This past fall Mr. BIL asked me if I’d considered creating form templates for a bunch of our firm’s legal documents. Despite knowing nothing about the software, I agreed but warned him that I could only work on that project in my downtime.
Well, “downtime” doesn’t really exist in my job – certainly not the kind of downtime required to not just create templates but learn the software that creates the templates. You can watch a movie all about the software right here. I love how that movie makes it seem like creating templates is as easy as 1-2-3.
It’s not.
Especially when you don’t have a manual or tutor to teach you the ins and outs of how to do it.
But this past fall I messed around during a couple hours of downtime and learned the basics of navigating through the software to create a basic template form document. It was pure luck that I figured it out.
Cut to: yesterday morning. One of our paralegals has some downtime and volunteered for projects. Mr. BIL thought this project would be perfect for her. So he called me into his office, asked me to train the paralegal on the software, and asked if I could have her trained by the end of this week.
Uh. Sure.
So this morning she and I sat down and I immediately realized that whatever process I taught myself in the fall was long since pushed out of my head by other, more pertinent information. I spent an hour at her desk just trying to figure out if I could remember anything! I told her I’d be back, and came to my desk where I could fiddle with the software without someone watching my every move. Within 30 minutes I figured out all the steps required for a BASIC form template.
But then it was time for the paralegal to go to a paralegal luncheon. Then just as she got back it was time for ME to go to lunch. So once I came back I sat with her and showed her what I learned. Then I had her do it herself. She wrote copious notes and seems like she’ll be okay. I took the time this morning to teach myself a few more advanced functions which would help make her document that much more complete, but when I showed it to her it was as though her eyes glazed over.
“You figured that out on your own?” she asked incredulously.
“Yeah, I just messed around with it until I got the result I wanted.”
“I could never do that. You deserve a gold star today.”
“Thanks – tell that to Mr. BIL.”
Truth be told, I’m kind of sad that this project was given to the paralegal – because it’s right up my alley. I love learning new software, and once I learned the basics and those few more advanced functions, it TOTALLY made me wish I could delve deeper and do even *more* advanced functions. With any luck, the paralegal will want those done and will come ask for my help.