The Benefits of a Legal Macro Package
Do Law Firms need a custom macro suite for Word 2010?
Historically, many law firms have used third party software applications to enhance the functionality and improve the usability of Microsoft Word. These applications, otherwise known as macro packages, have proven very helpful in improving template tools, document assembly, style enhancements, advanced legal numbering, metadata removal, contact management, and other specialized legal macros.
In response to user feedback, Microsoft has evolved and improved Word in its most recent releases, adding a plethora of new features and making new and old features easier to access and understand. Here are a handful of the new features in Word 2010/2007:
- Ribbon Interface
- Backstage
- Galleries
- Search capabilities
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- Style Sets
- Content Controls
- Document Building Blocks
- Updated numbering
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The considerable hype surrounding some of these features, particularly the Ribbon, Style Sets and Document Building Blocks, could lead to the perception that Word is able to meet any organization’s word processing needs on its own.
All of this raises an important question for legal IT professionals:“When my firm upgrades to Word 2010 (or 2007), will we need to implement a customized macro package?"
So, has the need for a customized macro package been eliminated by the release of Word 2007 and 2010?
Let’s explore three issues often raised by legal IT professionals who are tempted to “go it alone” and implement Word 2010 (or 2007) without integrating third party enhancements.
- The belief that Microsoft Word is sufficient and third party software should not be needed.
- Integration concerns, the perception that implementing third party software may cause performance issues.
- Budget - the pressure to minimize costs.
Next: Using more than Native Word
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1. Legal Word Macro
2. More than Native
3. Integration-Budget
4. Legal Functions
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