Notes on filling documents

Practical writing on document automation for offices: keeping your formatting, reading data out of photos and scans, and skipping the retyping.

2026-08-14

What is document automation? A plain-language guide

Document automation explained in plain language: what it is, how mail merge, questionnaire tools and in-place filling differ, and how a small office chooses.

2026-08-11

Why your Word template’s formatting breaks with mail merge (and how to keep it)

Dates that arrive as 1995-10-22 00:00:00, currency as 12.00: why mail merge loses formatting, the field-code fix Microsoft documents, when mail merge is still right, and the in-place alternative.

2026-08-07

Document automation for small law offices without changing your templates

Most document automation asks you to rebuild your templates as questionnaires with tagged variables. There is another way: fill the documents you already have, from the materials that actually arrive.

2026-08-04

How to automatically fill Word documents from a photo of an ID

A practical guide to turning a phone photo of an identity document into a correctly filled Word document: what recognition can read, how to review the result, and how to handle a client’s ID responsibly.