For firms that work in Microsoft Word — and many family law practices do — we're pleased to introduce the Divorcepath Word Add-In. This new tool brings Divorcepath's calculation data and merge field capabilities directly into your existing Word workflow, letting you populate court forms and legal documents with live data from your Divorcepath calculations without leaving the application you already know.
One File, Six Documents, Same Data Everywhere
Consider a typical Ontario family law file approaching a settlement conference. The lawyer needs to prepare or update a Form 8 Application, a Form 13.1 Financial Statement (10 pages, 26 data regions), a Form 35.1 Affidavit, a draft separation agreement, a settlement conference brief, and a cover letter. Every one of these documents contains the same core data: party names, dates of birth, addresses, children's information, income figures, support amounts, and court file numbers.
Without document automation, each document is a separate data entry exercise. The paralegal types the client's employment income into the Form 13.1 income section, then types it again into Schedule B of the separation agreement, then again into the settlement brief. If opposing counsel's latest disclosure changes the income figure, every document needs to be found and updated individually. Miss one, and you file documents with inconsistent numbers -- a credibility problem that opposing counsel will spot.
The Word Add-In solves this by making your Divorcepath calculation the single source of truth. Update the income figure once in Divorcepath, click Populate in each open document, and every data field refreshes. The manually drafted clauses in your separation agreement stay exactly as you wrote them. Only the tagged data fields change.
Why a Word Add-In?
Microsoft Word remains the standard document editing tool for most Canadian law firms. Firm letterhead templates, agreement precedents, court form templates, and document management systems are all built around DOCX files edited in Word. Rather than asking firms to adopt a different editing tool, we wanted to bring Divorcepath's data directly into the workflow practitioners already use every day.
The Word Add-In is designed to complement your existing document preparation process. You keep working in Word, with your existing templates and procedures, and the add-in handles the connection between your documents and your Divorcepath calculation data.
Key Features
Merge Field Population
The core feature of the add-in is the ability to populate merge fields in any Word document with data from your Divorcepath calculations. Open a document that contains content controls or merge fields, select a client file from the add-in panel, and click "Populate Fields." The add-in matches field tags in the document to data points in your calculation and fills in the values.
This works with:
- Court form templates (Ontario, BC, Alberta, and other supported provinces)
- Your firm's custom agreement templates
- Any DOCX document that uses standard Word content controls
Why Content Controls, Not Mail Merge
If you have used Word's built-in mail merge before, you might wonder why the add-in uses content controls instead. The difference matters for how family law documents are actually prepared.
Traditional mail merge replaces field codes with static text. Once merged, the fields are gone. If the data changes -- and in family law, it almost always does -- you re-run the merge from scratch, losing any manual edits you made to the document after the initial merge.
Calculate child support, spousal support, and property division in minutes.
Content controls are persistent. They remain in the document as tagged, updateable fields even after population. This means you can populate a separation agreement, spend two hours drafting recitals and custom clauses, send the draft to opposing counsel, receive their markup, incorporate changes, and then re-populate weeks later when new financial disclosure arrives. The data fields update with current figures. Your hand-drafted text stays exactly as you left it.
This matches how family law agreements are actually drafted: iteratively, over weeks or months, with figures that change as disclosure evolves and negotiations progress. Persistent fields make that workflow possible without re-doing work at every stage.
Calculation Data Panel
The add-in includes a side panel that displays key data from your Divorcepath calculation. You can view income summaries, support amounts, tax calculations, and other key figures without leaving Word. This is useful when you're drafting narrative sections of agreements or affidavits and need to reference specific numbers.
Field Mapping
For custom templates, the add-in provides a field mapping interface. You can tag content controls in your Word document with Divorcepath data paths, and the add-in will remember these mappings for future use. Once you've mapped a template once, every subsequent document based on that template can be populated with a single click.
This is particularly powerful for separation agreements, where firms often have standard precedents with dozens of fields for party names, children's information, support amounts, effective dates, and other case-specific data.
Bidirectional Sync
In addition to populating fields from calculations, the add-in can read data from a completed document back into Divorcepath. This is useful when you've received a financial statement or agreement from the other side and want to import their figures into your calculation for comparison.
How Document Automation Helps Family Law Practice
Family law practitioners prepare a high volume of documents that share common data. A single file might require a financial statement, a support application, an affidavit, and a separation agreement — all containing the same party names, income figures, support amounts, and dates. Without document automation, every one of those fields is a manual entry point and a potential source of error.
The Word Add-In addresses this by creating a single source of truth in your Divorcepath calculation. Update the calculation once, and every document connected to it can be refreshed with current data. This consistency is particularly important when figures change during negotiations or when new financial disclosure arrives.
Installation
The Divorcepath Word Add-In is available through the Microsoft AppSource marketplace. Installation takes less than a minute:
- Open Microsoft Word (desktop version for Windows or Mac, or Word for the Web)
- Go to the Insert tab and click "Get Add-ins"
- Search for "Divorcepath" in the store
- Click "Add" and sign in with your Divorcepath account
Once installed, the add-in appears as a "Divorcepath" button in the Home tab of the Word ribbon. Clicking it opens the side panel where you can select a client file and access all features.
The add-in requires a Divorcepath Professional subscription. It works with Microsoft Word for Windows (2016 or later, or Microsoft 365), Word for Mac (2016 or later, or Microsoft 365), and Word for the Web.
Template Preparation
To get the most out of the add-in, your firm templates should use Word content controls for data fields. Content controls are the standard mechanism for structured data in DOCX files, and they're straightforward to add:
- Enable the Developer tab in Word (File > Options > Customize Ribbon)
- Place your cursor where you want a data field
- Insert a Plain Text Content Control from the Developer tab
- Set the Tag property to match the Divorcepath data path (the add-in provides a reference list of available tags)
If you have existing templates that use other field mechanisms (such as Word mail merge fields or bookmarks), our support team can help you convert them to content controls.
Getting Started
The Word Add-In is available now. Install it from the Microsoft AppSource marketplace and sign in with your Divorcepath Professional account. For a detailed setup guide and template preparation instructions, visit our help centre.
If you have questions or would like help configuring the add-in for your firm's templates, contact our support team.
