Storybuilder Drafts

Storybuilder Drafts give your team a collaborative space to create written work product that references and directly links to evidence and Facts in Everlaw. Drafts can be used to outline case strategy, to create a template for depositions, or for any document you would like your team to work on together.

A lot of functionality in a Draft mirrors that of a Deposition. When appropriate, this article will link to relevant instructions in articles about Deposition.

Requirements

To access a Draft, you must meet one of the following:

• Be the creator
• Have Admin permission for Storybuilder
• Have the Draft shared with you. You can have one of the following permission  levels:
  • View: View the Draft, but make no edits
  • Edit: View and edit the Draft. If a user also has Edit or Full Access permission on the Story, they can add evidence to the Draft that isn't already on the Evidence page.
  • Full access: View, edit, share, and delete the Draft. If a user also has Edit or Full Access permission on the Story, they can add evidence that isn't already on the Evidence page.

Create a Draft

Users with Create permission for Storybuilder can create a new Draft. This can be done from the Homepage or from within Storybuilder:

1. From the Homepage: Select the + next to the Storybuilder column header, then New Draft.
   
   From Storybuilder: Select Drafts on the Storybuilder navigation bar to get to the Drafts page, Then, select + New Draft. 
   
   
   This opens a dialog to create a new Draft.

2. [If creating from the Homepage] Select the Story for your Draft. If you want to create one independent of any Story, select (No Story).

   Note

   If you have not had the Story shared with you yet, you will not see an option to add the Draft to a Story. If you make a Draft that is not in a Story, you cannot move it into one later.

3. Give your Draft a name in the Name field. 
4. Select Create. This creates the Draft and adds it as a label for use throughout Storybuilder.

You can also create a new Draft from the Evidence page within Storybuilder. To do so, select the plus next to the Drafts label header and enter a name for your Draft.

This both creates a new label and a new Draft.

You can import existing documents into a Draft, as long as they are in DOCX format.

Access your Drafts

Your Drafts, and any Drafts shared with you, are in the Drafts tab of your story, as well as on the homepage in the Storybuilder column.

To view Drafts on your story's Drafts tab:

1. Go to Storybuilder > Drafts 

   Tip

   You can filter Drafts on the Drafts tab by their name, or their owner’s name.

2. To open a Draft, select the associated card.
   Depending on your permission level, you may be able to view Drafts, view and edit Drafts, or have full sharing and deleting permissions on top of viewing and editing.

Collaboration

By default, a Draft is only visible to the creator of the Draft and users with Admin access to the Story. You can invite collaborators by sharing the Draft and determining the level of access for the Draft.

If the Draft is open, select the Share button in the top right corner. 

You can also share from the card on the Draft page by selecting the three-dot menu > Share. 

This opens a dialog to share the Draft and determine the permission level you share it with.

There are detailed instructions on how to share in our Introduction to Depositions article.

Collaborate via folders

One additional way to collaborate is to add your Draft to a homepage folder that you are working on with your team. To do so:

1. Select the Add or remove from folders   button.
   
   This opens a list of folders that you have Edit or Full access permission on.
2. Select the checkbox for the folder(s) to add the Draft to.
   Deselect the checkbox for any folders that you want to remove the Draft from.
   
3. When you're done, select Save. This adds the Draft to the selected folder(s) and removes it from any that you deselected.

Learn more about homepage folders in our Homepage Views and Folders article.

Edit a Draft

Use the format bar to change text’s format, add highlights, and add hyperlinks. 

You can also add numbered lists, bulleted lists, and outline lists. To further format your lists:

• Press tab or click the indent button to create a sub bullet
• Unindent by holding shift and pressing tab or by clicking the unindent button

Import a DOCX file

You can import work you have done outside of Storybuilder. To Import a DOCX file into your Draft:

1. Select Import in the toolbar. 
   
   This opens a dialog to add the DOCX file.
2. Add your DOCX file. You can browse or drag and drop.
3. When you're ready, select Import.
   If your imported document includes formatting that is available in Drafts, that formatting will be preserved upon import.

Headings and Navigation

Headers and Outline lists allow you to create automatic entries in the navigation panel. These entries serve as document checkpoints, like a table of contents for your document, and allow you to jump to specific portions of your document. 

To automatically generate a table of contents from headers and items in an Outline list, select the Navigation button from the toolbar. This opens a Navigation panel on the left of the Draft.

To use the Navigation panel:

• Select a line item's caret button to expand, locate, and select sub-bullets
• Select anything in the navigation panel to jump to it in the body of the Draft
• If you adjust your Draft by adding or removing headers or lists, the navigation panel will update automatically, indicated by the status pending

Create and edit tables

You can add tables to Storybuilder Drafts to organize information and evidence.

There are three ways to add a table:

• Select the table button  from the toolbar.
  By default, a new table is three columns by three rows.  Select the caret instead of the table button to specify the number of rows or columns in your table. 
  

  Note

  There is a limit of 100 rows and 50 columns when you insert a table.

• Import a Word document including a table
• Paste a table from your clipboard

To edit your table:

1. Select one or more cells in your table.
2. Select the three-dot menu that appears in that cell.
3. From the menu that appears, select how to edit your table:
   • Insert row above inserts a row above your selected cell
   • Insert row below inserts a row below your selected cell
   • Insert column left inserts a column to the left of your selected cell
   • Insert column right inserts a column to the right of your selected cell
   • Insert multiple rows/columns opens a dialog in which you can specify the number of rows and/or columns to add and where to add them relative to the selected cell. Enter these values then select Add to complete the insertion.
     
   • Delete row(s) or Delete column(s) deletes the row(s) or column(s) you have selected
   • If multiple cells are selected:
     Merge cells combines them into one cell
     Unmerge cells uncombines previously merged cells.
     If you merge multiple cells that contain text and then unmerge them, all the text will stay in either the leftmost or topmost cell after unmerging the cells.
   • Toggle header row changes the background of the top row gray and bolds its text. The header row becomes frozen to the page.
   • Toggle header column changes the background of the leftmost column gray and bolds its text
   • Both a row and a column can be headers at the same time.
     Select Toggle header row or Toggle header column again to change the row/column back to normal.
   • Delete Table deletes the table
   • Undo reverts the previous edit

View edit history

To view a full history of a Draft:

1. Open the Draft.
2. From the toolbar, select the History button.
   
   This opens the History panel, where you can see the date and time information of the previously saved versions of the Draft, as well as the name of the user responsible for the saved changes.
   
   To see what the Draft looked like at a prior point in time, select the version you want to see. If you select Revert, your Draft will change to reflect the previous version you have selected. The overwritten version will be saved in the history of the Draft. 

Evidence panel

The evidence panel is located on the right side of the page. The panel includes any documents, document highlights, and testimony added to your Draft.

Drafts allow you to include evidence as references that directly link to those sources, bookmark specific pages of documents, and publish the evidence references to PDF alongside the text you have written in the body of the Draft. 

When a document is added to your Evidence panel, you can preview it without leaving the Draft. To do so, either double click the document "chip" in the panel or within the body of the Draft, or select the chip and then the Preview button . This opens the document in a Quick Review window, with all its Story Details displayed in a side panel.

Evidence can be added to a Draft in any of the following ways:

• The review window: Add documents and document highlights into a Deposition
• The results table, via a batch action: Add documents into a Deposition
• Your Evidence page, using the Deposition label: Add documents, document highlights, and testimony in to a Deposition
• From the transcript of a completed deposition: Add testimony into a Deposition
• Within the Draft: Type or paste Bates/Control numbers or testimony citations into the Draft, or add them from the Evidence panel

You can learn more about working with your evidence panel in our Deposition Preparation article. That article describes how to:

• Add documents and testimony citations as evidence from within the Draft
• Sort and filter evidence
• Reference evidence in the Draft body
• Add bookmarks to documents

Exhibits 

Within Drafts, you can view and export any evidence referenced in your Draft. To view the Exhibits, select Exhibits.

Here, you can configure your potential exhibit list and format your information so that it is suitable to bring to a deposition.

You can learn more about this in our Exhibits in Depositions and Drafts article.

Facts

Facts from your Fact timeline likely have lots of important and useful information: people who were involved, relevant Evidence, and details about how the Fact relates to the case overall. When you're writing up a Draft, it can be useful to pull that information together without having to rewrite it. To do so, you can add Facts into the Facts panel and then reference them in the body of your Draft.

To add a Fact to a Draft:

1. In the side panel, select Facts to open the Facts tab.
   
2. At the bottom of the tab, select + Add Facts.
   
   This opens the Add Facts dialog.
3. Using the checkboxes, select the Fact(s) you want to add.
   
4. When ready, select Review.
5. Review your selection. Then select Add.
   
   This closes the dialog. The Fact(s) are added to the Fact list in the side panel.

Use Facts 

To add a Fact to the body of your Draft, select its plus button, or drag and drop it into the text editor.

Any Evidence that is associated with a Fact referenced in your Draft is displayed in the Exhibits view, and can be exported as part of an exhibits export. To learn more about exhibits, see our Exhibits in Depositions and Drafts article. 

Copy and Export a Draft

Copying a Draft will create a new Draft with the contents of the version you are copying, retaining any document associations. This new Draft will be associated with the same Story. Select Copy, give your new Draft a name, and click Create to duplicate your Draft. 

There are a number of options for exporting a Draft.

• Word Document: Exports your Draft as a Microsoft Word file. Any documents referenced by Bates/Control # in your Draft are exported as links to those documents within Everlaw. Any testimony will be linked and will redirect you back to the associated transcript if clicked.
• PDF: Exports your Draft as a PDF file. Any documents referenced by Bates/Control # in your Draft are exported as links to those documents within Everlaw. Any testimony will be linked and will redirect you back to the associated transcript if clicked.
• PDF (With Images): Exports your Draft as a PDF file. The images of any documents and testimony referenced by Bates/Control # in your Draft are included at the end of the PDF file. You will have the option to stamp Bates numbers and add any necessary slipsheets with the included documents. Within the body of the exported Draft, the document and testimony references are hyperlinked to the pages with their respective images. This way, you can access them easily from within the exported PDF file. A document with multiple highlights will only be included once in the export, with highlight story details appearing alongside document story details. 

Draft Settings

Word Count

Word count is turned on by default in all Drafts. To turn it off, select Settings and switch off Word count.

Here are some additional details about word count:

• Anyone with access to a Draft can see the word count
• URLs are counted as one word
• Bates/Control numbers are counted as one word
• Document citations are counted by the number of words in the document title 

Link Bates/control numbers and testimony citations 

Requirements:  Those with Edit permission on both the Deposition and the Story can adjust the auto-convert setting.

By default, Auto-link Bates numbers and testimony references is switched on for each Storybuilder Draft. This means that when you type a Bates/Control number or testimony citation, it is automatically turned into a reference that links to the evidence. To adjust this setting, select Settings, then switch off Auto-link Bates numbers and testimony references. 

Changing this setting updates it for all others on the Draft. The setting affects future text written after the point that it’s toggled, but it will not retroactively convert/link (or unconvert/unlink) text or documents.

If the auto-link setting is toggled off, you will see a blue underline and suggestion to convert the text to a reference when Everlaw detects a valid Bates/Control number or testimony citation. Select Convert to document/Link testimony to turn this evidence into a reference. For documents, this adds the referenced document to the Deposition, as well as the Evidence page.