Use cases
For the person who builds the set
Most exhibit sets are built by someone who will not be the one arguing from them. The job is assembly and quality control: collecting documents from four sources, converting whatever arrived as an email attachment, applying a numbering scheme consistently across two hundred items, and then finding the one scanned page that came in sideways before anyone else does.
It is also a handover job. The set has to be usable by a lawyer who was not there when you made the decisions, on a machine that is not yours, under time pressure. Everything below is oriented around that handover, because a set that only its builder can navigate has not been finished.
The build, in the order that saves time
Get every document into PDF first, in one place, before anything goes into Exhibit Room. Conversion, page rotation, combining a document that arrived in three parts, checking that a scan is legible at fit-width: all of that is cheaper to do in a batch than one exhibit at a time. Scanning and PDF quality for exhibits covers what to look for.
Then create the trial, enter the case details, and confirm the numbering scheme with the attorney in writing before importing. Not after. Import by dragging the whole batch in, and work down the list filling in names and descriptions while the documents are fresh in your mind. The description field is where you leave a note for your future self and for whoever picks the set up.
Workflow in Exhibit Room
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Stage and convert outside the app
One folder of clean, correctly oriented PDFs. Combine multi-part documents now, because an exhibit holds a single file.
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Create the trial and confirm the scheme
Case name, number, court and parties, then the numbering the attorney signed off on. Write it down somewhere other than your memory.
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Bulk import, then name and describe
Drag the batch in, then go down the list: a human-readable name, the key pages, the sponsoring witness, any expected objection.
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Reorder to match the witness plan
The list order should be the order the attorney will use, not the order the documents arrived from the client.
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Apply only the marks you were asked for
Annotate to instruction. If a highlight is your own idea, flag it rather than leaving the attorney to find it at the podium.
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Export and rehearse the import
Export to an .exhibitroom file, import it on the trial laptop, and open a few exhibits there. The handover is not done until that works.
Quality control before you hand it over
Read the set as a stranger would. Every exhibit should have a name that means something without the file name, a number consistent with every other number in the set, and a description that answers the question the attorney will ask you at 8:45am. Open each PDF and check the last page, not just the first: truncated scans hide at the end.
Then build the paper list. Exhibit Room does not print exhibit lists, so this lives in a spreadsheet or a document alongside the set; the trial exhibit list template is set up for it. Reconcile the list against the app item by item. Mismatches between the list you served and the set on the laptop are the errors that cost the most and are the easiest to catch here.
Questions from the people who build sets
A better copy of an exhibit arrived. Do I renumber?
No. Use the replace action on that exhibit, which swaps the PDF and keeps the number, name, description and position.
How do I keep a clean and an annotated version?
Duplicate the exhibit and mark the copy. Give the duplicate a name that makes the difference obvious in the switcher.
Can the attorney and I work on the set at the same time?
No. One machine holds the authoritative set, and it moves as an exported file. For litigation teams explains how to divide the work around that.
What do I do with documents that are not PDFs?
Convert them before importing. Exhibit Room takes PDFs only, so images, spreadsheets and word processor files need to be exported first.
Build a set the attorney can pick up cold
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