Overview

In ClauseBuddy, you can search clauses in two major ways: by entering keywords, or by browsing through folders. You can also use the AutoSuggest feature to search by similarity.

Each of the three search types has its own strengths and weaknesses:

• Keyword search is what everybody is used to from everyday use in Google or other search engines. ClauseBuddy allows for both a smart search (more intelligent, wider cast) and a strict search (more literal).

• Browsing folders perhaps sounds less interesting, but in our experience — both as former lawyers and from having witnessed other users — searching through folders in a taxonomy (tree) aligns most closely to how most legal professionals want to search for clauses.

• ​Similarity searches through AutoSuggest allow you to immediately get an overview of all the clauses that match a currently selected clause you have currently selected.

Colors in search results

Any search result will be shown either with a blue, green or purple background.

• Clauses with a purple background do not contain any deeper intelligence — they merely contain text, placeholders, tables, footnotes, etc.

• Clauses with a green background are clauses that were prepared in Clause9. They contain interactive elements, such as dynamic legal terminology, calculations and conditional text.

• Clauses with a blue background (and a cog icon) are the most interactive of all. They can be like sheer magic: by answering a few questions, the text of the clause will be changed — sometimes in subtle ways by hiding or altering a few words, sometimes very drastically by showing or hiding entire paragraphs.

The clauses with a green and blue background can only be created with Clause9.

Undo & redo

The rightmost buttons in ClauseBuddy's toolbar allow you to go back and forth in time — essentially a kind of undo & redo that bring you back to earlier search results, before you started to modify keywords or filtered down your search results. Do not underestimate the power of those buttons: they can make your search experience so much smoother!