LitPrep vs. Adobe Acrobat for Bates Numbering

Adobe Acrobat has been the default Bates numbering tool for litigation teams for years. It works — for small, all-PDF productions. Once you are stamping hundreds of files, juggling native Excel and Word documents, or re-running a production after a rule change, the per-file Acrobat workflow becomes the bottleneck.

LitPrep was built for the cases that outgrow Acrobat. Here is a side-by-side look at how the two compare for real litigation document prep.

At a glance

Where Acrobat still makes sense

• You already own Acrobat Pro and have fewer than ~50 PDFs per production.
• Every document is already a PDF — no native Office files in the mix.
• One person is doing the stamping on a single workstation.

Where Acrobat falls down

• Native Excel files lose row and column boundaries when forced through PDF export, breaking the production.
• Rule changes — new prefix, different starting number, position adjustment — require restamping every file by hand.
• The document log is maintained in a separate spreadsheet, which drifts out of sync with what was actually stamped.
• No audit trail of who stamped what, when, or which version went to opposing counsel.

How LitPrep handles the same job

1. 1. Drag a folder in. PDFs, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, RTF — LitPrep accepts the whole set in one upload.
2. 2. Set the matter-level Bates rule once. Prefix, starting number, increment, and stamp position live on the matter, not the file.
3. 3. LitPrep renders and stamps. Office files convert to stampable PDFs automatically. Spreadsheets get a native slip sheet so the range stays intact.
4. 4. Document log writes itself. Every file, Bates range, custodian, and production note ends up in one searchable log.
5. 5. Productions ship from the same workspace. Assemble a production set, attach the recipient, and export — the audit trail comes with it.