step one : position form in lesser favored hand

step two : with favorhand slap form and crumple into center of fist

step three: raise crumped form above head and throw at your nearest co-worker or garbage can

step four: sit back and think about how much time you just saved yourself.

On the original contract write "See Attachment" at each item needing information. Type a separate attachement listing/clarifying/explaining all of the needed items. Be sure to reference the dated attachment when listing attachments for a lovely bit-o circular logic. seriously.

if you plan on using the same set of AIA documents over and over in your career you can scan them in and set the scanned document as a background layer and add text layers where appropriate. then per project you can modify the text. when it comes time to send the original documents out you can turn off the background so only the text prints and send the original paper documents through the printer and everything should print out perfectly aligned if you did it right.

this gives you a very professional looking contract plus it leaves you with a electronic copy for archiving purposes

bloodclot - very helpful. I'll probably try that though I generally use Illustrator and as far as I know you can only do one page at a time, which has been a pain in the past when I've used it to do contracts. What I ended up doing what creating each page as a separate file, then combining them with Acrobat and making a multi-page pdf. I haven't had much luck being able to alter the text with Acrobat though. If you convert it to a pdf are you able to change the text easily in a multiple page document? or do you use some ohter software? Also, somehow I think it probably voids the license from the AIA...

Ah, I just realized the license isn't a problem because you send the original document through the printer... but I'd still like to know how you deal with the multiple pages.

Indesign

i just open them all up at once and print them in order and make sure the originals are in order....

i guess you could set up a blank pdf of all the text and print it in one click ... never tried it... sounds kinda risky with the cost of AIA docs today...

i used to do all that shit and eventually went and bought the electronic licenses http://www.aia.org/documents/purchase/software/meter300.asp which is really much much easier than all than scan bs stuff.

especially if your using not just owner/arch agree, but consultant agreements, general conditions, etc. the link above is a metered version and you dont pay for draft print outs, just the final print outs. we got a reduced E+O policy premium if we only used aia contracts v. letter agreements, etc.

the software now has all the bugs out and allows strikethrough, copy and paste, adds etc.

you get all of the aia docs electronically with the license and all the guides /advice for editing, etc.

unless you are only doing 1 contract it is the only way to go. i learned the hard way. if your a member its 229, else 369.

Ted is right, the electronic set is far easier if you handling contracts a lot...we used those at the last firm i was at...

For multipage I'd second Indesign, or if you're using Macs, there are plugins for multipage setups in illustrator. They might even make them for the PC now too I don't know.

For multipage I'd second Indesign, or if you're using Macs, there are plugins for multipage setups in illustrator. They might even make them for the PC now too I don't know.