Best Authority® Product Description
Software for Building Tables of Authorities
Best Authority allows you to easily and quickly build an accurate Table of Authorities (TOA) in a Microsoft® Word document. Unlike other products, with Best Authority the TOA can be formatted to meet the requirements of all U.S. Courts or attorneys’ preferences. Only Best Authority provides a unique review step where you can quickly compare each line in the TOA to the citations in the document. There are two editions: Best Authority Light and Best Authority Premium. The Premium Edition has an Advanced Feature Set, with extensive editing tools used to make permanent edits in the TOA.
Step One – Startup
Startup is where you select the Scheme, scan range, and placement of the Table of Authorities in the document. The Scheme will automatically format the TOA any way you require, and you can have as many Schemes as you need. When you set the scan range, you prevent Best Authority from searching extraneous portions of the document. The TOA can be placed in any location you want in the document.
Step Two – Scan for Citations
Best Authority will search through the scan range and automatically find and mark citations. The scan is highly accurate for all types of citations. The scan results are stored directly in the document; these data are then used for building a Table of Authorities.
Step Three – Review the Scan Results
Best Authority is the only product that offers two ways to review, proof and edit the results of the scan: Draft Review and Full-Page Review. The Review is where your proofreading and editing will be done. The unique review modes allow you to do HOURS of work in MINUTES.
The Draft Review generates a draft of a Table of Authorities in the Word document. The Word screen is split, with the draft TOA at the top and the document in the lower half, where all of the citations are color highlighted. This allows the user to see exactly what information will be used to generate the TOA, and to proof the TOA to the citations in the document. If an error is due to a mistake in the citation, you can instantly correct it in the document.
Using the Premium Edition's simple toolbar, you may also edit or make other changes to the Table of Authorities. Unlike every other product, all the TOA changes are permanent and will never have to be redone, even if you make substantial revisions to the document and need to rescan and regenerate a TOA.
In the Light Edition, you can also make corrections to the body of the document. Changes to the Table of Authorities are made in Word after you generate the final form of the TOA.
The Full-Page Review provides another way to quickly review the citations found by the scan. As you page through your Word document, all citations found will be highlighted in a user-specified color. Premium Edition includes an easy-to-use interface which allows you to unmark a citation (remove it from the TOA), and mark (add) a citation that may have been missed by the scan. Even on the longest document, your time will be measured in minutes. As in the Premium Draft Review, all corrections you make will never have to be done again.
Both review modes allow you to quickly identify and correct problems in the document text. A re-scan will pick up these corrections and identify any new citations.
Step Four – Build Your Table of Authorities
When your review and edits are completed, you build a Table of Authorities with just two mouse clicks. This process can be repeated as often as necessary, and with Premium Edition your TOA edits are preserved.
The New Industry Standard
Since its release in June 2006, Best Authority has been adopted by over 500 law organizations. As of May 2011, these include 70 of the 100 largest U.S. law firms.