Version 17 includes several improvements to Lawmaker’s referencing tools which extend the x-ref functionality already present in the application. These enhancements should help to improve the quality of references created in Bills and SIs, while also making it easier for Lawmaker users to manage and update the references in their document.
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External references now show in blue in the Editor.
Internal references now show in purple in the Editor.
There are some other smaller presentational changes to references in the Editor. If an x-ref tag already exists in a document and the target of this reference is changed as a result of the automatic “Tag references” function, the changed reference will be shown in dark red. There will also be a corresponding document check warning reminding you to check this reference, because its target (i.e. the thing it links to, either within the current document or on legislation.gov.uk) has changed as a result of the automatic tagging operation.
This scenario won’t happen to many x-refs in practice and will only happen if a user chooses to re-tag provisions using the Tag references feature. The dark red highlighting and corresponding document check have been added to help drafters avoid creating inaccurate references when relying on creating and editing provisions in their document and repeatedly re-running the automatic tagging feature.
The other important visual change is to the appearance of x-refs which you have manually edited using the new ‘Edit ref’ modal (see https://lawmaker.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/USERMANUAL/pages/500203522/References#How-to-edit-references ). Whenever you change the text or target of a reference using the new modal, it will appear with double-underlining in the Editor. This is a visual aid to help highlight those references which have been changed by the user.
Locking of reference text in the Editor
In earlier versions of Lawmaker, it was possible to type over or edit the text of x-refs in the Editor. In version 17, it is no longer possible to do this. This restriction has been introduced in order to reduce the likelihood of users inadvertently creating discrepancies between the text of the reference and the information associated with that reference - i.e. the information about the target of the reference.
This should help to make other Lawmaker features more robust and reliable. Prior to this change, it was easy to create a reference to a specific section of a Bill (e.g. “section 5”), then type somewhere in that reference in order to change it (e.g. “sections 5 or 7”), while leaving the associated target information unchanged. This created problems with the “Update x-refs” function later on.
If you need to edit the text of reference to make a minor change the reference text, e.g. to adjust the capitalisation of the word “section”, you can now do this using the Edit ref modal. The first field in the modal is the text of the reference as it appears in the bill; textual changes can be made here. Alternatively, you can Remove the x-ref tagging from a specific reference, re-type it, and re-tag it by selecting it and clicking the “Tag x-refs” button in the toolbar.
Floating toolbar for x-refs
All functions relating to x-refs are now accessible from a floating toolbar which appears when you double-click a reference in the Editor. Many of the functions on this toolbar were present in earlier versions of Lawmaker, and available from the right-click menu, but some are new - for example, “Go to ref”, which takes you to the target of the reference.
The right-click menu still contains the same x-ref functions as before, along with some new ones, like Edit ref; the floating toolbar is another way of accessing the same functionality.
Functionality which is not affected by these changes
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