Id., supra and short cites in a table of authorities

Updated 21 September 2026 · Word for Windows and Mac

A table of authorities is only as complete as its marking. The full citation to a case is easy to find and mark. The trouble is everything after it: Id., supra, "Monasky, 589 U.S. at 77," and the bare case name in a sentence. Each of those is still a citation to the authority on that page, and each one needs its own hidden TA field, or its page number silently drops out of the table.

How Word connects a short cite to its authority

Every authority in Word's table is identified by its short citation, a key you choose when you first mark it. The first TA field for an authority carries both the long form and the key:

{ TA \l "Monasky v. Taglieri, 589 U.S. 68 (2020)" \s "Monasky" \c 1 }

Every later reference to the same authority only needs the key:

{ TA \s "Monasky" }

When the table updates, Word gathers every field with that key and lists all of their page numbers under the one long citation. The text of the citation in the brief doesn't matter; only the field does. That's why an Id. can be counted at all, and also why it isn't counted unless someone marks it.

Which short forms need marking

Id. and Ibid. Mark each one with the key of the authority cited immediately before it. When Id. follows a string cite, it refers to the last authority in the string, so read the preceding sentence carefully.
Supra. "Smith, supra, at 12" refers to the authority first cited as Smith. Mark it with that key. Supra is normally used for secondary sources and some statutes rather than cases, but briefs use it for cases too, and it still has to be marked.
Short-form case cites. "Monasky, 589 U.S. at 77" contains the key word but not the full citation, so Mark All finds it only if your short citation matches the text exactly.
Textual references. A sentence like "The Court in Monasky rejected that rule" refers to the case on that page. Whether it belongs in the table is a judgment call; many practitioners include it, and many courts expect it.
Statute and rule short forms. "§ 1983," "Section 1983" and "42 U.S.C. § 1983" all refer to one authority. Give them one key so the table lists them once.

Marking short forms by hand in Word

Mark the full citation first, with a short citation that is easy to recognize (usually the first party's name).
Select the short form in the text, for example Id.
Open References → Mark Citation. In the Short citation list, choose the authority it refers to. Word fills in the rest.
Click Mark, not Mark All. Mark All would tie every Id. in the brief to this one authority.
Use Next Citation to jump to the next likely citation, and repeat.

On a long brief this is the slowest part of building the table, since every Id. needs its own decision about which authority it points to. On Word for Mac, the Mark Citation dialog can also lose focus or stop responding partway through; typing { TA \s "key" } directly with Cmd+F9 is the workaround.

Checking that nothing was missed

Compare counts. Search the brief for Id. and for supra, then turn on the ¶ display and check that each hit has a TA field right after it.
Look for duplicates. If an authority appears twice in the table with slightly different text, two TA fields have different long citations. Edit one to match the other exactly.
Spot-check pages. Pick a few authorities, check every page the brief cites them on, and confirm each page appears in the table.
Update last. Update the table after the final edit, with hidden text turned off, so the page numbers match the printed brief.

Letting software trace the short forms

BriefMark was built for this step. It reads the brief in order, tracks which authority each Id., supra and short-form cite refers to (footnotes included), and writes the matching TA field after each one, all under one consistent long citation. Before anything is written, every authority it found is listed so you can correct a long form, change a category or leave an entry out, and anything it is unsure about is flagged.

It runs in your browser, so the brief is never uploaded. Briefs with up to 8 authorities are free, and a license is $99 once.

Mark a brief, free Manual method in Word

Whichever method you use, review the table before you file. Neither Word nor BriefMark checks whether a citation is correct or still good law.

Questions

Should Id. appear in a table of authorities?

Not as its own entry. The page where Id. appears should be listed under the authority Id. refers to, because the brief cites that authority on that page.

Why does Mark All skip my short citations?

Mark All searches for the exact text of the long and short citation you entered. Id., supra, a different pin cite, or a case name broken across formatting does not match, so it is not marked.

How do I mark an Id. in Word?

Select Id., open References, then Mark Citation, choose the authority in the Short citation list, and click Mark. The field it inserts looks like { TA \s "Monasky" }.

Why is one case listed twice in my table?

Two TA fields for the case have long citations that differ slightly, such as punctuation, spacing or a pin cite. Word treats them as two authorities. Make the long citation text identical.