Managing cross-references (including J-refs)

This module will teach you how to create cross references in Lawmaker and how to modify and update them as the draft document evolves.

📘 Introduction

References

📚 Exercises

🛠️ Getting Started

Before you can draft a bill, you will need to create your own training project containing a half finished bill to continue drafting.
If you haven’t got one already, create a project containing a half finished bill:
The following steps will allow you to create the data required for this exercise.

How to create a new project

Download the XML document for the exercise by clicking on the link you’ve been provided with. By default, the downloaded file is usually placed in the “downloads” folder on your computer.
Log in to Lawmaker.
From the Dashboard, create a new project of the type you need for the exercise. Give it a title such as [Your Initials] Drafting a bill. (See Creating a new project.)
From the Project tab for that project, select Document Actions > Upload document, and select the XML file for the exercise which you have downloaded. It can be uploaded into the default folder that has been created in the project. (See Create a new document by uploading an XML file.)
On the newly uploaded document version, select Actions > Update Document Information and update the Title to match the title you originally gave the project.
Duplicate this document version using Actions > Duplicate version and call the new version the name of this module. We will create a new document version per module.
1. Open the duplicated version in the Editor

✏️ Exercise 1: Create some internal and external cross references

Cross references can be created manually or using the automatic tagging feature. The automatic tagging feature will additionally look for references to enacted legislation on legislation.gov.uk and mark up anything it can find.

If you haven’t got one already, create a project containing a half finished bill:
Update section 5 with the following highlighted edits⁠—

Step 1: Manually insert a cross reference

Manually create a cross reference to section 4(2) in section 5

Detailed steps to manually create cross references

If you haven’t do so yet, update section 5 by inserting the text highlighted in the screenshot
Toggle the button to show lower level provisions in the Structure View
Drilldown to subsection (2) inside section 4
Right-click on subsection (2) in the Structure View and click on section 4(2) on the sub-menu for Select Select reference to copy
Highlight section 4(2) in section 5(4) that you typed in and use keyboard shortcut CTRL+V to replace it with the reference you copied from the structure view. The marked up cross reference will be inserted. The purple text indicates that it is a valid cross reference to a provision within your document.

Step 2: Use tag-references to create cross references

You can automatically tag cross references that you have typed into your provisions. It’s best to do this in a controlled manner e.g. tagging a single section at a time so that you can check for any false-positive cross references.

Detailed steps to automatically tag your section

With your cursor in section 5, trigger tag-references by clicking on the tag references button in the upper toolbar, right-clicking and selecting Tag references, selecting Tools >Tag references or using keyboard shortcut ALT+T.
Blue text indicate external cross references to enacted legislation on Legislation.gov.uk; and purple text indicate internal cross references to provisions within the document in the Editor.

✏️ Exercise 2: View the target of a reference

You might want to check that a cross reference is referring to the correct provision. The quickest way to do this is to use the Goto Ref feature.

Continue from exercise 1

Step 1: View the target of an internal reference

View the cross reference target within the same document

Detailed steps to view an internal cross reference

In section 5, double click on the purple text for section 4 and select Goto Ref in the hover toolbar
The Editor view will shift upwards so that the target provision (section 4) is at the top of the view
Double-click on the purple text for section 4(2) and select Goto Ref in the hover toolbar
The Editor view will shift slightly so that subsection (2) in section 4 is at the top of the view

Step 2: View the target of an external reference

View the cross reference to the Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 2014.

Detailed steps to view an external cross reference

In section 5, double click on the blue text for Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 2014 and select Goto Ref in the hover toolbar
A new tab will open with the table of contents for that act in Legislation.gov.uk
Double-click on the blue text for Part 12 and select Goto Ref in the hover toolbar
Another new tab will open to Part 12 of that act in Legislation.gov.uk

✏️ Exercise 3: Use an alias to describe external cross references

Lawmaker will also identify external references that use an alias instead of the full title of the legislative document, e.g. references to “the 2007 Act” or “the 1998 Regulations”. It does this by searching for the definitions of the alias elsewhere within the document.

Recreate the highlighted updates to section 1—

Step 1: Create the alias

In section 1, create an alias for the Coronavirus Act 2020

Detailed steps to create and use an alias that will be recognised by Lawmaker

In section 1(1), after 2020, type (“the 2020 Act”)
After subsection (2) insert another subsection and type In section 23 of the 2020 Act, subsection (3) is repealed.
With your cursor still in section 1, run tag references by clicking on the tag references button in the upper tool bar.

Step 2: Tag references in a provision that uses an alias

Test that the alias was recognised by Lawmaker by running tag references

Detailed steps to create and use an alias that will be recognised by Lawmaker

Place your cursor still in section 1
Run tag references by clicking on the tag references button in the upper tool bar.
View the target cross reference for the 2020 Act by double clicking on the blue text and selecting Goto Ref in the hover toolbar. A new tab to Legislation.gov.uk Coronavirus Act will open.

✏️ Exercise 4: Restructure your document and update cross references

If you have successfully created cross references to other provisions in your document, Lawmaker can automatically update these if their number changes or warn you if the target provision has changed into a different provision.

Back in section 5, make the following updates—

Step 1: Make structural and numbering changes to your document

Move the target provisions around and change some of their structures to see how update references works in Lawmaker

Detailed steps to explain how to restructure the provision and document

Demote subsection (2) so that it becomes a paragraph of subsection (1) (using Tools > Demote Element…)
Use the structure view to drag Subsection (1) so that it appears after subsection (2)
Use the structure view to drag section 4 after section 6
Renumber the whole document (click on the renumber button in the upper tool bar)

Step 2: Update cross references

Now that the provisions have been rejigged, run update references to see how Lawmaker handles these changes

Detailed steps to update cross references

Place your cursor in the updated section
Run Update References (Tools >Update references or the update references button in the upper tool bar or keyboard shortcut ALT+U) and select current provision
Check that⁠—
1. the reference to subsection (1) has changed to Subsection (3)
2. the reference to subsection (2) is now highlighted orange to indicate that the original provision has changed to something different (from a subsection into a paragraph)
3. the references to section 4 and section 4(2) have changed to section 6 and section 6(2) respectively

Step 3: Update an individual cross reference

To fix the cross reference whose target was a subsection and now is a paragraph, you need to remove the old x-ref tag and retag it

Detailed steps to remove a tag and re run tag references to fix a broken reference

Double-click on the orange highlighted cross reference
Select Remove tag button from the hover toolbar
Type over the old cross reference, changing it to paragraph (a) or subsection (3)(a)
Tag references again (click on the tag references button in the upper tool bar).

Exercise 5: Use J-ref to number your provisions and include them in references

Sometimes during drafting it’s useful to use permanent references to sections or schedules so that you can easily refer to them when the document is in flux and their official provision number is not stable. The mechanism to do this is called J-refs.

Make the following updates to sections 6 and 7—

Step 1: Insert Jrefs

Add J-refs to sections 6 and 7 which can then be viewed in references

Detailed steps to insert Jrefs

With your cursor in section 6, insert a Jref by selecting Insert > Insert/Update J-ref or right clicking and selecting Insert/Update J-ref
In the dialog box that appears, insert a unique reference
Repeat for section 7

Step 2: Tag cross references

Update section 7 to include a reference to section 6 and run tag references

Detailed steps to tag references in section 7

Overwrite “This Act” at the start of section 7 and replace it with Section 6
With your cursor in section 7, run tag references (by clicking on the tag references button in the upper tool bar)

Step 3: View J-refs in references

To view the J-refs inside the cross references, toggle the view of cross references to include J-refs

Detailed steps to show J-refs inside cross references

Toggle the view so that Jrefs are displayed in cross references by right-clicking and selecting Show/hide J-refs in references, or Tools > Show/hide J-refs in references
The J-ref that you assigned to section 6 will appear in the cross reference within square brackets.

If you don’t see a J-ref in a cross reference that shows the section/schedule number then it’s probably because you tagged the cross reference before assigning the section/schedule a j-ref. Simply remove the tag on the cross reference, retag it and the J-ref will appear.
Automatic tagging does not work inside quoted structures. It is still possible to create cross references to other provisions within a quoted structure or to other provisions in other quoted structures by using the manual method to create references.
Use Mark as Ignored if Lawmaker has incorrectly marked up a cross reference as part of automatic tagging. This will ensure the cross reference isn’t incorrectly marked up and additionally will ensure that Lawmaker doesn’t attempt to retag it if you were to do another tag reference in the same provision