Technical support is available by emailing us at support@levitjames.com. We will need certain information as stated below.
REQUIRED INFO:
- Operating System (Supported platforms: Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7)
- Version of MS Word (Supported versions: 2000, XP, 2003, 2007 and 2010)
- State the exact problem
- Is the problem with one document or any document? If it is with a specific document, attach that document to the email message if possible. Otherwise, if possible, send any document that exhibits the problem.
- If you are getting an error message? Then, give us the exact message, the steps you did to create the problem and attach the logs from ../ApplicationData/Levit & James, Inc/Best Authority/Private/Logs/
OPTIONAL INFO:

Sometimes, it is easiest to resolve issues by phone, please include your phone number and the times when you can be contacted. Assume that you will be asked1 to launch Best Authority on your PC and that you may need to be on-line, so we can share your desktop.

OVERVIEW

What does Best Authority do?

Best Authority is a utility that works in Microsoft Word legal documents to quickly and easily create a Table of Authorities. Best Authority comes equipped with:

· a robust scanning engine that will quickly and accurately locate legal citations

· a user-friendly review interface to allow you to review the results of the scan and easily make any modifications you deem necessary

· a flexible TOA builder that allows you to apply formatting to all of the citations at once to eliminate tedious repetition

· a methodology for saving citation edits in the document so they are both permanent and portable to other Best Authority users’ machines (Premium Edition only)

· a host of display preferences

What are the differences between Premium and Light Edition?

Best Authority comes in two editions: Light and Premium. Light Edition offers the capability to scan the document, review the scan results, and build a final-form TOA. After the build is completed, the TOA may be easily edited to include any last-minute touch-ups. Premium Edition adds advanced editing and Enterprise Administration features and may optionally be set to run with only the Light Edition feature set. You can view the Edition Comparison Chart online.

What are the advanced editing features offered in Premium Edition?

During the document scan, Best Authority assembles the citation data and categorizes each citation according to its type (e.g., case, statute, etc.), geographic jurisdiction, assigned TOA group, sorting information, and so on. Using the Premium Edition, this data may be modified in the Review to change how the authorities will be presented in the final-form TOA. These functions include the ability to add citations (“mark”), remove citations (“unmark” or “suppress”), merge citations, link citations to the proper entry, and many others. Once you make these changes in the TOA data, they are permanent and do not have to be entered more than once, no matter how many times the final-form TOA is built.

How will Best Authority save you time?

Unlike other TOA products on the market,

Best Authority guides you through every step of the process of building a TOA, automating many steps that would otherwise have to be handled manually.
During the Review process, Best Authority automatically locates citations for you in the document, so you do not have to spend time looking for them in the source text.
The Best Authority Review assists users in finding where errors are made in the document and allows users to correct the errors. When rescanning the document, Best Authority will then place these corrected citations in the TOA. With Best Authority Premium Edition, users are also allowed to edit the citation data in the TOA, so once an edit is made to a citation, it will never have to be made again. Therefore, advanced users do not have to make repeated edits to the TOA after successive builds.

What do I need to know to use Best Authority?

Some working knowledge of citations and their various forms is a must.

Some working knowledge of how to use and modify Word Styles is highly recommended. Best Authority employs styles for all paragraphs in the TOAs.

You must know if the relevant court has special TOA formatting requirements. This will help you determine which formatting scheme to employ when processing documents for that court.

Does Best Authority require training?

Although we’ve tried to make the user interface for Best Authority as simple and logical as possible, getting at least some training on Best Authority is highly recommended. Levit & James offers training over the web and numerous training materials to assist in this regard. For the Premium Edition, classes currently available are beginning user training (101), advanced user training (102), and administrator training. For Light Edtion, there is a downloadable Light Edition e-learning module which explains using Best Authority in Light Mode. For Premium Edition there are two downloadable tutorials: Best Authority Premium 101 and Best Authority Premium 102.

How is Best Authority Licensed?

Best Authority is an enterprise product and is licensed based on the number of litagators in your organization. See the Best Authority Licensing and Pricing page for more details.

How can I purchase Best Authority?

Best Authority may be purchased either through a qualified Levit & James reseller or by contacting our sales staff at (703) 771-1549 or basales@levitjames.com. Price quotations are available upon request.

Is support maintenance available for Best Authority?

Yes. Best Authority maintenance may be purchased at the time of product purchase and is priced at 20% of the sales price, good for 1 year and renewable every year.

Maintenance includes unlimited technical support and free software upgrades.

How do I provide feedback on Best Authority?

Levit & James welcomes any feedback in the form of comments, criticisms, questions, suggestions, and feature requests. Please call (703) 771-1549 or e-mail at bestauthority@levitjames.com.

How do I contact technical support for Best Authority?

Best Authority technical support is available by phone at (703) 771-8185 or by e-mail at basupport@levitjames.com.

DOCUMENTATION

Does Best Authority have a user and an administrator's manual?

Yes. They are automatically installed into the Best Authority program folder and can also be downloaded from the Best Authority Documentation page.

Does Best Authority have demonstration and training videos?

Yes. The following videoes are currently available online:

What other documentation is available for Best Authority?

Best Auhtority has a Quick Reference Card that can be customized as needed.

SUPPORTED SOFTWARE

What versions of Microsoft Windows are supported by Best Authority?

The current version of Best Authority supports Microsoft XP, Vista (32 & 64 bit), and Windows 7 (32 & 64 bit).

What versions of Microsoft Word are supported by Best Authority?

The current version of Best Authority supports Microsoft Word XP/2002, 2003, 2007 and 2010.

What effect will running metadata scrubbers on documents have on Best Authority?

Best Authority stores information in the document in the form of bookmarks, document variables, custom document properties, and fields. Any metadata cleaning software that removes any of these items will interfere with the Best Authority data storage. Details of the Best Authority metadata is contained in the Best Authority Administrator’s Guide.

Can Best Authority run with my Document Management System (DMS) software?

Yes. Best Authority is compatible with all major DMS systems.

INSTALLATION

Is there a .MSI version of the installation kit?

Yes. Best Authority provides a .MSI version of the installation kit for compatibility with Active Directory, SMS, and other software distribution systems that require .MSI setup applications. However, if you are using the .MSI version of the installation kit on an msiexec command line, special syntax is required. Consult the Best Authority Administrator’s Guide for further details.

Can I run an .MSI to customize installation?

No. the .MSI is not suitable for transforms as it is just a Windows Installer package that runs the .EXE installation.

What is the difference between the .MSI and .EXE installation kits?

The .MSI and .EXE are identical in function except for one feature: the .EXE version of the setup kit will automatically install co-located versions of the LICENSE.INI file and a modified version of the BAADMIN.INI file whereas the .MSI version of the installation kit requires special command-line syntax for installing these files.

NOTE: It is not required that you modify and co-locate the BAADMIN.INI file prior to running the installation. However, any firm employing the network-based administration of Best Authority will need to modify this file to enable the relevant network folders. This file is also used to set user permissions and other important settings.

Where does the License.ini file go?

For Versions 2.0.300 and later, the LICENSE.INI, BAADMIN.INI, and SETUPCHOICES.TXT must be placed under the %ALLUSERSPROFILE% folder.

The default location for Windows XP workstations is:

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Levit & James, Inc\Best Authority

For Windows Vista and Windows 7 the default folder is:

C:\ProgramData\Levit & James, Inc\Best Authority

In versions of Best Authority prior to 2.0.300, the LICENSE.INI, BAADMIN.INI, and SETUPCHOICES.TXT files are read from the Best Authority program folder. By default, this folder is

C:\Program Files\Levit & James, Inc\Best Authority

Can the installation kits be run in silent mode?

Yes, when run from a command line with an /s switch.

How do I set Best Authority Premium Edition to run in Light Mode?

For Premium Edition, Light Mode can be enabled from the Preferences dialog on the Other tab. See the special instructions on our website for step-by-step instructions.

ADMINISTRATION

Can Best Authority be run with little or no administration?

Yes. Although Best Authority was developed with a wide variety of considerations for network administration in medium and large firms, for smaller firms, it can generally be run “out of the box”. This means that, by default, users will have Best Authority administrative rights and therefore can create their own schemes and will not synchronize files from any network location. In this case, Best Authority will also use the styles in the default version of the sample BESTAUTHSTYLES.DOT template that is installed with Best Authority.

How do I configure Best Authority for a substantial number of users?

The best way to ensure that all users in a large organization can receive updates to the Shared file set is to implement the network-based feature set that comes with Best Authority Premium Edition. These features are enabled through customization of the BAADMIN.INI file that is distributed to the workstations during installation. Consult the Best Authority Administrator’s Guide for step-by-step instructions on preparing Best Authority for firm-wide installation.

Do I need to create one or more dictionary overlays?

A dictionary overlay file should be created only in the case that your documents contain citation components (reporters, publications, etc.) that are not contained in the default Best Authority dictionary. Examples of when this may occur is when there are new terms that are not yet incorporated into the Bluebook and/or the L&J dictionary or where there are terms that are only used in a specific local or internation jurisdiction.

Once created, dictionary overlays should be distributed to each user machine. See the Best Authority Administrator’s Guide for details.

What is a Best Authority scheme?

The settings in the TOA Options dialog dictate the grouping and formatting of the full-format TOA. These settings are loaded into a document from what is call a Best Authority “scheme”. A Best Authority Scheme is nothing more than a saved set of TOA Options settings with a name. When a scheme is loaded into a document, the TOA Options take on the same values as the scheme and are subsequently stored in the document. If any of the TOA Options are subsequently changed, then the TOA Options set stored in the document is changed accordingly, but the saved Scheme settings are unaltered. Loading a new scheme in a document removes the previous TOA settings in favor of those settings in the newly-loaded scheme.

When do I need to create custom schemes?

You will need to create one or more custom scheme when:

· There are special formatting requirements not covered by the default set of Best Authority schemes,

· You have special citation grouping requirements not covered by the default set of Best Authority schemes

· You wish to employ one or more custom TOA-related styles instead of the default Best Authority styles,

What permissions do I need to set for my users?

Generally speaking, if you are employing the network administration features that Best Authority Premium Edition has to offer, you will not wish for your users to carry Best Authority administrator privileges. Removing administrator privileges will remove the user’s ability to run the administrative utilities. In addition, you may wish to limit their ability to save and/or import/export schemes and to view certain features that are generally visible from the Best Authority Wizard or TOA Options dialogs. See the Best Authority Administrator’s Guide for details.

RUNNING BEST AUTHORITY

Startup

Why does Best Authority ask me to set the Scan Range?

Most legal documents contain text that should not be referenced in the TOA. This usually includes the title page, TOC, the TOA itself, the Certificate of Service, etc. Best Authority has you set the scan range so you can explicitly omit these areas from the scan. Including them will confound the scan results, particularly on a re-scan.

Another case where it is important to set the proper scan range is for jurisdictions that require that you create separate TOAs for different sections of the document.

Why does Best Authority sometimes not prompt for the TOA location?

Best Authority automatically detects the location of an existing Table of Authorities and will use that location without a prompt. You can always revisit the Startup tab in the Best Authority Wizard dialog to reset the TOA location.

Scanning

What is a quoted citation?

A “quoted” citation is a citation that is referenced by another citation and usually follows the word “quoting” or “citing”. Best Authority provides an option to include or exclude these citations in the TOA. Best Authority also considers citations found in block quotes in the document to be quoted citations.

What is the customary abbreviations state option used for?

On occasion, there are terms that will be identical for one or more states; the state is implied from the jurisdiction in which the document is being filed. One example is the term “Gen Laws”, which in Massachusetts means “Massachusetts General Laws”, while in Connecticut, means “Connecticut General Laws”. When you specify a state for customary abbreviations, Best Authority will know which state is referred to for such citations.

When should I use the international dictionary option?

You should use the international dictionary ONLY when the citations in the document employ international terms. Using the international dictionary requires more time to load when running the Best Authority scan and can also unnecessarily add a large number of suspect or false citations to the scan results.

When is it a good idea to re-scan the document?

A re-scan of the document is recommended in the following circumstances:

· Corrections to the source text of some citations have been made

· Text that contains additional citations has been added to the document

· Portions of the document text have been added or removed that may affect the long/short relationships established by the previous scan

· For Advance Mode users: you have marked or unmarked one or more citations that may affect the long/short relationships established by the previous scan

When should I remove all detections of citations on a re-scan?

The Remove All option should only be employed on a re-scan when the current document contains citations that were pasted in from another document in which Best Authority was run. Also, there are times when a rescan with the Remove All option selected is necessary to properly implement specific formatting changes in the TOA Options dialog.

Review

What does the Best Authority Print function do that Word does not?

The Best Authority Print function offers the ability to print the document with detected citations highlighted. This is very useful for quickly identifying the scan results and for comparing the scan results with a manually-highlighted copy of the document.

When should I use the Full Page Review?

For Advanced Mode users, the Full Page Review is useful for easily performing corrections to the scan results where citations are either mis-scoped, falsely identified, or missed. The Full Page Review can also expedite processing for extremely large documents.

When should I use the Draft Review?

For all users, the Draft Review is useful for reviewing TOA entry data, such as TOA groupings, long/short relationships, TOA entry text, and TOA entry sorting. For Premium Edition users, citations may also be marked and unmarked in the same way as in the Full Page Review.

How do I change the highlighting colors for either Review mode?

Highlighting colors may be modified via the Preferences dialog, which is accessible from the Wizard dialog by selecting the Options tab. When setting the colors, you are also given the option to choose “pastel” colors for a softer color scheme that may be easier to read.

Can I change the document text while in Review mode?

Yes. However, after changing either the text or the text formatting of one or more citations, it is best to run a re-scan of the document to allow Best Authority to pick up any additional short citations that it may have missed because of the error in the document text.

Does Best Authority ever miss a citation?

Best Authority can miss citations if there are syntactical errors, formatting errors, or if they use terms that are not contained in any of the document overlays. Syntactical and formatting errors are best resolved directly in the document text and then performing a re-scan of the document. Otherwise, for users performing a Mark on the missed citation in Premium Edition will add it to the database used to construct the TOA.

How do I add a citation that Best Authority missed?

For Premium Edition users, in either Review mode, select the text that was missed and click Mark/Mark Citation. You will be prompted to instruct Best Authority whether the selected text represents a long or a short citation. If a long, the Edit Citation dialog will be displayed. If a short, you will be prompted to select the long citation related to the newly-marked short citation. These edits are permanent and will not have to made again even if you rebuild the TOA.

For users in Light Mode/Edition, since Best Authority places your Table of Authorities inside your document, after exiting Best Authority you can add the citation using Microsoft Word. If you rebuild your Table of Authorities, you will have to make the same addition again.

How do I change the text that is included in a citation?

In Premium Edition, if Best Authority has mis-scoped a citation for any reason, you may correct the problem in either Review mode by selecting the correct text and clicking on the Mark/Mark Citation button. Any data associated with an overlapped citation, whether active or unmarked, will be removed and replaced with the data for the newly-marked citation. These edits are permanent and will not have to made again even if you rebuild the TOA.

In Light Edition, since Best Authority places your Table of Authorities inside your document, after exiting Best Authority you can change the citation using Microsoft Word. If you rebuild your Table of Authorities, you will have to make the same changes again.

How do I remove an entry that Best Authority mistakenly flagged as a citation?

In Premium Edition, in either Review mode, click in the citation and click on the Unmark/Unmark Citation button. Once unmarked, a citation will not again be picked up as a citation during a re-scan. The deletion from the TOA is permanent and will not have to made again even if you rebuild the TOA.

In Light Edition, since Best Authority places your Table of Authorities inside your document, after exiting Best Authority you can delete the citation using Microsoft Word. If you rebuild your Table of Authorities, you will have to make the same deletion again.

How do I move a citation to different TOA group?

In Premium Edition, there are two easy ways to move a citation from one TOA group to another:

· In either Review mode, edit the citation and explicitly set the TOA group to which it belongs.

· In Draft Review mode, click on the “Move TOA Entry” button and select the move to different group, then choose new TOA group.

In Light Edition, since Best Authority places your Table of Authorities inside your document, after exiting Best Authority you can move your citations to the correct group using Microsoft Word. If you rebuild your Table of Authorities, you will have to move your citations to the correct group again.

How do I change the text that is associated with a citation in the final TOA?

In Premium Edition, in either review mode, click on the citation and use the Edit function. In the Edit TOA Entry dialog, you have the ability to change the citation text and/or the formatting of the text.

In Light Edtion, since Best Authority places your Table of Authorities inside your document, after exiting Best Authority you can add, delete or change any citation using Microsoft Word. If you rebuild your Table of Authorities, you will have to make the same addition, deletion or change again.

Build

Do I have to wait to build the “final” TOA until the very end of the document cycle?

No! Best Authority was designed specifically to allow you to build interim versions of the full-format TOA in draft versions of the document. In Premium Edition, any edits you make to citations in Review mode will be permanent even after a re-scan. The Premium user can even select which groups of citations are included in the final TOA; interim builds may include suspects and non-TOA references, while the final build will not include these groups.

Light Edition users can build TOAs in their draft versions, but must remake all edits to the TOA entries after each build. Most Light Edition users only mark changes on hard copy of their draft versions and input all changes for the final TOA.

How do I tweak the formatting of the final TOA?

If the formatting of the final TOA is not exactly what you want, you simply enter the TOA Options dialog, change one or more of the formatting settings and re-build the final TOA. I.e., you do not have to re-scan the document. Also, you can modify any of the TOA-related style definitions to change the formatting of affected paragraphs.

Please note that any modifications made directly to the TOA will be erased on a subsequent build. All such modifications should be made only on the final draft of the document.

Schemes

What information is stored in a scheme?

A Best Authority scheme stores all information contained in the TOA Options dialog:

· TOA Groups

· TOA grouping criteria

· Citation types assigned to TOA groups

· Sort options

· General output options

· Global formatting options

Where is the scheme information stored?

Each scheme is stored in a *.BASC file stored in either the Private or Shared folder under the user profile folder.

Once a scheme is loaded into a document, it is stored in the document (as a document variable) and therefore travels with the document. Subsequent users need not have the scheme saved on their computer to use the scheme stored in the document.

How do I import a scheme from another machine?

A scheme file (*.BASC) may be imported from the TOA Options dialog by clicking on the Import button. The import dialog will prompt you to locate the scheme file to be imported. Note that the user importing the file must have scheme import/export or scheme admin permissions; see the Best Authority Administrator’s Guide for details.

How do I export a scheme to another machine?

A scheme may be exported to an arbitrary location from the TOA Options dialog by clicking on the Export button. When the current TOA Options are exported, a *.BASC file is created at the user-specified location. This file can then be imported into another machine via the Import function. Note that the user importing the file must have scheme import/export or scheme admin permissions; see the Best Authority Administrator’s Guide for details.

How do I save a scheme for use with a different document?

If you have loaded a scheme into a document, made changes to the TOA Options settings, and then wish to make those options available for other documents, click on the Save As Scheme button in the TOA Options dialog. This will create a private scheme on the current workstation that can be selected when loading a scheme into other documents. Note that when saving schemes, you cannot choose a name already reserved by a shared scheme.

TOA Options

How do I separate federal and state cases and/or statutes into different TOA Groups?

This is done in the TOA Groups tab in the TOA Options dialog. If you only have one group for cases, click on Add Group to create another cases group. Edit both groups as necessary to give them the proper names (e.g., “Federal Cases” and “State Cases”). Most importantly, make sure to set the geographic restriction for the Federal Cases group to “Federal Only” and for the State Cases group to “State Only (Any)”.

If you wish to have three groups named “Federal Cases”, “California Cases”, and “Other State Cases”, then select the geographic restriction for “California Cases” to “State Only (Specified)” and select “CA” for the state. The “Other State Cases” geographic restriction should be set to “State Only (Any)”.

You may also separate local and international cases and statutes by choosing the appropriate geographic restriction in the applicable TOA group.

How do I add or remove a TOA group?

From the TOA Groups tab in the TOA Options dialog, you can add a TOA group by clicking on the Add Group button. You will then be prompted to fill in the appropriate group properties. To remove a TOA group, select the Remove Group button.

Note that after adding a TOA Group, no citation will automatically appear in that group until you assign citation types to that group in the Assign Citation Types dialog. For the Advanced user, however, citations may always be moved to a TOA group with a manual assignment in Draft Review mode with the “Move to TOA Group” function.

Groups may also be added and removed from the Assign Citation Types dialog.

How do I configure the scheme to automatically place citations into TOA Groups?

Citations are automatically placed into TOA groups depending on their citation types (i.e., case, statute, etc.), geographic scope and code, and their docketed status (cases only). For the Advanced user only, these automatic assignments may be overridden in Draft Review mode using the “Move to TOA Group” function.

What is the Default Group and how is it used?

Many group properties will be the same among all of the TOA groups in the document. Each scheme comes with a “Default Group” containing these common settings that can optionally be assumed by each group. Therefore, changing an option to be used in each group using the default group settings is simply a matter of changing a Default Group property rather than having to change the same property for each TOA group in the scheme.

How are citations sorted within a TOA Group?

There are three sort modes: “sorted”, “sequential”, and “manual”. The sort mode in a TOA group can be explicitly set to sorted or sequential by the user; manual sorting is only set by Best Authority when the user manually moves an entry within a group in the Draft Review mode. By default, each group is set to “sorted”.

By default, in sorted mode, Best Authority employs a smart sorting algorithm to treat alphabetical and numerical entries in such a way so that they appear in the order that is logically correct. There is an option in the TOA Options dialog to “turn off” the smart sorting algorithm and sort all entries strictly alphabetically.

Sequential sort modes orders the citations within a TOA group by order of appearance in the document. If the citation appears in a footnote or endnote, its location in the document relative to other citations is determined by the foot/end note reference point.

How do I make the formatting of the citations in the TOA uniform throughout the document?

Best Authority contains a global formatting feature that allows you to apply specific formatting to part or all of a TOA entry based on its citation type (i.e., cases, statutes, etc.) This allows you to set a uniform look to the TOA groups regardless of how they were formatted in the document.

If you wish to make changes to the entire set of TOA entries, you could consider modifying the style definition of the TOA entry paragraphs or modifying the current scheme to reset the TOA entry style to a different style.

Can I create California-style statute entries (automatic subgroups)?

As of version 2.1, Best Authority has the capability to configure schemes to allow the automatic creation of Subgroups that are used, for example, to create California-style statute TOA entries. With this feature, subgrouping can now be automated for users running in Light Mode. See the Best Authority User Guide for complete information.

How do I automatically place citations into a group based on their text?

The current version of Best Authority supports the use of text pattern matching to assign citations to groups based on their text. These text pattern matching criteria can be used in conjunction with the other standard restrictions such as citation types, geographic scope, and docketed (cases only) See the Best Authority User Guide for complete information.

OTHER

How do I remove the BA metadata from the document?

Best Authority supplies a macro named "StripBAFromDoc" that will remove the BA-related metadata. You may wish to do this prior to filing the document or if you wish to re-start the processing of the document.