Abraham Lincoln is often quoted as saying “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the ax.” The internet says he didn’t say that, but it is a good observation in any event.

Those of us who work with lawyers on law practice process management are aware that lawyers, often pressed to accomplish much every day, tend to not sharpen, or more accurately customize, some of their technology tools. Personally, I am very understanding of the fact that busy lawyers do not have a lot of spare time to learn about every new technology-based development.

But Microsoft Word is a tool most lawyers use every day. Every day. It is a prudent investment of your time to customize Word to save your time in the future. And the initial customizations of Word do not require a large investment of time.

Deborah Savadra, describes herself as “the chief blogger (and everything else) at Legal Office Guru.” She provides online courses for those who work in law offices, with titles like Basic Word Skills for Legal Professionals. But she also provides some great free tips and Hate Word? Change It provides a roadmap for the first, basic Word customizations. I would also direct your attention to her post Why the WordPerfect vs. Word wars are a waste of time. This piece is a bit of tough love.

And if you learn so much from Deborah’s free advice that you enroll in one of her courses, that is good, too.