Perfect Authority misses citations, how to add a dictionary entry

1 users found this article helpful

Overview:

Perfect Authority is a tool which can automatically build a Table of Authorities for certain types of legal documents. It recognizes keywords and structures in the document based on the specifications of either the Harvard Blue Book or the California Style Manual.

Symptoms:

In some cases, a type of citation may not be detected in Perfect Authority.

Cause:

Either the correct rule book is not selected, or one may need to add / adjust a dictionary entry.

Resolution:

  1. Note the entry that is missing from the list of cases, statutes, etc. Ideally, print the page with the citation so that you have it for exact reference during this process.
  2. Open Perfect Authority by clicking on its icon (Perfect Authority Icon) on the WordPerfect toolbar.
  3. Click Edit and ensure that the Form of Citation is set correctly for your region, either Harvard Blue Book or California Style Manual.  Click OK
  4. Use the Type dropdown to select the type of citation (Case, History, Legislative, Service, Statute Constitution, or Statute) which is missing
  5. Dropdown the list of Entry names. You may find the entry name present, but with slightly different spacing.
    • If so, click the + beside "Valid Names" and add the valid name for this form.  For example, if A.2d is the form, but you normally type it as "A.2d." or "A. 2d", add the appropriate form to the list.
    • Click OK
    • Try generating a new Table of Authorities
  6. If you don't find your entry, you can create an entirely new one:
    • Click the + beside "Entry Name"
    • Put the new entry in the pop-up box, for example "A.3d" and click OK
    • Try generating a new Table of Authorities

Note, this method works for the other category types.  You can also add forms which Perfect Authority should specifically ignore using the "incorrect names" box.

Was this article helpful?

Tell us how we can improve it.