NB. This article is a guide students participating in the UCL Moot competitions. However, this article does show Casedo’s extensive features in detail and can be used by students as a point of reference when using Casedo for their studies. This article does not cover all Casedo’s features and covers only the relevant features for creating a moot bundle.
Casedo has many exciting features to enable you to create a fast and effective mooting bundle in just minutes. You can do this in 8 simple steps.
1. Create a new case file
You can create a new case file by clicking on the ‘New Case’ option located in the File menu on the toolbar. You can save that for example as ‘Exemplar Bundle – JMC Semi-Final 2020’ and press ‘Create’ or whichever name you prefer.
This will open an empty Casedo casefile as shown below.
2. Import your skeleton argument
Now that you have your new case file, now it is recommended to first import your skeleton argument so that you can start to categorise and organise your documents based on how you’ve organised your argument.
To import your skeleton argument simply click on one of the import buttons located in your Desk Space.
Then locate your skeleton argument and select ‘Open’.
You will now be able to locate your document in your Desk Space as shown.
You will now be able to locate your document in your Desk Space as shown.
3. Import the relevant documents
Repeat the steps shown above to upload the rest of your documents. Such as your case law, Statutory instruments, Reports and other related documents.
You can also import multiple documents at once as shown below.
4. Organise your documents
There are many ways to organise your documents, this is simply for illustrative purposes and you should feel free to organise it however you feel most confident. However, make sure to make it easy to follow for more effective signposting.
After having imported the relevant documents into your mooting bundle, you now have to organise them and categorise your imports for faster and easier navigation.
How to organise your files into separate folders:
Repeat this until your files are fully categorised under separate tabs, each tab shall include a separate authority as shown below.
5. Annotate your documents
Now that you’ve imported and categorised your documents, you can proceed to the marking up stage. You can now highlight, insert comments, linking between pages, and bookmark your documents.
A. Highlighting
With Casedo, you can use different colours to highlight text on your documents and isolate key areas that you can revisit easily.
To highlight select the text you want to highlight and select a colour from the options that pop out, then simply click on one of the options and the text will highlight accordingly, you can then quickly find highlighted items in your documents.
You can also remove highlighting by clicking on the highlighted text you want to remove (you do not need to select the whole text), and selecting the option on the far right of the pop up to remove the highlight.
B. Comments
With Casedo you can write up your thoughts and have them appear right next to the most relevant area of your documents. This is supplements the highlighting and bookmarking functions and can assist you in navigating through large files, and visiting each and every important segment when needed.
To add a comment box simply select a comment box from the bottom right-hand side of the screen and drag it anywhere onto the right side of the document (Must be dropped inside the document and not outside), and then insert your text inside and click anywhere outside the comment box, as shown below.
You can then add or remove the text whenever you wish, just double click on the comment box itself and edit as necessary.
If you also wish to delete the comment simply press on the comment box and select the delete option on the bottom left of the screen.
C. Links
With Casedo you can add links to your files to navigate your way through your case in a time-efficient manner. Links create a cross-reference between two parts of your Case.
To add links you simply drag the link icon located on the top right side of your screen, onto the chosen place on your page. You will then see the other link appear underneath the link icon.
To complete the created link, drag the dotted link icon that appeared after you placed the first link, place it to another part of your bundle. This will allow you to navigate to either end of the link by simply double-clicking on the link created.
When you have a second viewer open, you have the option to drag links between the viewers by simply dragging the link selected and placing it on the second viewer.
To delete links delete both ends of the links as shown.
D. Bookmarks
With Casedo you can add bookmarks throughout your documents, and label them as you see fit. With this, you can break down files and access the key areas with ease.
To add a bookmark simply select the bookmark tab on the top left of the screen and drag it anywhere on the document to insert the bookmark (you must click and drag onto the document and not outside).
This will instantly bookmark the specific segment of your document and pop up underneath the file. You can now label the bookmark and have easy access to important areas.
To remove bookmarks, just click on the bookmark tab itself and delete. You will be asked to confirm that you want to delete the bookmark every time, simply select yes if you wish to delete, or no if you have changed your mind.
6. Paginate your documents
Pagination can become quite complex in longer legal documents. To deal with this, Casedo has developed a number of features that can cope with a wide a variety of pagination styles. However, for the UCL Mooting competitions you are requested to just use the simple pagination toggle switch as described below.
To turn on the pagination simply click on the toggle switch as shown.
After it is turned on, it should look like this.
You will now see that document pages will all be numbered as shown.
7. Create a Table of Contents
After having paginated your casefile, you can create a table of contents. This means that Casedo will automatically generate a folder to include all of the titles of your files and folders commenced with their page numbers.
1. Press the “create a table of contents” located in the Desk Space.
2. This will generate a Table of Contents the Desk Space.
You will now see that document pages will all be numbered as shown.
3. Simply drag and place it at the top of your casefile (or anywhere else you want), and it should look roughly like this.
If you change the contents of your casefile, then simply press the ‘redo’ button located next in your index, or on top of the folder in the document viewer.
You can use the three vertical dots on the top right of the Table of Contents to toggle a drop down menu. You can use this to choose which annotations you’d like to show in your bundle.
You could, for example, choose to show highlights and bookmarks. This can be hugely helpful when you’re navigating your Casefile when you’re presenting your argument in the moot.
8. Full bundle
After having imported all your cases and legislation, renamed them accordingly, and created a table of contents, you’ll have a complete bundle fully paginated. The pagination will start from the first legislation or tab 1, and extending all the way through.
You will also have a table of contents to refer back to and navigate quickly to whichever file/folder you want. These features will also enable you to track at what pages your cases start, or your legislation. For example, you will now know which page your case law starts.
