Using Legal Templates
There are a variety of legal templates that you can use that allow you to quickly create professional legal documents of many types. To download and use the templates that are available on office.com, you will need to be connected to the Internet. Assuming that you have an internet-connected computer, you can browse and then download any number of legal templates that are available for use.
To do this in Word 2013:2010, click the “File” tab in the Ribbon. Then click the “New” command at the left side of the backstage view. In the area to the right, click into the search box and type your desired search term, such as “legal” or “law.” Then click the “Start searching” button to display any templates that contain the word “legal” or “law” in their titles. This will bring up many types of document templates, such as legal resumes, legal pleadings, legal research templates, and many more types of templates.
To download a template, simply click on it once to select it. You will see a description and review of the template appear. If you decide that you would like to download this template, then click either the “Create” button in Word 2013 or the “Download” button in Word 2010 to download and create a copy of this template on your computer. The template will then open within Word, where you can edit and customize it as you wish by adding your own content to the structure provided.
Printing on Legal Paper
If you plan on printing your legal document to legal sized paper, you will need to access the “Page Setup” dialog box. In this lesson, we will examine accessing the “Page Setup” dialog box prior to printing, so that you can select the desired legal paper size.
First open the document that you intend to print on legal size paper. If using Word 2013:2010, then click the “File” tab within the Ribbon to display the “Backstage View” of the document. At the left side of the backstage view, you will see the various file management commands shown. Click the “Print” command at the left side to then display the default printing options in the area to the right.
If you look at the bottom of the listing of printing options displayed at the right side of the backstage view, you will see a “Page Setup” hyperlink. You can click this hyperlink to open the “Page Setup” dialog box. This dialog box is a complete listing of all of the possible page setup options that you can change. Note that to access this dialog box in Word 2007, click the small dialog box launcher button in the lower right corner of the “Page Setup” button group on the “Page Layout” tab within the Ribbon.
To change the document to print onto legal sized paper, click the “Paper” tab within the “Page Setup” dialog box. Then use the “Paper size” drop-down to select the “Legal” choice. Review and change any other options, such as the margins, as needed. Then click the “OK” button to set the page setup options.
Note that if you wish to set legal paper as the default paper size, you can make your adjustments within the “Page Setup” dialog box as needed. Then click the “Set As Default” button when you have finished. In the future, the page setup options that you have selected will appear as the new default settings when you create a new document within Word.
