From: NoOp <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: May 23, 2008 8:45:35 AM PDT
To: users@openoffice.org
Subject: Re: OO for Mac for Lawyers
On 05/23/2008 06:14 AM, David Clark wrote:
[snip]
*******************
My version of Word did not include a pleading wizard. And, I'm just
not a programmer and have no desire to learn at this stage of my
life. I suppose I could hire someone, and maybe I'll give that some
consideration.
It has been included with Word since at least Office 97. It is in the
install CD in the template/legal directory.
*******************
IANAL so my question(s) are curiosity driven and not from any
experience
with legal pleadings... hopefully I can avoid such things :-)
*******************
What does "IANAL" mean? I've seen way too many Internet Acronyms,
but that one has me stumped. In addition not...
IANAL=I am not a lawyer.
*******************
Somehow I think that's a double entendre, at my expense. But it's
good enough to post on my Mac for Lawyers list!!
On topic, several of the pleading templates I tried had the lines and
numbers in the wrong location for California rules. One ran the 28
numbers right to the bottom of the paper without allowing for a
bottom margin. The number 1 needs to be at the point of the top
margin (1" from top paper edge, and aligned with the top of the
vertical double line), then the bottom number 28 must be at the point
of the bottom margin, and in my case I've got that set for 1.2". In
addition, some of the pleading templates do not have the right margin
correct -- the Rules specify 1". Some templates are larger, and
Word's default left margin is something like 1.25".
I downloaded/installed the latest NeoOffice, then its patch, and then
opening a decent Word Template for a legal pleading and saving it as
a template in NeoOffice (an swt document). It seemed to do a decent
job, but I'm just not sure it's quite right yet. One of the hardest
things to do seems to be getting the text to line up with the
numbers, which themselves have to be correct. Thus, the 28 numbers
need to start near the top margin, and then number 28 needs to be as
close as possible to the bottom margin. Next, the user needs to set
the correct spacing -- I've got paragraph set for "at least" at .31"
-- which seems to almost do the trick; .30 was too small and .32 was
too large.
Anyway, if anyone is interested I'd be happy to send the swt template
to any of you to fiddle with. Maybe you can get it to fit the
California rules a little better. Candidly, it's close enough now
that I suspect even an eagle-eyed court clerk would not notice the
difference.
David Clark
www.clarklawfirm.com
http://daveclarkimages.smugmug.com
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