The appearance of your binder index is key to presenting a professional work product. This guide will walk you through the options to customize the style, design and layout of your index to suit your needs.
Heads-up: These settings only affect the index in the exported binder, not how the binder appears in Legatics.
Prerequisites: You need to have edit permission on the binder
Getting started
Elements
The elements below determine how your binder index will look. Understanding these elements will help you configure a polished and professional-looking index.
This determines how your index is displayed. The:
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The overarching look of the index, including the cover page, headers, footers, and the styling of text and tables, is controlled by the Binder Word template you're using. | |
The display of certain elements, such as the position of numbers and columns, is determined by the layout settings you configure. | |
Numbering | This element is not currently customizable. Currently:
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Configuring each element
In your binder, you can configure the below elements. To do this:
Click on the Configure button at the top of the binder
In the pop-up that appears, make your configurations (see below for more details about each option)
Your changes are saved automatically
Heads-up: If your binder's been generated, any changes to the configuration won’t take effect until you generate the binder again.
Contents style | Table style |
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Style
This determines how data in your binder is displayed, with each style having different layout settings
Contents
The contents style presents your index like a table of contents, with each section or document appearing on its own line.
Table
The table style displays your index in a table, with each section or document appearing on its own row, with sections merged into a single cell.
Template
Templates are Word files that control the overall appearance of your binder index, including the cover page, headers, footers, and the styling of text and tables. System Admins create and manage these templates for your organization.
Change template
When you create a binder, you’ll choose which template to use - but you can also change it to a different one later. To do this:
Click on the Configure button at the top of the binder
Click on the three dots icon in the template section
Select Change template
In the pop-up that appears, select the template you want to use
Edit template file
The templates provided by your template admin are designed to align with your organization's house style. However, if you need to make any adjustments or further customize the template to fit specific needs, you have the flexibility to do so by downloading the template file and editing it in Word.
To do this:
Click on the Configure button at the top of the binder
Click on the three dots icon in the template section
Select Download for editing
The Word file will then download to your computer. You can make extensive customizations to tailor it to your needs. You have the flexibility to modify almost everything in the Word document, including text, layout, and design elements. This allows you to adjust the binder's appearance to match your specific requirements.
However, there are a few things to keep in mind:
Placeholders: Templates will have placeholders (eg
matter_name) that automatically insert specific content into the template when the binder is generated. You can remove or add placeholders, if you want.
Heads-up: Don't remove the binder_index placeholder. Without it, your binder contents won't be imported into the index.
Styles: You can edit the styles used for tables or text, but you'll need to know the styles set in the template. The System Admin should have given the styles clear names (eg Section - Level 1). If they haven't, you'll need to ask them.
Note: If your index is set to table style, you can't change the fill or text colour of sections. This is controlled by the System Admin independently of the Word file.
Upload edited template
Once you've made your edits in Word, you're ready to upload the file back to your binder. To do this:
Click on the Configure button at the top of the binder
Click on the three dots icon in the template section
Select Upload edited template
Select the Word file from your file explorer
Your template file will be saved against the binder, and the name of the template will show as "Custom". Now, preview the index to check everything's working correctly.
Note: If your edited file isn't working as expected, you can always change to a prepared template that has been set up to work properly.
Layout (contents style)
If you're using the contents style index, you've got these settings available to you to control how your binder’s contents are displayed when exported to the index.
Indent content
This controls if sections and documents within your binder are indented to reflect their level in the structure. If turned on, each level is indented by 0.5cm, making it easier to see the hierarchy of sections and documents at a glance.
Right align numbers
This controls whether the numbers in your index (such as document or page numbers) are aligned to the right. Right alignment can improve readability - especially when referring to page numbers in a single PDF export.
Refer to
This controls whether the number shown in the index refers to the document number or the page number where the document starts in a single PDF. Note that:
If you're exporting as a ZIP, this setting has no effect - the index will always refer to document numbers.
If you're exporting as a single PDF, you can choose:
Document number: shows the number assigned to the document in the binder.
Page number: shows the page in the single PDF where the document begins.
Good to know: This setting
looks clearer when numbers are right aligned
is ignored when you preview the binder
Separator
This controls what visual line appears between the document name and the number in your index. It’s a simple way to improve readability and make your index feel more polished. You can choose from the following styles:
Dotted (
........)Dashed (
------)Underline (
______)
Good to to know: This is only available if right-align numbers is turned on
Layout (table style)
If you're using the table style, the layout is fixed to the two columns below. Users can’t currently customize this column structure.
Column | Explanation |
No | Contains the number of the document |
Document | Contains the name given to the document in the binder |
Next steps
Preview index: Once you’re happy with your index configurations, you can preview how it will appear.
Configure format: When everything looks right, you’re ready to move on and configure how the binder file itself will be formatted.