Projects and documents

This section covers how to use the Dashboard and the Project tab to create and manage projects and the documents within them.

Introduction

Two important concepts in Lawmaker are the Project and the Document. This section explains a bit about both and how you can interact with them.

What is a Project?

We use “project” as a generic name for the thing you’re working on in Lawmaker. Each Bill or statutory instrument you work on in Lawmaker will be represented by a separate project which is essentially a collection of documents relating to that Bill or instrument. For example, a Bill project will contain all the different versions of the Bill and all the amendments and amendment lists relating to that Bill.

Users in different organisations can work on the same project but can only see documents created by users in their own organisation or documents that have been shared with them.

When you log in, all the projects you can access are visible on the dashboard. A project’s name is determined by the title of the Bill or SI it relates to. (Each project also has a unique ID number like SP000123 or SI007534.)

More about Documents

Everything in Lawmaker is based on documents. As mentioned above, projects are collections of documents and, when you are using the Editor, you are editing a document.

Lawmaker handles a range of different document types. The most common are Bills, statutory instruments and amendment lists but others are covered too.

There are different types of document versions - working, significant and snapshot - and these are explained below.

Working versions and snapshots

A working version is an unpublished document that you can view and edit. Working versions are only ever visible to users in one organisation: the organisation of the user that created the document. But access to a particular working version may be restricted further.

For each working version, Lawmaker also stores a series of related snapshot versions. A snapshot version is a read-only, point-in-time snapshot of the working version. Snapshots are created automatically when certain actions are carried or when the user requests that a snapshot be created.

Snapshots are created when you:

• generate a PDF

• Download a zip file

• Duplicate a document

• Share a document

• Publish a document

• Submit a document to TNA

Lawmaker also stores the auto-saved version of any document you are working on as a snapshot. Each time you save a working version, Lawmaker creates a backup snapshot (overwriting the existing backup) so if the master document gets corrupted in the save process, the backup can be used to restore the document.

Significant versions

A significant version is a document that has been published or shared with a user who is external to your organisation or shared with another organisation

1. These versions are locked which means that the document content cannot be changed 

2. Published documents (bills only) are visible to all users in the system

3. Shared versions can only be viewed by the user/organisation that the document was shared with

4. Signed and submitted versions (SI/SSIs only) can only be viewed by the user/organisation that owned the document

5. You can view the (read-only) Significant version in the Editor together with its (read-only) document information; generate/view a pdf; download a bill bundle or make a duplicate version to continue drafting if necessary.

Snapshot versions are most usually auto-generated copies of the working version created when a user performs specific actions, but you could also create your own snapshot version if required.   The following actions create snapshot versions:

1. Generating a PDF – the snapshot will be called: 'PDF generated'

   Downloading a ZIP file – the snapshot will be called: 'Downloaded'

   Duplicating a version – a snapshot version is created in the document version being copied called 'Duplicated'

   Sharing a read-only version to user(s) from another organisation, or shared with a separate organisation – two snapshot versions are created, both the same: one is associated to the document version series it came from and will be called: 'Shared externally'; the other appears as a Significant Version on the right-hand side of the ‘Project’ tab and this is the version that the external user/organisation will be able to see

   Publishing a version – a snapshot version is created and will be called: 'Published'; a Significant Version is also created on the right-hand side of the ‘Project’ tab and this is the version that all users in the system will be able to see

   Auto-saving - the system will auto-save your document in the background whilst you are editing for recovery purposes should there be any connectivity issues.  This auto-save will create a temporary snapshot version only visible to the user who is making the edits and will be deleted whenever the user successfully saves their changes back to the working version.