Setting up Word styles in document containers

If you or your firm have an existing Word document that contains specific styles, there are two ways to bring this through to Smokeball:

1. Modifying each style level in each document container as required, as outlined in Change fonts, margins and styles on document containers.
2. Copying your styles from an existing Word document, which this article focuses on.

Copying your styles from an existing Word document

Step 1: Save your Smokeball Letter document container to your desktop

1. In the Smokeball desktop app, select the gear icon in the top-right corner to enter Smokeball Settings.
2. Select the Document Containers tab from the left menu. Right-click on the relevant container (i.e. Letter) and select Modify.
   
3. The container will open in Word. Select File, then Save As.
4. When saving, leave the Save as type as Word Template. Save the document container to your desktop for easy access.
   
5. Close the document container and exit Smokeball Settings.

Step 2: Save a Word document with your firm's Word styles on the desktop

Move your firm's existing Word styles document to your desktop and rename the document (e.g. 'Your Firm's Styles') to make it easier to differentiate it from the Smokeball Letter in Step 1.

You will now have the two documents on your desktop:

• The document you will be copying the styles from (e.g. Your Firm's Styles.docx)
• The document you will be copying the styles to (e.g. Letter.dotx)

Step 3: Copy the styles from your firm's Word document to the document container file

1. Open the Word document that holds all your firm's styles (i.e. Your Firm's Styles.docx).
2. On the Home ribbon (toolbar at the top of Word), select the arrow icon to expand the Styles panel. This will open the Styles panel to the right of your document.
   
3. Select the Manage Styles icon at the bottom of the Styles Panel.
   
4. In the Manage Styles window, select Import/Export in the bottom-left corner.
   
5. The Organiser window will open, where you will copy the styles from your firm's document over to the document container file. 
   

   

   • The styles listed on the left column are the current document's styles (i.e. Your Firm's Styles.docx).
   • The styles listed on the right column are for the Word global template. The goal is to replace this with the letter container.
6. Select Close File on the right column, under the Word global template.
   
7. Select Open File and choose your document container file (that you saved to your desktop from Step 1). Select Open.
   

   

8. The document container styles will now be listed in the right column. 
   

   

9. Now it's time to select the styles you wish to copy over. Hold Ctrl on your keyboard and click on all the styles from your firm's document that you wish to copy over to the document container.
10. Select Copy. This will copy all selected styles to the right column (your document container file).
    

    

11. Select Yes to All if Word prompts you to overwrite an existing style entry.
    

    

12. Select Close on the bottom right corner of the Organiser window.
13. Close the document and Save it when prompted.
    

    

Your styles have now been copied over to your document container file.

Step 4: Replace the Smokeball document container

The final step involves adding the updated document container to Smokeball Settings, in order to replace the existing document container with the new one.

1. In the Smokeball desktop app, select the gear icon in the top-right corner to enter Smokeball Settings.
2. Select the Document Containers tab from the left menu, then select Add.
3. Select Browse your computer and choose your updated document container on your desktop.
4. Name the document container (i.e. New Letter) and select Create.
   
5. Back on the Document Containers tab, right-click on your existing container (e.g. Letter), and select Replace With Another Container.
   
6. Click on the new container from the list and select Replace.
   

   

7. The document container will open in Modify mode. Ensure your cursor is at the start of the <<Body Content>> field and select Save & Close.
   
8. Your existing document container is now updated. You can now delete the new document container from the Document Containers tab by right-clicking it and selecting Delete.
   
   
   

You can now test your document container by creating a blank letter or opening a Smokeball Precedent/firm Precedent that uses this document container.