Smart paste

Smart paste is used for copying text from outside Lawmaker into the Editor.

How to use smart paste

1. Select the text you wish to copy from your source document and copy (Ctrl + C).

2. Open the Editor with the document you want to insert the text into and place your cursor in the appropriate location.

3. Use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + V to paste your copied text.

Video demonstration

Here is a screen cast giving a quick introduction to smart paste:

Smart paste - where (not) to use

Scenarios currently handled by smart paste:

• Body of a Bill/Act (including Schedules)

• Body of an SI. 

  • Note: smart paste cannot handle signatures. To copy an existing SI/SSI, it is best to copy the body first and the schedules as a separate copy & paste operation.

• Schedule paragraphs in SIs

  • Note: in some cases smart paste has struggled with Schedules for SIs. If you have trouble, try pasting across smaller ‘chunks’ of provisions rather than whole Schedules.

• Quoted structures/amending text (nested quoted structures are also handled)

• Portions of a document e.g. a part containing multiple sections, a list of subsections etc.

• Individual amendment instructions (including any quoted structures) 

Scenarios not currently handled by smart paste:

• Signatures in SI/SSIs

• Tables and images

• Explanatory Statements in UK amendments

• Proposer/Supporters in amendments

• Multiple definitions on the same line e.g. “condition A”, “condition B”, “condition C”, “condition D” or “condition E” means that condition as set out in section 3;"

• Front and Back covers & the preface (Enacting words etc.)

• Footnotes in SIs (need to insert them manually into the Editor but at least you can copy and paste the text for each footnote from the source.  Sometimes they can trip up smart paste as they render as the same number format as paragraphs.  If paste is tripping up over the footnotes, the best thing is to paste the text into a Word document or notepad and remove the footnote references)

• “Schedules” heading (appears before Schedules in UK bills and SIs in certain circumstances)

Limitations of smart paste and workarounds

There are some known issues with smart paste. Below we list them and suggest workarounds.

Line breaks / carriage returns - including in PDF:

• Issue: Websites and PDF files can handle line breaks/carriage returns in inconsistent ways (e.g., PDFs will often have carriage returns at the end of every line). This will confuse Smart Paste.

• Workaround: Copy+paste the text into a Word document or Notepad. Check that line breaks/carriage returns are in the correct locations and amend if not. Copy+paste this into Lawmaker.
  If copying a PDF, you can export to Word (File > Export to > Microsoft Word) and copy from the Word document.

Copying UK bill schedules (from http://Legislation.gov.uk):

• Issue: In a UK bill, the reference note appears before the schedule number, which confuses smart paste. 

• Workaround: The easiest way around this issue is to paste the content of the schedule into a Word document or notepad and move the reference note from the start, to after the schedule number e.g.
  ”Schedule 1 Section 2
  Terrorism prevention and investigation measures”

Copying Scottish bill schedules (from http://Legislation.gov.uk):

• Issue: In Scottish bills, the reference note appears after the schedule heading, which confuses smart paste.

• Workaround: The easiest way around this issue is to paste the content of the schedule into a Word document or notepad and move the reference note from after the schedule heading, to before the schedule heading so that it appears correctly between the schedule number and the heading e.g.
  ”SCHEDULE 1
  (introduced by section 1)
  The Scottish Pubs Code”