PATTERN JURY INSTRUCTIONS UTILITIES

Copying a Pattern Instruction to WordPerfect

Whenever a pattern instruction is displayed from within this help file, a button titled "Copy Displayed Instruction to WordPerfect" is displayed in an active state on the Windows' help file toolbar to use in order to copy that instruction to WordPerfect in the same format as displayed on the screen.

The text displayed on the screen from within any Windows' help file can always be "copied" using the using the Edit/Copy menu option provided by the standard help file interface. But when that standard method is used, all formatting (e.g., underlining, italics, etc.) is stripped when the page is copied to WordPerfect or other word processing documents.

To copy the displayed instruction, click the "Copy Displayed Instruction to WordPerfect" button. If WordPerfect is not, at the time the page is copied, running in the background, then WordPerfect will be launched and the instruction (including formatting) will be pasted to a new WordPerfect document. If WordPerfect is running in the background when the the "Copy Displayed Instruction to WordPerfect" button is clicked, you will receive a prompt inquiring as to whether the copied text should be inserted at the current insertion point in your current WordPerfect document. If you indicate that the instruction should not be pasted at the current insertion point, a new WordPerfect document will be opened and the instruction will be pasted to that document; otherwise, the instruction will be pasted to the current insertion point.

Copying Selected Instructions

To copy just one instruction at a time to WordPerfect, use the Copying a Pattern Instruction to WordPerfect option described immediately above. To copy more than one instruction at a time to WordPerfect, however, use the "Select and Copy one or more Instructions to WordPerfect" menu option.

When you do so, a dialog box will appear which looks like the following:

When it first appears, that dialog box lists, in numerical order, all of the instructions in the First Circuit Pattern Instructions. By clicking on the Instruction # column header or the Title column header, the instructions can be sorted and reversed sorted according to the numerical order of the instructions or the title of the instructions. Select one or more instructions to be copied to WordPerfect by checking the check boxes to the left of the Instruction numbers. When the selection is completed, check the "Separate each instruction with a hard page break" check box if you want to separate each instruction with a hard page break; otherwise, each instruction will be separated by two hard returns. Then click the "Copy Selected Instructions to WordPerfect" button to copy those selected instructions to WordPerfect on a new WordPerfect document.

If WordPerfect is not running in the background when the "Copy Selected Instructions to WordPerfect" button is clicked, WordPerfect will be launched and the selected instructions will be copied to the new document. If WordPerfect is running when that button is clicked, the selected instructions will be copied to a new WordPerfect document.

Printing Selected Instructions

To print a hard copy of just one instruction at a time, simply navigate to that instruction and click the print button on the help file tool bar. When you do so, that instruction will be printed in the same format as shown on the page - i.e., with all formatting intact. The standard Windows help file, however, does not provide a practical means by which to print more than one instruction at a time.

Multiple topics in a Windows help file can be printed from the Contents page of the standard Windows help file. The contents page of this help file looks like this:

By clicking the Print button when one of the major topics (e.g., in the graphic immediately above, "Part 1 Preliminary Instructions") is selected, all of subtopics of that major topic will be printed. That is the only choice given, however, all or none.

Printing of multiple instructions at a time is accomplished through the use and cooperation of your WordPerfect program - that is, the instructions are first, transparently, copied to a new WordPerfect document, and then printed.

This differs from the earlier version of the Pattern Jury Instructions. That earlier version sent commands to the Windows Help file and, in a sense, told the Help File program to print the selected instructions, one at a time. That capability became unavailable when Microsoft upgraded its Help File program from WinHelp.Exe to WinHlp32.Exe.

When selecting this option, a dialog box will appear which looks like the following:

When it first appears, that dialog box lists, in numerical order, all of the instructions in the First Circuit Pattern Instructions. By clicking on the Instruction # column header or the Title column header, the instructions can be sorted and reversed sorted according to the numerical order of the instructions or the title of the instructions. Select one or more instructions to be copied to be printed by checking the check boxes to the left of the Instruction numbers. When the selection is completed, check the "Separate each instruction with a hard page break" check box if you want to print each instruction on a separate page; otherwise, the instruction will be printed one after the other, not on separate pages, but separated by two hard returns. Then click the "Print Selected Instructions" button to print the selected instructions.

Since this option uses WordPerfect as the means by which to print the selected instructions, if WordPerfect is not running in the background when the "Print Selected Instructions" button is clicked, WordPerfect will be launched and the selected instructions will be copied to the new WordPerfect document before printing. If WordPerfect is running when that button is clicked, the selected instructions will be copied to a new WordPerfect document before printing. If WordPerfect was not running in the background when the "Print Selected Instructions" button is clicked and the "Close WordPerfect Document After Printing" check box is checked, WordPerfect will send the copied documents to the printer transparently and will then close.

Create an Instruction Template

Select the Create an Instruction Template menu option function to copy - actually create - a new WordPerfect document with general instructions fit for any criminal case. By doing so, a new WordPerfect document - with a name provided by the user - will be created which includes all the instructions except offense specific instructions and defense specific instructions (which would normally be selected on an individual based as appropriate for a particular case). The instructions copied into that new document will retain all formatting codes. It will also include all Comments prepared by the Committee which authored the Pattern Instructions. Inserted after the last of the 3.xx general instructions (currently 3.08 - What Is Not Evidence) are two markers - one labeled [ELEMENTS OF OFFENSE] and the other [DEFENSES]. It is there in the instructions which offense specific instructions and defense specific instructions would be placed for a particular case. When entering WordPerfect and retrieving the template just prepared, simply use WordPerfect's Search command [Edit/Search "[ELEMENTS to place your cursor where offense specific instructions are to be inserted. Then insert those offense specific instructions, as well as defense specific instructions, as appropriate, using the Copying a Pattern Instruction to WordPerfect option or the Copying Selected Instructions option described elsewhere in these instructions.

When the Create a WordPerfect Template menu option function is executed, a dialog box looking like the following will appear:

In order to prepare the appropriate template document, fill in the information for the docket (the first two letters of which are defaulted for the current year), the name of the first defendant (as it would normally appear in a caption - include ET. AL. for multi-defendant cases), the date (defaulted for the current date), and the last name of the Judge for whom the instructions are prepared. All of this information will be used in the header (caption) portion of the template document which will be completed. When satisfied with the entries, click the Ok button, or click the Cancel button to abandon the Create a WordPerfect Template menu option function.

If the Ok button is selected, a standard Windows FileSave dialog box will appear which will look something like the following:

When you have chosen a name for the file (by default, the document is initially given the name of the defendant, and the path to that file is the default path to your WordPerfect documents. Either or both can be changed to your own preference), click the Ok button. The document will be completed at that time and you will then be given the option to go immediately to WordPerfect and the document. That document is saved in WordPerfect 9 format. If you choose not to go to WordPerfect at that time - i.e., you click the Cancel button - you can later go into WordPerfect and modify that document consistent with the particular case.

Lookup Updates to Pattern Jury Instructions

We are advised that Judge Hornby and his committee periodically revise the pattern jury instructions in terms of modification - i.e., when case law construes the correctness of a particular instruction - as well as in terms of additions. Those modifications will be placed into a PDF file which is accessible at

www.med.uscourts.gov/Site/courtroompractices/juryinstructions/Criminal.pdf.

We recommend that you visit Judge Hornby's site on a not-too-infrequent basis to check for modifications and updates.