Document toolboxDocument toolbox

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Owned by Matt Lynch
Last updated: 29 Jul 2022
4 min read

Miscellaneous

How do I convert a section containing a subsection into a section that is not subdivided?

Promote the subsection into a section content element - see Promoting and demoting provisions .

How do I stop 'tag x-ref' tagging cross references to other documents/enacted legislation?

Place your cursor in the incorrectly marked up x-ref and right-click and select "Ignore x-ref"

"Tag x-ref" relies on pattern recognition. It is a work-in-progress and as such it might incorrectly identify a cross reference which is to another document and attempt to find the target provision within the current document. If this has happened, the best thing to do is ask the system to ignore the x-ref so that it doesn't re-attempt to update it every time "Tag x-ref" and "Update x-ref" are run.

How do I correct the indent of an element in a quoted structure?

See Quoted structures

Use "Indent level" drop-down menu to manually correct the indent of elements inside a quoted structure. You can set it when you creating a new quoted structure, or you can adjust it after you have inserted a quoted structure using the right-click context menu "Update quoted structure properties"

Inserting provisions and other elements

How do I insert an element before the first element e.g. a section before the first section in my bill?

Option 1 - Using tags to guide you:

  1. From the upper tool bar, select "Document > Preferences" and select "Block tags" from the Tag Display Mode drop-down menu. 

  2. Place your cursor in the element before the provision you are trying to insert your element before e.g. to insert a section before the first section in a bill only containing sections: place your cursor after the "body" tag. 

  3. Click 'Enter' to access the Insert menu/CCA and select your desired provision. 

  4. The system will insert the provision after the element that your cursor is placed after so in the section example, it will be inserted immediately after the "body" element and before your first "Section" element.

Option 2 - Using the breadcrumbs to guide you:

  1. Place your cursor at the start of the element you want to insert an element before e.g. to insert a section before the first section in a bill only containing section - place your cursor in the "num" of the first section. 

  2. Use the back arrow on the keyboard to move your cursor left-wards through the element tags (the element that your cursor appears in will be shown in the breadcrumb so in the section example, it will show Bill > body > section > Num) 

  3. Click 'Enter' to access the Insert menu/CCA when you get to the correct element (using the example above, this would be when you got to 'body') and select your desired provision

  4. The system will insert the provision after the element that your cursor is placed after so in the example above, a section would be inserted immediately after the "body" element and before your first "Section" element.

The reason for these 2 approaches is because the system will always attempt to insert your selected provision after the element that your cursor is in, which is why it is difficult to position your cursor so that the inserted provision is inserted before the first element in a list. This technique gets around that issue as long as you understand the hierarchical nature of XML.

How do I insert a subheading before my subsection/paragraph?

Option 1 - Using tags to guide you:

  1. From the upper tool bar, select "Document > Preferences" and select "Block tags" from the Tag Display Mode drop-down menu. 

  2. Place your cursor before the 'num' element of the provision that you want to insert a subheading before

  3. Click 'Enter' to access the Insert menu/CCA and select 'Heading'. 

  4. The system will insert a heading above the num, formatted in italics by default

  5. Remove 'Block tags' view from your preferences to return to normal drafting

Option 2 - Using the breadcrumbs to guide you:

  1. Place your cursor in the 'num' element of the element that you want to insert a subheading before. 

  2. Use the back arrow on the keyboard to move your cursor leftwards through the element tags (the element that your cursor appears in will be shown in the breadcrumb so in the section example, it will show Bill > body > section > subsection > Num In this example, when you get to 'Subsection'

  3. Click 'Enter' to access the Insert menu/CCA and select 'Heading'

  4. The system will insert a heading in the correct location, formatted in italics by default.  

How do I insert 'defined terms' in paragraphs or any element which isn't a 'definition' element?

It's not currently possible to insert 'defined terms' in elements other than definitions, we will be adding this into a future release.   

How do I insert a step as a sibling of my other steps and not a child of my paragraph?

If you have a series of steps in your document and one of the steps contains paragraphs, it is not obvious how to continue inserting steps after inserting a paragraph.  This is because Lawmaker will insert a step as a child of your paragraph.  To get around this insertion logic, place your cursor in the step before your paragraph and click 'Enter' to get the insert menu.  If you select 'Step' from here, it will insert it as a sibling of the step that your cursor is in. 

How do I insert a second sentence in a subsection or other element?

Use SHIFT + Enter which is the keyboard shortcut to create an additional text paragraph.

How do I insert the front page, table of contents and back cover?

See Inserting Scottish Bill and Act front and back covers, Inserting UK Bill and Act front and back covers and Inserting table of contents