Get Started with Murphy

Everything you need to know in the first five minutes after installing the add-in.

What Murphy Does

Murphy is an AI legal assistant that works inside Microsoft Word. It drafts new documents, improves the wording of what you have already written, and answers questions about the text in front of you — without you ever leaving Word. Every change Murphy makes to your document is shown to you first, so nothing is rewritten behind your back.

Opening Murphy in Word

Murphy lives on the Word ribbon:

  1. Go to the Home tab.
  2. Select Add-ins.
  3. Choose the Murphy button in the Legal AI group.

Murphy opens as a task pane on the right-hand side of your document. Sign in with your Murphy's Law account and you are ready to go. The pane stays open while you work, so you can keep editing your document as normal.

The Four AI Flows

There is no mode picker in Murphy. Instead, Murphy works out what you want from two things: whether you have text selected in Word, and whether the “Ask” toggle is on. That gives four flows. It is worth reading this section once — it is the fastest way to get what you expect out of Murphy.

Nothing selectedBlank document

1. Murphy drafts a new document

Open Murphy in an empty document, describe what you need, and Murphy writes the first draft straight into the document.

Nothing selectedDocument has content

2. Murphy improves the whole document

With text already in the document and nothing highlighted, Murphy works across the entire document rather than one part of it.

Text selected"Ask" toggle OFF

3. Murphy improves only that selection

Highlight a clause or a paragraph and Murphy rewrites just that text. The rest of the document is left untouched.

Text selected"Ask" toggle ON

4. Murphy answers in the task pane only

Highlight text and ask a question about it. Murphy answers in the task pane and does not modify your document at all.

In short: select text when you want Murphy to focus on one part of the document, leave nothing selected when you want it to handle the whole thing, and turn the “Ask” toggle on whenever you want an answer rather than an edit.

Accept and Reject

Murphy never changes your document silently. Whenever it drafts or improves text, the change is previewed first and you decide what happens to it:

  • Accept keeps the change and leaves it in your document.
  • Reject discards the change and restores the previous state of your document exactly as it was before Murphy touched it.

Because Reject restores your document exactly, it is safe to try a flow, look at the result, and back out if it is not what you wanted. Flow 4 — text selected with the “Ask” toggle on — never modifies the document, so there is nothing to accept or reject there.

System Requirements

Microsoft 365 or Office 2021 or later.

Need Help?

If something is not working, our support page covers the most common issues and has a contact form. You can also email us at tim@kvelld.co.za. We aim to respond within 2 business days.