Operations & admin · Claude

Tidy contract drafts in Word: defined terms, cross-references and leftovers

Idea + starter prompt, not run by us yet

For: Lawyers and contract managers who spend hours on drafting clean-up

The poster uses Claude inside Word and Claude's coworking tools for drafting chores. These include fixing defined terms, clearing out old precedent text, making sure clause references point to the right place, and producing first drafts based on earlier documents. They say it saves hours each week but can change too much and needs careful review.

Steps

1. Work on a copy of the document, never the signed or sent version.
2. Give Claude plenty of context about the deal and which precedent you used.
3. Paste the starter prompt and ask for a list of changes before any edits.
4. Review every change with tracked changes on, since Claude can over-edit.
5. Keep structure and judgment calls for yourself.

Starter prompt

This is a working copy of a [type of agreement] based on a precedent from [earlier deal]. Context: [short deal summary].

Check and list, without editing yet:
1. Defined terms that are used but not defined, or defined but not used.
2. Cross-references that point to the wrong clause.
3. Names, figures or wording left over from the precedent.

Show me the list first. After I approve, make only those changes as tracked changes. Do not rewrite clauses I have not asked about.

Original post: Reddit · found via agentusecases.ai. Written up in our own words. We haven't run it, so test it on made-up data first.