Best way to convert numbered document to our system

[Island Girl]

Although I've been converting numbered documents brought in from other law
offices to our numbering system for years, I know there has to be a more
efficient way than I've been doing. Since other people and I will be making
new versions and editing the document many times, I've been--just for safety
sake--copying the doc, pasting unformatted text and starting all over again
with the numbering system. You know just how long this can take if the
document is 70 pages long and--after pasting unformatted text--there's a
paragraph sign after each line!

Is it "safe"--instead of pasting totally unformatted text--to use the smart
tag "keep text only" option and go from there?

I'm curious as to how real experts would approach this oft-recurring task.
I'd like to nail down the best system once and for all.

And I appreciate all you've done to make me a better word processor!

 

[Word Angel]

Although I've been converting numbered documents brought in from other law
offices to our numbering system for years, I know there has to be a more
efficient way than I've been doing.  Since other people and I will be making
new versions and editing the document many times, I've been--just for safety
sake--copying the doc, pasting unformatted text and starting all over again
with the numbering system.  You know just how long this can take if the
document is 70 pages long and--after pasting unformatted text--there's a
paragraph sign after each line!  

Is it "safe"--instead of pasting totally unformatted text--to use the smart
tag "keep text only" option and go from there?

I'm curious as to how real experts would approach this oft-recurring task. 
I'd like to nail down the best system once and for all.

And I appreciate all you've done to make me a better word processor!

Heres a suggestion. (If you are using Word 2003)
In THEIR document, if they used Styles you can import the styles from
YOUR document, and then do a find and replace to replace their styles
with yours. Then copy and paste exactly (keep the formatting) into a
clean version of YOUR template. You want to make sure you don't copy
over the last paragraph mark from THEIR document. That is going to
contain the header/footer info and lots of other unknowns.

Import the styles from YOUR document:
1. From THEIR document, Click on Tools > Templates and Ad-ins >
Organizer
2. In the Syles dialog box, where it says "In Normal.dot", click on
the OPEN button twice.
3. Browse to YOUR document, click OPEN, and then CNTRL+ Click to
select the styles you want.
4. Click COPY to copy them into THEIR document.

Find and replace the Styles:
1. In the Find and Replace dialog box with your cursor in the Find
what box, click More and choose Format>Style
2. Click your Cursor to the Replace with box, and choose the style to
replace it.

Hope that helps!
Angel Bivins
(e-mail address removed)
www.wordangel.com