The emphasis of information technology is changing.

We are all spending more and more on computerisation, but in a sense this is an indication of how acceptable it has all become.

Progressive firms may be busy installing the latest models, while smaller firms, tempted by ever falling prices, are stepping in for the first time, but overall we are now all using the same sort of systems.

What is different is the move towards extending the technology beyond the secretary's desk and onto the fee-earner's.The ratio of fee-earners to secretaries in the USA is 2:1, compared with virtual parity in the UK.

The difference is simply that US lawyers are as much as five years ahead in terms of their willingness to install and make use of PCs on their desks for simple word processing.A little skill can go a long way, and a few hours spent learning more about your office word processor will be repaid many times over.

Even if you elect to do no word processing yourself, an acquaintance with the technology can help you to manage your secretarial costs.For example, you have an urgent letter which must be faxed tonight.

You know it is on the computer but the draft you have is riddled with mistakes.

Do you keep your secretary back on overtime? Or is there an alternative? You know in theory that your secretary's PC can produce a perfect top copy at the press of a few buttons.

But can you persuade it to do so for you? It is a matter of finding the magic sequence.

Find the power switch.

'Log on'.

Run the program.

Find the right directory and trace your file.

Check it is the right version.

Find the defective wording and swap it all around a bit.

Run the spell checker.

Save the file and print it.All of this can be done within about 30 keystrokes by someone who knows what they are doing.

To an inexperienced operator, the simplest task is riddled with traps and pitfalls.

But many solicitors now use a computer in every area of their day-to-day work, and confess to feeling quite lost without it.Lawyers are judged by their ability to craft the spoken and written word, so a machine called a word processor should be their natural ally.

Using a WP will change the nature of both your job and your practice; it can increase your billing/costs ratio; you will not end up being a secretary; and you will be a better drafter.

It will also change the whole nature of the way you work with your secretary, to the ultimate benefit of you both.Many people confuse word processing with typing.

The simple transcription of dictation or handwritten notes to the keyboard is most cost-effectively achieved by a secretary.

Clearly the degree to which a word processor can help solicitors depends on the type of work they do.

Simple items such as brief hand-written attendance notes or short dictated letters may well be most efficiently left as they are.If your work involves pleadings, briefs to counsel, affidavits, etc, which require analysis of complex issues, then word processors may b e beneficial.

A 'hands on' approach by the fee-earner can produce a letter of advice for a client which is a well-structured, accurate, coherent piece of narrative that lays out your analysis of the facts; the points of law; your assumptions and deductions arising from it; and the conclusions you have come to as a result.The clarity of the end result is in direct proportion to the effort that goes into the drafting, and there may well be scope for savings here.

The traditional drafting method involves a sort of duet between lawyer and secretary.

You might dictate the first draft from random notes, or scribble it over several pages of disjointed longhand.

Your secretary puts it on his or her word processor; and returns to you a printed version, which you barely recognise as your own work.

You re-arrange and re-structure it, using a thick blue pencil, and lots of circles, long wavy lines and arrows.

Your secretary interprets your instructions, and passes the result back to you.

The process is repeated three or four times until you end up with something with which you are happy.Part of the problem with this approach is that every time you lose sight of the document your train of thought is interrupted.

But, if you are prepared to, you can 'word process' the initial draft to finished document in one pass.

By marking and moving blocks of text on the screen-based document the whole process can be as fast as sketching your intentions on paper with the blue pencil.

It will save time on a succession of redrafts, take none of your secretary's time apart from keying in the initial draft; and generally progress the matter with the minimum of delay.

And should that document not meet with the client's approval, you can redraft it on your screen.This approach does involve some typing, but the ratio of thinking time to typing time makes the latter negligible once you have attained a modest familiarity with the keyboard.

In addition a word processor gives you extra tools which are not available in manual drafting, such as the spell checker, and the 'outline' feature, which lets you switch your screen display between headings only, headings and subheads, or the full text of your developing draft.Not all areas of word processing are as clear cut as this of course, and the precise division of roles between fee- earner and secretary will become increasingly blurred as the PC network reaches further into the fee- earner's office.For example, your work might involve the production of a lot of documents the basic structure of which stays the same, while the details change from case to case.

Conveyancing is an obvious example, where some firms have replaced routine correspondence with simple 'tickbox' letters.

Though efficient, this charmless approach does not impress clients, who feel entitled to something a little more personal for their money.

The word processor offers an equally efficient but far more attractive alternative.Suppose, for example, you wish to send a simple letter to inform your client that a standard event in the progress of his or her case has been completed.

The computer screen can be set up to show two documents side-by-side, the precedent bank on the left, and a blank page on the right.

Also running on the computer, but out of sight, is the client data file, holding all the key details of this client and this transaction.

At the press of a key the data file pops us to reveal the client's address.

Five or six more keys, and that address is transferred to your new letter.Now for the bulk of the letter.

Find your preferred gr eeting in the precedent document; five clicks of the mouse and it is transferred.

Next your opening paragraph, and so on through the precedent file, ignoring the paragraphs which are not relevant; tagging those that are and transferring them across with a further few clicks of the mouse.Finally, read through the new letter on screen, fine-tuning points of detail as required.

You might need to fill in the date, or have the computer do this automatically.

You might have blanks where specific details of this case need to be entered, but if your basic files are well structured the whole job might take only two or three minutes.

The process has not involved much typing, but it has involved a lot of word processing.Precisely who does what in a set-up like this is a matter for secretary and fee-earner to work out for themselves.

The important point is that you jointly make the most productive use of the system.

Even if you leave all document production to your secretary it may be worth working together to design a system of precedent and data files for this sort of work.The advantage of working in this way is that the document builds up in front of you.

Whereas you might need to rewind your dictation machine several times to check what you have covered and what you have missed out, when you do your own word processing you can see the whole document at a glance as it develops.The coming 'document assembly' systems will take this process a step further, by presenting the tickbox for completion on screen, and producing a fully personalised document automatically.

With such a system you might involve your secretary in the initial stages of taking instructions, prompted by the standard questions, so that when you receive a new client you have the initial documents already drafted on screen in front of you.One thing is certain.

As the technology takes more of the drudgery out of typing the whole basis of the relationship between secretary and fee-earner is evolving.

If you are to lead the change in your office you need to understand the word processing system used by the practice.

By making more of the potential it offers you will be better placed to manage your own administration, and both your and your secretary's productivity will benefit as a result.