I'm a lawyer and have a boring routine when starting a new case. Basically, I need to create three standard documents for the client. The only thing that changes is the client's name, their basic information (profession, address, etc), and a short description of the job I'm performing for them. Another important thing is the signature field, which must repeat the client's name, and I often forget to change it, leading to embarrassing situations.
I've been looking up ways to optimize this routine. There are two things I have in mind and that Word should be able to do, but it's been difficult to get it working:
>limit the editable fields and make it so I can press Tab to cycle through them (so it starts at NAME; press tab and it goes to PROFESSION; etc) It is easy to lock the document's editing to only a few fields, but pressing tab will create white space instead of cycling through the fields, and I haven't found a way to circumvent this. >make the signature field reflect the text written in the NAME field By using the copy-paste link method this is easy, but you need to right click the signature field and click "update" for it to work. So it doesn't actually optimize anything and I can still forget to update it.
I'd be thankful if Any Forums could help me out with this puzzle.
install libre office use python-docx few lines of code would do the job.
Adrian Watson
i hate to post this reddit faggot, but picrel you would literally have to learn coding, for a normie thats already ingrained with other programming thats impossible
youre a lawyer, you can pay someone to do it for you
I thought Word could do this easily. Are you really saying it's impossible without scripts?
Asher Phillips
depends, word for windows probably has some gay version of vs like excel youd still have to write a script though
Xavier Martinez
I'm 100% sure you can do the second thing (making one field reflect another) without scripts, but you'd have to mess with global parameters. The first one sounds like it could be a very simple vbs script (like 2-3 lines at most)
Ian Collins
You can at least create a template doc so you never repeat the signature field.
Jacob Jones
i know nothing about the docx format other than that it's just a specifically structured zip (iirc) so you could write a script that copies an existing template and replaces instances of "THE_NAME_GOES_HERE" with the name etc. then zips it back up into a docx that's how i would approach it but i'm comfortable writing code there's probably some indian tutorial for doing it within word tho i haven't used it but it seems like the thing latex would be good for? someone more familiar can check me there though
Austin Clark
alternatively, if youre competent and using a mac you can set up a workflow im not going to bother explaining how either figure it out or pay someone
Jonathan Allen
none of you word for shit word already has a shortcut for cycling through fields, it's called f11. just rebind it to whatever key you want (but not tab you fucking retard) there are one zillion ways to do the signature shit but from my experience it is easier to put a script that automatically updates all fields (look it up there are many) than it is to use global parameters
Samuel Davis
I wouldn't mind paying someone but from personal experience I am sharper than 99% of people when it comes to using Office. If I can't do it odds are people within my area can't do it either (at least not to the level of quality and convenience that I desire) For the record I'm not too much of a dumbass and I use a few self-written scripts to optimize my Word routine Thanks user you completely nailed the field thing, no idea how I missed that. I'll look up an auto-update script. I am using a template, but even a template would require a placeholder for the person's name. The problem is that I sometimes forget replacing that placeholder.
Andrew Wood
why are you asking then
Jaxon White
use Tex. create your own template. fill name in once, itll place it everywhere in document you define
Hudson Long
>ActiveDocument.Fields.Update that's all it takes to update all fields make this run automatically whenever you save a document and you're golden
Nathaniel Hall
Just make a template, put brightly colored placeholders and copy the files. I don’t understand what the problem is here.
Christopher Clark
>standard documents By the looks of it you're not a programmer, but this task would be sweet to automate using LaTeX and bash. You wouldn't even need to open Word or similar software to have the PDF generated for you.
Landon Rivera
>latex Hadn't heard of this before. Gonna check if this would make work easier or harder, thanks anons.
Justin Hill
Just wanna say good job user. I wish more find ways to improve processes
Aaron Johnson
user that's what I already do, but consider that doing this takes 5 minutes of full focus. It is a task that I do about five times per week, so I'd be losing thousands of hours on the long run. But that's assuming I can do it with full focus. The task is so boring and dull that in actuality I do a single document, lose focus, 15 minutes later I get back to it and make another, and so on. It's been a productivity drain and it just occurred to me that this could be optimized so that maybe I only have to write each thing once.
Matthew Foster
i remember someone here compared latex to needing to move a box from one point to another and making a conveyor belt for it - no point if it's just for one or two, but it's a good idea when you're moving a thousand. in your case, it sounds like the latter.
Dominic Smith
If it has to be word, you can use PowerShell or vbscript to make the same internal calls the gui makes. I did this for excel at an old job since. Just look up how to create a word document using PowerShell.
