MacroView ClauseBank™ improves the accuracy and efficiency of document preparation in Microsoft Office, by making it easy to find and re-use standard / approved text and graphics, such as product feature and service descriptions, customer and product logos, consultant profiles, disclaimer texts and clauses for insertion into legal agreements. ClauseBank uses Microsoft SharePoint to streamline content maintenance.
Easy to Use - Works in Microsoft Word, Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft PowerPoint.
- Available content items are displayed in a hierarchical menu structure that is tailored to your organization.
- Formatted previews and optional descriptions help you to select the correct content items.
- Out-of-date content cannot be selected.
- Filter available content items based on their names or on the text that they contain.
- Favorites feature streamlines selection from Clause Libraries that you use frequently.
- Selected items inserted at the current cursor position with their formatting maintained.
Easy to Maintain - Manage content items simply by saving to document libraries in a central SharePoint site.
- Tailor your content menu by naming your Clause Libraries and defining Categories.
- The web-based nature of SharePoint means that content is immediately available to all authorized users – regardless of their location.
- Nominate a Content Expert for each item – which can be an individual user or a group.
- Option to specify Update Frequency so that new / modified content items are automatically assigned an Expiry Date. Content Experts are alerted by email of any expiring items.
- Usage of content items is logged so that key users can generate a report of usage metrics.
The name MacroView Precedent reflects its origins in the legal industry where the ‘best of breed’ documents (precedents) are marked up with special codes so that they become the basis for the automated assembly of future documents. MacroView Precedent is easy and intuitive for business users but it can handle the automation of the most demanding documents and document packages.
- Runs in Microsoft Word and automates the assembly of a new Word document that is based on the master (precedent) document that you select.
- Makes it easy for you to include / exclude optional content and to choose one of multiple content items (e.g. Yours sincerely / Yours faithfully / Regards).
- Displays instruction text and tips to assist you with correct usage and responses to prompts.
- Allows you to generate a whole package of documents – e.g. a Court document package.
- Prompts you to enter variable data, or to choose data items to be retrieved directly from a SharePoint list or from an existing database.
- Allows you to skip prompts and supply missing data later, when you know the answer.
- Captured data is inserted wherever relevant across the whole document, including in headers, footers and text boxes.
- Records your responses in Answer Files, which can significantly speed up the generation of subsequent documents for the same transaction, project or matter.
MacroView ClauseBank is an ideal complement to MacroView Precedent. MacroView ClauseBank helps to minimize the cost of maintaining a suite of precedent documents.
- At appropriate points during the assembly of a document MacroView ClauseBank can display a menu of relevant clauses – e.g. execution clauses for a deed or agreement or optional conditions for a contract. Your choice of clauses is inserted in the document and the automated assembly then resumes under the control of MacroView Precedent.
- Alternatively MacroView Precedent can retrieve clauses direct from the ClauseBank.
- The Clause Link feature of ClauseBank allows Standard clauses to be retrieved from a central SharePoint site just as you begin to create a new document based on a precedent.
- The advantage of these approaches is that clause content is maintained centrally in SharePoint libraries. This minimizes the risk that your precedents will contain out-of-date rates, references to Acts etc. and generally reduces cost of maintenance.
With MacroView Precedent you don’t need to be a programmer to automate your document assembly. Instead you insert special markup tags in a master document in Microsoft Word. Even so, MacroView Precedent has a range of advanced features that enable the automation of the most complex documents.
- Marking up an existing document to create a new precedent or master document is made easy and intuitive by the MacroView Precedent Markup toolbar, which becomes part of the Word environment for those users who are responsible for precedent administration.
- As you markup a precedent document you can use all the familiar Word features for formatting and document structure.
- You can use conditional logic – SET and IF commands - to handle complex document automation tasks, while minimising user input.
- The Smart Data Service feature enables retrieval from any existing database or data store – without having to write your own web service. You simply describe the data elements in your existing data store and MacroView Precedent automates the data retrieval for you.
- The RUN markup tag lets you invoke Word macros, with full access to Answer File content. This is an excellent way of handling specific organisational requirements such as printing, currency formatting and PDF creation.
- You can even have a variable number of sub-documents in any instance of a package – great for Court and Insolvency documents!
- Generated documents can be automatically saved and pre-profiled or post-profiled in a Document Management System (including SharePoint by invoking MacroView DMF™).
- The Dictation Sheet feature creates a document containing a list of all variable input items – an ideal basis for capturing input via dictation.
- You can use the Check Markup command to verify that your markup tags are complete.
Compared to other document automation products on the market, the distinctive difference with MacroView ClauseBank and MacroView Precedent is the way they use Microsoft SharePoint. This use of SharePoint provides real benefits in access, maintenance and administration by non-technical business users.
- MacroView ClauseBank uses document libraries in SharePoint sites to store re-usable content items and their associated metadata. These web-based libraries enable far simpler deployment than alternatives such as Autotexts in a Microsoft Word global template.
- MacroView ClauseBank ships with a Clause Library template, which makes it quick and easy to start managing your re-usable content. There are no limits on the number of Clause libraries you create, or on Category values.
- Each ClauseBank is a separate SharePoint Site, which means that offices in separate locations and jurisdictions can have their own ClauseBank, in a different language (including double-byte languages such as Chinese).
- MacroView Precedent stores its Answer Files as XML documents in a SharePoint library. This means that the familiar check-in, check-out and version history features of SharePoint are available for Answer Files. It also enables flexible management of Answer Files.
- MacroView Precedent has built-in capability to retrieve variable data from SharePoint Lists. These lists are a business-user-friendly alternative to using Excel worksheets, Word merge files and Access databases to manage the variable data that is relevant to documents.
- The marked up precedent documents can be conveniently deployed and accessed using SharePoint document libraries.
If you have specialized requirements or want to maximize user productivity, MacroView can assist by designing and developing a custom template and macro solution for Microsoft Word, Excel or PowerPoint. MacroView has over 15 years experience and proven expertise with the customization and automation of Microsoft Office. Our custom document automation solutions are in use by organizations around the world and contain design elements such as the following:
- Templates designed to comply with corporate appearance standards (correct placement, font usage, color themes, etc).
- Optimal use of Styles and Numbering.
- Office ribbon and toolbar customization to facilitate use of templates and macros.
- Custom screen dialogs designed to enable full functionality with minimum user input.
- Formatting charts in Excel and diagrams in PowerPoint for inclusion in Word documents.
- Integration with existing databases and line-of- business systems to retrieve details for insertion in documents being generated.
- Integration with Active Directory to retrieve user details, including name, phone, email, etc.
- Automatic saving and profiling of generated document in a Document Management system.
- Use of settings files and XML to enable flexible on-going configuration– e.g. as office locations change, new printers are installed, etc.
Here are some examples of document automation solutions that MacroView has created for its clients:
- Global 2010 Office Template solution for a major international law firm.
- Marketing Proposal solution for a ‘Big 4’ Accounting firm.
- Chart Formatter in Excel for a leading consulting firm.
- Footer macros in Word, Excel and PowerPoint for a legal department.
- Conversion of Word 2003 macros to Word 2010 for a local government authority.
- Document generation system for an insolvency firm.
- Templates in Word, Excel and PowerPoint with extensive macro automation, custom user dialogs and integrations. System was developed in VB .Net and designed to facilitate deployment across offices in 40 countries.
- Automated Word templates for generation of high-quality client reports and submission documents. Ribbon interface for flexible insertion of CVs, Table of Contents, etc.
- Automates the generation of charts with styles and colors in compliance with corporate standards. Generated charts are inserted into Word documents.
- Comprehensive options for placement and content of footers, with both automatic and manual insertion.
- Redevelopment of comprehensive suite of existing VBA macros using a combination of VSTO and VB.Net. MacroView ClauseBank used to minimize project cost.
- Comprehensive suite of templates and macros. Extensive use of styles and document numbering. Generated documents automatically profiled in iManage FileSite.