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Pritzker Legal Research Center


Legal Citation & Organizing Research

Keyboard Shortcuts

For Mac:

  • Small caps: COMMAND + SHIFT + K
  • Italics: COMMAND + SHIFT + I
  • Section symbol (§): OPTION + 6
  • En dash (–): OPTION + HYPHEN
  • Em dash (—): SHIFT + OPTION + HYPHEN 

For PC: 

  • Small caps: CTRL + SHIFT + K
  • Italics: CTRL + SHIFT + I
  • Section symbol (§): [Create your own keyboard shortcut by clicking on the "Shortcut key" button after pressing "Insert" then "Symbol" and highlighting the section symbol]
  • En dash (–): CTRL + [minus sign on number pad]
  • Em dash (—): SHIFT + CTRL + [minus sign on number pad] 

Footnotes and Cross References

Properly inserting cross-references for supra and infra citations will allow you to easily update all of these citations at any time, even after you have added numerous additional footnotes.

This is a much more efficient method of updating footnote numbers in supra and infra citations than manually changing each of them individually. 

Inserting a cross reference: 

  • Place your cursor at the point in the footnote where you want the note number to appear.
  • Go to "References," then click "Cross-reference." 
  • Change the “Reference type" dropdown to "Footnote" and leave the “Insert as hyperlink” box checked.
  • Select the footnote you are referring back to from the list of all the footnotes in the document ("For which footnote") and click "Insert."

Updating all cross references in a document:

  • Select "Edit – Select All" (or press CTRL + A) when your cursor is below the line (i.e., in the area where the footnotes are listed, not in the main body of the text).
  • Press F9 or right click and select "Update Field."
  • Any cross references that were improperly linked will indicate "Error! Bookmark Not Defined." 

Non-breaking Spaces

Non-breaking spaces should be used between the periods in ellipses ( . . . ), after section symbols (§), and after volume numbers in journal and book citations. Non-breaking spaces ensure that the text remains together on one line. 

On Mac: CTRL + SHIFT + SPACE

On PC: OPTION + SPACE