Creating Fillable Forms Outside of the Forms Library

To set up forms, you can buy a library of forms from one of the many vendors that have created legal forms, or you can create a form in Microsoft Word or WordPerfect using their extended merging capabilities.

The following describes how to set up forms with Word and WordPerfect.

Setting Up a Form with MS Word

  1. Create the source file and save it in two locations:

    (1) Abacus\v23\data01\Forms\Source\<appropriate category folder>, and

    (2) Abacus\v23\data01\Forms\Library\<appropriate category folder>

    Note that you are adding the source file to the Source folder for safe keeping in case the background changes. But you will work with the file in the Library folder to convert it to a fillable form.

  2. From a Name window or Matter window, click the Print button on the toolbar and select Form Generation > Create MS Word Form. (This option only appears if Word is set up as your word processor in User Preferences.)

  3. The Select an MSWord Document window appears. Select the source file in the Library folder and click Open. Abacus will run your word processor and bring up your document and the Mail Merge toolbar.

  4. Highlight the text you want to replace (i.e. client name and address) and click Insert Merge Field.

  5. Locate the corresponding merge field and click to replace the existing text. TIP: Use "Client_Address" to replace an entire name and address block.

  6. If you need to include data that is not listed as a merge field, you will need to edit your ALF file.

  7. When you have inserted all the necessary fields into your document, select File > Save As and save it as a ".dot" file. The .dot file extension tells Word to use this file as a template. Next time you use it, it will automatically create a form letter and merge your client/matter information with the form.

Setting Up a Form with WordPerfect

Following are instructions for setting up a form with WordPerfect version 8. Other versions are very similar.

To create a form (template):

  1. In WordPerfect select File > New, a new window appears.

  2. In the new window click Options, and then click Create WP Template.

  3. Fill out the body of the template, but at this time do not add any merge fields.

  4. Now save your template, giving it a name and description. NOTE: Corel will save this template in the Templates folder under the main Corel folder.

To set the merge fields for the form (template):

  1. In Abacus, select Names > View a Record to display any name. (The name isn't important at this time.)

  2. Click the Print button on the toolbar.

  3. Select Form generation > Create WordPerfect Form (If this isn't an option you then need to make sure your Word Processor is set to WordPerfect in the Abacus User Preferences.)

  4. When the Select a Form/Template window appears, highlight your template and click Open. Abacus will now start loading WordPerfect for you.

To edit the document in WordPerfect:

  1. With WordPerfect now open and the template loaded, select Tools > Merge.

  2. Click Create Document, and another window asks if you want to use the file in the active window. Click OK.

  3. Click the folder next to Associate a Data File.

  4. Open the Abacus folder (where Abacus is installed), then open the Lawtemp sub-directory.

  5. The file you are looking for is Law_XXX.dat (with XXX being your user initials). Highlight this file and then click Open.

  6. Click OK in the Associate Form window.

  7. After associating the data a new toolbar appears in WordPerfect. To insert the merge fields into the document, click Insert Field. A new window appears with all of the merge fields from Abacus.

  8. After entering all of the merge fields in the document, save it with a different file name since this document will be specific for your user initials.

  9. Close the form.