Digital White Papers

25 WWW.ILTANET.ORG | ILTA WHITE PAPER OFFICE 365 The Proof Is in the Program: Five Office 365 Add-Ins that Transform Text Your purchasing decisions will be driven by the challenges you face and the work you do. This review focuses on the four most common challenges: » Substantive definition checking » Cross-reference checking » Enforcing writing style preferences » Checking consistency of spelling, capitalization, formaing and punctuation The review concludes with a comparison chart and recommendations determined by unique, outstanding features for each product. Substantive Definitions Defined terms set the factual stage for, and give practical meaning to, contracts. Substantive defined terms checking is the slow process of checking each definition for proper use. It's time consuming because it requires reviewing the definition and use together, even though they appear in different locations. Three products stand out in this category: Compass, Contract Companion and Contract Tools. All three allow you to click to the location where the term was defined to confirm appropriate substantive use. Each also calls aention to terms used but not defined; defined but not used; and defined more than once or inconsistently. These three solutions are competing. Overall, Compass has the most intuitive interface, Contract Companion is the most robust and Contract Tools is the only program that works while you dra. Compass shines in its presentation of defined terms. The hover feature shows the definition while you review the use in context— without having to click away from the location to the definition. But the web application that makes the interface stellar does not allow you to work in the document to make corrections. Contract Companion sorts defined terms and prioritizes review based on risk. It also groups the terms together rather than listing them, enabling you to click through each term. This is less overwhelming, but also less flexible. Contract Tools groups all issues with defined terms together in its menu, which encourages you to check all aspects of the defined terms at one time, rather than reviewing each term repeatedly for different errors. Because Contract Tools and Contract Companion both work within Microso Word, they allow you to type edits into your document. For checking presentation of defined terms, such as consistent capitalization, hyphenation, spelling and italicization, PerfectIt provides a solution that competes with Compass, Contract Tools and Contract Companion. Cross-References Cross-references are a key part of every contract. Compass, Contract Tools and Contract Companion help you confirm that each cross- reference accurately refers to the correct clause or section indicated; and references a section, chapter or term that exists in the document. Each program provides checking by clicking on the reference, which takes you to the original location. Compass also allows review by hovering your cursor over the reference. But only Contract Despite how trivial it might seem, proofreading truly matters. It's important because the cleanliness of legal documents is a proxy for the substantive quality of the work.

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