Tip #133 - Use Adobe Pro to “Bates Stamp” Your PDF Documents in SmartAdvocate

Most litigation attorneys (certainly those who do Depositions and Trials) routinely have documents such as medical records, etc., “Bates Stamped” or “Bates Numbered.” While SmartAdvocate itself does not apply Bates Numbering to documents, this can easily be done using Adobe Pro. Most users can apply Bates Numbering to any PDF document in SmartAdvocate in a matter of seconds.

Here are the steps you can take to apply “Bates Numbering” to your PDF document in SmartAdvocate. (Depending on your version of Adobe Pro, your screens may look slightly different from some of the screenshots shown below. Simply locate the features described in your version of Adobe Pro.)

Scan (using the SmartAdvocate Barcode feature) or attach your PDF document to the file in SmartAdvocate (e.g., medical records). If you are working with a document already saved to the case in SmartAdvocate, then start at step 2 below.

2. Your scanned document will appear in the Documents section of the case file in SmartAdvocate. If you need to have a Word document “Bates Numbered,” you can easily convert it to the PDF format right from the Documents section of the file in SmartAdvocate. Simply right click on the document and choose ‘Copy as PDF’. (If you want to keep an ‘original’ copy of the document without the Bates Numbering, it is suggested that you make a copy of the document first. Simply right click on the document on the Documents Page and choose the ‘copy’ option. This will create a copy of the document that will have the description ‘Copy of [name of the original file].).

3. Open the document as you normally would in SmartAdvocate (i.e., double click on the document, right click on the document and choose open from the drop down or click the ‘action’ icon and click open from the drop down).

4. Your document will open in Adobe Pro (this feature is only available in Adobe Pro, not the free version of Adobe Reader. Also, Adobe Pro must be installed on your local computer and be the default PDF editor).

5. If you have not already done so, it is suggested that you customize your Adobe Pro Tool Bar so that the Bates Stamp icon appears on the tool bar (you will only need to do this step once).

6. Click on the “Bates Numbering” icon and choose “Add Bates Numbering” from the drop down.

7. Click on the “Add Files” tab and then choose “Add Open Files” to add the current document to the list.

8. Click the “Output Options” and make any appropriate selections as shown in the screenshot below:

a. For Target Folder choose “The Same Folder Selected at Start”

b. For File Naming choose “Keep original file names”

c. Check the box for “Overwrite existing files”

d. Click the “Ok” button to save your changes

9. Click the “Appearance Options” tab to make your selection(s) as to how you want the Bates Number to appear on your document.

10. After you have made your selections for your options, you will see a ‘preview’ of how the Bates Numbering will appear on your document.

11. You may want to save your settings so that you can select those settings from your drop down in the future.

12. Click ‘OK’ in the bottom right corner of the screen to save your work and save the document with the Bates Numbering Applied.

13. Your finished document is automatically saved in the Document section of the file in SmartAdvocate.