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Introduction

A quoted structure is the element you insert in Lawmaker to contain inserted or substituted provisions when you are creating a textual amendment in a Bill or SI, or creating a parliamentary amendment.

A quoted structure can contain any kind of provision and will normally appeared indented on the page and surrounded by quote marks. In the Editor a quoted structure will be shown with a dotted line around it to distinguish from other provisions.

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(They’re called “quoted structures” because <quotedStructure> is the name of the element used in Akoma Ntoso to hold structured content that is being quoted in some way from another document. They are similar to what, in the existing SI template, were called “long quotes”.)

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If you are creating a textual amendment in a Bill or SI that only inserts or substitutes a single word or a phrase then you should use a quoted text element instead - see Quoted Text.

How to insert a quoted structure

  1. Use any of the following methods:

    • right-click in the Editor and select Insert quoted structure

    • from the Insert menu in the toolbar, select Insert quoted structure

    • use keyboard shortcut CTRL+q

  2. Select a starting element and adjust any other settings in the dialogue box.

  3. Click Insert.

Lawmaker will insert a quoted structure containing the selected starting element on a new line below the provision your cursor is in,.

If the starting element has a number, then the number will be left empty (but parentheses will still be present if the element number would normally have them) and it will be locked (see Locking and unlocking numbers). You can manually add a number to the first element and subsequent elements will be numbered accordingly.

Setting the properties of a quoted structure

When you insert a quoted structure you can set various properties of the the quoted structure. Some of these can be updated after the quoted structure is inserted by right-clicking within the quoted structure and selecting Update quoted structure properties (You can also do the same using the Insert menu in the toolbar.)

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(Can’t be changed after quoted structure is inserted.)

Selecting the document type determines how the contents of the quoted structure will be formatted and what starting elements are available.

By default, the document type will be the Act type that corresponds to the document you are editing (e.g. an Act of the Scottish Parliament if you are editing a Scottish Bill, or a UKPGA if you are editing an amendment list for the Commons or the Lords)..)Select the

The possible types are:

  • Act of the Scottish Parliament (asp)

  • United Kingdom Public General Act (ukpga)

  • UK Statutory Instrument

  • Scottish Statutory Instrument

  • EU Regulation, EU Directive or EU Decision

Note

If you select a different document type, the PDF will render the elements in the appropriate styles for the target document, except in relation to font style an size which will match the main document.

That means if you include an asp quoted structure in a UK Bill, or a ukpga quoted structure in a Scottish Bill, there may be some presentational differences in the content of the quoted structure when you generate a PDF. If you want the contents of the quoted structure to look exactly like other provisions in the Bill then set the document type to the Act type that corresponds to the Bill.

Starting element

(Can’t be changed after quoted structure is inserted.)

Indent level

The main purpose of indent levels in the quoted structure properties, is to increase the indent of the overall quoted structure for occasions when you are inserting a textual amendment which is itself already within a quoted structure in the target document.   The indent level will be applied globally to that quoted structure so that all provisions inserted within it will have the indent level applied.  This indent level is in addition to the single, global indent applied to quoted structures which is represented by the ‘none’ option in the Indent level optionlist of possible starting elements is determined by the document type. The list include all possible elements in the main body and in schedules - there are separate options for grouping elements in the body and schedule (e.g. “Part” and “Sch Part”).

Indent level

All provisions in a quoted structure are, by default, indented compared to how they would be if they appeared directly in the document.

The Indent level option allows you to alter that indent.

Indent level -1 removes the normal indent that is applied to provisions within a quoted structure.

Indent levels 1 and above add additional indent beyond the deafult indent.

See https://lawmaker.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/USERMANUAL/pages/25526905/Default+indent+for+starting+provisions+in+a+quoted+structure for more on when and how to use this feature.

Start quote and end quote

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Inserting a quoted structure immediately after another quoted structure

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Excerpt
nameinsert adjacent quoted structure

To insert a quoted structure immediately after another quoted structure either:

  • right-click in the Editor

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  • within the existing quoted structure and select

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  • Insert adjacent quoted

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  • structure, or

  • From the Insert menu on the

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  • toolbar, select

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  • Insert adjacent quoted

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In the ‘insert quoted structure’ modal:

  • Select the starting element for the new adjacent quoted structure

  • Specify the necessary indent level to apply to the adjacent quoted structure

  • Select whether you require a starting and ending quotation mark

  • Update the following text if required

  • And click Insert

The system will insert the adjacent quoted structure immediately after the one where your cursor was containing the selected starting element

Continue drafting your quoted structure

  • structure.

See https://lawmaker.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/USERMANUAL/pages/25526905/Default+indent+for+starting+provisions+in+a+quoted+structure for more on when and how to use this feature.

Nested quoted structures

It is possible to insert a quoted structure within an existing quoted structure. Just place your cursor within the existing quoted structure and follow the instructions above to insert a new quoted structure.

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Hints and tips

The ‘Document Type’ will select, by default, the same document type that you are drafting. 

  • Changing the document type will change the starting element list according to elements in the selected document type.

  • If you select a quoted structure for a different document type, the PDF will render the elements in the correct styles for the target document, but will match the font sizes for text to the document it has been inserted within so that it looks and reads better.

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Tables in quoted structures

You can insert a table

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as a starting element by selecting “table” as the starting element.  This will take you to the “Insert table” dialogue box allowing you to specify the type of table/table row that you want to insert. If you just want to insert a single row of a table then insert a table with only 1 row and no table number, caption or header - see Inserting and managing tables.

Moving existing provisions in and out of quoted structures

See Moving elements in or out of Quoted Structures for help with this.

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More notes on quoted structures

  • You can copy

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  • or cut

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  • a quoted

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  • structure by placing your cursor in the quoted structure

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  • , selecting “quoted structure” from the breadcrumb and then pressing CTRL+c or CTRL+c as appropriate. To paste it, place your cursor in the provision/amendment you want your quoted structure to appear after and use the keyboard short cut

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  • CTRL+v

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  • .

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The indent level in the ‘insert quoted structure’ modal will be applied to all provisions in the quoted structure and was predominantly designed to be used when quoting text from another document that is itself in a quoted structure – in which case you would select indent level 1.

There is a -1 indent level option which will present the contents of the quoted structure set to full page width – useful for large tables.

If you can’t find an element in the insert menu once you’ve inserted a quoted structure you will need to insert an adjacent quoted structure and select the provision from the ‘starting provision’ option in the ‘insert quoted structure’ modal.  Adjacent quoted structures will blend into the current quoted structure in terms of display in the PDF, you just need to ensure the start and end quote appear at the start of your quoted structure (if required) and that your end quote appears after your last adjacent quoted structure.

You can select European Legislation which will provide a list of EU provisions correctly styled in the quoted structure although it’s not possible to create manual cross references to these provisions using the structure view at this current time.

If you are inserting a quoted structure in an amendment, the default start and end quotes will be the appropriate symbols for the document type, so for Scottish Parliament amendments, they will be greater than/less than angle brackets by default

Use backspace to delete the value in the starting element’s num if it is supposed to be empty.  Empty placeholders show up as grey boxes in the Editor, but they do not show in the PDF rendition. 

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  • You can’t use the Tag x-refs features when the cursor is in a quoted structure because there won’t be enough context to resolve any references found. But you can create manual x-refs to and from provisions in a quoted structure - see To create cross references. (You can’t currently create manual cross-references to provisions within a quoted structure that is marked as relating a EU document type.

  • The training video on Managing footnotes, textual amendments and references in SI/SSIs includes how to insert quoted structures.