Law.com Subscribers SAVE 30%
Call 855-808-4530 or email [email protected] to receive your discount on a new subscription.
Word 2013: Better by Design
Welcome back. If you have read my previous two articles (in the September and November 2014 issues), you are well on your way to Word nirvana. If not, I recommend you take a moment to catch up on those articles before you tackle this one. The good work we did to set up the default look and feel of the Microsoft Word environment can have a huge impact on the usability of the product. Another way that we can improve the overall experience is to tweak the variety of settings that lurk behind the scenes. That's right, it is time to talk about Word Options.
There's a reason why I call my two-day strategic planning session for Office 2013 “Black Holes & Revelations.” Word is full of mysteries. When you start to dig into them, if you are lucky, you may be rewarded with that elusive a ha! moment: a revelation. But just as often, the deeper you dig the more confused you become: a black hole. I've seen many projects stall because the team couldn't come to any agreement on what the default setting should be for Word Options. In order to avoid that, let's establish some ground rules:
- If you can leave the out-of-the-box setting intact without compromising the usability of the product, do it.
- Be respectful of how Word works in your current version. Although we sometimes look at the latest upgrade as an opportunity to fix mistakes made in the past, you have to be very careful about compromising the expected behavior. Case in point, if you begin typing a manual list, Word will convert it to an automatic list. Some of us are tempted to disable this feature to encourage our users to create their list using Styles. Changing the expected behavior in order to support a best practice sounds like a good idea, but this kind of thinking can backfire.
- If you change a default setting, allow the users the flexibility to change it back. Although we can hard code a setting through the use of policies, in general you want to allow people to personalize Word to work for them.
- Don't let your personal preferences cloud your judgment. I personally can't stand the mini toolbar and I'm always surprised when people tell me that they find it useful.
Ready to get started? Click the File Tab and choose Options. Word's options are organized into five tabs: General, Display, Proofing, Save, Language and Advanced. I'm going to step through all five tabs, pointing out the options that I think are worth discussing. If I don't point it out, then you can safely leave the default setting.
The General Tab
Major Differences In UK, U.S. Copyright Laws
This article highlights how copyright law in the United Kingdom differs from U.S. copyright law, and points out differences that may be crucial to entertainment and media businesses familiar with U.S law that are interested in operating in the United Kingdom or under UK law. The article also briefly addresses contrasts in UK and U.S. trademark law.
Strategy vs. Tactics: Two Sides of a Difficult Coin
With each successive large-scale cyber attack, it is slowly becoming clear that ransomware attacks are targeting the critical infrastructure of the most powerful country on the planet. Understanding the strategy, and tactics of our opponents, as well as the strategy and the tactics we implement as a response are vital to victory.
The Article 8 Opt In
The Article 8 opt-in election adds an additional layer of complexity to the already labyrinthine rules governing perfection of security interests under the UCC. A lender that is unaware of the nuances created by the opt in (may find its security interest vulnerable to being primed by another party that has taken steps to perfect in a superior manner under the circumstances.
Removing Restrictive Covenants In New York
In Rockwell v. Despart, the New York Supreme Court, Third Department, recently revisited a recurring question: When may a landowner seek judicial removal of a covenant restricting use of her land?