Our Top 5 Time-Saving Keystrokes For Legal Professionals

We at Infoware have been developing and innovating on our legal writing software for 30 years. Over that time we’ve learned so much about how legal professionals can work more efficiently in Microsoft Word. By taking advantage of keystrokes in Microsoft Word you can unlock some significant time savings and productivity gains.  

We asked our experts to compile a list of their top time-saving keystrokes to help you save time when creating and formatting legal documents. To realise the gains, all you need to do is be willing to modify your computing habits. We have outlined a few of them below and how they can help you when creating legal documents and correspondence in Microsoft Word and other Microsoft Office products.

1. CTRL + Spacebar

Remove all character formatting (font, bold, size, italics, etc.) from any selected text.

This keystroke saves time by not having to re-highlight text and remove an exact attribute. An entire document may be highlighted and all character formatting can be removed at once. This is helpful when you are reformatting old documents or making changes to one from opposing counsel. Additionally, this keystroke is an invaluable tool when bringing old templates to a new firm where their standard styles will need to be applied to your legal documents.  

2. CTRL + Q

Remove all direct paragraph formatting.

We’ve all experienced those pesky spacing issues that were troublesome to fix. This keystroke removes all of those at once and is applied only to the direct formatting by selecting the text and applying Ctrl + Q. This allows the block of text to go back into the style it was applied as. This is incredibly useful when spacing and paragraph issues arise as a result of exchanging document versions between colleagues and provides a quick solution to resolving them.

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3. ALT + Shift + Up/Down Arrows

Move a paragraph or table row.

Click in a paragraph or row or select more than one and hold down Alt + Shift with your left hand.  Use the up and down arrows to move the text up or down to a different paragraph. This is helpful in legal documents where you need to change the order of your arguments and saves time from the usual approach of copy and pasting and moving around the document.

4. Shift + F5

Return to the last three (3) edit points.

If you have moved edited text and then moved to another location within your document, pressing Shift + F5 will move your cursor back to your previous edit. This is helpful in all documents, but specifically in contracts, pleadings and agreements, when you want to quickly return back to your last change without having to manually search for it.

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5. CTRL + G

Navigate to a specific part of your document.

This keystroke is especially helpful when working with larger documents. Using GoTo will take you to a specific page, section, bookmark or footnote within your document. If you are making changes to only a few clauses or sections, this tool is particularly useful to help you find the relevant text faster. This keystroke can also give you access to Advanced Find and Replace in the same dialogue box, helping you get more done, faster.

Save up to 49 minutes a day with Infoware Legal Writing Software

Hopefully, previous macros and shortcuts will help you perform more efficiently in your day-to-day work. This article serves as an extension of our commitment at Infoware to boost productivity in law practices.

Our legal writing software makes it easier to create legal documents faster, more accurately, and far more efficiently. It has been proven to save each user up to 49 minutes per day!

For more insight into running a more efficient law practice, our legal writing software and other legal industry software, please refer to the Infoware blog page, or visit our website today.