Editorial Update/Starting Update Tasks
This page details the steps you take from selecting an update task from your "Dashboard" to checking out a provision and starting update in XMetaL, whether the amendment is an insertion, substitution or repeal.
From "My Current Work" to "Check out for edit"
Instructions
- Click on "My Current work" on the editorial site to access your allocated tasks on your "Dashboard".
- Select a document from the Update tasks displayed under the heading "Online update and review online update", this will take you to the Starting Update Page.
- On the "Starting Update page", download the Effects Spreadsheet and click on the green "Start Task" button to begin the task. This will take you to the Update Overview Page.
- Before you start the update task, filter the "IF Date1" (column W) of the "Effects Spreadsheet" so that it only shows the effects with the commencement date of the Point in Time you are working in. A quick overview of certain columns within the spreadsheet will alert you to any limitations to the amendments you are about to carry out or any additional information that should be present in its annotation. In particular, identify if there are any:
- limited extent amendments (columns I and/or J);
- savings (column N);
- comments for the editor(column Q);
- notes (column R);
- appended commentary (column U); and/or
- qualifications to the "IF Date" (column X).
- To start the update task, on the "Update Overview page", click on either the "Details" button which appears next to each of the provisions in your Point in Time or the "Continue update" button which will take you to the Update Details Page for the first provision listed on the "Update Overview page".
- On the "Update Details page" of the provision you are working on, if you did not find any entries in the columns listed in point 4 above, move onto the next step, otherwise consult the "Effects Spreadsheet" spreadsheet to determine:
- the geographical extent of the amendment; and
- if there are any qualifications to the "IF Date".
- Select the green Check out for edit button, this will launch XMetal, the program that allows us to edit legislation.
Glossary
This section provides a description and a screenshot of the different webpages you will encounter whilst following the instructions "From "My Current Work" to "Check out for edit" above.
The Starting Update Page
The Starting Update Page shows all of the "Points in Time" that have been allocated to you for "Edit Update." The update "barchart" shows the number of textual effects that need to be applied for each Point in Time. The dates on the "barchart" are based on the commencement information for the effects within each Point in Time.
The Starting Update Page
The Update Overview Page
The Update Overview Page lists all of the amendment tasks that have coming into force dates on the date of the Point in Time you are working on.
The amendment tasks are grouped into a number of categories:
- High Level Amendments: Amendments that will require you to check out more than just a single provision e.g. a whole Part or Schedule.
- Provision Level Amendments: Amendments that only affect individual provisions, for example insertion of words.
- Automatic Amendments: These are amendments that do not change the text. The system will automatically create an annotation which you can check and edit if necessary. These can be non-textual amendments, coming into force effects, or automatic additions to existing annotations, for example the addition of a further coming into force date and reference to commencement order/s.
- Blanket Amendments: Amendments that needs to be applied to multiple provisions across the Act. This option allows you to choose what you need to 'check-out' in order to complete the amendments.
- Checked Out Documents: If any documents have not been checked back in during the update process, a list of those documents will appear under this heading. You can’t proceed to the next Point in Time, or complete an update task, unless all documents have been checked back in.
The Update Overview Page
The Update Details Page
The Update Details Page lists all of the amendments that need to be carried out for the provision selected for the specific Point in Time you are working on. This page allows you to see:
- The extent of the affected provision and the affecting provision. If the extent of the amendment is narrower than the extent of the affected provision this will be classed as a limited extent amendment.
- Link to the affecting provision so that you can check the amendment instructions before going into XMetaL
- If any additional information was recorded with the effects originally that you need to consider during update, this will be flagged here. Click on any red exclamation marks to get a help tip.
- You can expand the amendment tasks by using the small purple arrow which appears to the left of the 'amending provision'. This will give you all the details recorded with the original effect as well as providing access to a PDF of the original ‘marked-up’ version of the amending legislation. This may help resolve any queries if there is an issue with the amendment.
- There is a preview panel at the bottom of the page. Before update you can view the ‘previous version’ of the provision (which is the latest version from legislation.gov.uk). This step is highly recommended as it can alert you to any irregularity in the provision, or even in the document itself, which could later stop you from carrying out your editing. For the same reason we also recommend that you view the affecting legislation, by clicking on the Title of the document positioned under the heading 'Affecting Legislation'.After update you will be able to see the newly updated version appearing here too, labelled as the ‘Newly Edited version’.
- There is also a 'Preview Provision' option, so that you can preview the legislation within the context of the whole Act. This preview is useful if you want to view the 'timeline' for the provision.
Note: The page for high level amendments is slightly different, you will also be presented with a ‘Table of Contents’ of that item of legislation. This will then allow you check out higher levels e.g. Main body, Schedules, Parts, etc. Details on how this works is in the amendment specific guidance.
The Update Details Page
Setting up your XMetaL workspace
Once you have selected the green Check out for edit button from the "Update Details page", this will launch XMetaL, ready for you to carry out the amendment, however, you will first need to set up your XMetaL workspace.
Checking Out the Amended Provision
- Note: When prompted, select ‘save file’. Once the document has been downloaded, open it by double clicking it in the download box. Alternatively, right click on the file in the downloads box and select ‘open containing folder’. From the containing folder, select your file, right click and select, ‘Open with > XMetaL’. XMetaL does not need to be open already.
- You will see the amended provision in the upper pane of the screen. By default the legislation will be shown in ‘tags on view’. In the lower pane, the ‘Resource Manager’ window shows the amending tasks you need to carry out. The list will be collapsed by default. To expand, click on the small cross to the left of the word task.
Note:
- If the resource manager window does not open automatically it can be opened by selecting ‘view’, ‘Resource Manager’. The ‘Resource Manager’ window can be moved around the page to a position that suits you for editing.
- At the moment the tasks in the ‘resource manager’ window not always give as much information as the task information shown on the ‘Update Details’ page or in the amending legislation. They may also be in a different order. Work is underway to give more information in this task pane.
Checking Out the Amending Provision
- The amending provision can be opened by double clicking on the task in the 'resource manager' window.You can view the amended and amending provisions separately by alternating between the appropriate tabs in the bottom left of the upper pane OR you can view the amended and amending documents simultaneously by going to the ‘window’ option in the tool bar and then selecting the tile horizontally format.<//li>
- In some cases double clicking on the task will fail to open the amending document. In such cases it is possible to maunally open the amending document. [Text to follow]