# Free Table of Authorities Generator: PDF, Scan or Word

**The short answer:** BriefAuthority is a Table of Authorities generator for U.S. legal briefs. It builds the TOA from the final PDF (page numbers from the pages you file, no Word needed) or from your Word .docx. With the Word file plus its final PDF, it writes a finished, formatted table into your .docx under the TABLE OF AUTHORITIES heading, with page numbers taken from the PDF, so it works in Word for Mac, Pages and Google Docs with no F9. Or it writes Word's own TA field codes and a TOA field so Word for Windows builds and updates the table. Scanned PDFs are read with on-device OCR. You review every authority before export. It runs in your browser, on a Mac, without uploading the brief. Free, no account. The app is on this page: https://briefauthority.com/table-of-authorities-generator. Supported files and courts: https://briefauthority.com/supported-files-and-courts

## Inspect real output

Open the actual Word table generated from the public *Greer v. United States* merits brief and compare it with the source PDF. This is the unmodified app export from October 7, 2026. Review every authority and page before using a generated table in a filing.

![First page of the generated Greer Word table](https://briefauthority.com/images/greer-table-of-authorities.webp)

[Download the generated Greer TOA (Word .docx)](https://briefauthority.com/downloads/greer-table-of-authorities.docx) · [Open the source Greer brief (PDF)](https://briefauthority.com/samples/greer-v-united-states-merits-brief.pdf)

## Watch the real PDF-to-Word workflow

[Watch the silent PDF-to-Word video (MP4)](https://briefauthority.com/videos/greer-pdf-to-word.mp4)

Silent screen recording, October 15, 2026 · Chrome on macOS, with the app already loaded. Public Greer PDF → review screen → Word download. Advisory review items remain open.

1. Choose “Try it with a real Supreme Court brief” to load the public Greer merits PDF.
2. Inspect the generated table: 97 entries, Roman front matter i–x and body pages 1–44, mapped separately from PDF sheet numbers.
3. Open “Possibly incomplete entries” to see the advisory notes. No entries are manually changed.
4. Choose “Download the table (.docx)”. The app saves an editable, normal-text Word table and prompts you to verify the final filing PDF.

The recording covers the PDF-to-Word download; importing the table into an editor and reviewing the filing are the next steps. Review every authority and page, insert the table, then export and check a fresh PDF because insertion can move pages.

Detailed instructions: [PDF workflow](https://briefauthority.com/table-of-authorities-from-pdf), [Mac guide](https://briefauthority.com/how-to-make-a-table-of-authorities-on-a-mac). For a reusable blank layout use the [Word template](https://briefauthority.com/table-of-authorities-template); the [examples guide](https://briefauthority.com/table-of-authorities-example) explains finished tables.

## Two inputs
| | Final PDF (text layer or scanned) | Word .docx |
| --- | --- | --- |
| You get back | A finished .docx Table of Authorities, or the table as text | Your own .docx with the finished table written in (with the final PDF), or with Word TA fields and a TOA field |
| Page numbers from | The printed pages of the filed PDF | The final PDF you add, matched to the Word file; or Word's pagination when it builds the table |
| Needs Word? | No | No with the final PDF (Word for Mac, Pages, Google Docs); Word for Windows for TA fields only |
| Best for | Mac users, final filings, PDFs from co-counsel | Keeping the table in your own Word file; drafts still changing in Word |

## Table of authorities software vs. Word's Mark Citation
Word for Windows can build a table of authorities, but only after you mark every citation yourself. A table of authorities generator does the marking for you, then leaves the review to you.

| | Word (Mark Citation) | BriefAuthority generator |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Finding citations | Select each citation and mark it (Alt+Shift+I), one by one | Cases, statutes, rules and constitutional provisions are detected for you |
| Short forms, Id. and supra | Mark each short form too, or its page is missing from the table | Linked to the full citation; the page is added to that entry |
| Page numbers | Word's pagination of the .docx | The printed pages of the final PDF you file |
| After edits | Update the field (F9) and check the pages again | Recheck carries your fixes over and lists what moved |
| Mac, Pages, Google Docs | Not supported in Word for Mac or Word for the web | Works in the browser; the PDF path needs no Word |

Staying in Word? [How to create a table of authorities in Word](https://briefauthority.com/table-of-authorities-in-word); on a Mac, see [Word for Mac](https://briefauthority.com/word-for-mac-table-of-authorities).

## Court presets
A preset sets the table's heading (Table of Authorities, Table of Citations, Index of Authorities) and how passim is handled; the generator suggests one from the brief, and you confirm it. Court guides: [U.S. Supreme Court](https://briefauthority.com/supreme-court-table-of-authorities) (Table of Cited Authorities, no passim), [federal courts of appeals](https://briefauthority.com/federal-circuit-table-of-authorities-rules), [Eleventh Circuit](https://briefauthority.com/eleventh-circuit-table-of-authorities), [Ninth Circuit](https://briefauthority.com/ninth-circuit-table-of-authorities), [California](https://briefauthority.com/california-table-of-authorities-rules), [New York](https://briefauthority.com/new-york-table-of-authorities), [Texas](https://briefauthority.com/texas-index-of-authorities) (Index of Authorities), [Florida](https://briefauthority.com/florida-table-of-citations) (Table of Citations), [Michigan](https://briefauthority.com/michigan-citation-format-table-of-authorities) (Index of Authorities), and [all 50 states](https://briefauthority.com/table-of-authorities-by-state).

## How to create a table of authorities in three steps
1. Drop the brief (PDF, scanned PDF or .docx). It is read in the browser, not uploaded.
2. Review authorities beside a PDF preview: cases, statutes, rules, constitutional provisions; merge short forms, Id. and supra; re-categorize; exclude; add missing; undo.
3. Export a formatted .docx or copy as text, or, with a .docx and its final PDF, get your Word file back with the finished table in it; 36 court presets set the heading and passim. A proof sheet (.docx) lists every citation in context for a second reader.

## Checks on the review screen
- Table check: a PDF that already has a printed table of authorities gets every entry checked against the brief (wrong or missing pages, authorities not listed, citation typos, passim the court bans). Also at https://briefauthority.com/table-of-authorities-checker
- Also cited?: source-backed suggestions from a non-generative on-device classifier on supported PDF analyses. Inspect each source passage and choose **Add / Not an authority**; suggestions are not auto-added.
- What changed since the last version of the same brief (new, dropped, moved pages), with your previous edits carried over
- Short forms with no full citation in the brief; record references (J.A., ECF, Appx, ROA) left out of the table, with the forms the Federal and Fifth Circuits reject
- Asterisks for authorities chiefly relied upon (D.C. and Eleventh Circuits)

## Compared (public positioning, 2026-09-25)
| | By hand in Word | BriefMark | Best Authority | BriefAuthority |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Input | Word | .docx only | Word (add-in) | PDF, scanned PDF or .docx |
| Writes Word TA fields into a .docx | By hand | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Finished table without Word | No | No | No | Yes (PDF path) |
| Finished table inside your Word file, without Word for Windows | Only by typing it | No | Not advertised | Yes, with the final PDF |
| Court presets and passim rules | No | No | Not advertised | Yes (36) |
| Published accuracy benchmark | n/a | No | Not published | Published methods and dated results |
| Mac | Officially unsupported | Limited (Word builds the table) | Not advertised | Yes |
| Checks an existing printed table against the brief | No | No | Not advertised | Yes |
| What changed between two versions of the brief | No | No | Not advertised | Yes |
| Price | Included | Free ≤8 · $99 once | Not published (~$65/doc reported 2019) | Free, no account, no authority limit |
| Status | Available | Live | Live | Live |

BriefAuthority is independent of Best Authority and Litera. Good-law status and reporter pinpoints need a separate research check. Our archived v2.1 benchmark, dated 2026-09-28, covered 370 public briefs from 118 courts, with 350 scored: 98.8% cases found and 85.0% exact page lists against counsel's tables before review. Its separate 35-brief page-by-page comparison includes stale tables; excluding six stale-table briefs, strict case page lists scored 92.1% for counsel and 88.2% for the engine. The ten-development-brief outcome comparison of 2026-09-26–27 (149 → 10 first-download errors) used Claude, not ChatGPT; its scorer and dataset are described in the historical method. These are measurements of those releases. Dated results and methods: https://briefauthority.com/table-of-authorities-benchmark. Separate October 7 model-assistance experiment: https://briefauthority.com/data/toa-model-release-2026-10-07.json.

## FAQ

**Does BriefAuthority handle Id. and short forms?**
Yes. Every short form, Id., supra and later mention of a case by name is linked to its full citation and its page is added to that entry, and Id. chains stop at record cites and statutes. How: https://briefauthority.com/id-supra-table-of-authorities#how-briefauthority-handles-id-supra-and-short-forms

**Does it work with Word?**
Yes. It exports a formatted .docx table, writes the finished table into your own .docx with the page numbers from its final PDF (so it works in Word for Mac, Pages and Google Docs), writes TA and TOA fields for Word for Windows, or copies the table as text. All the Word options: https://briefauthority.com/table-of-authorities-in-word#how-briefauthority-works-with-word

**Can it update the table after I edit the brief?**
Yes. Recheck reads the new version, carries your fixes over and lists what moved, and Verify the final PDF checks every page number in the table against the PDF you file. https://briefauthority.com/table-of-authorities-page-numbers#how-briefauthority-keeps-page-numbers-right-after-edits

**How are authorities found and reviewed?**
Rules and a citation parser extract authorities from your brief. A non-generative on-device classifier offers source-backed **Also cited?** suggestions on supported PDF analyses; you choose **Add / Not an authority**, and suggestions are not auto-added. Review entries and pages beside the source citations, correct any extraction errors, then export. https://briefauthority.com/chatgpt-table-of-authorities

**How accurate is it?**
Our archived v2.1 benchmark, dated 2026-09-28, found 98.8% of cases, with 85.0% exact page lists against counsel's tables before review. It covered 370 briefs from 118 courts, with 350 scored. These are our measurements of that release. Dated results and methods, including the separate 35-brief page-by-page comparison: https://briefauthority.com/table-of-authorities-benchmark. Review every entry before filing.

**Does it check whether my citations are good law?**
Use a separate citator or research service for good-law status and reporter pinpoints — the specific pages within a reported decision. BriefAuthority builds or checks the table against your brief: entries, brief pages and citation differences. Review every entry before filing.

**How do I review suggested authorities?**
Open an **Also cited?** suggestion to inspect its source passage. Choose **Add** to include the authority or **Not an authority** to dismiss it. You control the decision, can undo it, and should check every entry and page before filing.