What's new in version 12?

Summary

Version 12 introduces a number of new features and improvements across Lawmaker. In particular, it adds functionality to allow UK Private Bills to be drafted and managed, it refines ping pong functionality to address some remaining issues and includes a number of improvements to the Editor and PDFs.

Version 12 was released on 26 August 2022.

Detail of new features and improvements

UK Private Bills

You can now:

• Create a Private Bill which has a custom template including the Explanatory note on the cover and the preamble.

• Add content to the explanatory note and preamble including numbered paragraphs (1), (2) etc.

• Insert front and back pages in a Private Bill (some issues with these features for Hybrid Bills have also been resolved).

• Add details of promoters/sponsors to the back cover.

• Convert a Private Bill into a Local Act.

• Generate PDFs of Private Bills and Local Acts.

• Publish Private Bills and share Local Acts with TNA.

See https://lawmaker.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/USERMANUAL/pages/47317042 in the user manual.

Ping pong and amendments

Move amendments between stages - you can now update selected amendments or a whole LoDA so that they relate to a different stage or Bill version. This means, for example, that you can draft amendments before a particular stage has started or Bill version has been published and then update the amendments later to point to the correct stage/Bill version. That can be done before or after amendments are submitted and applies to normal parliamentary stages and ping pong. See https://lawmaker.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/USERMANUAL/pages/25526551

Logic when pasting and saving amendments - The logic applied when pasting an amendment into another amendment list has been modified so that the original will be pasted even if the amendment’s stage doesn’t match the stage of the list you are pasting into. Equally, the amendment’s stage will no longer be updated when the list is saved if it doesn’t match the list stage. This is mainly to better handle various scenarios during Ping Pong.

Interstitial headings - minor improvements to the handling of interstitial headings in amendment lists

Commons Amendment list templates - we’ve adjusted the Commons Marshalled List and Proceedings templates in light of some change requests.

Performance - the performance of Lawmaker when publishing amendments has been significantly improved.

Ping pong - entries in the CCA have been updated to make them easier to understand and use; other various changes to templates and CCA configuration in light of user feedback and testing.

PDFs

Selecting PDF options - The dialogue box for generating PDFs has been reworked to make it easier to follow.

Hyperlinks - When you create a PDF, all entries in the contents page and all internal cross-references are now automatically converted into hyperlinks, i.e. clicking on them will take you to the target provision elsewhere in the PDF.

Including comments - We’ve also added an option to include any comments in the document in the PDF. The comments appear inline and indicate who the author of the comment was. Replies to comments are also included.

See https://lawmaker.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/USERMANUAL/pages/688197.

SI/SSIs

Subjects - The SI/SSI subject list has been updated and ordered alphabetically. See https://lawmaker.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/USERMANUAL/pages/16121966.

Templates - The templates for SIs and SSIs have been updated to include placeholders that can be tabbed into and easily be overwritten.

Date fields - When you’re specify a date in a date field (e.g. the made/laid dates or a signature date), you can now specify a simple year rather than a full day/month/year. See https://lawmaker.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/USERMANUAL/pages/16121950 and https://lawmaker.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/USERMANUAL/pages/16121958.

Editor formatting - the spacing of provisions in Editor has been improved to be closer to the printed version.

Working with documents on the Project tab

Project tab view - The default behaviour of the project tab has been tweaked so that, where there is only one folder visible, the folder will be expanded automatically to show the working versions it contains.

Updating document information - For UK Bills and Acts and Scottish Bills and Acts, you can now update the document information from the project tab (using Actions>Update Document Information). This gives you access to the same fields as are present in the Document information panel in the Editor. See https://lawmaker.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/USERMANUAL/pages/60915747 .

Editor improvements

Auto-renumber schedule paragraphs - when you have auto-renumber turned on, schedule paragraphs will be renumbered as well as the existing provisions. See https://lawmaker.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/USERMANUAL/pages/9339202.

Save progress bar - whenever you save a document, e.g. a Bill or amendment list, a progress bar (like the one that is shown when you open a document) will be displayed. See https://lawmaker.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/USERMANUAL/pages/9371659.

Page breaks - you can now insert page breaks into documents that will affect how the PDF is paginated. A page break can be inserted after most provisions forcing the text after the break to start on a new page. See https://lawmaker.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/USERMANUAL/pages/60948495 .

Superscript/subscript formatting - in the same way as you can format text as bold or italic you can now format selected text as superscript or subscript. See https://lawmaker.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/USERMANUAL/pages/9339259.

Font size in tables - you can now adjust the font size (using the table properties dialog box) for all text in a particular table. You can make the text larger or smaller. See https://lawmaker.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/USERMANUAL/pages/9339057.

Cursor placement - the cursor placement logic has been improved in some specific case including when you insert closing words. See https://lawmaker.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/USERMANUAL/pages/9339065.

Performance - some miscellaneous performance improvements to the Editor have been implemented.

Support tickets included in release