AutoAnnex FAQs

Open AutoAnnex from the Home tab in Word. Click or drop PDF files onto Add PDFs to Reference in the task pane.

For more see Step 1.

Under Insert Annexures, drag a file from the list into your Word draft where you want the reference to appear.

For more see Step 2.

Choose your tag scheme under Set Tags, optionally turn on Preview tags in document, adjust Format Tags and Paginate Bundle, then click Export.

For more see Step 3.

AutoAnnex is for lawyers and anyone who drafts documents that include references to attachments (or exhibits, appendices, schedules, addendums – whatever you call these accompanying bits of paper in your jurisdiction or industry).

AutoAnnex was developed as a tool for preparing affidavits, but can help anyone who uses MS Word to generate any documents – reports, contracts, research papers and more – that will be accompanied by an annexure.

We know that juniors in the law business (new graduates, trainee solicitors, candidate attorneys, articled clerks and paralegals – essentially any employees further down in the food chain) typically spend vast tracts of time on the laborious, tedious and high-stakes task of renaming and renumbering references to annexures.

With AutoAnnex there is no more copying and pasting to manually rejig the ordering when your paragraphs shift around in a final edit, or when an eleventh-hour development means a new exhibit needs to be slotted into the middle of the narrative.

When it comes to wrangling annexures and references, there are two core processes typically performed manually. AutoAnnex relieves lawyers and their junior employees of these repetitive and time-consuming tasks – by automating both phases of the process:

The 1st phase: naming and numbering annexure references

This is done in the MS Word doc itself:

The task of (re)naming and (re)numbering references to annexures typically requires amending the reference in a MS Word document.

Here you would ordinarily type out the reference to each annexure when setting out the context – eg "I refer to annexure AA01 to this affidavit" or "A true copy of the letter is attached as AA02 …".

The 2nd phase: labelling the annexures and then collating them

This is done on the annexures (PDFs or hard copies).

It is so easy to mislabel an annexure, or to inadvertently include the wrong version (or even another document that belongs later in the order). So this task demands that one verifies the content of the annexure – and confirms that it aligns with the reference in the MS Word document – before applying a label to either:

• the associated PDF electronically (using Adobe Acrobat or another PDF editor); or
• the hard-copy printout (with a marker pen, Sharpie or sticker).

AutoAnnex does all of this for you. By bridging the gap between MS Word and PDF, it automates the referencing, naming, labelling, numbering, ordering and collating entailed in matching the accompanying attachments to your core document.

AutoAnnex ensures that what is stamped on each annexure corresponds with the associated reference in the text of your MS Word document.

It does this by having you place a PDF link in your Word draft wherever you want to refer (ie mention) an annexure. This is a PDF placeholder (a Word content control) that will later be replaced by a Tag – a set of letters and incrementing numbers that refers to a specific annexure – and which will be stamped on the PDF to which it refers.

It's actually not complicated, but if you want to understand the precise process the sequence is:

• Initially, the PDF placeholder will show the original name of the PDF file – eg "Agreement.pdf" or "Letter.pdf" (until Preview tags in document is turned on).
• After you've chosen a Tag scheme (see paragraph 20 below) and turned on preview:
• the PDF placeholders that were inserted while drafting will be refreshed accordingly – eg so "Agreement.pdf" will become AA01 and "Letter.pdf" will be AA02;
• each Tag will become the identifying label that is stamped on the annexure itself – so the Tag that comes to reflect in your Word doc (replacing the initial PDF placeholder reference) will match the label stamped on the very same PDF in the merged and collated bundle of annexures.

There are three basic steps: watch a quick video or for more details go to:

• Loading PDFs (see section C below);
• Inserting references (see section D below);
• Bundling and stamping (see section E below).

This first step (of loading PDFs) gives you a handy electronic collection – like a virtual briefcase or matter folder – of the exhibits, attachments, appendices and schedules you plan to use in your drafting.

Once you have loaded a PDF in the task pane it will appear under Insert Annexures:

Loading PDFs also embeds a packaged copy of those files inside your MS Word document. This means that those same PDFs will be available the next time you open the doc and resume drafting. They will also be accessible to team members who open the same .docx – provided they have AutoAnnex installed if they need to manage annexures or re-export the bundle.

To populate the list of PDFs in the task pane:

• click Add PDFs to Reference (or the drop hint Click or drop to add PDFs once files are already listed) and use the file dialogue to navigate to the folder where those files are saved; or
• drag and drop PDFs into the drop target in the task pane.

You can select multiple PDFs at once.

You can only load PDFs.

If your annexure is not in PDF format (eg if it is a jpeg, or Excel file, PowerPoint or even a Word document) you will need to convert it first. To convert you can:

• "save as" a PDF (provided that this is permitted by the program in which you have opened the file); or
• "print as" a PDF (see tips for printing PDFs in paragraph 12 below).

There is no hard size limit enforced by AutoAnnex, but it is always better to optimize large files where possible (for more on size constraints see paragraph 44 and paragraph 45 below).

There is no fixed limit, but we suggest only loading what you are intending to use – otherwise the file list under Insert Annexures will become needlessly long. This will also increase the size of your MS Word file (for more on size constraints see paragraph 44 and paragraph 45 below).

Where a PDF is password protected your involvement will be required before you attempt to load the PDF in the task pane.

AutoAnnex detects password-protected PDFs and rejects them with a message such as "… is password protected". It will not ask for your password, and it will not open or unlock the file for you.

Before attempting to load the PDF you will need to:

• enter the password and open the PDF in a PDF viewer;
• "print" it as a PDF (in the print dialog box select Microsoft Print to PDF as your printer);
• take note of where the printed PDF is saved to;
• open the new printed PDF to check that it can now be viewed without a password;
• load that new PDF in AutoAnnex.

Tip: printing to PDF also flattens many awkward form-field / machine-readable PDFs into a simpler page-based file, which tends to export more reliably.

Yes. On export, landscape pages are rotated 90° and scaled to fit an A4 page.

This is to prevent common print problems when a merged PDF mixes portrait and landscape orientations (where printers can crop overflowing landscape pages).

The live stamp/pagination preview in the task pane shows placement against an A4 page.

No problem – you can add more PDFs as you go along.

Use Click or drop to add PDFs at the bottom of Insert Annexures, or drop files onto the upload area again.

Yes — and it's best not to overload Insert Annexures with files you aren't using.

Open the file menu on the annexure and choose Delete PDF & all references.

If that PDF has already been inserted into your Word document, AutoAnnex will warn you and, if you confirm, remove the file and its associated placeholders from the draft.

AutoAnnex works by allowing you to place a link to a PDF file in your MS Word draft wherever you want to mention an annexure. This is a PDF placeholder (implemented as a Word content control).

The PDF placeholder will later become what we call a Tag – a set of letters and incrementing numbers that refers to a specific annexure (which will in turn be stamped on the PDF to which it refers).

The position in the text where you decide to insert the PDF placeholder is like an "anchor" or "peg in the ground" – creating an association between the particular PDF file and the string of text where that annexure is mentioned.

As a result, AutoAnnex will keep track of which underlying PDF is associated with a particular piece of text – meaning it can automatically update the naming and numbering (so you don't need to monitor which file is mentioned in which sequence).

Under Insert Annexures, drag a file from the list and drop it into the Word document where you want the PDF placeholder to appear.

AutoAnnex converts the drop into a content-control reference at that point in the draft.

This is precisely the problem that AutoAnnex was designed to solve!

You can move paragraphs and PDF placeholders around: AutoAnnex tracks the sequence of references in the document and renumbers tags accordingly when preview is on (or when you export).

So you can carry on drafting, amending, editing, reordering paragraphs etc (without worrying about renaming or renumbering by hand).

The PDF placeholder shows the filename until you turn on Preview tags in document (see paragraph 20 below for choosing the tag scheme).

With preview on, annexure references in your Word doc are automatically replaced by the Tag scheme of letters and numbers (eg "AA01"). Ultimately, the Tag that reflects in your Word doc will match the Tag stamped onto the PDF in the merged and collated bundle of annexures.

To switch between showing PDF names and Tags, use the Preview tags in document checkbox.

As mentioned in the brief introduction (paragraph 19 above), the PDF placeholder in your Word doc will be automatically replaced by the Tag scheme comprising two segments or parts. Configure this under Set Tags.

The Letters Tag (prefix)

The Letters Tag – which is a static or unchanging string of characters – starts with a letter prefix, such as the deponent's initials. For this you can use any string of text up to 15 characters, including:

• any set of characters (eg "AA" or the deponent's initials);
• a description of the type of document you are attaching (eg "Exhibit", "Schedule", "Annexure").

You can also leave it blank if you only want the Tag to have an incrementing portion without any prefix (eg 01, 02, 03, instead of AA01, AA02, AA03).

The default prefix is AA.

The Incrementing Tag (number)

The numerical or incrementing segment of the Tag functions as a counter that moves upward for each annexure in document order (for example 01, 02, 03).

Optionally, enclose tags with quotes, parentheses, brackets, and so on, and choose whether the enclosure applies in Word, on PDF stamps, or both.

For repeated mentions of the same annexure, choose Later references: reuse the Same annexure (one tag, one copy in the export) or allocate a New annexure (new tag each time; the PDF is included again).

You can leave the Letters Tag blank

You can leave the Letter Tag blank if you do not want anything to prefix the Incrementing Tag portion. This means that your Incrementing Tag would just be 01, 02, 03 etc (depending on leading-zero width).

You can’t leave the Incrementing Tag blank

Even if you choose to leave the Letter Tag blank, the incrementing number is always applied. If you do not change settings, AutoAnnex defaults to prefix AA, leading-zero width 2 (so AA01, AA02…), and offset 1.

Prefix with leading zeroes

Under Set Tags → Leading zeros, choose:

• no leading zeros (1, 2, 10…);
• one (01);
• two (001); or
• three (0001).

Offset

Set an offset (0–999) to start counting further along the series — see paragraph 23.

Enclosure

Optionally wrap each tag (for example (AA01) or [AA01]).

Alphabetical counters (Exhibit A, Exhibit B…) are not currently supported — numbering is numeric only.

Yes — under Set Tags, add an Offset to the incrementing number to advance or "skip ahead" and start counting further on in the series.

You can pick up the numbering from where you left off.

For example:

• If you are drafting affidavits for the applicant you may be busy with a second affidavit (eg the reply) which follows on from the founding affidavit.
• So if your first affidavit had annexures marked AA01 to AA08 then your second affidavit will have AA09 as the first annexure. In that case set the offset so counting starts at 9.

The same concept applies to pagination: for adding an offset to advance page numbering see paragraph 35.

Once you've chosen your Tag style under Set Tags, the rest happens when you export.

With Preview tags in document on, the PDF placeholders in your MS Word document update to reflect the Tag scheme and increment from the start of the doc to the end.

On Export, each Tag is stamped on the first page of the PDF to which it refers (see stamping in paragraph 25 below). For example, if the third PDF placeholder to which you refer in the draft is agreement.pdf then the placeholder will become AA03 in your Word doc (depending on the settings you choose). The corresponding PDF in the bundle will then be stamped with the same Tag.

As explained above, each annexure is labelled in order and in accordance with the Tag scheme you've chosen.

By "stamping" we mean the process of printing, affixing, marking or applying the particular Tag to the associated PDF — specifically on the first page of that annexure in the exported bundle.

Copies of the individual PDFs are ordered by tag, merged into a single collated PDF file or "bundle", optionally prefixed with a PDF conversion of your Word document, then paginated according to your Paginate Bundle preferences. PDF bookmarks/outline entries are added for the annexures (and Start when the Word document is included). The file downloads as {YourDocumentName} - Annexures.pdf.

For a preview, use the live canvas at the bottom of the task pane (it updates as you change stamp and pagination settings).

Under Format Tags → Tag Stamps you can change:

• Font: Helvetica, Times New Roman, or Courier.
• Size: presets from 8 to 36 (custom sizes accepted between 6 and 50).
• Style: bold (on by default). Outline/stroke is also available.
• Colour: black, grey, red, white, or a custom colour.
• Opacity: 0–100%.
• Vertical positioning: top or bottom.
• Horizontal positioning: left, centre, or right.
• Margin: distance from the page edge (0–20).

The default Tag stamp settings are:

• Font: Helvetica
• Size: 20
• Style: Bold
• Colour: black
• Alignment: top right
• Opacity: 100%
• Margin: 2.5

The default page-number stamp settings are:

• Font: Helvetica
• Size: 12
• Colour: black
• Alignment: top right
• Margin: 1.5

By default, Add page numbers is on and Include the Word document is on (so the Word doc is converted and placed in front of the annexures unless you turn that off).

The options are:

• Vertical positioning:
• the header (top); or
• footer (bottom).
• Horizontal positioning:
• left
• centre
• right.

PDF files come with different layouts and margins. If a stamp sits on top of important content, under Format Tags → Tag Stamps you can:

• change vertical/horizontal alignment;
• increase the margin (distance from the edge);
• reduce font size;
• lower opacity;
• turn on outline (stroke) so the stamp remains readable over busy backgrounds.

Check the live preview before exporting.

Yes — you can select the same vertical and horizontal options for both the Tag stamp and the pagination. You may need to adjust formatting so both remain legible. Useful options:

• reduce the font size of one or both;
• use an outline (stroke) on the stamp;
• change the margin;
• reduce the opacity of the stamp.

The exported bundle is an ordinary PDF download. If you don't like how it turned out (eg if you want to change the Tag format), the easiest solution is to tweak your settings in AutoAnnex and run Export again.

Yes. Tag scheme settings are stored in the Word document (so collaborators see the same labelling).

Export stamp and pagination preferences are remembered in local storage for that Word WebView on your machine, so they carry across documents on the same device/profile.

The preview canvas at the bottom of the task pane shows stamp and page-number placement on a sample A4 page. It updates when Format Tags / Paginate Bundle settings change.

If it looks empty, check that stamp opacity is not near zero and that you are looking at the top or bottom strip that matches your vertical alignment. Expand Format Tags or Paginate Bundle and adjust a setting to refresh the preview.

No.

Under Paginate Bundle, use Start at to jump ahead to whatever starting number is required.

You may need to advance page numbering when picking up from where another document ended – eg when adding an answering affidavit, a replying affidavit, or other notices to the bundle.

If you do not include the Word document in the export, you can optionally Count the Word document's pages so annexure numbering still lines up with a separately printed original.

To navigate to that setting go to: Paginate Bundle in the task pane.

Yes. As with Tag stamp settings, the font, colour, positioning, margin, opacity and related options for page numbers can be changed under Paginate Bundle.

To navigate to that setting go to: Paginate Bundle in the task pane.

Yes!

Under Paginate Bundle, turn on Include the Word document. AutoAnnex converts the open Word document to PDF and places it in front of the annexures, so you can paginate the entire merged bundle in one go.

To navigate to that setting go to: Paginate Bundle.

You don't have to include the Word doc; alternatively, you may decide to include it at a later stage (see paragraph 38 below).

That's also fine.

Turn off Include the Word document, export the annexure bundle, and keep editing the Word file. If annexure references change later, re-run Export. When you are ready, turn Include the Word document back on for a full bundle.

Wherever your default download folder is. In Windows this is typically "C:\Users\[Your name]\Downloads". The file is named {YourDocumentName} - Annexures.pdf (or document - Annexures.pdf if the Word file has not been saved yet).

No.

However, you may want to delete copies you don't need from your download folder (for manageability).

Install AutoAnnex as a Microsoft Word add-in (for example from Microsoft AppSource, or by sideloading the organisation's manifest if your firm distributes it that way).

After installation, open a .docx in desktop Word, go to the Home tab, and click AutoAnnex to open the task pane.

Need help installing? Email support@autoannex.co.za.

AutoAnnex is optimised for, and tested on, desktop Microsoft Word running locally on Windows.

For the moment, AutoAnnex has been optimised for scenarios we expect to be most common: intricate annexure work on a desktop/laptop screen, typically on Windows.

The web version of MS Word (https://word.cloud.microsoft) is not yet a supported production target.

Do you have a use case that is not supported? Let us know at support@autoannex.co.za and we'll see what we can do.

Ideally, all those who will be working on the Word doc should have AutoAnnex installed. That gives each drafter or reviewer access to the underlying PDFs embedded in the Word file, and the ability to insert references, adjust tags, and export.

Without AutoAnnex installed, another person can still open and edit the .docx in Word. The annexure placeholders are ordinary content controls, so text around them can be edited — but they will not get AutoAnnex's renumbering, preview, or export tools, and they should not try to type over the placeholder text by hand.

Yes. Send the .docx as usual (see paragraph 44).

The other person will need AutoAnnex installed if the edits they want to make involve annexure management — for example if they want to:

• add extra PDF references; or
• change anything to do with the Tag schema (eg if they decide that the Tag should start at "Exhibit 01" instead of "AA001").

A subsequent user can re-order paragraphs and sentences that contain Tags. If Preview tags in document is already on and they move things around (eg with the result that a reference AA05 is followed by AA02), AutoAnnex will renumber when it next refreshes — they should not try to edit the tag text manually (manual edits to the content-control text are reverted).

If you are using OneDrive or SharePoint you can share the document as you usually would, or send a link to the file.

For emailing: we suggest zipping up the document first. Do this as follows:

• navigate to the folder where the Word document is saved;
• right click on the file, select "Compress to" and then "ZIP File";
• attach the zipped folder to your email.

The reason is that the Word file also houses the PDFs, which increases the size. For more see paragraph 45 below.

Messages about file size can be expected, as AutoAnnex embeds the PDF annexures into your MS Word document.

This means that the PDFs you add under Insert Annexures stay associated with that Word doc – even when you close it and open it later to edit, and also when someone else opens the doc to work on it. You don't need to separately share or email around copies of the relevant PDFs to whoever else needs to consider the draft (your colleagues, your counsel, the client).

However: it means that your MS Word doc may have a larger file size than usual – which in turn might cause your mail server to prompt you to zip up the file or share it as a link to cloud storage such as OneDrive.

Your annexure PDFs are stored inside the Word document on your device / in your organisation's document storage — not uploaded to AutoAnnex for processing. Export and viewing are performed in the add-in on the client.

AutoAnnex does not operate a service that receives, stores, or analyses the contents of your Word documents or PDFs.

Like every Office add-in, the task pane UI itself is loaded from AutoAnnex hosting, and Microsoft Word may make ordinary platform requests to Microsoft. Those requests do not include your document or annexure contents.

See the full Privacy Policy.

Add-in   A Microsoft Office extension that runs inside Word (here, the AutoAnnex task pane).

Annexure   Any exhibit, appendix, attachment, schedule or other document that is a secondary accompaniment or accessory to the core document (in this case in MS Word).

Collate   To collect and arrange the sheets of a report, book, etc., in the correct order. ¹

Letter Tag   The static prefix portion of a Tag (for example AA or Exhibit), configured under Set Tags.

MS Word   Microsoft Word.

Incrementing Tag   The numeric counter portion of a Tag (for example 01, 02), including leading-zero width and offset.

Offset   A starting adjustment so numbering or pagination continues from an earlier bundle or affidavit.

Pagination   The act of numbering the pages of a book, etc.; the marks of figures with which pages are numbered in sequence. ²

Insert Annexures   The task-pane section that lists loaded PDFs and from which you drag references into the document.

Stamp   Applying the Tag (and optionally page numbers) onto pages of the exported PDF bundle.

Tag   The letters and numbers used as a unique reference when mentioning a particular PDF (an exhibit, attachment, annexure or schedule).

Task pane   See https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/dev/add-ins/resources/resources-glossary#task-pane

Simultaneous co-authoring (multiple people editing the same document at once) is not supported as a tested AutoAnnex workflow.

Prefer sequential editing: one person at a time, with AutoAnnex installed for anyone who needs to manage annexures. For sharing tips see paragraphs 42–44.

See Microsoft's support pages on document collaboration and co-authoring:

• https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/document-collaboration-and-co-authoring-ee1509b4-1f6e-401e-b04a-782d26f564a4
• https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/troubleshoot-co-authoring-in-office-bd481512-3f3a-4b6d-b7eb-ebf9d3626ae7