the print macro to automatically select that “favourite” when documents of specific type are on screen. E.g., the print macro can automatically choose the share certificate printer whenever it detects a share certificate on screen.
  • “DM Footer Updating”. At your option, you can configure the system to refresh the DM footer fields from the document management profile at print time.
  • Handling for Track Changes. The print macro detects tracked changes and comments and provides users with choices as to how same should be printed.
    
    This feature was actually the catalyst for the first version of the print macro (and the paper tray automation was later added as the “gravy on the potatoes” ). With the release of Word XP, Word changed the way track changes print. Now, Word determines which changes to print based on how the user is currently viewing the document. That, of course, presents the risk that user may accidently print with some changes hidden when the intention was to print all tracked changes. Our clients migrating from Word 2000 at the time saw that as a serious potential metadata issue. Hence, the print macro was implemented to address that concern.
• Style System (Firm Standards for Document Formatting)
  
  If your firm has not previously adopted a standard for formatting firm documents with Word styles, an upgrade to Word 2010 may be the ideal time to do so. To maintain productivity levels upon migrating to the new “ribbonized” environment of Word 2010, users must to work “smarter, not harder”.
  
  By implementing a standard, you enhance both personal productivity and workgroup productivity. Users may edit other users’ documents without taking time to learn the original user’s styling strategy.
  
  Of course a key advantage to adopting a styling standard is to encourage your users to better utilize the native software. Many Word features simply do not function properly with directly formatted text.
  
  Our macro package includes a customizable “system” for users to easily apply a standard set of corporate styles (the “firm styles”) consistently across a firm’s document library.
  
  Our smaller clients use the style system exactly as we default it for a new installation. For larger clients, we customize it to meet firm-specific requirements.
  
  Like all aspects of our systems, the styling system is fully configurable through database settings and INI keys.
  
  Standard components of the styling system include:
  
  
  • Master “firm style” library, together with tools to retrieve those styles into documents in a way that avoids issues associated with using the native Word tools,
  • Tools to quickly apply the Firm styles and, importantly, direct the users to the styles you wish them to apply:
    
    
    • ribbon customizations
    • shortcut keys
    • contextual menu (right click) customizations
    • automatically populate the Quick Styles gallery with the preferred styles so that when you send the document to your client to edit, you can guide the client to the correct styles.
• Power tools to instantly make sweeping formatting changes to the entire document simply by changing style properties


• Advanced tools for power users
  
  
  • restore the firm styles in document to default settings
  • evaluate and report on the status of firm styles in document
  • create a new style with properties compatible with the style set and the tools
  • interactive styling assistant
    
    
• Precedent Retrieval Macro (Practice-Specific Templates)
  
  This tool is for small and medium-sized firms. It assists with keeping shared practice-specific templates organized and readily available.
  
  The benefits over of using native Word or Windows to access these files, include:
  
  
  • Ease of use
  • Assembling logo graphics / letterhead at assembly time, thus avoiding the need to replicate those objects in each letter “precedent”
  • Populating author and address information at run-time
  • Manages the links between document and template so that objectives behind our template management strategies can be addressed automatically
• Inserting Bits & Bites of Text and Tables
  
  We offer three tools aimed at handling storage and insertion of random text, tables and clauses.
• Glossary Macro for Shared Inserts
  
  Shared items are maintained by the system administrators and made accessible to all users. Generally, shared items transcend practice areas and include items of this nature:

  signature jurat tables / agreement signature blocks
  signature line tables
  pre-formatted empty tables
  firm name and address in various formats

  For shared items, we find our clients generally prefer our “Glossary Macro” over use of native building blocks for a number of reasons discussed in the downloadable PDF.
  
  The key reason is ease of maintenance and ease of use relative to maintenance requirements if using the native building blocks feature for that purpose.
  

We believe (but you have the final say!) that the native tools for inserting building blocks should be left untouched for the user to develop as a personal productivity tool.

If the native selection interfaces are cluttered with shareable choices, that makes it more difficult for user to take full advantage of those features for personal use.

The content of the glossary choices reflects firm specific requirements. You set them up in a template, and add a database entry to enable the items for you users. No programming is required.

• Personal Clause Macro
  
  We offer a dialogue driven interface for users to save, insert, and maintain personal clauses. The macro is for users who maintain a large collection of clauses, and maintain numbered clauses.
  
  There are some key benefits to this method versus using the native building blocks feature. Among those:
  
  
  • The user has the option to insert them as unformatted text, thereby avoiding introducing list templates into the destination document when not appropriate to do so.
  • Clauses may be edited without the need to “re-create” them (the process for editing a “clause” is no different than the process for editing any other Word document)
  • Ease of management of the clause collection. The macro reads the clause list directly from disk. The user can specify whether to divide the clause folder into subfolders.
  • Users can easily share clauses with other users or other groups of users.
• Practice-Specific Clause Assembly
  
  Firms already using our document assembly engine for the Litigation or Residential Conveyancing document assembly packages may opt to use the clause assembly aspects of our document assembly engine.
  
  That gives you the full power of the document coding language (e.g. IF-ELSE statements) to apply artificial intelligence to the clause assembly process.
• Autotext Macro
  
  This macro was brought forward to Word 2010 at the request of clients who find the native Word 2010 building blocks features do not promote ease of access to pre-saved entries, especially where the user has a large number of entries.
  
  Another reason for the macro’s continued existence is backup. The user’s private autotext template resides in the home drive, separate and apart from the building blocks template. The macro allows insertion of items from the building blocks template, but all newly saved entries are automatic saved to the user’s private autotext template.
• Headers Macro
  
  The header macro owes its existence to the firms with document management software. It exists as a consequential bonus of the footer macro.
  
  The steps a macro takes to automate footers are identical to the steps for automating headers. As the footer macro must exist for the document management footer system, we decided to add a second “door” into that macro to allow its use with headers. It was “free”!
  
  With it, headers can be quickly inserted into multiple section documents without requiring the user to understand the complexities of Word sections and header linkage.
  
  As a bonus feature, both the Header Macro and the Footer Macro contain a utilities tab with tools for managing header/footer links between sections, and managing section properties relating to headers and footers. If you have ever sifted through a large multi-section document to correct anomalies with section properties and header/footer linkage, you will love this feature.
• Draft Stamps & Watermarks
  
  With this tool, you can quickly and easily insert a wide variety of stamps and watermarks into whole document or current section at the push of a button.
  
  These macros do insert into the document headers, but we draw a clear between “stamps” and “headers” because the two concepts differ slightly. Headers tend to be permanent, whereas “stamps” are often temporary (e.g. DRAFT stamp). Stamps are always inserted as graphics boxes to avoid disrupting existing header text upon removal. In contrast, headers (via header macro) are always inserted into the text layer.
  
  Using our tools, you can quickly add or remove stamps without affecting existing header text or page numbering.
  
  Like the header and footer macros, choices presented to your users are maintained by you via an Access database. This greatly reduces maintenance overhead relative to use of building blocks, and provides greater flexibility for your users.
• Document Conversion Macro
  
  We provide the document conversion macro effectively as a service to small and medium sized firms wishing to avoid the expense involved with third party document conversion software.
  
  We have intentionally limited the macro in scope to keep it affordable for smaller firms. For medium-large and large firms, we recommend the firm adopt comprehensive third party document conversion software.
  
  Our macro covers the basic functions for these common tasks, which are designed to run on-demand:
  
  
  • Convert a WordPerfect document into a healthy Word document
  • Convert an external Word document to a “Firm Word document”.