# Table of Authorities for Paralegals: A Deadline-Proof Workflow

> A deadline-proof Table of Authorities workflow for paralegals: freeze pagination, categories, short forms, Id., passim, a final QA table and Mac options.

*Updated: 2026-09-24*

**The short answer:** build the Table of Authorities last, from the final paginated version of the brief, and treat every edit after that point as a reason to rebuild it. Freeze the pagination, list every authority by category, fold short forms and *Id.* references into the full citation's page list, apply *passim* only if your court and firm allow it, and run a written QA pass before the brief is filed. The tool matters less than the order of operations: Word for Windows can mark citations, but Microsoft states that Tables of Authorities "aren't supported in Word for Mac or Word for the web," so Mac-only and Google Docs teams need a different route.

**Fast facts**

- A TOA lists every authority cited in the brief, grouped by category (cases, constitutional provisions, statutes, regulations, rules, other authorities), with the page numbers where each is cited.
- FRAP 28(a)(3) requires federal appellate briefs to include a table of authorities with cases alphabetically arranged and references to the pages where they are cited. State and local rules vary.
- Microsoft's support page says Tables of Authorities aren't supported in Word for Mac or Word for the web; the Mark Citation workflow is a Word for Windows feature.
- Page references must match the filed document. Any edit that reflows text after the TOA is built can make it wrong.
- Short forms (*Greer*, 593 U.S. at 505) and *Id.* references point back to a full citation, and their pages are normally listed under that full citation.
- A TOA is an index, not a cite-check. Whether an authority is still good law is a separate step (a citator such as Shepard's or KeyCite).

## Why the TOA is always the last-minute crisis

The Table of Authorities sits at the very end of the drafting chain. It depends on the final text *and* the final pagination, so it cannot be finished until the attorney stops editing, and the attorney usually stops editing close to the deadline. Paralegals and legal assistants on r/paralegal describe the same pattern: Mac users with no TOA feature in their version of Word, people building the table by hand, and firms that only have Best Authority on the Windows machines. The work itself is not hard. It is the timing, and the fact that one late paragraph can shift every page reference after it.

That is why a TOA workflow should be designed around one question: *what happens if the brief changes after I build the table?* The answer should never be "I hope it still matches."

## The deadline-proof workflow, step by step

### 1. Freeze the pagination first

Agree with the attorney on a **pagination freeze**: the moment after which the body of the brief will not be edited without telling you. Before that moment, set up the document so that front matter (cover, table of contents, TOA) is numbered separately, usually in lowercase roman numerals, and the body starts at page 1. That way a TOA that grows from two pages to three does not push every body page down and invalidate its own page references. If you are working from a PDF, confirm that the printed page numbers (not the PDF viewer's page count) are what you index.

### 2. Set the categories before you start listing

Decide the headings up front and match the court's expectations and your firm's precedent. A typical set is **Cases; Constitutional Provisions; Statutes; Regulations; Rules; Other Authorities**. Cases are alphabetized by the first party name; statutes are usually ordered by title and section; secondary sources often go under Other Authorities. Some courts prefer federal and state cases separated. Write the category list down so the attorney can approve it before the crunch, not during it.

### 3. Resolve short forms to one full citation

Every authority appears in the TOA once, under its full citation, with all the pages where it is cited in any form. That means collecting the full cite (*Greer v. United States*, 593 U.S. 503 (2021)), the short form (*Greer*, 593 U.S. at 508), and bare case-name references ("*Greer* held…") into one entry. Bare case-name references are the ones most often missed, both by people and by software, because they have no reporter citation to search for.

### 4. Handle *Id.* and *supra* deliberately

*Id.* refers to the immediately preceding authority, so a page containing only "*Id.* at 12" is still a page on which that authority is cited. Most practitioners list that page under the authority; confirm your firm's convention. Under Bluebook style, *supra* is generally used for secondary sources and some other materials rather than cases, so a *supra* reference usually points to an entry under Other Authorities. Watch for an *Id.* that follows a string cite or a footnote: it may be ambiguous, and that is a drafting question for the attorney, not something to guess.

### 5. Decide on *passim* before you format

*Passim* replaces a long page list when an authority is cited throughout the brief. Word's built-in option applies it when an authority appears on five or more pages, but firms and courts differ: some judges prefer every page listed, and some local rules or practice guides say so. Get the attorney's decision in writing early, because switching conventions at the last minute means reformatting every long entry.

### 6. Format: dot leaders, alignment, typeface

The standard look is the authority on the left, a dot (tab) leader, and page references right-aligned. Long case names wrap with a hanging indent. Use the brief's typeface and size unless the court's rules say otherwise. Italicize or underline case names consistently with the body of the brief.

### 7. Run the final QA pass

**Final TOA QA checklist**

| Check | How to do it | What goes wrong if you skip it |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Pagination is frozen | Confirm with the attorney that no body edits happened after the TOA was built; compare the PDF's page count to the version you indexed | Every page reference after the edit is off by one or more pages |
| Every authority is listed | Spot-check each section of the brief (argument, footnotes, statement of the case) against the TOA | A case cited only in a footnote or a parenthetical is missing |
| Short forms and *Id.* are folded in | Search the brief for each case's first party name and for *Id.*; confirm those pages appear in the entry | Page lists are incomplete; entries look thin compared with the brief |
| No duplicates | Scan for the same authority listed twice under slightly different names or pin cites | Two entries for one case, each with half the pages |
| Categories are correct | Rules are not under Statutes; regulations are not under Other Authorities | A reviewing attorney or clerk flags inconsistency |
| Alphabetization | Cases sorted by first party name, ignoring *In re* and *Ex parte* conventions per your style guide | Entries out of order |
| *Passim* is consistent | Applied by the agreed rule, or not at all | Some entries use passim at four pages, others list nine |
| Front matter numbering | TOA and table of contents in roman numerals; body starts at 1 | TOA pages shift body page numbers |
| Table of contents also updated | Rebuild the table of contents with the same final version | TOC and TOA disagree on where sections begin |

## What to push back on (politely, in advance)

- **Edits after the freeze.** Ask that any post-freeze change comes with a heads-up so you can rebuild the TOA and table of contents. A one-word fix may not reflow; a new paragraph almost always does.
- **A realistic TOA window.** Ask for the final version at a set time before filing. Even with good tools, a clean TOA needs time for review.
- **Conventions decided early.** Categories, *passim*, and whether to separate federal and state cases should be settled before deadline day.
- **Ambiguous citations.** If an *Id.* or short form could point to two authorities, the attorney should resolve it in the text. Do not guess in the TOA.
- **Cite-checking is separate.** Building the TOA is not the same as confirming that cases are still good law. Make sure someone owns the citator check.

> **Common misconception:** "If the TOA was built in Word, it updates itself." Word's table updates only from citations that were marked with fields. New citations added after marking, or text pasted in from another document, are not in the table until someone marks them and updates the field. Always re-check after late edits.

## Tooling options by firm setup

**Which route fits your setup**

| Firm setup | Realistic TOA route | Trade-off |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Windows + Word + Best Authority license | Use Best Authority or Word's Mark Citation / Insert Table of Authorities | Works well if licensed; Windows-only; marking must be redone after late edits |
| Windows + Word, no add-in | Word's built-in Mark Citation (Alt+Shift+I) and Insert Table of Authorities, per Microsoft's support page | Manual marking of every citation and short form; time-consuming on long briefs |
| Mac-only office | Build by hand from the final PDF, borrow a Windows machine, send to a formatting service, or use a PDF-based tool | Microsoft says TOAs aren't supported in Word for Mac; some builds still show a legacy dialog, but it is not an officially supported path |
| Google Docs or Pages drafting | Build by hand from the final PDF, or use a PDF-based tool | Neither has a built-in TOA feature |
| Confidential matters, no-upload policy | Local tools only: Word for Windows, manual work, or a tool that processes on your own computer | Cloud add-ins and upload services may conflict with policy |

Whatever the setup, the workflow above does not change: freeze, categorize, fold short forms, decide *passim*, QA. The tool only changes how long the listing step takes.

> **Where BriefAuthority fits:** BriefAuthority is a browser tool in development, pre-launch, built for exactly the Mac and Google Docs rows above. It is designed to read the **final PDF** in your browser, detect cases, statutes, regulations, rules and other authorities, and show a review screen where you merge short forms, link *Id.* and *supra* references, fix categories and exclude entries before exporting a formatted .docx TOA with dot leaders and optional *passim*. The brief is never uploaded. In an internal pre-launch test on two U.S. Supreme Court merits briefs, it found 129 of the 131 cases in the briefs' own TOAs; most misses were bare case-name short references, which the review screen is built to catch. It formats and indexes only: it does not check whether citations are good law. Specification as designed; confirmed at launch. Planned price: $39 one-time or $9 per brief. [Join early access](/early-access).

## Frequently asked

**How do I make a table of authorities on a Mac if Word doesn't support it?**

Microsoft states Tables of Authorities aren't supported in Word for Mac. Your options are building the table by hand from the final PDF, using a Windows machine with Word, sending the brief to a formatting service, or using a tool that works from the PDF. Some Mac Word builds still show a legacy TOA dialog, but it is not officially supported.

**When should I build the TOA?**

Last, after the pagination freeze. Build it from the final version of the brief, and rebuild or re-check it after any edit that could reflow text.

**Do pages with only an Id. citation go in the table of authorities?**

Usually yes. *Id.* refers to the preceding authority, so that page is a page where the authority is cited. Most practitioners list it; confirm your firm's convention.

**When should I use passim in a TOA?**

Where your court allows it, many offices switch to *passim* at five or more page references — that threshold comes from Microsoft Word's built-in "Use passim" option. The U.S. Supreme Court's Rule 34.2 says a table of authorities should not use passim (added in the 2023 rules and kept in the rules effective March 16, 2026), and the D.C., Tenth and Eleventh Circuits bar it too (D.C. Cir. R. 28(a)(2); 10th Cir. R. 28.3(C); 11th Cir. R. 28-1(d)). Follow your court's rule.

**The attorney made edits after I finished the TOA. What do I need to recheck?**

Every page reference after the first edited page, the table of contents, and any new or deleted citations. If the edit added or removed a paragraph, assume the page references changed.

**Does building the TOA mean the citations are correct?**

No. A TOA indexes where authorities are cited. Checking that each citation is accurate and still good law is a separate cite-check using a citator.

**Related guides**

- [How to make a Table of Authorities on a Mac](/how-to-make-a-table-of-authorities-on-a-mac) — Every Mac route, including the legacy Word dialog.
- [Table of Authorities from a PDF](/table-of-authorities-from-pdf) — Why the final PDF is the right source for page numbers.
- [Best Authority alternative](/best-authority-alternative) — Options when the firm has no Best Authority license.
- [Table of Authorities rules](/table-of-authorities-rules) — What FRAP 28 and court rules require.
- [Table of Authorities without uploading](/table-of-authorities-without-uploading) — For confidential matters.
- [Early access](/early-access) — Get the launch price first.
- [Table of authorities order and alphabetizing](/table-of-authorities-order)
- [Id. and supra in a table of authorities](/id-supra-table-of-authorities)
- [Passim: which courts ban it](/passim-table-of-authorities)

**Sources**

- [Microsoft Support: Create a table of authorities](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/word/create-a-table-of-authorities)
- [Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure, Rule 28 (Cornell LII)](https://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/frap/rule_28)
- [r/paralegal: What do you use to create table of authorities?](https://www.reddit.com/r/paralegal/comments/1q5jm2q/what_do_you_use_to_create_table_of_authorities/)