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Step 2: Converting Appendix Materials to PDF.
Do not scan appendix materials unless you have to.
One of the most frequent reasons that briefs are rejected is that the appendix materials have been
scanned even though these materials are available in electronic format. The rules require that all
documents available in electronic format be converted directly to PDF (i.e. saved as a PDF on
the computer rather than being scanned using a scanner or photocopier). Scanning documents
creates large file sizes. This means that you may exceed the file size limits for the electronic
filing system. In addition, portable electronic devices like iPads, iPhones,and Kindles may be
slow to display or process scanned files. Scanned documents are also not searchable unless you
use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software to make them searchable. OCR software is
often not accurate, meaning that the justices and their staff may not be able to find what they are
looking for with a computer search when you scan your documents.
Use websites to obtain free electronic copies of court opinions, statutes and
other legal authorities.
Most legal authorities can be found online in electronic format and saved as a text file (e.g.
Word) and then converted directly to PDF. Or they may be available as a PDF. For example,
Texas appellate courts post their opinions online in HTML and PDF formats. Instead of scanning
the paper copy of a court of appeals opinion, use the electronic version available for free on the
court’s website. Texas statutes are also available in Word and PDF format online for free through
the Legislature’s website at http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/.
Use Westlaw or Lexis to download legal resources in PDF.
Instead of scanning legal resources, you can obtain them in the PDF format from Westlaw or
Lexis. You can download cases, statutes, and just about in other legal resource as a PDF or have
it emailed to you. The great thing about getting the PDF from Westlaw or Lexis is that the cases
or statutes will contain hyperlinks to the legal sources they cite, saving the justices and their staff
time and effort when researching your case.
Convert web pages directly to PDF using Adobe PDFMaker in Internet
Explorer.
If you have Adobe Acrobat, use the Adobe PDFMaker in Internet Explorer to convert web pages
directly to PDF instead of printing them out and scanning them. PDFMaker will save the web
page as a PDF and will preserve the hyperlinks on the web page. There are two tabs in the
Internet Explorer menu bar—Convert and Select. The Convert tab lets you to convert the entire
web page to PDF. The Select tab lets you select portions of the page to convert to PDF.