Generating and viewing a PDF

PDFs can be generated at any time for all documents in Lawmaker. You can generate them from the Editor or from a document on the Project Tab, Amendment Workspace Tab or the Official Lists Tab.

When you generate or view a PDF it will open in a separate tab or window in your browser.

If the PDF isn’t appearing in a new tab or window, check that you have pop-ups enabled for Lawmaker (clicking on the padlock to the left of the URL in the browser address bar will give you quick access to adjust these settings).

How to generate a PDF

First bring up the Generate PDF dialogue bx:

If you are in the Editor, select Document menu> Generate PDF from the upper tool bar.
If you are on the Project Tab, Amendment Workspace or Official Lists tab, select Actions menu> Generate PDF on the document working version or snapshot you want to generate a PDF from.

Once you have selected your preferred settings, click Generate.

The PDF generated from the Editor will be based on the document as it is including any changes you have made but not saved.

A PDF generated from a working version will be based on the last saved version of the document.

PDF generation settings

There are a number of different setting you can select to control what is generated. Some options are only available for certain document types.

Pages/provisions to include

By default all provisions in a document (or all amendments in an amendment list) are included in the PDF.

But you can select a subset using this dropdown. You can select any combination of provisions/amendments. They don’t need to be next to one another or of the same type. For example you can select a Part of a Bill (which will include all the sections in a Part) and some individual sections elsewhere in the Bill.

Tracked changes

These settings relate to if and how tracked changes in the document are rendered in the PDF.

Show tracked changes: all tracked changes will be visible in the PDF.
Show changes applied: in this case the PDF will show as if all the changes had been accepted.
Include side-lining: if this option is selected, side-lining will be included in the margin to indicate where changes have been made to the text.

Print and publishing artefacts

The options that appear here depend on the document type:

Include line numbering

If selected, the PDF will show line numbering in the margin of each page. Every 5th line is numbered.

This feature is only available for Bills. Line numbering shows on the left for Scottish Bills and on the right for UK Bills.

Footers

If selected, the PDF will include appropriate footers drawn from the document metadata, e.g. the Session and Bill number.

Page numbers

Includes page numbers (List of Draft Amendments only). Other documents like Bills, Acts and SIs have page numbers by default.

Generate as House Bill

If selected, the PDF will be generated as a House Bill with the appropriate covers. See Preparing a House Bill.

Use this option to include a custom note in the footer of each page. The note can be up to 2 lines of text.

Insert draft watermark

Use this option to place a watermark on every page of the PDF. This will result in the word “Draft” being placed in light grey diagonally across the page behind the main content.

Large print

Use this option to produce a PDF in large print format. The document will be generated in 20pt Arial font. Some adjustment of margins, indentation and spacing will take place to avoid overlapping text.

Extras

These extra features can only be included in the PDF if line numbering is turned off. The options that appear here depend on the document type.

Show J-numbers in margin (Bills and SI/SSIs only)

Select this if you want the J-numbers to be visible in the PDF (in addition to the section/schedule numbers). See Managing J-refs.

Show Jrefs in cross-references

Select this if you want the J-numbers of target provisions to be included in cross-references in the PDF - see References .

Show D-Numbers

Select this to display the unique D-number assigned to each amendment (e.g. HoC1) in the PDF (in addition to any official number assigned to the amendment).

Show amendment D-numbers against inline amendments

Select this if you want the the D-number of each inline amendment to be shown in the PDF of the inline list of draft amendments.

Show review comments

Select this to include any comments that have been added to the document in the Editor. Each comment will be shown in italics and surrounded by square brackets within the text. The comment will be placed at the end of the text to which it refers. Any replies to the comment will also be included. The username of the user who made the comment or reply is shown at the beginning of each comment/reply.

Show origin information

Select this option if you’re working on a consolidation and want the origin notes to be visible in the PDF.

Save a snapshot of the document

When you generate a PDF from a working version or an existing snapshot, the option Record snapshot version enables you to save a snapshot version containing the PDF you generated and the corresponding XML document.

You can provide a name for the snapshot in the Version description box or leave the box empty and it will be saved with the default name “PDF”.

This option can be useful so you can:

view the same PDF again at a later date without regenerating it,
generate another PDF of the same document but with different settings,
generate a new working version from PDF version to edit further,
publish the document (only PDF snapshots can be published - see Publishing a Bill document version)

How to view a PDF

If you’ve created a snapshot or significant version that includes a PDF, you can view the PDF again without regenerating it.

On the Project Tab, Amendment Workspace Tab or Official Lists Tab, select Actions>View PDF on the document you want to view.

The stored PDF will be presented in another browser tab.

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