In addition, a pasted symbol may disrupt a whole paragraph by altering font, style, and more. A symbol copied from a heading or a bulleted list carries some of that formatting code with it when pasted in a different place. The problem with copying and pasting a symbol is that you may also be pasting formatting settings. Many lawyers try to save time by copying a symbol from another document or earlier in the document. Knowing the right keyboard shortcuts for legal symbols reduces the chance of errors and the extra stress that comes with them. Not using keyboard shortcuts means that you risk inserting the wrong symbol. Knowing your keyboard shortcuts for legal symbols means that lawyers can get the correct symbol on the first try. Keyboard shortcuts for legal symbols also prevent unnecessary errors. Keyboard shortcuts for legal symbols prevent you from stopping your flow of writing by quickly getting your symbol on the page without stopping. Inserting the symbol becomes an interruption and will likely cause you to lose your train of thought. Imagine speeding through a crucial paragraph only to have to stop, remove your hands from the keyboard, and spend time searching for the symbol you need. However, manually inserting a special symbol can disrupt the flow of your writing. Using keyboard shortcuts lets you speed up your drafting. There are several reasons to learn and use keyboard shortcuts. Mac has simpler keyboard shortcuts for these symbols. While Windows’ Alt keyboard combinations are vast, there are only a few symbols needed in legal document drafting. This would create the section symbol (§) in your text. Next, type the numbers, “0167,” and then release the Alt key. For the section symbol on a Windows computer, you would press and hold the Alt key. In Windows, you press and hold the Alt key and then type the numerical sequence listed in the table above. The faster way is to just press the Option+6 buttons on your Mac keyboard.īoth Mac and Windows computers have keyboard shortcuts already built in.

For example, when you need to include the section symbol in a brief, you can take the following steps in Word: Inserting special symbols without a keyboard shortcut requires a lot of extra clicking around, which is tedious and time-consuming. Keyboard shortcuts are a combination of keys that insert a special character or trigger a special action within a computer program.

Windows keyboard symbol shortcuts