A quick tour

These guides cover the full workspace included in the Pro trial. Compare Free, Starter and Pro for ongoing access; Assist and iPad Companion require Pro.

Five minutes to get your bearings. If you've just installed Lexware, load the sample matter first (Settings → Help & support → Load sample matter, or choose “Explore a sample matter” when the app first opens) so you can click anything without consequence. This page is a map — each stop has its own guide when you want the detail.

Your matter's name sits at the top — click it to switch matters (or press ⌘O on Mac or Ctrl+O on Windows). Below it, twelve sections in four groups:

Case materials

Brief — browse the shelf or tree of volumes, then read and mark documents in one workspace. Documents guide.
Chronology — the story of the case as a timeline, calendar or table, with a Review queue where suggested dates wait for your say-so; the badge is how many are waiting. Chronology guide.
Bundles — assemble documents into an ordered bundle and export it as one PDF. Bundles guide.

Source records

Pleadings — the pleadings lined up allegation by allegation into a matrix of what's admitted, denied and in issue. Pleadings guide.
Correspondence — the matter's emails, readable as messages, with their attachments. Correspondence guide.
Authorities — a working library of cases, legislation and secondary material, plus a Board for arranging authorities against the grounds of argument. Authorities guide.
Transcripts — daily hearing transcripts, browsable by day and witness, searchable to the line. Transcripts guide.

Working papers

Notes — your written thinking, with citations that stay live back to the evidence. Notes guide.
Scratchpad — the passages you've clipped while reading, arranged on a pinboard, each one linked back to its source page. Scratchpad guide.
Tasks — a personal to-do list for this matter. It stays on this machine, and you can right-click any document to make a task about it.

AI Assist

AI Assist — Ask for a focused drafting or analysis task, then follow it in Activity. Off-device work is consent-gated per matter. AI Assist guide.
Dashboard — a structured briefing built from the matter records and documents you choose, with earlier briefings retained.

Press [ to collapse the sidebar to a slim rail when you want the room; Lexware remembers your choice.

The top bar

The top bar follows you everywhere. Three things on it matter from day one: the search box (next stop); the Intray — the front door for documents that arrive after the brief, with a badge showing how many are waiting to be filed; and the timer, which records your time against the open matter — Start and Stop by hand, or switch on Auto and it accrues while you work and pauses when you step away. Click the timer's clock for the Time entries log, including a Day · all matters view of everything you touched today. An Activity button shows what's happening in the background — imports, indexing, date-finding — so a busy app never leaves you guessing.

Finding anything

Press ⌘K on Mac or Ctrl+K on Windows. One box searches the whole matter — events, documents, passages inside documents, transcript lines — and also runs commands (“New event”, “Switch to dark theme”, jump to any section). The palette shows the best few hits per group; pick a View all row and the full search workspace opens on that result type, with tabs for Passages · Documents · Events · References · Transcripts, filters by document, volume, kind and date range, and honest word about how much of the matter has been read for searching. Open a hit, and a Search results button in the top bar takes you back to the exact list you left.

The guided tour inside the app

The guided tour walks through the command palette, matter timer and every sidebar section, including the Brief's reading controls and the Authorities library. Choose Start tour when offered, or open Settings → Help & support → Show guided tour. You can also find Show guided tour in the command palette. It runs on the fictional sample matter, then returns you to your previous matter when you finish or skip. Switching matters yourself ends the tour.

A second screen

Right-click a sidebar section other than Brief and choose Open in new window, or Shift-click it. The window stays pinned to its matter. Pleadings can open separately too, but only one window can edit that matter's pleadings at a time. In Brief, Shift-click a document to open it in its own window; Option-click on Mac or Alt-click on Windows opens a second document beside the one you are reading.

Make it comfortable

Text size — ⌘+ and ⌘− on Mac, or Ctrl++ and Ctrl+− on Windows, resize the interface. ⌘0 or Ctrl+0 resets it. PDF pages keep their own zoom — bare +/− inside the viewer.
Light or dark — in Settings → General, or use ⌘K / Ctrl+K to find the theme command.
Every shortcut — press ? for the keyboard-shortcuts sheet.

When something's not right

The Feedback button in the sidebar footer offers Report a problem… — it prepares a redacted diagnostic report on your machine for you to look over and send yourself; nothing goes anywhere automatically — and Request a feature, which starts an email to us. When an update is ready, an Update available note appears in the same corner and takes you to Settings → About. The troubleshooting guide covers the common puzzles.

That's the lie of the land. Next, bring in a brief of your own — it takes a few minutes, and everything above starts working on your real matter.