Paperless Debate: A How-To Manual

Aaron Hardy
Whitman College

Version 2.3
October 10, 2009

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Table Of Contents
INTRODUCTION 3
BENEFITS OF PAPERLESS 4
DESCRIPTION OF PAPERLESS 5
REQUIREMENTS 6
HARDWARE 6
SOFTWARE 7
INSTALLATION 10
WINDOWS 10
MAC 11
LINUX 11
SETTING UP THE DESKTOP 11
ASSEMBLING A SPEECH 14
STEP ONE – OPEN A “SPEECH” DOCUMENT 14
STEP TWO – OPEN FILES 15
STEP THREE – SEND BLOCKS AND/OR CARDS TO SPEECH 15
STEP FOUR – ORGANIZE SPEECH 17
STEP FIVE – TRANSFER SPEECH 20
RECAP 20
SCREEN LAYOUT AND ORGANIZATION 21
PAPERLESS ORGANIZATION 23
FILE FORMATTING AND ORGANIZATION 23
DIGITAL TUB ORGANIZATION 24
BACKFILES 26
PRE-TOURNAMENT SETUP 28
IN-ROUND 29
PUBLIC RELATIONS 31
COMMON CONCERNS 33
THE DECISION TO SWITCH 33
PRIVACY/SECURITY 37
MACRO PROBLEMS 39
PRE-ROUND 42
IN-ROUND 42
CODE ANNOTATION 46
SMARTSELECTION 46
TRIMSELECTION 48
SENDBLOCKTOSPEECH 50
SENDSELECTIONTOSPEECH 52
MOVEUP 54
MOVEDOWN 58
DELETEBLOCK 62
HATMAKER 63
CITEREQUESTDOC 63
APPLESCRIPT VERSIONS 64
KNOWN ISSUES 66
FUTURE FEATURES/ADVANCED SUGGESTIONS 67

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Introduction
As the policy coach at Whitman College, I switched our team to completely paperless in the fall
of the 2008-2009 season. As of this writing, we have successfully completed an entire year of
paperless with 7 teams traveling on the national college circuit. There have been a few hiccups
and a lot of learning from our own mistakes, but on balance, our experience has been
overwhelmingly positive. We have no intention of ever going back to paper, and based on the
number of coaches and programs who have approached me about making the switch, I’m sure
that carting around tubs will be an anachronism sooner rather than later.

This manual is intended as a brief “how-to” for programs considering the transition to paperless
debate. While it is heavily geared towards the evidence intensive nature of college policy
debate, the information here should be broadly applicable to both high school policy programs as
well as other forms of debate, such as LD. Much of what is written here is an attempt at
distilling the experiences at Whitman over the last year, to give other programs a leg-up at
avoiding some of our early mistakes.

It’s my hope that our experiences (including this manual) can be the start of a collaborative
process with any program that chooses to move forward with paperless. We’ve endeavored to
make the Whitman system available to anyone who wants it in the hopes that the community at
large can help reach a set of “best practices,” recommendations, and improvements on the
original idea.

I remain indebted to several people who bear a public mention. First, Jim Hanson, on the cutting
edge of debate technology for a decade before I started coaching – and a supremely supportive
director through the transition. Second, the Denver debate team, who was completely paperless
years before us and provided definitive proof of concept. Third, Sam King from Stanford, who
was invaluable in the process of upgrading to the second major version of the paperless macros.
Lastly, all my debaters, who acted as (mostly) willing guinea pigs, and trusted that this would
work despite their many reservations.

A final comment for those still on the fence. Whitman had been bandying around the idea of
going paperless for years before finally making the switch. Tests were run, many systems were
tried out, and a laundry list of hypothesized problems were presented (including by me) as death-
knells for the whole project. Ultimately, what made the difference in the success of our switch
was not a radical improvement in technology or an advance of the underlying concept. Rather, it
is attributable almost entirely to will power. Once the decision was taken that we would be
debating paperless no matter what three weeks down the line, terminal obstacles simply became
problems to solve, and the first tournament went off without a hitch. That Whitman Cohn/Straus
could receive a first-round bid to the National Debate Tournament in their first year of our
project serves, I hope, as a tangible demonstration that paperless can succeed broadly, even at the
highest echelon of policy debate.

Any questions, suggested improvements, or criticism, about either paperless in general or this
manual in particular should be directed to me at hardyat@whitman.edu. I would welcome
feedback in any form.

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Benefits of Paperless
The benefits of debating without the need to lug multiple 50+ pound tubs of evidence all over the
country probably doesn’t bear much further explication. But, as we made the transition, we
found ourselves continually unearthing new reasons we were glad we’d switched. Just to
mention a few:

• Cost savings – Probably the number one factor informing our decision to switch at
Whitman. Obviously, it saves all the money spent on paper, printing, copying, expandos,
and other tub-related supplies. It also saves all the costs associated with checked baggage
on airlines – with escalating fee structures, not an insignificant amount. Somewhat less
obviously, it also saves money on the size of rental vehicles needed for to transport the
average team. While offset to a degree by the increased costs of the requisite technology
(laptops, etc...), the net cost savings to our team just in the first year easily reach into the
multiple thousands of dollars. In a time when many budgets across the country are at
significant risk of being cut, paperless may soon become a necessity.

• Ease of travel – This should be obvious. Tubs weigh a lot, and airlines are evil.

• At tournaments – We have quickly found ourselves with a host of secondary benefits

from the paperless transition. We have more prep time before rounds due to not moving
tubs, we can more easily replicate standard work done in many different rounds, we get
back to the hotel earlier because we don’t have to clean up, we can provide cite requests
of every card read in a debate within minutes, it’s somewhat less likely my students lose
their files...The list goes on.

• Environmental benefits – These are probably not very significant in the grand scheme of
things, and using more laptops might offset any benefits – but it does save a lot of paper,
ink cartridges, increased weight on planes, etc...I wouldn’t list this as an incontrovertible
reason to switch, at least without somebody doing some research – but it might be a nice
icing on the cake.

• PR – Whether the environmental benefits are real or perceived, the Whitman debate team
has received a ton of positive press from the school over the transition. I’ve heard similar
stories from other schools who are switching. There’s never a bad time to impress the
administration, especially when money is tight.

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Description of Paperless
For those who haven’t yet seen a team debate paperless, here’s a basic run-down of how it
works.

All files are produced electronically using the same Word template, which incorporates both the
normal formatting/organizing functions of a debate template, and a few added features
specifically for paperless. Files are kept centrally organized in a digital “tub” comprised of
folders, sub-folders, and individual files.

Each team carries three laptops. The debaters will each use a laptop to prepare speeches with,
placing all cards that will be read for the upcoming speech into one Word document. This is
accomplished rapidly by using a set of simple Word macros which facilitate both transferring
blocks and cards between open documents, and organizing them into speech order.

Immediately prior to speaking, the debater will place their entire upcoming speech on a USB
jump drive. This is first given to their partner, who copies it to their laptop to ensure a backup is
available in the event of a tech failure.

It is then given to the opposing team. If the other team has their own laptop(s), they’re welcome
to use them to view the file. If not, the paperless team uses their third backup laptop as a
“viewing” computer for the other teams use for the whole debate. If for some reason the other
team needs a second “viewing” computer, the paperless team can let the other team use one of
their other laptops during their prep time.

The same will repeat for each speech (at least, those with cards). After the debate, the judge is
obviously free to use either their own laptop or one of the paperless team’s to look at the
evidence.

Are there differences between this and how a round proceeds under “normal” conditions with
paper? Yes, although not as great as some have envisioned. More importantly, there’s now a
large reservoir of experience to draw from which indicates one thing conclusively – it works. A
list of commonly asked questions and concerns are included near the end of this manual, which
should help give a more complete picture of how the debate transpires in actual practice.

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Requirements
Running paperless on the Whitman system requires very little, and mostly stuff everyone already
has. As the number of teams doing paperless expands and they develop their own systems
independently, the specifications will probably change – but in its basic incarnation, paperless
just requires a few laptops and a word processor.

Since the entire system is built into a Microsoft Word template, a basic familiarity with how to
use templates is assumed. If you need a refresher, Naveen Ramachandrappa’s guide is available
at http://debate.uga.edu/research_guide/howto.pdf. The Whitman template differs from the type
produced in his guide, but the basic concepts are all still applicable.

Hardware

• Laptops – Right now, we’re of the opinion that this is unworkable without 3 laptops per
team. This is to facilitate sharing evidence with the other team via a “viewing” laptop.
While sometimes opponents have their own computers that they would rather use, it’s
certainly not a universal. Over the course of the year, the majority of our opponents have
opted to use our third laptop. I am sometimes asked what specs the laptops needed
should have – I would say that essentially any machine capable of running Word will be
more than sufficient. We’ve run paperless on 5 year old team laptops without any
problems, both Mac and PC. More specific info about software, operating systems,
etc...is included below. But, if you’re looking to purchase some extra laptops for your
team, the cheapest available will probably suffice.

• USB Flash Drives – Nothing fancy, any kind will do. Each team needs at least 2,
although having a store of extras on hand is advisable. They’re easily lost, occasionally
break, and are cheap enough to buy in bulk. One caution – try to buy drives which have a
relatively thin profile. Some of the wider versions can block access to other USB ports
which can make using a mouse or second drive difficult.

• Power supplies – Given the paucity of available outlets in most classrooms (especially in
high schools), it’s a good idea to make sure each team is carrying a 3 outlet power
strip/surge protector, a 3 prong plug adaptor, and a heavy duty extension cord (25 feet is
probably prudent).

Optional Hardware

Everything else we use isn’t strictly required, but is recommended for contingency planning.

• A portable podium of some kind. Since they’re not bringing tubs to tournaments, the
debaters found they didn’t have anything to put their computer on while they stood to
speak. The best solution we’ve found so far is a portable telescoping podium. We
bought seven of these: http://www.pctabletote.com/

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 They’re a bit pricey (~$50/per) and to be honest not all that durable, at least at the hands
of my students. But, they’ve served their function well, and they’re fairly light weight.

• External Mouse – The process of assembling a speech is much more rapid with an
external mouse than a clunky touchpad, and it can come in handy while using the
computer to speak from. It’s even possible to program some of the higher-end mice with
multiple buttons to automate many of the common tasks used in paperless and essentially
prep a speech with one hand. I’ll leave that up to the tech savvy to figure out on their
own.

• Paper backup – Not something that we do anymore, but for our very first tournament,
each team carried a copy of the 1AC and 15 pages of negative evidence, just in case there
was a really, really horrible meltdown. Notably, there was not, and none of my teams
bother anymore because their comfort level is high enough with our system. It might be
helpful to carry a few copies of your plan text for disclosure reasons, as my teams find
themselves constantly writing it out for the other team. Recently, my affirmative teams
have just written it up on the blackboard before the neg team arrives (10 minutes later,
with tubs) to simplify disclosure.

Software
The whole system runs within a single Microsoft Word template. Theoretically, any computer
capable of running Word 2003 or later should work on any operating system, although it might
require some tweaks, especially when making the jump between Mac and PC, Word 2003 to
Word 2007, or XP to Vista. We have successfully tested it under all of these configurations.

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That said, the recommended setup is Windows XP with Word 2003. It’s the simplest, easiest to
maintain, the fastest running, and it’s what the system was designed under. This is what we’ve
standardized for all 21 of our laptops at Whitman, and it’s worked great, even when using Macs
in dual boot mode. Since this level of standardization may not be possible at many institutions,
just keep in mind that small changes may be necessary.

The Template

The most recent copy of Whitman’s template is available at

http://www.whitman.edu/rhetoric/tech/Debate.dot. The macros needed for paperless could easily
be ported and modified from this document to your own template, or you’re welcome to use ours
and just change the header.

Operating System

It will work on any operating system, but we’ve found that paperless works significantly better in
Windows than in Mac OS. This is primarily because the Mac version of Word is terrible – it’s a
lobotomized version, it runs slowly, and it handles macros poorly. I would recommend using
Mac machines as viewing computers, for which they work fine. Another option is to have
people with Macs run Boot Camp or Parallels and dual boot to Windows when they need to use
paperless. For more comments on using Macs with this system, see the Installation section
below. I prefer XP to Vista, but haven’t really had any problems with Vista.

Windows 7 – completely untested so far. Let me know if you try it and it works…

The latest incarnation of the macros should also work in Linux , as long as you can get Word
2003 working under Wine. This isn’t for the faint of heart, and might require small macro
modifications – but I can confirm it works.

Microsoft Word

Word 2003 is strongly recommended. It’s the last version of Word that wasn’t poorly designed.
Word 2007 comes in second – It’s slightly bulkier, the interface is nonsensical, and macro
support can be irritating, but it works fine. Word for Mac should be avoided when possible, as
anyone who has used it can probably attest. If anyone uses Word 2010 and has feedback on it,
let me know.

The one recent version of Word that WILL NOT WORK is Word 2008 for Mac. Microsoft
removed support for VBA macros, which renders paperless impossible. They’ve said support
will be added back in for the next version of Word (2010, perhaps?) but for now, avoid this
version. Some efforts are in the works to port the relevant paperless macros to Applescript,
thanks to Brad Bolman and Peter Vale at Pembroke Hill – see the section on Applescript below
for more information.

Another comment about Word 2007 – if you’re going to use Word 2007, it’s recommended that
you always save as a Word 97-2003 document (.doc) instead of a Word 2007 .docx file. First,

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this is because the system was designed in Word 2003, and compatibility with the .docx format
isn’t tested very well. The macros will still run with .docx files, but it’s not preferred. Second, it
helps maintain compatibility with older files produced in previous versions of word – which
probably describes at least a portion of most team’s backfiles.

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Installation
The only step required is to install the paperless template in Word and ensure macros are
enabled. The exact process for doing this varies somewhat between operating systems and
versions of Word, but is usually as simple as putting the template file in Word’s templates folder
and telling Word that it exists.

Important note – While you can keep a copy of the template anywhere on your computer and
create blank documents based on it, it’s still recommended that you put a master copy in the
Word template folder. This is so that any file which was previously created in the template can
find it if necessary. After installing it, I would put a shortcut to the template on your desktop or
quick-launch bar to make opening a new document based on the template quicker.

Upgrading or changing the template is then as simple as replacing the old version with the
updated one in the Word template folder.

Another note – When navigating to the template folder, Windows by default hides the folder in
explorer. If the “Application Data” (XP) or “AppData” (Vista) folder doesn’t appear, you need
to change your folder view options to “show hidden files and folders.” If you’re unsure of how
to do this, check your operating system help file.

For the following examples, c:\ is the windows partition of your hard drive and “username” is the
name of your currently logged in user. If you use multiple user accounts, make sure to install the
template for each of them.

Windows
Depending on which version of Word you have (2003 or 2007) and which operating system (XP
or Vista), the Word templates folder will be stored at one of the two following locations:

C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates.

C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates

In Word 2003, put a copy of the template in this folder, and it’s installed. Make sure your macro
security settings are turned to “low” under Tools – Macro – Security.

In Word 2007, templates can be installed from anywhere using the Add-Ins manager. Click
Word Options in the main task bar, select “Add-Ins,” then select “Templates” in the “Manage”
drop down box and click Go. Click “Add” and navigate to the folder where you stored the
template. To make sure macros are enabled, go to Word Options – Trust Center – Trust Center
Settings.

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Mac
To install a template, put a copy of it in the Microsoft Office – Template – My Templates folder.
The template will then appear in the Word Project Gallery.

Running paperless on a Mac requires a few tweaks:

• To use any of the built in shortcut keys, you might need to change the Mac OS setting to
use the function key. This is found under System Preferences – Keyboard & Mouse.

• When using Mac Word, the macros will sometimes exhibit strange behavior, such as
cutting off the first letter of a Block Title when moving blocks between documents. This
is because some versions of Mac Word treat Page Breaks differently than all other
versions in Windows. The macros could easily be reprogrammed to take account of this,
but it would likely mean that it would not be cross compatible with Windows. In general,
the problems involved are aesthetic – the macros will probably still work.

Linux
Definitely possible, but a complete explanation of getting paperless up and running on Linux is
outside the scope of this manual, and can be a fairly involved process. If you’re interested in
this, feel free to contact me for more specific information.

The short version is that Word 2003 runs fairly well under Wine, and the macros work with
minimal modification. Once you get everything up and running, installing the template is just a
matter of following the directions for Windows above, by locating the same templates folder
under your ~/.wine directory

Setting Up The Desktop

There are a variety of other tweaks you can make to your computer to make it easier to use
paperless, especially in an in-round situation. A few suggestions follow:

• Move the Windows taskbar to the left side of the screen, rather than the bottom. Usually
this is accomplished by right clicking on it and unchecking “Lock the Taskbar,” then
dragging it to the left side of the screen. This is so that you can more easily see a large
number of word documents open without the taskbar grouping them. The taskbar can
then also be resized horizontally to take up more or less screen space.

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• Add your digital tub folder as a toolbar to the taskbar. To do this, right click on the
toolbar, select “Toolbars – New Toolbar” and then navigate to the folder which contains
your digital tub. This will create a toolbar with immediate access to all of your files. It
can be dragged to show icons, or collapsed so that clicking one arrow will bring up a
directory listing of all the folders in your tub. You can even create multiple toolbars for
different folders, such as one for backfiles, one for current files, and one for the
affirmative. A helpful tip – holding down “shift” while clicking to open a file will keep
the taskbar open, rather than closing it and forcing you to re-click through the levels of a
tub. This is very helpful when opening more than one document at a time.

• Turn off updates. It’s recommended that you temporarily turn off any program which
will try to update itself automatically, including Windows Update, just for the duration of
the round (or the tournament). This is to avoid the computer trying to reboot itself

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 automatically, or popping up annoying reminders about updates in the middle of a
speech.

• Turn off hibernation/standby/screen savers. You should set your computer to never go
into sleep mode, hibernate, or turn the screen off, including when the lid is shut. This is
usually accomplished by right-clicking on the desktop and selecting “Properties.” The
power settings are included on the Screen Saver tab, under the “Power” button.

• Turn off any programs which could interfere with using the macros by utilizing “hot-
keys.” Some programs running in the background of your computer may already have
assigned certain keystrokes that are used by the paperless macro. A prominent example
is certain NVidia graphics cards which assign hotkeys which rotate the screen. This can
be turned off by right-clicking the desktop, selecting “Graphics Properties – Hot Keys” –
and selecting “Disable Hot Keys.” Other programs may also exhibit similar behavior – if
macros aren’t behaving correctly, check your computer for other hidden programs which
might have hot-keys.

• Consider a separate user account for paperless. Since most people will not want their
screen set up the same way for every day use as for paperless, consider adding a separate
account in Windows used exclusively for debate. This will allow you to set up the
desktop to your specifications without interfering with everyday work.

• Clear the desktop of non-essential items. Since the desktop is used to save Speech
documents and copy them to the USB drive, it’s helpful to have it cleared of extraneous
files. Useful things to keep on the desktop include: A folder with the most recent tub, a
shortcut to the paperless Template, a pre-made blank Speech.doc, a folder for the current
tournament, and a shortcut to your external USB drive. See the screenshot above for a
sample layout.

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Assembling a Speech
This is the real “nuts and bolts” of how to use paperless. At root, the idea is very simple. You
take blocks and cards from a variety of files, and put them all in one master “Speech” document,
where you further organize them into the order you expect to read them in your speech.

In reality, this process could be accomplished with nothing other than the built-in Cut and Paste
functions in Word. However, this is far too time-consuming to be practicable, as the effort
required to switch between word documents, select the exact text you want to copy, and then
move to the correct place to paste it would eat up an inordinate amount of prep time.

This is where the paperless macros come in. Assembling a speech using this system is a simple
five step process.

Step One – Open a “Speech” Document

This is the easiest part. Open a blank document based on the template, then save it to the desktop
as “Speech.doc.” Older versions of the macros required this file to have the S capitalized, but
this is no longer the case. It should now work with any capitalization, and either .doc or .docx.
So, speech.doc, sPeECh.dOcX, etc…should all work. However you spell it, this document must
be open for the rest of the steps to work – if it’s not, the macros will warn you.

You should make sure that you only have one document named Speech open at a time, or the
macro might not send to the document you want. The macro will check that you don’t have both
a .doc and .docx file open, but not whether you have multiple files like speech.doc and
SpeeCh.doc.

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Step Two – Open Files
Open any files you want to use from your digital tub. This doesn’t have to all be done at once –
you can open and close files as you go, as long as your Speech document remains open, you can
send things to it. Note that any files you want to use in this process must have the requisite
paperless macros included – in other words, they must be based on the same template as
Speech.doc, or have had the macros manually added. The picture below shows 3 open files on
the left side of the screen, ready to send to the blank Speech document on the right.

Step Three – Send blocks and/or cards to Speech

This is accomplished through the use of two macros. In Word, these are named
SendBlockToSpeech and SendSelectionToSpeech. Both of these macros take cards from your
current document, and “beam” them into your open Speech document, pasting them in at the
current cursor. The former will automatically send one “block” (which can be a card, block, or
whole section) at a time, the latter will send anything you currently have highlighted, whether a
single line, multiple pages, or even an entire file.

SendBlockToSpeech. By default, this is assigned to the hotkey Ctrl-Alt-
. The symbol stands
for the “Right Arrow Key.” This macro will send over the current card, block, or “hat,”
depending on where your cursor is currently located. A “hat” is a section header, and includes
all the block titles in that section. The macro is “smart” – it will determine what you’re trying to
send over based on where your cursor is. So, if your cursor is in a card or tag, it will select and
send the entire card. If the cursor is anywhere in a Block Title, it will send over the entire block,

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regardless of page breaks. If the cursor is in a properly formatted “hat” it will send the entire
section.

This also means that it’s easiest to use Word’s Document Map to navigate your files – if you
click on a Block Title or hat in the document map and then use the macro, the block you just
clicked on will be sent. If you put your cursor inside the block, it will send the closest card
instead.

This is a large change from the previous incarnation of paperless – Instead of basing the macros
on page breaks, this version only looks for the “Style” of how the text is formatted. This places a
premium on making sure your documents are formatted correctly, but also makes the macros
much more powerful. Note that if your template chooses to use Styles other than “tag,” “card,”
“Block Title,” and “hat,” that you’ll need to change the macro code to reflect that.

One usage note regarding “hats.” The macro is only written to work with properly formatted
hats. Properly formatted means that there are two adjacent lines (paragraphs, technically)
formatted as the “hat” style. This has the effect of adding white space to the document map.
The included “HatMaker” macro will do this automatically. When running the macros on a hat,
make sure your cursor is on the second “text” line, not the first blank line. Check the sections on
file formatting, and the HatMaker macro for more extensive usage notes.

The picture below shows a block which has just been “sent” to the Speech document on the right
using the SendBlockToSpeech macro.

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SendSelectionToSpeech. This is default assigned to Ctrl-Alt-. This macro will send any text
which you currently have highlighted. It doesn’t differentiate by size, so this macro allows you
to send over a single card, a tag, or select multiple blocks at once. It also pastes into Speech at
the current insertion point, which lets you quickly send a single card to the middle of another
block, for example.

Step Four – Organize Speech

After you’ve sent as many cards or blocks as you want to Speech.doc, you just need to organize
them as you want to have them for your speech. This is accomplished with two other macros,
MoveUp and MoveDown. MoveUp will move an entire “block” above the previous block, while
MoveDown will do the inverse.

In another change from the previous version, MoveUp and MoveDown are now capable of
moving single cards, blocks, or entire hats. Just like SendBlockToSpeech, these macros work
based on where you have your cursor located. If your cursor is in (or near) a card, it will move
that card up or down within the same Block Title (it stops at the top or bottom of the block.) If
your cursor is on a Block Title, it will move the entire block. And if your cursor is on a hat, it
will move the entire section, including all the blocks.

MoveUp. This is assigned to Ctrl-Alt-↑. This will automatically select a card, block or hat
depending on where you cursor is located, then move it one “slot” up, above the previous card,
block, or hat, respectively. Also be aware that you cannot move an item “up” higher than the top
of the document.

MoveDown. This is assigned to Ctrl-Alt-↓. This does the exact inverse, but moves the card,
block, or hat down.

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This picture shows a Speech document with five numbered sample blocks before using any
macros.

18
This picture shows the same document after the blocks have been reordered using MoveUp and
MoveDown.

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DeleteBlock. There’s also another macro, DeleteBlock, which will delete the current card, block,
or hat. By default, this is Ctrl-Alt-End. This allows you to quickly remove blocks which you
determine in the process of organization that you’d rather not have in the speech document.

Taken together, these three macros let you quickly move blocks into whatever order you would
like them for the speech.

Keep in mind you can also organize blocks in the Speech document, change tags, highlight cards,
etc...and then return to sending more cards later. In practice, steps three and four blur together
quite a bit.

Step Five – Transfer Speech

Once your Speech document is complete, organized, and you’re ready to speak, you just need to
copy the file to your partner (for backup) and the other team (for viewing).

First, you should always remember to save the working Speech document before starting the
transfer – that way if something crashes during the transfer you still have a complete copy. It’s
also important to save the document on the local hard drive, not directly to a USB drive. This is
because Word tends to get angry when a drive is removed containing an open document.

The easiest way to do the transfer is to have a USB drive already plugged into the computer with
an explorer window open. Then, once the speech is complete, you only need to copy Speech.doc
from the desktop to the waiting directory and remove the USB key.

It’s recommended that you first give the USB drive to your partner for them to copy to their
desktop and have open during your speech. This way, if the speaker’s computer were to crash
during a speech, it can quickly be replaced with the identical document on their partners
computer.

The final step is to give the other team the Speech document – which entails either giving the
USB drive to them for use on their own computers, or opening the relevant document on the 3rd
viewing laptop.

That’s it – you’re ready to speak.

Recap
Get a Speech.doc file open on the desktop, then open all needed files. There are only five
macros needed to assemble a speech paperlessly:

Ctrl-Alt-
– Sends over one card, block, or hat at a time, depending on your cursor
Ctrl-Alt- – Sends over any amount of highlighted text.
Ctrl-Alt-↑ – Moves the current card, block, or hat up one position in the document.
Ctrl-Alt-↓ – Moves the current card, block, or hat down one position in the document.
Ctrl-Alt-End – Deletes the current card, block, or hat.

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Save your file, transfer it to a USB drive, jump it to your partner and opponents, and you’re
done.

Something not working? Macros seem broken? Check the “Common Concerns” section later in
the manual

Screen Layout And Organization

• Most of my debaters find that it helps to conceptualize your desktop like a desk which
moves workflow from left to right. Starting with the taskbar along the left side, which
keeps the open documents organized, try to use approximately the left half your screen
for all the open files. Then, keep Speech open on the right side of your screen. Even if
you can’t fit two windows open side by side on your desktop, try to leave a little bit that
doesn’t overlap.

• Use “Normal” view, also known as “Draft” view in Word 2007. This removes the
header, footer, and extraneous white space from your document view. It also makes it
much easier to see manual page breaks, which can be helpful. I would recommend using
normal view essentially 100% of the time.

• Use the document map – Most of you will be familiar with the document map from
creating files electronically. In paperless debate, its importance is elevated even further.
It functions like an index, allowing you to see the entire file at once – and makes moving

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 around within a file substantially faster. It also enables you to see where you’re moving
blocks to while using MoveUp and MoveDown. I’d recommend leaving the doc map
turned on in all documents, at all times. If you’re not familiar with the operation of the
document map, it’s suggested that you read the template tutorial linked above.

• Use “Reading” view (Word 2003), or “Full Screen Reading” view (Word 2007) when
actually giving your speech. This view will allow you to see one or two entire pages at a
time, and quickly move through your document by using the arrow keys to move a page
at a time, instead of scrolling or using Page Down. If only one page is visible, try
shrinking the size of the document map horizontally until two pages appear.

• Use the mouse wheel to zoom – On many computers, holding down the Ctrl key while
scrolling the mouse wheel will cause Word to zoom in and out quickly. This can help
you see more of the document or an individual card easily, especially if you’re working
on a smaller screen.

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Paperless Organization
One of the most important aspects of ensuring that you can use the paperless system hassle-free
is effective file organization. Much like having dozens of reams of paper without indexes or
block titles thrown at random into a tub would make debating impossible, a single folder on your
hard drive with 200 Word documents cryptically labeled “updates.doc” or “politics.doc”
wouldn’t fare much better.

Using digital evidence to its maximum advantage has two parts – individual file organization,
and tub organization. I’ll give a few tips for each.

File formatting and organization

Paying meticulous attention to how your files are constructed in Word is important to ensuring
smooth operation of the macros. This extends to making sure Block Titles and hats are
formatted properly, page breaks are in the right place, the document map accurately reflects the
file’s contents, etc...

• Using Page Breaks. Most importantly, ensure that you are using them, every time. You
should resist the temptation to just press “Enter” until the next page starts. This is true
even if the previous page runs right to the bottom, and Word automatically inserts a soft
page break. Even though the newest macros will function without them, you’ll generally
find everything runs smoother when you pay attention to this. Ctrl-Enter will insert a
manual page break, and should be done before the start of every new block title.

Keep in mind you can use page breaks and Block Titles to define what gets sent over
using the macros – such as having a single Block Title run over multiple pages. Instead
of including 3 or 4 duplicative block titles for a long shell, it’s possible to send over the
whole thing with one key stroke.

• Use the Document Map as your index. My debaters rarely create an index on their files
any more – instead, they pay more attention to making sure the document map is as
organized as possible. Especially for files under 100 pages, it’s easy to see most or all of
the files contents with a glance at the doc map. One of the most important aspects of
keeping the doc map organized is the selective use of white space – created by using
“hats” which contain a blank line formatted as a hat (Heading 1).

• HatMaker. There’s a separate macro written to do this automatically. By default, this is

F11. It works by formatting two consecutive lines as “hat”, leaving any text you’ve
written as the second line. To use it, either put your cursor on the text you want to make
a hat, or just run the macro at the top of a new page and then type your hat title. It makes
the document map look like this:

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 • Be careful about blank lines formatted as “tag” style. This happens most frequently when
pressing enter while on a tag and making a blank line above it. You basically want any
paragraphs which aren’t explicitly a tag, cite, card, etc…to be formatted as “normal.”
Making this mistake won’t break anything – but you might find the macros take a little
extra work if your file is badly formatted.

• Modularize your files. It’s helpful to walk a balance between creating files which are too
large to be easily digested with the doc map, and files which are so small as to require
dozens of individual word files. An example is writing an affirmative – where instead of
creating a 1000 page aff file, you could create a file for answers to disads, a file for
answers to CP’s, etc...and then keep them all in a separate folder, much like an expando.

Digital tub organization

There’s an infinite number of ways to organize your files on the computer – but here’s a basic
run-down of how we’ve done things so far, which has worked fairly well for us. The entire tub
is stored on a network server run by the college, which gives us access to it in our squadroom, as
well as offsite using FTP. If a similar setup is impossible, there’s many other alternatives, such
as designating one desktop as the master copy, purchasing a Network-Attached Storage device,
or even just using a gmail account.

Our digital tub at Whitman is divided into four basic areas.

1) Archived Backfiles – this is a separate folder, organized by year. Since each season gets a
separate folder, it’s easy to keep a record of each topic. The other three areas go in a separate
folder for the current year, which gets moved to the backfiles at the end of the season.

2) Files sorted chronologically – This section has a subfolder for each tournament we attend.
Each file that comes out before that tournament has a copy placed here, to ensure we have a
record of when files were completed.

3) Files sorted by subject – This constitutes the main part of the digital tub. It has around 15
folders, almost all with subdivisions, into which every file that’s produced is sorted. This
includes folders for “Disads,” “Critiques,” “Case Negs,” etc...Relevant backfiles are just sorted
into the appropriate folders.

4) Private Tubs – this section has a separate folder for each team on our squad. It’s designed to
be a place where each debater can put their own reorganized versions of files, highlighted copies
of files, personal blocks, a completely revamped version of the main tub, or anything else they

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see fit to do with it. It’s also a place where they are encouraged to upload their “Speech”
documents from each tournament, sorted by round, so that they have a record of each speech
given over the course of a year.

Here’s a mock visual representation of the folder structure of our online tub. Indents represent a
level of subfolders:

Backfiles
2005 – China
2006 – Courts
2007 – Middle East
etc...
2008 – Agriculture
000 – Files By Tournament
1 – Gonzaga
2 – GSU
3 – Kentucky
etc...
Case Negs
Biofuels
CAFO’s
Dairy
etc...
CP’s
Critiques
DA’s
etc...
zzz – Private Tubs
Whitman AA
Whitman BB
etc...

Some of these folders have only a few files, while others have dozens, organized with numbers
in the file names to give an “expando-like” feel to the folder.

Here’s a hypothetical representation of a case neg folder:

Biofuels Neg – Case 1 – Solvency.doc

Biofuels Neg – Case 2.0 – Food Prices.doc
Biofuels Neg – Case 2.1 – Specific Food Prices Countries.doc
Biofuels Neg – Case 3 – Environment Advantages.doc
Biofuels Neg – Case 4 – Brazil Advantages.doc
Biofuels Neg – CP 1 – Tariff Only CP.doc
Biofuels Neg – CP 2 – Japan Rice CP.doc
Biofuels Neg – DA 1 – Cellulosic DA.doc
Biofuels Neg – DA 2 – Natural Gas DA.doc

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I also maintain a team Gmail account. This is useful for rapidly distributing files produced at a
tournament, files which miss the cutoff time to be uploaded to the server, etc...

Several people have suggested using a “Version Control” software package to more effectively
organize the online tub. While there are definitely advantages to this approach, it has the
downside of introducing another layer of complexity to the process. While we’ve decided that
it’s not worth the hassle in the short-term, I’d be interested to hear if anyone successfully
implements one.

Backfiles
One of the major questions people pose about making the transition to paperless is what becomes
of old backfiles. Whitman is fortunate to have 12 years of backfiles in a backwards compatible
template that was built on for the development of paperless...but I sense that this is the exception,
rather than the norm.

There are two scenarios for backfile integration – Paper/PDF backfiles, and backfiles produced
using a template (or several templates).

In the first instance, the short version is that you’re out of luck. While it’s possible to cut and
paste parts of PDF or TIF files into Word, it doesn’t work very well, and can’t easily be
integrated in with the rest of the paperless system. Paper backfiles are, well, on
paper...Fortunately, I sense that the majority of all files used in debates are produced during the
current year – so as long as the switch to paperless is made in-between seasons, the impact of the
former problems should be minimized.

If, on the other hand, you have electronic backfiles which were produced using another Word
template, they should integrate relatively hassle-free. There’s two ways to port your current files
to paperless.

1) The backward way. Theoretically, you could transfer the needed macros to your old
template, potentially make some tweaks to the code to account for formatting changes, and have
it work. On the other hand, this would require transferring the macros back into any different
template that another member of your team used, and then dealing with the programmatic
difficulties involved when collating blocks and formatting differences from a variety of different
sources. I’d recommend option b.

2) The forward way. Design a standardized template (or steal ours) that will be used by every
member of the team, and make sure it has all necessary macros. Then, paste any relevant
backfiles into the new template and resave them in the new format.

The real key to whether this will work effectively is whether the templates you’re trying to
combine into the new format are compatible. The most relevant question is whether the styles
have the same names. The macros are written to work with styles named “tag,” “Block Title,”

26
and “hat.” As long as you’re consistent with your names and change the macro code to reflect
your choice, they should work more or less without a hitch.

Another option is to just use the old version of the paperless macros – based on page breaks,
rather than headings. This ensures the maximum level of cross-formatting compatability.

We’ve successfully tested the macros on a variety of other templates. It’s been possible to get
them working, sometimes with a few small changes to the macro code. In general, the primary
conversion difficulties are only aesthetic – for example, pasting old blocks into the new template
will make document elements (such as tags) occasionally appear in the wrong font. This is
easily fixed by someone with a degree of Word savvy, using either the Styles and Formatting
tools, or even just a Find and Replace of the offending styles.

One helpful tip is to locate the “Match Destination Formatting” option when pasting in blocks of
text. When you paste in text, a small clipboard icon will appear:

Clicking this will give you options to “Match Destination Formatting,” and “Use Destination
Styles.” Using these options in concert with Word’s Styles Pane should let you quickly change
the styles of the entire document.

Even when the aesthetics are left unfixed, the basic functionality of paperless is usually intact as
long as the Styles are called the right thing – transferring to Speech.doc and moving blocks up
and down. Any errors are usually fixable if you play with the file for a bit.

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Pre-tournament Setup
This is just a brief pre-tournament checklist to make sure you’re ready to debate paperless.
Mostly, it’s just a distillation of the preceding advice.

• Drills, drills, drills – Most of the difficulties I’ve seen my debaters have with paperless so
far have been the exclusive product of a lack of practice. While I firmly believe that
debating without tubs speeds up almost every aspect of the debating process, including
prep time, there’s a definite element of relearning involved. While memorizing the
hotkeys and understanding the basic elements only takes 5 minutes, becoming proficient
enough with the system to deal with contingencies or be extremely quick takes hours.
My debaters said their comfort level increased significantly after their second full
practice debate – but they have still needed lots of work as the season progressed on
things like efficient USB transferring, file organization, and keeping a consistent
workflow on the desktop. While this is a significant time investment, it’s useful to
remember the amount of time saved vs. hand-labeling manila folders and printing
expando indexes.

• Make sure you have enough laptops – As mentioned above, I think each team needs a
minimum of three laptops. It’s probably also a good idea for the team at large to have
some backups, as debaters seem to be kryptonite to technology.

• Check that each computer works – my debaters seem to have a knack for ensuring that
any computer purchased the night will be infected with a virus, rife with spyware, and
running too slowly to effectively open multiple word documents before the morning
arrives.

• Clean off the desktop and USB drives. Since the desktop is used as a work space where
Speech files are saved and copied, digital tubs are kept, etc...It’s a good idea to clear
everything else off, at least for the duration of a tournament. If there’s an inordinate
amount of clutter, it can just be temporarily stored in a new folder. It’s also a good idea
to create a folder for each tournament, so you can store (and label) Speech documents and
update files as they are produced. It’s also a good idea to start with a clean USB drive
before each round – this both ensures there’s not confusion over which file to open, and
prevents the accidental spread of either viruses or previous files.

• Make sure each laptop has the most recent version of the digital tub. While archived
backfiles can be put on each computer at the beginning of the season and left relatively
untouched, the master copy of the digital tub is constantly in flux. It’s a good idea to
have a complete copy on a USB drive before leaving for the tournament, just in case one
(all) of the debaters forget to update their local copies.

• Make sure each computer is set up for paperless – toolbars created, hibernation/screen
saver turned off, updates turned off, screen rotation turned off, etc...

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In-round
After practicing with the whole paperless process a few times, I’ve found most debaters are
quickly comfortable enough with it to not dread the idea of trying it in a competitive setting.
That said, here are a few suggestions (some duplicative with earlier tips) to make the in-round
process go smoothly. Take special note of the admonition below to save files to the hard drive
before copying them to the USB drive. In roughly chronological order:

• Explain to your judge and opponents that you’ll be debating paperless, and what that
might entail for them. Explain the viewing computer, the USB jumping process, and any
other logistical issues. Since the whole notion of paperless debate is still relatively new
for many teams and judges, some are bound to have questions or concerns about the
impact on evidence sharing, length of round, etc...

• Make sure you know if the other team wants to use their own computers to view your
evidence, or would prefer to use the viewing laptop – they take time to plug in, set up,
etc...so don’t wait until the round has already started.

• If you have concerns about the other team “stealing” your evidence instead of just
looking at it on the USB drive, talk to them about it in advance. You can also ask the
other team not to “look ahead” in the document while you’re giving your speech if this is
something which concerns you.

• Plug in and set up – when you get to the debate, immediately get both computers plugged
in so there’s no battery problems. Figure out if you need extension cords, power strips,
etc…Also, set up your laptop stand in advance if you need it for a podium.

• Get a USB drive plugged in to the computer in advance, with a folder open to quickly
facilitate copying to it from the desktop. This is important to facilitate rapidly moving
files – it can take a long time for a computer to recognize a drive, open a folder, etc...

• Both debaters should get a “Speech.doc” open on their computers. It should be saved on
the desktop. You can also use the top page of your speech document or a blank
“notepad” document to jot down coaching notes.

• Minimize the number of open Word files. If you’re clearly done with a file, close it.
Word can pretty easily handle a large number of open documents, but the more you push
it, the more likely it is to freeze, or become unbearably slow. This is especially true right
before you’re about to speak – the most important time for your computer to not have
tech problems.

• Once you’re done prepping your speech, save it. Then, “Save As” and rename it on the
desktop as “1NCSpeech.doc” or whatever your speech is. You should then drag and drop
the file to the jumpdrive. Very important note: Do NOT save the file directly from Word
on to the jumpdrive. If you do, Word sometimes gets very angry when you remove the
drive. The only tech problems we’ve had so far are related to making this mistake.

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• Work out in advance with your judge whether you can “stop prep” before doing the USB
transfer, or whether they consider that prep time. Trying not to irritate the judge is
generally good practice, never more so than when doing something alien to “normal”
debate.

• You should first hand the jumpdrive to your partner, who should copy it to their desktop
and open it on their computer as a backup. Then you should set up on your podium, give
the roadmap, etc... while your partner hands it to the other team or sets up the viewing
laptop for them.

• It’s helpful to maintain a consistent naming convention for all your speech docs, as well
as a consistent organizational scheme on your desktop and jumpdrive. Since every
speech starts out as “Speech.doc” it would quickly become impossible to keep them
straight unless they’re given more accurate names and organization.

• Use “Reading Layout” during your speech – as described above, this makes scrolling
through a document much easier, using only the arrow keys. Note: If you accidentally
click inside the text of a card, it will disable moving between pages with the arrow keys
in favor of moving through the text. To fix this, press the Escape key once. Alternately,
Page Up and Page Down should always work to advance pages.

• After the debate, you can politely remind your opponent and/or judge to delete their
copies of your speech documents if anyone transferred them instead of leaving them on
the USB drive.

• Keep every speech you give. This makes writing blocks, sharing work and intel,
etc...much easier.

• What do I do if I have a catastrophic crash? – If you’ve done everything right, there

won’t be a problem. If something really insane happens, like in a speech, then you
should be able to quickly switch to your partners laptop if you’ve done the backup
process correctly. In an absolute disaster, you should beg for mercy from the judge while
you figure out what went wrong. Hopefully, they’ll be nice…

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Public Relations
In the very beginning of our paperless transition, Whitman proposed two “community norms” we
thought would help facilitate fairness during paperless debates, as well as alleviate some of the
concerns our debaters had. Neither norm was objected to by any of the people we debated over
the course of the year, and they seem to have been reasonably accommodated by most if not all
of our opponents.

I list them again here as no more than an ongoing request – it’s certainly the case that practices
will evolve along with the more widespread utilization of paperless debating, and these types of
norms will likely take care of themselves, in time. More importantly, we feel it’s the burden of
the team pushing a new practice (paperless) to bear the brunt of the responsibility for
accommodation should anyone disagree.

Nonetheless, we feel the following practices would be best for competitive equity:

• The opposing team should, to as reasonable a degree as possible, minimize “looking

ahead” in the speech document to try and gain a competitive advantage by figuring out
what will be read later in the speech. This is especially applicable in rounds where
something such as a new affirmative is being read. While obviously only so practicable,
we feel that an honest attempt is still better than nothing.

• Opposing teams or judges who opt to transfer the “speech” document to their personal
computers should delete them at the conclusion of the debate. We feel that taking
evidence wholesale is the equivalent of taking a paper file. We’d hope the majority of
the community would agree that stealing files crosses the line, especially given the easy
availability of cites.

Two other issues bear mentioning in relation to paperless teams interacting with the non-
paperless world, especially judges.

• Prep Time – Some judges have expressed concern that the process of jumping files,
setting up computers, etc...takes too much time. In particular, they seem to be frustrated
that it appears as if the paperless team is “stealing prep” while waiting for something
such as a Word document to open on the viewing computer. While a legitimate concern,
I think it is misplaced, for several reasons. First, after a season of debating with seven
paperless teams, I can say that I’ve noticed zero difference in the average length of time it
takes to conclude our debates vs. rounds involving only paper. Secondly, I would say
that paperless more frequently saves time, by eliminating the “stolen prep” involved in
giving each teams evidence back to each other, searching under desks for piles of
misplaced 2NC cards, or looking for the lost CP text. My hunch is that this time is
significantly greater in the world of paper, but judges are used to it taking place, while
they are not used to the time involved in jumping files.

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• Tech problems – While we have yet to have any truly terminal tech problems in the
middle of a round, it’s probably inevitable that it will happen at some point, if not to us
than to some other debate team making the transition. To a certain extent, this can’t be
avoided – but it’s probably worth thinking through how the judge should deal with it. If a
few debates a year have to conclude 5 minutes later while a debater gets one free
“reboot,” it seems worth the myriad other benefits it brings to the debate community. In
general, I would just hope for patience on the part of the judges and debaters when this
problem inevitably arises.

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Common Concerns
When told they would be debating paperless at their next tournament, my debaters immediately
raised a host of questions and concerns, most of which seemingly took the form of “what if’s.”
This section will hopefully answer the most commonly asked of these. Much of the advice given
here is repeated elsewhere, but this is an attempt to present it in a form more easily accessible
when something goes wrong.

The Decision To Switch

What do I do if my computer crashes?

This is far and away the most frequently voiced concern. As mentioned earlier, 14 debaters at
Whitman debated an entire year without a crash – but it is probably inevitable at some point.
First, keep in mind that it’s important to minimize the chance of a crash by practicing good
preventative care on your computer. Ensuring your operating system is up to date, that you’re
running anti-virus software, and that the machine is physically well taken care of will go a long
ways towards avoiding any problems.

That said, if it does happen, there are several backups in place. Since each debater puts their
speech on a jump drive and gives it to both their partner and their opponents, there should be at
least 2 other computers looking at the current speech at any given time. After doing contingency
drills with my debaters, they can swap out a crashed laptop in no more than a few seconds. If a
computer crashes before the speech, a reboot will usually solve the problem – and if the debater
has been saving regularly, not much work should be lost.

This concern is also not really unique to paperless anymore – many teams flow on their laptops,
or frequently read a card or two during a debate. While not as catastrophic as the previous
examples, the debate community at large will have to eventually develop a set of norms
surrounding how judges and competitors deal with the occasional crash.

Can’t we switch half-way and still use some paper or printers?

It’s obviously possible to develop a debating method that falls somewhere in-between fully
paperless and relying entirely on tubs. Several suggestions have been made, such as printing
evidence before each speech, printing the evidence for the judge after the round, carrying only
the most frequently used files in one tub, carrying everything in tubs except a few backfiles, etc...

At Whitman, we toyed with all of these ideas, but ultimately decided that they defeated much of
the purpose for us. Since the primary motivations for our switch were to eliminate baggage
costs, printing costs, etc...and simplify the process of traveling with a large number of teams,
creating another headache by making each team carry a printer, for example, wouldn’t have met
our needs. While I’m sure that some teams will effectively implement a hybrid system, we have
no regrets about our decision to remain completely paperless.

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There’s lots of paperless implementations out now, which should I pick?

Totally up to you – there’s advantages and disadvantages to any system you decide on, and I’m
sure that the more teams that go paperless, the more options you’ll have. Even better, design
your own from scratch and mix and match the pieces that work well for you. Ultimately, most
versions of paperless are pretty similar, so it’s hard to go wrong.

There are a lot of different needs and opinions on how various functionality should be
implemented, how the macros should behave, etc…I would guess that most teams will want their
system to behave differently in at least some ways than ours.

My goal has been to make our system both as simple as possible, minimizing the number of
macros, things to remember, etc…while ensuring that it’s as powerful as possible. I’ve also tried
to incorporate a wide variety of suggestions, new features, and bug fixes sent to me by other
people. As other people venture into the paperless world and come up with innovations, I’ll
definitely keep tweaking our template.

As of this writing, here’s some of the primary ways that Whitman’s template differs from others:

• Cross-platform compatability. While it’s still designed with Windows XP and Office
2003 in mind, I tried hard not to use anything that wouldn’t work in any version of Office
or operating system you wanted to use it on. It’s confirmed working on XP, Vista, Mac,
and Linux, with several versions of Word, including with .docx files.

• My code isn’t particularly decomposed. This is by design, though it comes with certain
disadvantages. It’s a little less computer programmer friendly, making it somewhat less
generalizable and maintainable. But, I think it also makes it easier to understand in a
sequential fashion for people who aren’t programmers. It also has the advantage of a
certain type of simplicity – all the relevant code is contained in about 6 macros. If object-
oriented programming and the difference between a function and a subroutine are lost on
you, this could be an advantage to figuring out what’s going on under the hood

• There’s very little reliance on clunky and inelegant “find” functions. This probably
doesn’t matter a ton in practice, but is still probably an improvement on our previous
version.

• Support for multiline headers – this makes the addition of “whitespace” to the Document
Map possible without running afoul of any macros.

Why is support for Mac Word spotty?

Blame Microsoft. The short version is that Mac Word seems to treat certain elements of the
document differently than Windows versions, especially when accessed programmatically in

34
VBA. In particular, where Windows versions use manual page breaks (^m in VBA code terms),
these sometimes appear to Mac Word as section breaks. This means that some sections of code
can behave strangely.

Ensuring 100% compatibility is doable, but hasn’t yet reached the level of top priority. Given
that Mac Word is an inferior program to the Windows versions in many other ways, motivation
to accommodate this problem has been low.

Can these macros be written in Applescript?

Maybe, but it’s not something I’ve looked into as of yet. Brad Bolman and Peter Vale are
currently working on this, and a copy of their work so far is available from Whitman’s tech page.
As I find out more about the project, I’ll try and keep this manual updated.

Can’t we just use a printer before each speech?

I think that it could work for some, and it's obviously each team's prerogative – I'd be curious to
hear how well it works for teams that try it. Some of our opponents through the year have opted
to print our Speech documents, and seemed to have few problems.

For our part, we considered the printer route pretty extensively and decided against it for several
reasons. First, the logistics of each team carrying a printer are significantly more of a hassle than
one spare laptop per team. A laptop fits in a backpack, a printer doesn't. Printers small enough
to carry tend to print very few pages per minute and require cartridge replacement every couple
hundred pages. Even with the perfect printer, it requires locating boxes of paper, toner, etc...for
every tournament, which is a hassle we’re glad to have left behind. Second, printers just aren't
very reliable – even less so than computers, and they hold up to travel abuse very poorly. We
had a hard time keeping one team printer working, full of ink, and not jammed when we used
paper – I'd hate to try it with seven. Lastly, printers present a unique set of tech problems, like
stalled print queues, incorrect drivers, or spooling errors – which just add to the potential for
things to go wrong during a debate.

Also, it’s pretty intangible – but we enjoy that we don't still have one foot in the paper door.

How do novices adapt to this system?

To be honest, Whitman does not have a large novice contingent, so I admit that I can't speak very
directly to these concerns. But, from working with the least experienced parts of my team and
with high school novices learning paperless, my experience so far has been that novices are even
better at using the system than more experienced debaters. The technological sophistication of
the average 18 year old has skyrocketed in the past five years, and the younger students on my
team tend to be much better at using a laptop and quickly digesting electronic info than my older

35
students. I’m fairly optimistic that novices could quickly adapt and learn paperless – they also
tend to have problems keeping large stacks of paper organized.

Can this work on Linux, or with Open Office?

Yes and No. It definitely works on Linux if you’ve got some tech saavy, but Open Office isn’t
good enough yet. It’s pretty close to replicating most of the needed functionality, but support for
macros is still pretty lagging, and it’s lacking “Normal View,” which is a deal breaker. Hopefully
in years to come this becomes a more viable option.

I’m also very confident that porting the whole VBA code base into Open Office’s native macro
format shouldn’t be that hard. In many ways, it’s better than VBA – but the other failings of
Open Office make this a very low priority right now.

As far as Linux goes, I can confirm that running a pretty standard Ubuntu 9.04 installation, the
macros work on Office 2003 running under Wine 1.1.27. Most of the development for the latest
macros actually took place under this setup, so it’s definitely a viable option.

A full explanation of how to setup everything you need to run paperless under Linux is outside
the scope of this manual, but here’s the basic process:
1) Install Linux
2) Install Wine (only certain versions work)
3) Install Word 2003 under Wine, tweak
4) Install VB runtimes, tweak more
5) Install the template into the appropriate spots in your ~/.wine directory
6) Modify the macros to avoid certain functions that don’t work right
7) Probably some more tweaking

The most important change to make to the macro code is to strip out any part of the code that
checks for whether Speech.doc is open. The reason is because parts of Application.Documents
aren’t accessible to the Wine transparency layer (I think). That entails getting rid of a few blocks
of code in SendBlockToSpeech and SendSelectionToSpeech, and replacing them with a different
check. This removes some of the power of the macro (like supporting either .doc or .docx), but
makes it work in most circumstances.

Somewhere before the code that actually does the sending to Speech, add something like:

'Trap for Speech.doc not being open

On Error GoTo ExitErrHandler:

Then, add an “Exit Sub” at the end of your normal code, then the following at the end, just
before “End Sub.”:

'Error handler for Speech.doc not being open. 4160 is "bad file name"
ExitErrHandler:

36
If Err.Number = 4160 Then
MsgBox "Speech.doc is not open"
Exit Sub
Else: MsgBox Err.Number & Err.Description
End If

If anyone is interested in more specifics about how to do this, feel free to contact me.

What if I want to use the older version of Whitman’s macros?

They’re still included in the newest template for backwards compatability. They’re the macros
with names that start with “Old” like OldSendBlockToSpeech.

What resources are currently available for paperless?

The first place to start is at Whitman’s tech page. It has the most recent version of our template,
this manual, etc…
http://www.whitman.edu/rhetoric/61tech.htm

There’s also an open wiki set up by JP Lacy with links to a ton of other helpful stuff:
http://paperlessdebate.wikispaces.com

Privacy/Security
Won’t people steal your Speech documents and keep all your cards?

Probably. First, we choose to have a more optimistic view of the debate community, and assume
until proven otherwise that our opponents will ask us for cites rather than wholesale take our
evidence. While I’m sure that some of the people we debate will lack scruples, I prefer to
believe that this practice is not widespread.

More importantly, even if it happens frequently, it doesn’t confer much of a competitive

advantage to the team who chooses to do so. In an era of massive caselists and prolific cite
requests, access to any piece of evidence read in a debate is already a matter of a few minutes
work. I think that this concern also buys into the myth that “not letting your opponents see your
evidence” somehow confers an important strategic benefit. In reality, most debates are won
because of superior technique, argumentative capabilities, or ethos – not because the other team
didn’t have a chance to digest your evidence. I’ve frequently told my debaters that if we prepare
effectively, we should be able to give the other team access to all our files for an hour prior to the
debate and not have it affect our chances to win. Either way, I can’t isolate a single debate that
any of my 7 teams lost this year due to “file stealing.”

37
What happens if I break a new (advantage/disad/etc...) and don’t want to give it to
the other team before my speech?

There are several solutions to this problem. First, take care with labeling the block titles in your
Speech document something less descriptive than the argument name, such as “New
Advantage.” Combined with asking the other team not to “scroll ahead” since you’ll be breaking
something new should go a long way towards restoring the strategic benefit of a few extra
minutes of “surprise.” Secondly, you could save the new argument to a separate word document
on the jump drive, and ask the opponent to only open that file once you reach that part of your
speech. Finally, you could theoretically bring a paper copy of just your new argument.

Much like the concern about stolen Speech files, I think this falls under the category of “scarier
in theory than in practice.” This ranked near the top of my debaters concerns before doing
paperless – now, they no longer even bother with any of the aforementioned “solutions” (except
perhaps changing block titles). It became clear to them that the extra minute in which the other
team doesn’t know what your new advantage is just doesn’t have much tangible bearing on the
debate.

Won’t people read ahead in the Speech document and gain a competitive
advantage?

This concern is pretty much the same as the previous two – not as frequent or as big of a deal as
people seem to expect. If anything, this works in the other direction – our experience has borne
out that opponents who have tried to read ahead have been much more likely to stop flowing,
miss arguments, or even waste speech time answering arguments which were never made.

Doesn’t sharing USB drives so widely present a virus risk?

Yes. Ensuring that each computer is up to date with current anti-virus and spyware software is
an important element of ensuring paperless is as safe as possible. It’s also recommended that the
USB drives used for paperless be used exclusively for that task – if they are kept clean and wiped
before each debate (or at least before each tournament), the virus risk can be minimized. I’m
fairly certain none of our computers has contracted a virus this year as a result of paperless – and
in this age of widespread file sharing, other risks seem much higher.

38
Macro Problems

My macros aren’t working at all.

Most of the time, this is because your macro security settings are set too high. See the
Installation section for more specific information on how to enable macros.

If this fails to fix the problem, ensure that the file you’re using was made using the correct
template – especially when converting old files for use with paperless, it’s easy to forget to use
the template and paste them into a regular Word document.

Another problem might be that Word has not correctly assigned hotkeys to each macro – select
Tools – Customize – Keyboard (in Word 2003), and then make sure each Macro is assigned to a
unique key combination. If this still fails to fix the problem, make sure that there are no other
programs interfering with the use of the macro hotkeys, such as graphics software. Macs in
particular should try using the Function key in addition to the hotkeys. Check the setting in
System Preferences – Keyboard & Mouse to use the F keys as standard function keys.

You should also check to make sure that you have the paperless template installed in the Word
templates folder – if you are using a file which doesn’t have the macros built in, it might be
looking for the wrong file.

My macros keep disappearing from my document.

There are a variety of reasons why you might open a document originally created in the debate
template and find the macros are mysteriously missing. Most common is probably that your
template is incorrectly installed, and you’ve moved your file to a different folder than it was
created in. Make sure that a copy of the template (debate.dot) is located in the correct Templates
folder, and that Word knows it exists. More complete instructions can be found in the
Installation section above.

Other possible culprits include:

• Macro security settings – make sure these are turned to low or "off" in Word.
• Sending a file through email – gmail and other software can strip macros for security
reasons.
• Saving as the wrong type of file – save as Word 2003 .doc files.
• Some other security program like anti-virus, anti-spyware, etc...

One suggestion (with credit to Adam Symonds) is to put a copy of the template in Word’s
“Startup” folder. The location of that directory will alter depending on your exact software
setup. To figure out where it is:

In Word 2003: Go to Tools -- Options -- File Locations, Select “STARTUP”, then click Modify.

39
In Word 2007: Office Button -- Word Options -- Advanced, scroll to the bottom, click File
Locations, select STARTUP, then click Modify.

If you can’t find any other solution, one workaround you could consider is incorporating the
macros directly into your normal.dot file – then they would be available to any file you opened
no matter what.

I was using a macro, and then got an error message. It says “Microsoft Visual
Basic – Run Time Error 4198, Command Failed” and gives me the option to End,
Debug, or Help.

Almost every way you can “break” the macros has been error trapped in the code, and you’ll get
a message telling you what to do. When you get this message, it just means that you’ve done
something the macro didn’t know how to handle. Fortunately, you haven’t hurt anything – it just
means that whatever you just tried to do didn’t complete properly.

If you click “End” or press “E”, you’ll be returned to Word and can try and figure out what you
did wrong. If you press “Debug” on accident, you’ll be sent into the Word VBA debugger, with
a lot of cryptic looking code instead of your Word document. To exit this, just close the window
and click “OK” when told this will stop the debugger.

If you find a reproducible error that crashes a macro, please let me know and I’ll do my best to
fix it.

I emailed a file to another team member, and the macros stopped working.

Some email programs or online mail services have been found to strip all macros from Word
files when sending them as an attachment, presumably as a security “feature.” If you find this
happening to you, try sending the Word document in a zip file, or with a temporarily modified
file extension, such as File.dco instead of File.doc.

I pressed the macro hotkey, and my screen suddenly rotated 90 degrees.

This occurs on certain laptops using a particular graphics card software package. To get your
screen back to normal, press Ctrl-Alt-↑. Then, right click on your desktop, select “Graphics
Options – Hotkeys” and select “Disable hotkeys.”

40
How do I change the macro hotkeys?

You can set Word to use any key combination you choose for each macro in lieu of the default
hotkeys. Naveen’s template introduction linked near the beginning of this document provides
directions on how to do this.

Move Up/Move Down don’t work correctly – it doesn’t move what I expect it to.

First, check the position of your cursor – remember that the Move macros are designed to
automatically select what to move based on whether you’re currently in a card, block, or hat.

If not, then this is likely caused by improperly formatted blocks in your source documents. This
arises most frequently when attempting to use backfiles which weren’t formatted in the paperless
template. Turn on “Show Formatting,” and look into how the stuff you’re trying to move is
formatted – odds are good you’ve just accidentally formatted something incorrectly.

For example – if you have a bunch of blank lines in a block formatted as “tag” without any text,
you’ll sometimes have to run MoveUp or MoveDown several times to move a card down below
the next “actual” card.

If your problem is with a hat, ensure that it’s a properly formatted two-line hat – for a more in-
depth explanation, check the relevant sections on the HatMaker macro.

MoveUp also doesn’t move a larger section above a smaller section if the smaller section is at
the top of the document – so, for example, if your document has a card on the first page without
a block title, you can’t move an entire block on the second page above the card.

Moving/Sending a hat doesn’t work right.

This is probably because you have your cursor on the “blank” line of the hat instead of the
second line. The macro will still run, but it won’t send or move anything. Make sure your
cursor is on the “text” part of the hat before running the macros.

Word stops responding with one of the macros – all I get is an hourglass.

This is probably caused because a macro is in an infinite loop. I’m pretty sure this won’t happen,
because any circumstance where an infinite loop is possible has been coded around. But, if all
else fails, you can manually stop a macro by pressing Ctrl-Break. Break is also sometimes
labeled “Pause” on the keyboard.

41
I get a “Code execution has been interrupted” error when I run any macro.

This usually happens after having pressed Ctrl-Break, and VBA can get grumpy. Try pressing
Ctrl-Break again. It’s also worth pressing “Debug” and manually pressing the Stop button in the
VBA Editor. This error is quite rare, and frequently doesn’t have an exact cause.

Pre-Round

How do we integrate backfiles produced in other templates?

This is largely discussed above in the section on File Organization – the short version is that you
should be able to adapt the macros to work in most templates. Either you can integrate the
macros back into your old files so that you can send them as-is to a Speech document, or you can
cut and paste files from the old templates into a new template document. This will likely give
rise to some small aesthetic problems, such as incorrect font sizes – but in general, paperless
functionality should remain intact.

Isn’t highlighting files harder?

To a certain degree, yes. Our template has a built-in highlighter function which is fairly rapid
with practice. It is, however, slightly slower than doing it by hand. I think that this is made up
for by the benefits of only needing to highlight any card once – it can then be copied to other
files, or complete files can be shared by the team, saving duplicative highlighting efforts.

How do I make Word 2007 always save as .doc instead of .docx?

Click the Office Button, then Word Options. Select the Save category, then change the drop-
down box for “Save files in this format” to Word 97-2003 Document (*.doc).

In-Round
What about prepping before the block? There’s only one viewing computer, but
both negative debaters might need to see evidence.

In reality, this hasn’t presented much problem – most opponents have been happy with one
viewing computer, as the 1NR has a sufficient amount of prep time during the 2NC to look at
any evidence they need. They can also prep without looking at the cards for at least a few
minutes – there’s usually analytics to write out, evidence to pull, etc...

For opponents who have insisted that having two computers is important, we’ve had two
solutions, both of which have worked – either they have used their own computer as a second
viewing laptop, or the 2AC has offered their computer as a stand-in until the 2NC is done

42
prepping. Since the affirmative is usually backflowing until the 2NC is ready to speak, and the
2AC doesn’t have to give another speech which requires pulling evidence, their need for a laptop
is minimal for those few minutes.

Doesn’t this make debates take longer?

No – if anything, I think debates conclude faster. Occasionally, paperless can cause a short delay
while transferring files between laptops, and some judges have commented on this as a source of
irritation. I think this is largely an issue of perception – those delays tend to occur at moments in
the debate which people aren’t used to.

On the other hand, paperless completely removes time spent looking for lost cards in jumbled
stacks of paper all over the room – saving time both during the debate (when debaters ask for
cards and have to stop prep), and lots of time when the judge is calling for cards.

After a year worth of debates, I never had the feeling at a tournament that Whitman’s debates
were getting out significantly later than others. No tab room ever complained. And we were
usually waiting for 10 minutes or more before our opponents showed up from moving their tubs
between buildlings.

I just like paper – tactile feel and organization are important to me.

This would be my number one problem with paperless as a debater – there is admittedly no easy
substitute for spreading out lots of files, or the feel of holding a stack of cards in hand. Partly, I
think this is just an issue of familiarity and training – my younger students have a much easier
time with this than my older debaters. It’s fairly clear from observation that my debaters are
much more organized using the computer – the inability to “lose” cards during a debate is a
boon.

How do I mark a card while giving a speech?

Most of my students just use their mouse to click at the part of the card where they stopped
reading, then press Enter a few times to make clear where they stopped. If it’s only one or two
cards, this can even be done after the speech. Remember, if you’re in reading view and you edit
a card text, you’ll need to press Escape to re-enable the arrow keys.

My debaters have also taken to saying “marked at xxxxxx” when marking to let the other team
know where they stopped if they’re following along. In practice, this system has presented no
problems that I’m aware of.

43
What if I send over more cards than I’m going to read to my Speech document?

This is no different than giving the other team a block with multiple cards but only reading the
top one. Some responsibility is on the other team to flow the speaker and pay attention to which
cards are read – or to clarify in cross-ex if there’s any confusion. This also provides an incentive
for the opposing team to follow along in real time, rather than skip ahead. The speaker can also
opt to keep a file or two open on their computer to read a few extra cards should they have time –
and then jump those last couple cards to the other team during cross-ex.

What about using Dropbox for transferring files instead of USB drives?

Dropbox can be very useful, and in some circumstances could replace using a USB drive.
However, we’ve found that many tournaments we attend have pretty spotty internet access, so
having USB as a backup is probably wise. There are also logistical difficulties with a large
number of people using Dropbox simultaneously (finding the right file, files named similar
things, etc…). I’d be interested to hear if anyone uses this as their primary file transfer
mechanism.

Reading View suddenly stopped working, what do I do?

Most likely, you’ve accidentally clicked inside a card, switching Word into edit mode. To re-
enable navigation via the arrow keys, press Escape once.

I sent something to my Speech document, and now it looks weird (bigger font,
out of order, etc...)

Keep in mind that both “Send” macros will send your selection to the current insert point in the
Speech document. Odds are good that you accidentally had the cursor in a Block Title or other
area of formatted text – and Word attempted to apply that formatting to everything you sent. Try
pressing Undo and then resending the blocks to the bottom.

Doesn’t paperless make cite requests super easy?

Yes. There’s even macros built in to our template to make it go faster.

CiteRequest. Put the cursor inside any card text and press Ctrl-Q. This will automatically
reduce the card to just first and last sentences, ready to be sent as a cite.

CiteRequestDoc. This will automatically convert the entire file into cites, while leaving block
titles, hats, and page breaks – making it easy to organize the cites you want to send. This is
purposefully not assigned to a hotkey, because it pretty much irreversibly destroys the document

44
and isn’t something you want to run accidentally. It will also prompt the user before converting,
as an extra safety precaution. To run this, just go to the Macros toolbar and manually select it.

There’s several other ways to implement this macro – such as having it open a new document for
the cites. I prefer the functionality this way, because it’s simpler -- but it should be easy to
incorporate this code into a variety of other applications. The code for this macro also has the
benefit of being pretty efficient. Note that it skips any card shorter than 15 words to avoid
getting stuck in an infinite loop.

Can I flow on my laptop?

In short, yes. With a little practice you should be able to use Alt-Tab to switch between your
flow and your Speech document during the speech. Another suggestion that I haven’t tried
personally is to keep two columns of your flow open on the far left of the screen, and put the
Speech document to the right so you can see both at the same time.

Nonetheless, I recommend to my students that they flow on paper. I think that it helps them to
see connections between arguments and focus on the big picture. It also helps to minimize
computer distractions during the speech.

Doesn’t the laptop hurt my ethos?

It certainly runs the risk of getting in the way, but perhaps not appreciably more so than a stack
of tubs and expandos. Suggestions to think about when learning to speak exclusively off a
computer:
• Make sure the laptop doesn’t block your view of the judge – putting it slightly to one side
helps.
• Remember to look up – doing drills where you practice not remaining glued to your
computer are worthwhile.
• Practice reading off the computer and experiment with different layouts, zoom levels,
resolutions, fonts, etc...You may find one combination works significantly better for you
than others.

45
Code Annotation
All of the paperless macros were coded by hand using Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications.
This section includes the complete code for each of the relevant macros, annotated with
commentary to better explain how they’re written. I make no claim that these are written as
efficiently as they could be, nor that they are particularly elegant – and in some circumstances
I’ve sacrificed elegance on purpose for straightforwardness.

VBA is also a mess of a programming language. To be frank, there’s a lot of duct tape. If you
have any suggestions for how to improve this code or fix obvious errors, let me know.

My hope is that this section can at least provide a starting point for teams which need to tweak
the macros to make them work better with their preexisting template, to sort out bugs, or to add
functionality in the future.

Lines which begin with ' are comments.

The main five macros all make use of two other macros, SmartSelection and TrimSelection.
Massive thanks to Sam King for his help with the development of these two.

SmartSelection
This macro does most of the heavy lifting for the other macros – it figures out where you have
your cursor (a card, a block, a hat, etc…) then selects the relevant item. It can then be
manipulated by the other macros and sent to Speech, moved up or down, etc…

Sub SmartSelection()

'BlockStart is used to set the beginning of the selection. StartHeaderName is used to determine
'what you’re selecting. The ascii character array is used by the TrimSelection macro to get rid of
'unnecessary whitespace. It’s not technically necessary to define it in this macro, but I’ve
'chosen to do so anyway. At the moment, the “13” is commented out so that the selection doesn’t
'trim paragraph breaks.

Dim BlockStart As Long

Dim StartHeaderName As String
Dim asciiCharsToTrim(0 To 2) As Integer 'ascii 11 = soft line break; 12 = page break; 13 =
paragraph break
asciiCharsToTrim(0) = 11
asciiCharsToTrim(1) = 12
'asciiCharsToTrim(2) = 13

'Move to start of current paragraph and collapse the selection

Selection.StartOf Unit:=wdParagraph
Selection.Collapse

46
'Move backwards through each paragraph to find the first tag, block title, hat, or the top of the
document
'If a hat is found, move the selection forward one character to also get the blank line
Do While True
If Selection.Paragraphs(1).Style.NameLocal = "tag" Then Exit Do
If Selection.Paragraphs(1).Style.NameLocal = "Block Title" Then Exit Do
If Selection.Paragraphs(1).Style.NameLocal = "hat" Then
Selection.MoveStart Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=-1
Exit Do
End If
If Selection.Start <= ActiveDocument.Range.Start Then Exit Do
Selection.MoveStart Unit:=wdParagraph, Count:=-1
Loop

'Save that start

BlockStart = Selection.Start

'Set the header name of the current style

StartHeaderName = Selection.Paragraphs(1).Style.NameLocal

'Collapse the selection and move one paragraph forward. If it’s a hat, move 2 to skip the blank
line
Selection.Collapse
If StartHeaderName = "hat" Then
Selection.MoveStart Unit:=wdParagraph, Count:=2
Else
Selection.MoveStart Unit:=wdParagraph, Count:=1
End If

'If selecting a hat, go to next hat or end of doc. The end is referenced with +1 to avoid an
annoying Word quirk.
If StartHeaderName = "hat" Then
Do While True
If Selection.Paragraphs(1).Style.NameLocal = "hat" Then Exit Do
If Selection.Start + 1 >= ActiveDocument.Range.End Then
Selection.Start = BlockStart
Selection.End = Selection.StoryLength
Call TrimSelection(asciiCharsToTrim())
Exit Sub
End If
Selection.MoveStart Unit:=wdParagraph, Count:=1
Loop

'If selecting a Block Title, go to next Block Title, hat or end of doc
ElseIf StartHeaderName = "Block Title" Then
Do While True

47
 If Selection.Paragraphs(1).Style.NameLocal = "Block Title" Then Exit Do
If Selection.Paragraphs(1).Style.NameLocal = "hat" Then Exit Do
If Selection.Start + 1 >= ActiveDocument.Range.End Then
Selection.Start = BlockStart
Selection.End = Selection.StoryLength
Call TrimSelection(asciiCharsToTrim())
Exit Sub
End If
Selection.MoveStart Unit:=wdParagraph, Count:=1
Loop

'If neither a Block Title or hat, stop at the next tag, Block Title, hat, or end of doc
Else
Do While True
If Selection.Paragraphs(1).Style.NameLocal = "Block Title" Then Exit Do
If Selection.Paragraphs(1).Style.NameLocal = "hat" Then Exit Do
If Selection.Paragraphs(1).Style.NameLocal = "tag" Then Exit Do
Selection.MoveStart Unit:=wdParagraph, Count:=1
If Selection.Start + 1 >= ActiveDocument.Range.End Then
Selection.Start = BlockStart
Selection.End = Selection.StoryLength
Call TrimSelection(asciiCharsToTrim())
Exit Sub
End If
Loop
End If

'Reset Start
Selection.Start = BlockStart

'Trim whitespace
Call TrimSelection(asciiCharsToTrim())

End Sub

TrimSelection
'This TrimSelection code is from Sam King from Stanford Debate -- released under Creative
Commons.
'There's a new version of this code available, but I've opted not to use it.
'This is because I prefer just leaving trailing paragraphs in to removing them and adding them
back.

Private Sub TrimSelection(asciiCharsToTrim() As Integer)

48
'removes all characters in charsToTrim -- in any order, at either edge of the selection -- from the
selection.
'note: those characters are not deleted. The selection is just changed.

'saves the start selection for later.

Dim startSelection, endSelection
startSelection = Selection.Start
Selection.Start = Selection.End - 1

'removes all of one character in charsToTrim, then removes all of the next, etc
'then checks to see if any charsToTrim remain
'repeats until no charsToTrim remain
Dim allDelimitersAreTrimmed As Boolean
allDelimitersAreTrimmed = False
Do While allDelimitersAreTrimmed = False
'Dim delimiter As String
For Each delimiter In asciiCharsToTrim
Do While Asc(Selection.Characters(1)) = delimiter
Selection.MoveStart Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=-1
Selection.MoveEnd Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=-1
If Selection.End <= startSelection Then
Selection.Start = startSelection
Selection.End = startSelection
Exit Sub
End If
Loop
Next

'if no delimiters remain, the flag to end the loop will be true
allDelimitersAreTrimmed = True
For Each delimiter In asciiCharsToTrim
If Asc(Selection.Characters(1)) = delimiter Or allDelimitersAreTrimmed = False Then
allDelimitersAreTrimmed = False
End If
Next
Loop

'now, the end is trimmed. Save the end for later, and trim the start.
'logically, works the same as trimming the end
endSelection = Selection.End
Selection.Start = startSelection

allDelimitersAreTrimmed = False
Do While allDelimitersAreTrimmed = False
'Dim delimiter As String
For Each delimiter In asciiCharsToTrim

49
 Do While Asc(Selection.Characters(1)) = delimiter
Selection.MoveStart Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=1
Loop
Next

'if no delimiters remain, the flag to end the loop will be true
allDelimitersAreTrimmed = True
For Each delimiter In asciiCharsToTrim
If Asc(Selection.Characters(1)) = delimiter Or allDelimitersAreTrimmed = False Then
allDelimitersAreTrimmed = False
End If
Next
Loop

Selection.End = endSelection

End Sub

SendBlockToSpeech
This macro sends a card, block, or hat to the Speech document, depending on where you have
your cursor.

Sub SendBlockToSpeech()

Dim CurrentDoc
Dim Doc
Dim SpeechDoc
Dim CurrentStart
Dim CurrentEnd
Dim StartHeaderName As String
Dim FoundDoc As Boolean
Dim FoundDocx As Boolean

'Save Current Selection and active document

CurrentStart = Selection.Start
CurrentEnd = Selection.End
CurrentDoc = ActiveDocument.Name

SpeechDocCheck:
'Make sure Speech.doc or Speech.docx is open. Thanks to Sam King and Swayze Smartt.
For Each Doc In Application.Documents
If LCase(Doc.Name) = "speech.doc" Then
FoundDoc = True
SpeechDoc = Doc

50
 End If
If LCase(Doc.Name) = "speech.docx" Then
FoundDocx = True
SpeechDoc = Doc
End If
Next Doc

'If neither is found, create a new document based on the current template to save, then retry
If FoundDoc <> True And FoundDocx <> True Then
MsgBox "Speech.doc is not open -- opening a blank doc for you to save"

'Trap for user cancelling the save

On Error GoTo ExitErrHandler:

Application.Documents.Add Template:=ActiveDocument.AttachedTemplate.FullName
ActiveDocument.Save
Documents(CurrentDoc).Activate
GoTo SpeechDocCheck:
End If

'If both Speech.doc and Speech.docx are open, exit

If FoundDoc = True And FoundDocx = True Then
MsgBox "Both Speech.doc and Speech.docx are open -- close one!"
Exit Sub
End If

'Get the "smart" selection

Call SmartSelection

'Figure out what you have selected to see if you need to put in a page break
StartHeaderName = Selection.Paragraphs(1).Style.NameLocal

'Copy selection
Selection.Copy

'Switch to whatever SpeechDoc was found

Documents(SpeechDoc).Activate

'Paste
Selection.Paste

'If pasting a hat or block title, put in a page break.

If StartHeaderName = "Block Title" Or StartHeaderName = "hat" Then
Selection.InsertBreak Type:=wdPageBreak
End If

51
'Return focus and return to original selection
Documents(CurrentDoc).Activate

'Return selection
Selection.Start = CurrentStart
Selection.End = CurrentEnd

Exit Sub

'Error handler for user cancelling the save. 4198 is a generic runtime error.
ExitErrHandler:
If Err.Number = 4198 Then
MsgBox "You messed up saving Speech.doc, start over."
Exit Sub
Else: MsgBox Err.Number & Err.Description
End If

End Sub

SendSelectionToSpeech
This macro just sends whatever the current selection is to Speech

Sub SendSelectionToSpeech()

Dim CurrentDoc
Dim Doc
Dim SpeechDoc
Dim FoundDoc As Boolean
Dim FoundDocx As Boolean

'Save Current Selection and active document

CurrentStart = Selection.Start
CurrentEnd = Selection.End
CurrentDoc = ActiveDocument.Name

SpeechDocCheck:
'Make sure Speech.doc or Speech.docx is open. Thanks to Sam King and Swayze Smartt.
For Each Doc In Application.Documents
If LCase(Doc.Name) = "speech.doc" Then
FoundDoc = True
SpeechDoc = Doc
End If
If LCase(Doc.Name) = "speech.docx" Then
FoundDocx = True

52
 SpeechDoc = Doc
End If
Next Doc

'If neither is found, create a new document based on the current template to save, then retry
If FoundDoc <> True And FoundDocx <> True Then
MsgBox "Speech.doc is not open -- opening a blank doc for you to save"

'Trap for user cancelling the save

On Error GoTo ExitErrHandler:

Application.Documents.Add Template:=ActiveDocument.AttachedTemplate.FullName
ActiveDocument.Save
Documents(CurrentDoc).Activate
GoTo SpeechDocCheck:
End If

'If both Speech.doc and Speech.docx are open, exit

If FoundDoc = True And FoundDocx = True Then
MsgBox "Both Speech.doc and Speech.docx are open -- close one!"
Exit Sub
End If

'Copy selection
Selection.Copy

'Switch to whatever SpeechDoc was found

Documents(SpeechDoc).Activate

'Paste and insert hard return

Selection.Paste
Selection.TypeParagraph

'Return focus and return to original selection

Documents(CurrentDoc).Activate

'Return selection
Selection.Start = CurrentStart
Selection.End = CurrentEnd

Exit Sub

'Error handler for user cancelling the save. 4198 is a generic runtime error.
ExitErrHandler:
If Err.Number = 4198 Then
MsgBox "You messed up saving Speech.doc, start over."

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 Exit Sub
Else: MsgBox Err.Number & Err.Description
End If

End Sub

MoveUp
This macro will move a card, block, or hat one slot up, above the next item of it’s kind. So, if
the cursor is in a card, it will move the card above the previous card until it hits the beginning of
the block. If it’s in a hat, it will move the entire section above the previous hat, and so on.

Sub MoveUp()

'PageBreak is used to flag adding back in a page break when needed, FloatingSpace is used to fix
' an annoying Word quirk
Dim StartHeaderName As String
Dim PageBreak As Boolean
Dim CurrentStart
Dim CurrentEnd
Dim FloatingSpace As Integer

'Get the "smart" selection and save selection

Call SmartSelection
CurrentStart = Selection.Start
CurrentEnd = Selection.End

'Figure out what you have selected so you know what to move
StartHeaderName = Selection.Paragraphs(1).Style.NameLocal

'If it's a block title or hat, expand the selection to include the next page break. Yes, this is a little
'backwards considering we just ran TrimSelection, but it works fine.
If StartHeaderName = "Block Title" Or StartHeaderName = "hat" Then
Selection.MoveEndUntil Cset:=vbFormFeed, Count:=1
Selection.MoveEnd Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=1
If Selection.Characters.Last <> vbFormFeed And Selection.End + 1 <
ActiveDocument.Range.End Then Selection.MoveEnd Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=-1
'If selecting the last block, check whether a page break needs to be added
If Selection.End + 1 >= ActiveDocument.Range.End Then
PageBreak = True
For Each Char In Selection.Characters
If Char = vbFormFeed Then PageBreak = False
Next Char
End If
End If

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'If already at the top of the document, exit without cutting
If Selection.Start <= ActiveDocument.Range.Start Then
Selection.Start = CurrentStart
Selection.End = Selection.Start
Exit Sub
End If

'If moving a card, check if there's another card on the page first
If StartHeaderName = "tag" Then
Selection.Collapse
Selection.Move Unit:=wdParagraph, Count:=-1
Do While True
If Selection.Paragraphs(1).Style.NameLocal = "tag" Then
FoundCard = True
Exit Do
End If
If Selection.Paragraphs(1).Style.NameLocal = "Block Title" Then Exit Do
If Selection.Paragraphs(1).Style.NameLocal = "hat" Then Exit Do
If Selection.Start <= ActiveDocument.Range.Start Then Exit Do
Selection.Move Unit:=wdParagraph, Count:=-1
Loop
If FoundCard = False Then
Selection.Start = CurrentStart
Selection.Collapse
Application.StatusBar = "Already on the first card on this block"
Exit Sub
End If

'Reset Selection
Selection.Start = CurrentStart
Selection.End = CurrentEnd
End If

'Cut it out
Selection.Cut

'Deal with annoying floating space when cutting a block title or tag
If Selection.Paragraphs(1).Style.NameLocal = "Block Title" Or
Selection.Paragraphs(1).Style.NameLocal = "tag" Then
FloatingSpace = Selection.MoveEndWhile(Cset:=" ", Count:=1)
If FloatingSpace > 0 Then
Selection.Collapse
Selection.Delete
End If
End If

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'If moving a card, cycle back until you find the next tag or the top of the block
If StartHeaderName = "tag" Then
Selection.Move Unit:=wdParagraph, Count:=-1
Do While True
If Selection.Paragraphs(1).Style.NameLocal = "tag" Then Exit Do
If Selection.Paragraphs(1).Style.NameLocal = "Block Title" Then
Selection.Move Unit:=wdParagraph, Count:=1
Exit Do
End If
If Selection.Paragraphs(1).Style.NameLocal = "hat" Then
Selection.Move Unit:=wdParagraph, Count:=1
Exit Do
End If
If Selection.Start <= ActiveDocument.Range.Start Then Exit Do
Selection.Move Unit:=wdParagraph, Count:=-1
Loop
End If

'If moving a Block Title, cycle back until you find the next block title or hat
If StartHeaderName = "Block Title" Then
Selection.Move Unit:=wdParagraph, Count:=-2 'Move back two paragraphs to get past page
break
Do While True
If Selection.Paragraphs(1).Style.NameLocal = "Block Title" Then
If Selection.Characters.First = vbFormFeed Then Selection.Move Unit:=wdCharacter,
Count:=1
Exit Do
End If
If Selection.Paragraphs(1).Style.NameLocal = "hat" Then
Selection.Move Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=-1
Exit Do
End If

'If top of document is found, go back to where you started

If Selection.Start <= ActiveDocument.Range.Start Then
Selection.Start = CurrentStart
Exit Do
End If
Selection.Move Unit:=wdParagraph, Count:=-1
Loop
End If

'If moving a hat, cycle back to previous hat. If no previous hat, leave it where it is.
If StartHeaderName = "hat" Then

56
 Selection.Move Unit:=wdParagraph, Count:=-2 'Move back two paragraphs to get past page
break
Do While True
If Selection.Paragraphs(1).Style.NameLocal = "hat" Then
Selection.Move Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=-1
Exit Do
End If
'If top of document is found, go back to where you started
If Selection.Start <= ActiveDocument.Range.Start Then
Selection.Start = CurrentStart
Exit Do
End If
Selection.Move Unit:=wdParagraph, Count:=-1
Loop
End If

'Paste
Selection.Paste

'Deal with annoying floating space (again!) when pasting a tag

If Selection.Paragraphs(1).Style.NameLocal = "tag" Then
Selection.StartOf Unit:=wdParagraph
FloatingSpace = Selection.MoveEndWhile(Cset:=" ", Count:=1)
If FloatingSpace > 0 Then
Selection.Collapse
Selection.Delete
End If
End If

'Add page break if pasting last page

If PageBreak = True Then Selection.InsertBreak Type:=wdPageBreak

'Move back to beginning of the item you just moved

If StartHeaderName = "tag" Then
Selection.StartOf Unit:=wdParagraph
Selection.Move Unit:=wdParagraph, Count:=-1
Do While True
If Selection.Paragraphs(1).Style.NameLocal = "tag" Then Exit Do
If Selection.Start <= ActiveDocument.Range.Start Then Exit Do
Selection.Move Unit:=wdParagraph, Count:=-1
Loop
End If

If StartHeaderName = "Block Title" Then

Selection.Move Unit:=wdParagraph, Count:=-2
Do While True

57
 If Selection.Paragraphs(1).Style.NameLocal = "Block Title" Then Exit Do
If Selection.Start <= ActiveDocument.Range.Start Then Exit Do
Selection.Move Unit:=wdParagraph, Count:=-1
Loop
Selection.Move Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=1
End If

If StartHeaderName = "hat" Then

Selection.Move Unit:=wdParagraph, Count:=-2
Do While True
If Selection.Paragraphs(1).Style.NameLocal = "hat" Then Exit Do
If Selection.Start <= ActiveDocument.Range.Start Then Exit Do
Selection.Move Unit:=wdParagraph, Count:=-1
Loop
End If

End Sub

MoveDown
Works the same as MoveUp, but in reverse. The primary differences in the macro code are due
to programming in fixes to the edge cases – dealing with the last block on the page, etc…

Sub MoveDown()

Dim StartHeaderName As String

Dim CurrentStart
Dim CurrentEnd
Dim FoundCard As Boolean
Dim PageBreak As Boolean
Dim FloatingSpace As Integer

'Get the "smart" selection and save selection

Call SmartSelection
CurrentStart = Selection.Start
CurrentEnd = Selection.End

'Figure out what you have selected so you know what to move
StartHeaderName = Selection.Paragraphs(1).Style.NameLocal

'If it's a block title or hat, expand the selection to include the next page break
If StartHeaderName = "Block Title" Or StartHeaderName = "hat" Then
Selection.MoveEndUntil Cset:=vbFormFeed, Count:=1
Selection.MoveEnd Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=1

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 If Selection.Characters.Last <> vbFormFeed Then Selection.MoveEnd Unit:=wdCharacter,
Count:=-1
End If

'If already at the bottom of the document, exit without cutting

If Selection.End + 1 >= ActiveDocument.Range.End Then
Selection.Start = CurrentStart
Selection.End = Selection.Start
Exit Sub
End If

'If moving a card, check if there's another card on the page first
If StartHeaderName = "tag" Then
Selection.Collapse
Selection.Move Unit:=wdParagraph, Count:=1
Do While True
If Selection.Paragraphs(1).Style.NameLocal = "tag" Then
FoundCard = True
Exit Do
End If
If Selection.Paragraphs(1).Style.NameLocal = "Block Title" Then Exit Do
If Selection.Paragraphs(1).Style.NameLocal = "hat" Then Exit Do
If Selection.End + 1 >= ActiveDocument.Range.End Then Exit Do
Selection.Move Unit:=wdParagraph, Count:=1
Loop
If FoundCard = False Then
Selection.Start = CurrentStart
Selection.Collapse
Application.StatusBar = "Already on the last card on this block"
Exit Sub
End If
'Reset Selection
Selection.Start = CurrentStart
Selection.End = CurrentEnd
End If

'Cut it out
Selection.Cut

'Deal with annoying floating space when cutting a block title or tag
If Selection.Paragraphs(1).Style.NameLocal = "Block Title" Or
Selection.Paragraphs(1).Style.NameLocal = "tag" Then
FloatingSpace = Selection.MoveEndWhile(Cset:=" ", Count:=1)
If FloatingSpace > 0 Then
Selection.Collapse
Selection.Delete

59
 End If
End If

'If moving a card, cycle down until you find the next tag or the top of the next block
If StartHeaderName = "tag" Then
Selection.Move Unit:=wdParagraph, Count:=1
Do While True
If Selection.Paragraphs(1).Style.NameLocal = "tag" Then Exit Do
If Selection.Paragraphs(1).Style.NameLocal = "Block Title" Then Exit Do
If Selection.Paragraphs(1).Style.NameLocal = "hat" Then Exit Do
If Selection.End + 1 >= ActiveDocument.Range.End Then Exit Do
Selection.Move Unit:=wdParagraph, Count:=1
Loop
End If

'If moving a Block Title, cycle down until you find the next block title, hat, or end
If StartHeaderName = "Block Title" Then
'Move past the next block title
If Selection.Paragraphs(1).Style.NameLocal = "Block Title" Then
Selection.Move Unit:=wdParagraph, Count:=1
End If

'If already on a hat because you're moving the last block in a hat, skip two paragraphs
If Selection.Paragraphs(1).Style.NameLocal = "hat" Then
Selection.Move Unit:=wdParagraph, Count:=2
End If

'Cycle down looking for the next block title or hat, then move one character off the page break
Do While True
If Selection.Paragraphs(1).Style.NameLocal = "Block Title" Or
Selection.Paragraphs(1).Style.NameLocal = "hat" Then
If Selection.Characters.First = vbFormFeed Then Selection.Move Unit:=wdCharacter,
Count:=1
Exit Do
End If

'If bottom of document is found, set page break

If Selection.End + 1 >= ActiveDocument.Range.End Then
PageBreak = True
Exit Do
End If

Selection.Move Unit:=wdParagraph, Count:=1

Loop
End If

60
'If moving a hat, cycle down to next hat. If no next hat, leave it where it is.
If StartHeaderName = "hat" Then
Selection.Move Unit:=wdParagraph, Count:=2 'Move two paragraphs to get past first hat
Do While True
If Selection.Paragraphs(1).Style.NameLocal = "hat" Then
Selection.Move Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=1
Exit Do
End If
'If bottom of document is found, set page break
If Selection.End + 1 >= ActiveDocument.Range.End Then
PageBreak = True
Exit Do
End If

Selection.Move Unit:=wdParagraph, Count:=1

Loop
End If

'Paste
If PageBreak = True Then Selection.InsertBreak Type:=wdPageBreak
Selection.Paste

'Deal with annoying floating space (again!) when pasting a tag

If Selection.Paragraphs(1).Style.NameLocal = "tag" Then
Selection.StartOf Unit:=wdParagraph
FloatingSpace = Selection.MoveEndWhile(Cset:=" ", Count:=1)
If FloatingSpace > 0 Then
Selection.Collapse
Selection.Delete
End If
End If

'Move back to beginning of the item you just moved

If StartHeaderName = "tag" Then
Selection.StartOf Unit:=wdParagraph
Selection.Move Unit:=wdParagraph, Count:=-1
Do While True
If Selection.Paragraphs(1).Style.NameLocal = "tag" Then Exit Do
If Selection.Start <= ActiveDocument.Range.Start Then Exit Do
Selection.Move Unit:=wdParagraph, Count:=-1
Loop
End If

If StartHeaderName = "Block Title" Then

Selection.Move Unit:=wdParagraph, Count:=-2
Do While True

61
 If Selection.Paragraphs(1).Style.NameLocal = "Block Title" Then
Selection.Move Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=1
Exit Do
End If
If Selection.Start <= ActiveDocument.Range.Start Then Exit Do
Selection.Move Unit:=wdParagraph, Count:=-1
Loop
End If

If StartHeaderName = "hat" Then

Selection.Move Unit:=wdParagraph, Count:=-2
Do While True
If Selection.Paragraphs(1).Style.NameLocal = "hat" Then Exit Do
If Selection.Start <= ActiveDocument.Range.Start Then Exit Do
Selection.Move Unit:=wdParagraph, Count:=-1
Loop
End If

End Sub

DeleteBlock
Deletes the current card, block, or hat, depending on where your cursor is.

Sub DeleteBlock()

Dim FloatingSpace As Integer

'Get "smart" selection

Call SmartSelection

'Figure out what you're deleting

StartHeaderName = Selection.Paragraphs(1).Style.NameLocal

'If it's a block title or hat, expand the selection to include the next page break
If StartHeaderName = "Block Title" Then
Selection.MoveEndUntil Cset:=vbFormFeed
Selection.MoveEnd Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=1
End If
If StartHeaderName = "hat" Then
Selection.MoveEndUntil Cset:=vbFormFeed
Selection.MoveEnd Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=1
End If

'Delete it

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Selection.Delete

'Deal with annoying floating space when deleting a block title or tag
If Selection.Paragraphs(1).Style.NameLocal = "Block Title" Or
Selection.Paragraphs(1).Style.NameLocal = "tag" Then
FloatingSpace = Selection.MoveEndWhile(Cset:=" ", Count:=1)
If FloatingSpace > 0 Then
Selection.Collapse
Selection.Delete
End If
End If

End Sub

HatMaker
This macro creates a properly formatted two-line “hat.” It works whether you have the text you
want to be a hat highlighted, just have the cursor on that line, or if you’re just on a blank page.
One thing to keep in mind is that the template hotkey to create a hat (F11) doesn’t just apply the
“hat” style to the current line, it runs this macro – if you need to format a single line as a hat, you
have to do it manually.

Sub HatMaker()

' Macro written August 2009 by Aaron Hardy

Selection.HomeKey Unit:=wdLine
Selection.TypeParagraph
Selection.Style = ActiveDocument.Styles("hat")
Selection.MoveUp Unit:=wdParagraph, Count:=1
Selection.Style = ActiveDocument.Styles("hat")
Selection.MoveDown Unit:=wdParagraph, Count:=1

End Sub

CiteRequestDoc
This macro will convert the entire current document into a list of cites. It purposefully leaves
block headers, hats, and page breaks intact. It also skips any card shorter than 15 words to avoid
getting stuck in an infinite loop.

Sub CiteRequestDoc()

'Written August 2009 by Hardy

63
Dim Answer As String

'Prompt user to confirm destroying the document

Answer = MsgBox("Converting into a cite list is irreversible. Are you sure?", vbOKCancel)

If Answer = vbOK Then

Selection.HomeKey Unit:=wdStory
Do While True
If Selection.Paragraphs(1).Style.NameLocal = "card" Or
Selection.Paragraphs(1).Style.NameLocal = "underline" Then
Selection.MoveEnd Unit:=wdParagraph, Count:=1

'Make sure card is long enough to turn into a cite. If not, skip it.
If Selection.Words.Count > 15 Then
Selection.MoveStart Unit:=wdWord, Count:=6
Selection.MoveEnd Unit:=wdWord, Count:=-8
Selection.TypeText Text:="AND "
End If
End If
If Selection.End + 1 >= ActiveDocument.Range.End Then Exit Do
Selection.Move Unit:=wdParagraph, Count:=1
Loop

Else
Exit Sub
End If

End Sub

Applescript Versions
Brad Bolman and Peter Vale of Pembroke Hill have developed a working implementation of
paperless for Applescript. The code is too lengthy to include here, but all the relevant scripts are
available from Whitman’s tech page:
http://www.whitman.edu/rhetoric/61tech.htm

Brad says that: “The difference with Applescripts is that, unlike Macros, they cannot be attached
to documents so each user must move the Applescript into their scripts folder and then assign it a
hotkey, but that can be done with the template. However, since both systems contain nearly all
the same class/items/etc. this should make it possible for Mac users to use their computers in
debates even running Word 2008.”

Peter says that: “we have finally created 4 Applescripts that can automatically select a section of
text in between two page breaks and then send that to Speech.doc, select and send a single card
to Speech.doc, move a block up, and move a block down in Speech.doc.

64
A couple of Notes:
You can't select text and then run the scripts or else there will be an error.
All of the scripts are based on page breaks except for the CardSendtoSpeech, which has to be
changed for the style of the tag and card in the template normally used.
There are also a lot of notes in the code text that explain all of the steps.
The scripts have to be saved in Documents --> Microsoft User Data --> Word Script Menu Items
Also, I'm going to be working on moving pieces of evidence up and down, I just haven't finished
those quite yet.”

65
Known Issues
Most of the macro code is error trapped to ensure stability and avoid annoying error messages –
in general, it’s pretty hard to “break” the system. I’ve also gotten rid of most of the previous
“known bugs” in the last version of the macros. I would expect most “bugs” to be caused by
improper formatting. However, if you come across anything strange, please let me know.

As of now, this is what I know about:

• If the first page of a document is a hat, but with only one line (that is, no “blank” line
above it), it can make moving that hat up and down not have the correct whitespace in the
document map. The obvious solution is to always use properly formatted hats, even on
the first page.

• There is occasional weirdness with the final block in a document depending on whether
there’s a manual page break after the last text, with a blank page at the very bottom of the
document. If you try to move the very bottom block up using MoveUp, AND the block
is multiple pages, AND those pages have a manual page break in them before the end of
the block, the macro won’t add a page break. It just means you need to add one manually
if you MoveUp the last block and it doesn’t have a page break with it. If this sounds
convoluted, it’s because you’ll probably never need to worry about it…

• Moving a card to the very bottom of a block when the final card doesn’t have an extra
blank paragraph before the next page break will cause the moved card to be “scrunched
up” to the bottom of the last card. That is, there won’t be a blank line between them.
You should generally just always have a blank line between the last card and the next
page. That’s probably better than having the macro add paragraphs automatically,
because that can quickly add unnecessary amounts of whitespace into the document.

• Screen rotation when using hotkeys – known conflict with certain graphics card software
– see the Common Concerns section for instructions on how to turn this off.

• Word 2008 support on Mac – Microsoft removed VBA support from this version of
Word, seemingly for no reason – nothing can be done about this, so using an earlier
version of Word is necessary.

• Conflicts with the Microsoft Language Bar. This is perhaps the strangest behavior we’ve
seen while using paperless. Some versions of Office come with the Microsoft Language
Bar, which includes a rudimentary Speech-to-Text tool. This can be turned on
inadvertently while using Word, which will then attempt to convert speech picked up by
the computers built-in microphone into text in your open document. If you find random
words and fragments of sentences appearing seemingly out of nowhere in your Word
documents, try disabling the Language Bar. Somewhat embarrassingly, this took two
days and four people to figure out.

66
Future Features/Advanced Suggestions
I think the latest incarnation of the paperless macros is a big step over the system we used last
year. While that was fully functional, this version has a lot of new functionality, a lot of bug
fixes, and incorporates a lot of improvements other people have suggested or come up with on
their own.

As people continue to come up with ideas or even just “wishlists,” please let me know.

Stuff that I’m still considering playing with in the future:

• More effective use of Outline View. One thing my debaters have started playing with is
using Words Master Outline view to select which blocks they want to send to Speech.
One particularly promising trick is the ability to select multiple blocks at a time using the
Ctrl key. While you have to be careful about where you click to avoid inadvertently
selecting two blocks at once, this enables you to send multiple blocks from different parts
of the file all at once. It helps to click on the far left of the Outline view, near the “plus”
sign. Even better, they will appear in the Speech document in the order they were
selected, rather than the order in the original document.

• Programmable mouse integration. Since many higher-end mice come with multiple
buttons, including the ability to assign each one to a keystroke, it’s possible to program a
mouse to use all of the paperless macros using one hand.

• Use of AutoHotKey to speed desktop setup. AutoHotKey is a free program designed to

quickly automate tasks in Windows, such as opening programs, reorganizing windows,
etc...Essentially, it adds macro support for all Windows applications. Many possibilities
exist, such as assigning one keystroke or desktop shortcut to automatically open a Speech
doc and all your affirmative files, then organize them on the desktop in a standard layout.

67