Comprehensive guidance for mastering court bundle creation with BundleCreator. From essential tutorials to advanced techniques designed for legal professionals.
Quick Answer
BundleCreator publishes training videos, quick-start tutorials, area-specific walkthroughs (Divorce Financial, Child Arrangements, TOLATA, SEND, Employment), and a written help hub covering PD27A formatting, pagination, indexing, watermark rules, and collaborator workflows. Most guides run 3–7 minutes. A dedicated novice onboarding series walks first-time users through creating a bundle end-to-end in under 20 minutes.
BundleCreator is a document preparation tool, not a law firm. The templates, guidance and features we provide are general information, not legal advice on your particular case, and using BundleCreator does not create a lawyer-client relationship. Wherever you can, please get advice from a qualified legal adviser — a solicitor, barrister, chartered legal executive or other regulated professional — before filing documents or attending a court or tribunal hearing.
New to BundleCreator? These guides are designed to help you begin creating professional bundles.
Learn the essentials of creating your first court bundle. Designed for practitioners new to the platform.
Learn MoreNew to bundles? Watch our guided video series — no experience needed. Start creating in minutes.
Start HereDownload our comprehensive guide to Practice Direction requirements for court proceedings.
Download PDFWatch the short videos, practise on your Training Bundle, then build for real. Take the stops in any order, in your own time.
Three short videos on the limits of what BundleCreator does and where a regulated solicitor or barrister takes over. Watch these before the feature tutorials — they answer the questions everyone asks but no one wants to put their hand up for.
Eight situations where the right step is to pause and speak to a solicitor or barrister — and where to find legal advice including legal aid, Law Centres, LawWorks, Advocate, and the Law Society Find a Solicitor tool.
What a McKenzie Friend may do (take notes, help with paperwork, suggest questions, sit alongside you) and what they may not (address the court without permission, file documents, sign documents, give legal advice).
Where your bundles live (UK-only, London region), how documents are protected (AES-256 at rest, TLS 1.3 in transit), what we log, and why this matters for sensitive cohorts including domestic abuse, public children law, and redacted documents.
Create your first bundle using this step-by-step guide designed to help meet court requirements
Begin your 7-day trial — no credit card required. BundleCreator is designed with authentication features to help protect your legal documents.
Getting Started:
You should see: A confirmation message that a verification email has been sent to your address. The sign-up button will show a loading state, then redirect you to the verification page.
Security Note: Your account is designed with security features including encryption and optional two-factor authentication.
Common Issues:
Choose from over 370 templates across 24 areas of law. Each area provides tailored templates and formatting specific to that type of proceeding.
You should see: A grid of legal practice areas. After selecting one, the button will highlight in purple and you'll proceed to template selection.
💡 Pro Tip:
Not sure which area to choose? Select "General Litigation" for a flexible template that can be adapted to most proceedings.
Choose a pre-configured template with common documents for your case type, or create a blank bundle to build from scratch.
Pre-configured with standard sections and placeholder documents
Build your bundle from scratch with complete flexibility
You should see: Two cards showing template options. After selecting, you'll see the bundle editor with either a pre-configured structure or a blank canvas.
Add your PDF documents to the bundle. The system typically processes them with OCR for searchability and calculates page numbering.
Upload Methods:
📁 Supported File Types:
You should see: A dotted border area where you can drag files. When you drag files over it, the border will turn purple. After uploading, documents appear in the section with progress bars during processing.
Troubleshooting Upload Issues:
Arrange your documents in the appropriate order. Page numbering typically updates as you reorganise.
Drag sections by their handle to rearrange them. Section letters (A, B, C) update automatically.
Hold and drag the grip icon (⋮⋮) next to any section
Drag documents within a section to reorder. Document numbers and page ranges typically update automatically.
Documents can only be moved within their section
Automatic Features:
You should see: Your bundle structure with grip icons (⋮⋮) beside each section. When dragging, the section being moved shows a shadow effect. Document numbers update instantly after dropping.
Use the built-in PDF Editor to annotate documents, add signatures, and make necessary edits directly within BundleCreator.
✏️ Available Editing Tools:
💡 Fix to Page Feature:
The "Fix to Page" button permanently embeds your annotations into the PDF. This ensures:
Adding Signatures:
You should see: The PDF opens in a viewer with a toolbar at the top showing Text, Signature, Cross (✗), and Tick (✓) tools. Selected tools highlight in purple. Your cursor changes to indicate the active tool.
Complete the bundle header with your case details. This information appears on the cover page and throughout the bundle.
e.g., FD24D12345
e.g., Central Family Court
Select from calendar
e.g., HHJ Smith
You should see: A form with fields for case details. Required fields are marked with asterisks. The hearing date field opens a calendar picker. Fields auto-save as you type (shown by a tick icon).
Note: Different practice areas may have specific metadata requirements. The system aims to show relevant fields based on your selected area of law.
Generate your final court bundle with automatic indexing, page numbering, and optional compression.
Full quality PDF with index
Optimised for email (typically under 20MB)
Download just the index page
✅ Your bundle includes:
You should see: An export dialogue with three options. After clicking an export button, a progress bar appears. Once complete, your browser downloads the PDF automatically. Check your Downloads folder.
Export Troubleshooting:
Comprehensive guides for specific tasks and features
Adding text annotations helps clarify or complete information in your documents:
💡 Positioning Tip:
When you drag a text box, you'll notice it displays a drop shadow that makes it stand out from the PDF. This visual feedback helps you position boxes precisely over form fields. When you hover over a selected box, a lighter shadow appears to show it can be moved.
Pro Tip: Use text annotations to fill in form fields that cannot be typed in directly, or to add case references and notes.
BundleCreator offers three ways to add your signature:
Option 1: Draw Your Signature
Option 2: Type Your Signature
Option 3: Upload Signature Image
Important: Always use "Fix to Page" after placing your signature to ensure it becomes part of the document.
The "Fix to Page" feature is crucial for finalising your edits:
What it does:
⚠️ Before using Fix to Page:
The PDF Editor includes visual aids to help you position elements precisely:
Drop Shadows During Dragging
When you drag any edit box (text, signature, or date), a strong drop shadow appears beneath it. This shadow creates visual depth, making the box appear to float above the PDF. This helps you see exactly where you're placing the box, especially when positioning over busy form backgrounds.
Hover Indicators
When you hover your mouse over a selected box, a subtle shadow appears. This visual cue indicates that the box is ready to be moved or edited. It helps you identify which elements are interactive versus those that have been fixed to the page.
Alignment Benefits
These visual shadows help you:
💡 Pro Tip for Precision:
Use the drop shadow as a guide when aligning multiple boxes. The consistent shadow depth helps you judge whether boxes are at the same position relative to the page, making it easier to create neat, professional-looking annotations.
Edits not appearing after save:
Ensure you clicked "Fix to Page" before saving. Unfixed edits remain as overlays and may not export.
Cannot select or move annotations:
If edits are already fixed to page, they cannot be moved. Create new annotations instead. Note: selected boxes should show a hover shadow when they can be moved.
Difficulty positioning boxes precisely:
Use the drop shadow visual feedback when dragging. The shadow helps you see the box clearly against the PDF background, making precise positioning easier.
Signature appears blurry:
For uploaded signatures, use high-resolution images (300 DPI minimum). For drawn signatures, try using a graphics tablet or touchscreen.
PDF takes long to load:
Very large PDFs may take a moment to render — BundleCreator compresses files automatically on export to fit court file-size limits.
💡 Quick Fix:
Refresh the page if the editor becomes unresponsive. Your bundle auto-saves every 8-10 seconds.
You can upload multiple PDFs simultaneously using these methods:
Tip: Files are typically processed in parallel to help improve efficiency.
If you need to update a document with a newer version:
You don't need to merge PDFs before uploading. BundleCreator stitches every uploaded PDF, Word document, image and video evidence file into a single court-ready PDF when you click Download:
Share bundles for collaboration:
Note: Recipients typically receive an email with a link to access the bundle.
Monitor bundle access through the Activity Log:
Remove access to previously shared bundles:
Important: This typically only affects future access. Downloaded copies remain with the user.
Templates are fully customisable:
Every new account comes with a Pro-tips Starter Bundle — a risk-free practice bundle that does not count against your bundle limit:
Use a template when:
Start blank when:
Keep your bundles organised with folders:
Use consistent naming conventions:
Avoid: Special characters (/, \, ?, *, :) that may cause issues.
Create copies for different versions or similar cases:
Use cases: Creating hearing bundles from trial bundles, version control, similar cases.
Essential guidance for creating court-ready bundles and managing legal documents effectively
When to Use PDF Editing:
⚠️ Critical Reminders:
Following Practice Direction 27A requirements for UK Family Courts:
Document Checks:
Bundle Structure:
Final Step: Always download and review the exported bundle PDF before submission to ensure all edits, signatures, and formatting appear correctly.
Document Issues:
Process Issues:
These keyboard shortcuts may help improve your workflow
Tip: Press ? anywhere in the application to view context-specific shortcuts
Most people using BundleCreator are representing themselves because instructing a solicitor is out of reach. If you need someone to talk your case through with, free help is available from Citizens Advice, Civil Legal Advice on 0345 345 4345 (for those eligible for legal aid), LawWorks (free solicitor clinics), Advocate (the Bar pro bono charity) and your local Law Centre.
Bundle Audit analyses your bundle entirely in your browser to check completeness, search across documents, and catch missing references. The audit pass itself runs on your device — the documents themselves remain stored on BundleCreator’s UK-region infrastructure under AES-256 at rest and TLS 1.3 in transit.
You will notice two percentages in the editor: the Bundle Completion percentage and the Audit Score. These measure different things and will often show different numbers.
Bundle Completion %
Tracks how much of each document you have filled in, based on the completion slider you set per document. It is a self-assessed measure of progress.
Audit Score %
A deeper check that combines three factors: your document completion (40%), whether templates have actually been edited (30%), and whether required documents are present for your hearing type (30%).
Why might the Audit Score be lower?
Audit
Checks your bundle against hearing-type-specific rules. Shows which documents need updating, which are missing, and flags page count issues.
Search
Find any text across all documents in your bundle instantly. Results show the document, section, and a snippet of the matching text.
Refs
Detects cross-references between documents (e.g. "see Exhibit C") and checks whether the referenced document actually exists in your bundle.
Tips
Suggests improvements like reordering documents to match Practice Direction conventions, and flags potential duplicate documents.
The audit pass itself processes your documents on your device — that step is not sent to our servers for analysis. Your documents remain stored on BundleCreator’s UK-region infrastructure (London) under AES-256 encryption at rest and TLS 1.3 encryption in transit; the on-device audit step adds an additional layer on top of that storage architecture.
"File upload failed" error
Documents not appearing after upload
Export taking too long
Exported PDF may not open
Application running slowly
Auto-save not working
Our support team aims to assist you
10 short stops, about 29 minutes in total. Watch in any order. The Training Bundle in your library is there to look around — nothing you do in it can break.
What bundles are, why courts and tribunals require them, and how BundleCreator fits in.
What the judge actually reads, what you must provide, how the rules vary by area of law, and what to do if documents go missing.
How the index is structured, what each entry must contain, and how the page references work — the map a judge uses to navigate the bundle.
Sections, ordering, and the conventions that make a bundle recognisable to the court — preliminary documents, witness statements, exhibits.
Your first thirty seconds in BundleCreator — the Training Route, the area-of-law picker, the Training Bundle editor with sections, drag handles, inline rename, and the toolbar. Watch this before opening your Training Bundle.
Pen icon to open · yellow guidance auto-removed at bundle creation · court-compliant headers driven from your Case Details · Sections / Continuous numbering toggle · the safety-net reminder that the guidance is a drafting prompt, not legal advice.
From the Practise step on your dashboard, head to My Bundle Library, click Create New Bundle, pick your area of law and hearing type, and watch the editor open with your Training Bundle's Section A and Section B already in place.
Inside the Pro-tips bundle: replace yellow guidance with your own words, format text, open the Supporting Statement, upload a PDF to Exhibit 1, add a new document via the Add Document modal, and watch auto-save in action.
Fill in your case — court, case number, applicant, respondent, hearing date — and watch those details appear on the bundle's title page and every page header. Then open the export modal and watch BundleCreator assemble a single court-ready PDF.
What happens when you click Download — five steps that produce a single court-ready PDF: assembly, pagination, OCR for searchability, compression for court file-size limits, and optional security like password protection and watermarking.
Visual step-by-step guides designed to help you learn BundleCreator
Your first thirty seconds in BundleCreator — the dashboard, the trial banner, the Create Bundle button top right, the area-of-law modal covering 24 areas of law plus a Pro-tips practice tile, and the editor with sections, document, toolbar, and the Sections / Continuous numbering toggle. Built for litigants in person and legal professionals across England and Wales.
Over 370 templates across 24 areas of law, pre-loaded by area + hearing type. See the pen icon in the Actions column, type over the yellow guidance, and watch the yellow strip out automatically at export — drafting prompts stay in your editor and never reach the judge. Built for litigants in person and legal professionals across England and Wales.
Before a hearing, the judge sits down with one thing: the bundle. Anything not in it is unlikely to be referred to at your hearing. This flagship explainer covers the judge's perspective, what you need to provide, how rules vary by area of law — from SEND Tribunal to Employment, Immigration and Family Court — and what to do if documents go missing. Built for litigants in person, Mackenzie friends, solicitors, and barristers across England and Wales.
Every bundle starts with one page — not your strongest evidence, but an index. This short explainer covers what an index must do under the rules of England and Wales, why manually-produced bundles fall down when a document moves, and how BundleCreator regenerates the index automatically every time you add, reorder or upload.
"Turn to page forty-two" — and everyone in the room needs to be on page forty-two. This explainer covers the two page-numbering styles courts use (continuous and section-restart), the rule that electronic bundles must be numbered by computer rather than by hand, and how BundleCreator re-flows every page number automatically when you move a document.
Over 370 templates across 24 areas of law — Family, Employment, Immigration, SEND, Housing, Property, Small Claims, Personal Injury, Commercial, IP, Probate, Criminal, and more. Each template is pre-loaded with the structure judges expect and yellow prompts telling you what to write in each section. This explainer shows how the library is organised and how to drop a template straight into your bundle.
How BundleCreator's 7-day trial works, what happens on day 7, when the watermark kicks in, and what you pay after that. No credit card at signup. Bundles run up to 1,000 pages — the same limit as paid plans. Plus Pay-as-you-go at £29.99 per bundle for users who only need one hearing.
One in five people is neurodiverse. BundleCreator includes nine accessibility tools — Read Aloud, OpenDyslexic font, Reading Ruler, Colour Overlay, Text Spacing, Dark Mode, Focus Mode, Reduced Motion, and the Pom-a-doro Timer — free for every user, off by default. This animated walkthrough shows exactly where to enable the Toolbox from your avatar menu, and how each tool works.
When you click Download, BundleCreator does more than save a copy. It assembles the bundle, applies pagination in the style your court requires, re-generates the index, runs OCR for searchability, compresses to fit court file-size limits, and applies optional security like password protection and watermarking. This animated walkthrough shows each of the five steps that produce a single court-ready PDF.
Meet the Pro-tips Starter Bundle — the safe practice bundle every new BundleCreator account includes. This animated walkthrough covers the dashboard, trial banner, Create Bundle button, and the three regions of the editor: sections on the left, document in the centre, toolbar at the top.
Create a bundle in three clicks — from the dashboard Create Bundle button, through the 23-area-of-law picker, to picking a hearing type and watching the editor open. This walkthrough uses the Pro-tips Starter Bundle as the example so you see the flow without real-case complexity.
Inside the Pro-tips bundle: replace yellow guidance with your own words, format text, open the Supporting Statement, upload a PDF to Exhibit 1, add a new document via the Add Document modal, and watch auto-save in action.
Fill in your case — court, case number, applicant, respondent, hearing date — and watch those details appear on the bundle's title page and every page header. Then open the export modal, choose your options, and watch BundleCreator assemble a single court-ready PDF.
Numbering toggle (continuous vs section-restart), drag-to-reorder documents with auto-renumbering, the nine-tool NeuroDiverse Toolbox, time-limited sharing, the 7-day trial, and where to get help. A confidence send-off for your first real bundle.
The London-Underground-style journey map for your case. Every stage of a court or tribunal process becomes a stop on a line — Apply, Case management, Mediation, Hearing, Decision, Appeal. Worked examples for Divorce finances, SEND Tribunal, Immigration appeals and the Employment Tribunal. BundleCreator builds the right bundle for the stop you're at.
BundleCreator is a presentation tool, not legal advice. This 2-minute walkthrough sets out eight situations where the right step is to pause and speak to a solicitor or barrister — and where to find legal advice including legal aid, Law Centres, LawWorks, Advocate (the Bar's pro bono unit), and the Law Society's Find a Solicitor. The list is not exhaustive: these are common moments, not the only ones. Litigation-expert-reviewed.
A McKenzie Friend is a lay person who quietly assists a litigant in person in court. The right was set out by the Court of Appeal in McKenzie v McKenzie [1971] P 33 and refined by the Master of the Rolls and the President of the Family Division in the 2010 Practice Guidance. This 2-minute walkthrough sets out what a McKenzie Friend may do (take notes, help with paperwork, suggest questions, sit alongside the litigant in person) and what they may not (address the court without permission, file documents, sign documents, correspond as the party's representative, give legal advice). BC's collaborator scopes reflect this boundary.
Your bundles, documents, and case details are stored and processed in the United Kingdom. BundleCreator is hosted on Google Cloud Run in the London region (europe-west2). Limited supporting services — payment processing and authentication — operate under UK GDPR-compliant transfer safeguards. Documents are encrypted at rest with AES-256 and in transit with TLS 1.3. UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 apply; the Information Commissioner's Office is the regulator. Particular reassurance for sensitive cohorts including domestic abuse, public children law, and redacted-document workflows.
Adding documents to a bundle without the spreadsheet gymnastics. Upload PDFs, Word documents, photos, and video evidence with AES-256 encryption in the UK region, and automatic continuous numbering across the bundle.
AES-256 at rest, TLS 1.3 in transit, UK region hosting in London, two-factor authentication, role-based access, row-level security, and a seven-year audit log — designed to meet UK GDPR, SRA Principles, and BSB Core Duties.
Press the question mark key anywhere in the editor to see every shortcut BundleCreator supports — Global, Structure, and Editing. Draft headings, lists, bold, italic, and undo without ever reaching for the mouse.
Ten accessibility tools built into BundleCreator — Read Aloud, OpenDyslexic Font, Reading Ruler, Colour Overlay, Text Spacing, Dark Mode, Focus Mode, Reduced Motion, Pomodoro Timer, and the Mindmap tool for understanding dense legal documents fast. Built because our founder is dyslexic.
A balanced, fully-sourced overview of the Renters' Rights Act 2025, the court backlog, the tax-and-EPC squeeze on landlords, and what the changes mean for tenants — with the BundleCreator housing journey map showing the route through possession, rent arrears and a tenant's defence.
Unable to find what you require? Request a specific tutorial and we may be able to create it.
Master every feature of BundleCreator with these comprehensive guides.
Our OCR technology is designed to convert scanned documents into searchable text, which may help with locating specific information across documentation.
Tools designed to help protect sensitive information with redaction features. Redactions are typically tracked in the activity log for transparency and record-keeping.
Track all actions taken on your bundles with the comprehensive activity log. Useful for record-keeping, security, and team collaboration.
Document Actions:
Access & Sharing:
Our compression technology is designed to help bundles meet typical court email size requirements whilst aiming to maintain quality. Many bundles can be compressed to under 20MB.
Typical size reduction
Max pages per bundle
Quality typically maintained
BundleCreator is a document preparation and bundling tool designed to help you organise court and tribunal papers to a professional standard. We are not a law firm, we do not employ solicitors or barristers to advise you, and nothing on this website, in our templates, or in our guidance is legal advice on the particular facts of your case. Using BundleCreator does not create a solicitor-client, barrister-client, or any other professional relationship between you and us, and we do not carry on any of the reserved legal activities under the Legal Services Act 2007.
Every case is different. Wherever you can, please get advice from a qualified legal professional — a solicitor, barrister, chartered legal executive, or other regulated adviser — before filing documents or attending a court or tribunal hearing. If cost is a barrier, free help is available, and we would much rather you used it than went in unsupported.
For full details, please read our Legal Disclaimer, Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
Guidance designed to help your bundles align with typical Family Court requirements
Important: Updated for the Practice Direction 27A amendments in force from 2 March 2026 (with the 24 March 2026 clarifying update). Always verify current requirements with the court and check for any specific directions in your case.
Includes checklist and filing instructions
BundleCreator provides over 370 templates across 24 areas of law, designed to assist with Court Practice Direction requirements. Templates include standard formatting, sections, and indexing typically required by courts.
🎯 Templates are designed to help meet requirements of relevant Practice Directions including PD27A for Family Court, Criminal Procedure Rules, and more. Always verify current court requirements.
All 25 areas of law BundleCreator covers. Click any area to see its tube-map journey — from first filing through to final hearing — and decide whether to start a bundle.
Family Law
15-20 standard documents
Pre-configured sections:
Divorce
20-25 standard documents
Pre-configured sections:
Criminal Law
12-18 standard documents
Pre-configured sections:
Employment
15-20 standard documents
Pre-configured sections:
Immigration
20-30 standard documents
Pre-configured sections:
Personal Injury
15-25 standard documents
Pre-configured sections:
Over 370 templates available covering 24 areas of law including Conveyancing, Company & Commercial, Wills & Probate, Money & Tax disputes, and more. Templates are reviewed periodically to reflect current Practice Directions. Users should verify the bundle meets the typical requirements of their court or tribunal.
Professional guidance designed to help your bundles meet typical court standards
Required Elements:
Format Requirements:
Understanding how BundleCreator protects your sensitive legal documents
All documents are protected with AES-256 encryption at rest and TLS 1.3 encryption in transit. Files are stored in our UK region (London) and never leave the United Kingdom in the ordinary course.
Actions are typically logged with timestamp and user details. Track access, edits, and shares for your records.
Permission settings designed to help control who can view, edit, or share your bundles. Access can typically be revoked when needed.
Designed with GDPR considerations and data typically stored in UK region (London). We aim to maintain secure infrastructure.
Two-factor authentication available to help add security to your account. Designed to support authenticator applications and SMS.
Automatic logout after inactivity is designed to help protect against unauthorised access on shared computers.
You retain ownership of your data. Export or delete your bundles at any time. We aim to only access your documents with appropriate permission.
Our compression technology is designed to optimise legal documents by reducing file size through various PDF optimisation techniques whilst aiming to maintain text clarity and readability typically required by courts.
BundleCreator is a cloud-based application requiring an internet connection. The platform typically auto-saves your work every 8-10 seconds, which may help prevent data loss from brief connection interruptions. For offline work, export your bundle as a PDF.
You typically retain access to export your bundles for 30 days after cancellation. After that, data is scheduled for deletion according to our data retention policy. We recommend exporting important bundles before cancellation.
Yes. Collaboration features are available. When you share a bundle with edit permissions, multiple users can work together. Changes are typically synchronised and the activity log is designed to track modifications.
Individual files are limited to 10MB. Bundles can contain up to 1,000 pages technically, but PD27A caps Family Court e-bundles at 350 pages without court permission. Larger cases can be divided into multiple volumes once permission has been granted.
The index is designed to follow typical court formatting requirements. While the core structure aims to meet standard requirements, you can add custom metadata fields and adjust section titles to match your specific needs.
OCR processing often completes within seconds per document, though this may vary. Large bundles may be processed in parallel. You can typically continue working while OCR runs in the background.
Yes. The activity log is designed to track access, edit, download, and share actions with timestamps and user details. This aims to help you monitor who performed which actions and when.
PDFs, Word documents (.docx), photographs (JPG, PNG), and video evidence (MP4, MOV) are all supported. Large files are compressed automatically to fit the file-size limits most courts and tribunals impose on e-bundles.
Yes, but changes typically only apply to future access. Previously downloaded copies remain unchanged. The activity log is designed to show when redactions were applied for transparency.
Yes, all data is automatically backed up multiple times daily with point-in-time recovery available. In the unlikely event of data loss, we can restore your bundles from backups.
Direct API integration is on our roadmap. Currently, you can export bundles as PDFs for import into other systems. Contact us at enterprise@bundlecreator.co to discuss specific integration requirements.
Our support team is knowledgeable about our platform and is here to help with technical questions.
Available Mon-Fri 9am-5pm GMT
Search the help library
Legal Notice: All templates and guidance provided are for informational purposes only and do not constitute legal advice. Court requirements may vary by jurisdiction and change over time. Users are solely responsible for ensuring their bundles meet all current court rules and practice directions. Always consult with qualified legal counsel when preparing court documents.