If you’re a brand new lawyer, welcome to the wonderful world of document revisions…

And revisions…

And yes, more revisions…

You probably did a lot of document preparation in law school but when you start practicing and you have 2 or 3 or more law firms involved in changing complicated and lengthy documents, it can be incredibly confusing.

Especially when you’re doing the work yourself on top of all the other work you have to do.

If you’re just starting out, you’re probably using a garden variety version of Word.   While there are special software packages like DeltaView specifically for comparing versions of documents and tracking changes, they may be a little pricey for a new solo attorney.  In the long run, they’ll probably save you time and frustration (not to mention money) but when you’re just starting out, it’s hard to look at the long run.

Not to worry – you don’t have to put yourself in a financial bind.

Here are some tips for using the Track Changes feature in Microsoft Word:

1.  When you open your document to review it and start marking it up, check out the Review tab.  You’ll be given four options for displaying your document:

- Final Showing Mark Up

- Original Showing Mark Up

- Final

- Original

The “Final” and “Original” views will hide but not remove tracked changes and comments.  If you just temporarily hide your changes and comments by using one of these views, the person you send it to can change the view on their end and see all of your comments and revisions.

This can be a very bad thing if you have comments or changes in there that you’ve provided to your client that you might not want the other side to see.

When you get ready to make changes, click on the Track Changes tab.  This will underline all your additions and strike through anything you remove.

To remove tracked changes and comments before you send your document out, you have to accept or reject the changes and delete the comments. Once you’ve done this, save the document as a public version and use it for public consumption.  You can save a copy with all your tracked changes and comments intact as a private copy to keep on your own system.

If you still feel unsure about the privacy of your changes, click on the Protect Document and choose the option that best suits how you want your document to be treated.

We’ve come a long way from the days of retyping documents, comparison reading versions and manually highlighting changes.  Believe me, I remember them well!  You’re starting out a great time in the legal field and technology can make your work life a lot easier.

Have questions about document preparation, best practices for setting up and managing  your practice, or need help communicating with your clients without the legalese?

All you have to do is ask.  Just send your question in the Comments section and let me help you.

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