u/Alan_Lin_on_reddit

Hi everyone,

I'm a freshman engineering student looking into how we can automate technical documentation workflows. In my own projects, I've noticed that only about 30% of the time goes into actual design work — the other 70% is spent fighting Word/LaTeX/Markdown just to make the report look "professional" for clients or supervisors.

But beyond the formatting nightmare, I've been exploring what might actually be a bigger pain point: Technical Paraphrasing — a built-in feature that helps non-engineers (clients, managers, stakeholders) understand complex technical data by translating engineering jargon and raw numbers into clear, actionable summaries, without losing technical integrity.

I'd love to get your perspective on both:

On Formatting & Automation

1. Is formatting technical specs or project reports a significant time-sink in your workflow, or is it something you've already automated away with templates?
2. Do you use any specific tools (beyond standard templates) to keep your docs consistent?
3. If there were a "Zero-UI" tool that turned your raw data and notes into a formatted report, would you actually trust it — or would you still spend an hour checking it anyway?

On Communication & Paraphrasing 4. Do you often find yourself spending extra time in meetings explaining reports that stakeholders didn't fully understand? 5. Would a tool that helps you draft "layman's terms" summaries of your technical work be genuinely useful, or is that something you'd rather handle yourself? 6. If you had to prioritize one, which saves more cognitive load — fixing your document formatting, or helping you paraphrase technical content for non-experts?

I'm trying to make sure this project solves a real-world problem rather than a theoretical one, so any honest feedback is hugely appreciated. Thanks for your time!

Hi everyone, I’m a student currently looking into legal tech and workflow automation. While reading about the industry, I keep seeing mentions of how "onerous" and "tedious" document formatting and styling can be (MS Word styles, TOCs, citations, etc.).

I’m trying to figure out if this is a genuine daily headache or if I'm overestimating the problem.

• For the practitioners: Is formatting actually a significant time-sink in your day, or do you have templates/support staff that make it a non-issue?

• For the paralegals: Is "fixing Word" a huge part of the job, or is it just a minor annoyance?

If you could wave a magic wand and automate one part of your documentation process (without it breaking the rest of the file), what would it be? Or is the current "manual" way actually fine once you get the hang of it?

Just trying to get some boots-on-the-ground perspective before I dive deeper into this area for a project. Thanks in advance!

Hi everyone, I’m a student currently looking into legal tech and workflow automation. While reading about the industry, I keep seeing mentions of how "onerous" and "tedious" document formatting and styling can be (MS Word styles, TOCs, citations, etc.). I’m trying to figure out if this is a genuine daily headache or if I'm overestimating the problem. • For the practitioners: Is formatting actually a significant time-sink in your day, or do you have templates/support staff that make it a non-issue? • For the paralegals: Is "fixing Word" a huge part of the job, or is it just a minor annoyance? If you could wave a magic wand and automate one part of your documentation process (without it breaking the rest of the file), what would it be? Or is the current "manual" way actually fine once you get the hang of it? Just trying to get some boots-on-the-ground perspective before I dive deeper into this area for a project. Thanks in advance!

Just a community college student who wants to know more about paralegal.