Press Release

The author, whose previous book about Word 2007 garnered critical acclaim, says the new book gives users a look "under the hood" so that they can take control of their pleadings, contracts, mailings, and other complex documents.

LOS ANGELES, January 20, 2011—Do you dread working with Word? Does it take longer to format your pleadings than to write them? Have you ever risked missing a filing deadline because of problems generating the Table of Contents, aligning text with pleading line numbers, or getting automatic paragraph numbers to increment correctly?

Then you'll be glad to learn about Jan Berinstein, Ph.D.'s latest book, Formatting Legal Documents With Microsoft Word 2010, which was published to coincide with the release of Office 2010 last June. The book is available on Amazon.com and on Lulu.com.

Berinstein, a highly regarded software trainer with more than 24 years' experience as a legal word processor, published a similar book about Word 2007 in the spring of 2009 to critical acclaim. She says both books have a very specific focus.

"Rather than trying to be all things to all people, the books address the particular needs of the legal community," Berinstein says. "I know the issues lawyers and their staff face when preparing their documents. How do they suppress' the page number on the caption page of a pleading? Why won't the pages re-number properly? How can they keep body text from being pulled into the Table of Contents along with headings? Why does the format of their numbered paragraphs change suddenly?"

The founder of CompuSavvy Computer Training, Berinstein notes that the book was "the natural outgrowth of the handouts I give my training clients." Clients—mostly law firms and government agencies in California—routinely praise her handouts as "awesome," she says. Berinstein also writes article-length tips about both Word and WordPerfect in a well-respected blog that The American Bar Association included in its "60 Sites in 60 Minutes 2010" list in 2010 and that is mentioned almost weekly in TechnoLawyer's BlawgWorld newsletter.

Asked how the Word 2010 book differs from the Word 2007 book, Berinstein laughs.

"For one thing, it's more than twice as long," she says. "That's mainly because I provide detailed descriptions of features new to this version—among them, the Backstage View, the Navigation Pane, Co-authoring, and Paste Preview. But also, I wrote lots of fresh material, including a whole new section about mailings and forms; a tutorial about setting up custom templates; and a lesson about creating pleading paper from scratch."

Part of what makes Berinstein's book unique is her analysis of Word's "logic."

"I take a look 'under the hood,' so to speak," Berinstein explains, "to help people understand how the program works. This 'nuts and bolts' stuff is the key to getting Word to behave the way you want it to—and successfully troubleshooting problems—rather than being at its mercy."

For users who are upgrading, Berinstein shows how to make Word 2010 work more like prior versions. She demystifies common features such as line spacing, indents, tabs, and headers/footers, and emphasizes ways to increase efficiency (by using keyboard shortcuts, field codes, simple macros, "Quick Parts"/"AutoText," and styles). In addition, she provides workarounds for potential "gotchas" like malfunctioning section breaks.

Tutorials focus on real world law-firm tasks: aligning text with pleading line numbers, working with tables to set up case captions, creating a pleading footer, using automatic paragraph numbers, cross-referencing, generating a Table of Contents and a Table of Authorities, tracking changes, and comparing documents (redlining). Berinstein also touches on file conversion, metadata removal, and document corruption.

Both of Berinstein's books have been well-received. Law-practice guru Beverly Michaelis wrote in a recent blog post, "The best overall reference books for using Word 2007 and 2010 in the law office are those by Jan Berinstein." Michaelis previously extolled the Word 2010 book as "the definitive guidebook on using Word in the law office."

People who bought Berinstein's first book praise it—both on Amazon and in letters to the author—with superlatives like "a godsend," "really excellent," "a must-have," and "by far the best reference book for Word 2007 that I have found."

Berinstein is pleased by those reactions, but says the real gratification comes from helping others. "If my books make it possible for secretaries, paralegals, and lawyers to get their work out the door faster—and with less frustration—then I've achieved my goal," she says.

-30-

Contact: Jan Berinstein, Ph.D.

CompuSavvy

Computer Training & Consulting

www.compusavvy.com

compusavvy AT earthlink DOT net

Phone/Fax: (818) 776-1228

NOTE: The Word 2010 book, which was published on May 31, 2010, is available on Amazon.com at http://tinyurl.com/W2010Legal2

It is available on Lulu.com at http://tinyurl.com/W2010Law

(The Lulu page provides a preview that includes the full Table of Contents. There is no preview on the Amazon page.)

Berinstein's first book, Formatting Legal Documents With Microsoft Office Word 2007, is available on Amazon.com at http://tinyurl.com/W2007Legal2 and is available on Lulu.com at http://tinyurl.com/W2007Law.

Upcoming Classes | Course Outlines | On-Site Training | Testimonials | Legal Word Processing Services | Recent Activities | Software Tips | Law-Related Links | About Us | Contact Us

Home

To contact us: Our e-mail address is compusavvy AT earthlink DOT net (just substitute the @ sign for "AT" and a period for "DOT" and remove any spaces).

Copyright © 2011 J. Berinstein, Ph.D. All rights reserved.

CompuSavvy logo designed by Michelle O'Meara of Ivy Publishing. All rights reserved.