Editorial Update/Lists
Editing Ordered and Unordered Lists, for example Definitions
| Drafters often say to insert a new definition at “the appropriate place” within an existing list. When you carry out the insertion, remember to take into account any punctuation and conjunctions in the list. |
Definitions are often tagged as 'ordered lists' or 'unordered lists'.
However, it is common to find that the amending document, which contains the new entry or sub-provision that needs to be inserted, is tagged as <ukl:P3>:
If this is the case, you won't be able to simply copy the amending text and paste it into the amended document. What you need to do will depend on the existing tagging in the amended document:
- If the amended provision already contains list tagging: re-use the existing tagging to create the new list entry, and then copy in text from the amending document. For example, if you need to add a new entry (c) to the definition of 'railway company' after the existing entry (b), highlight the
<ukl:ListItem>tag for (b), and then paste it directly under (b), after the 'close list item' tag. Then delete the text of (b) to leave the empty 'shell' of the tagging. This is now ready for you to copy your new text into. See below:
XMetaL will automatically allocate a new number/letter for the new list entry - in the example above, it has allocated (a). If the automatic allocation isn't correct you can change it by using the Attribute Inspector window to override the auto-numbering. Open the Attribute Inspector and type in the correct number/letter into the 'NumberOveride' cell, see below:
You can then copy the amending text from the amending document by highlighting the text tags, or just the words if you have created tagging in the amended document, and paste the amending text into the newly created entry, as shown below:
This image shows what to do if you need to highlight text tags:
This image shows what to do if you are simply highlighting the words to copy into tagging you have created in the amended document:
The <addition> tags will appear around the text, with the opening tagging/brackets and F-note reference appearing after the number of the entry. The image below shows you what you should see when you've successfully completed the editorial task, see below:
If the amended provision does not already contains list tagging, or does not contain list tagging at the level you need
In this situation, you will need to insert the ukl:OrderedList, ukl:ListItem, ukl:Para tagging from the Insert Element window to create the list tagging for your amendment and then insert the text from the amending provision into this structure. The correct type of list item can be selected in the Attribute Inspector by amending the attributes Type and Decoration.
Tip: If double brackets appear around your list item reference, change the Decoration to 'none' to get single brackets (occasionally the list item reference may already have a bracket and setting the Decoration will result in duplication).
| Type: | Arabic | (1, 2, 3 …) |
| Roman | (i, ii, iii …) | |
| romanUpper | (I, II, III …) | |
| alpha | (a, b, c …) | |
| alphaUpper | (A, B, C …) | |
| Decoration: | none | |
| parens | () | |
| parenRight | ) | |
| brackets | [] | |
| bracketRight | ] | |
| period | . | |
| colon | : |
For example, to insert (aa) and (bb) as a sub-entries within an existing list item (i): in the amended provision place the cursor after the closing ukl:Text tag but before the closing ukl:Para tag of the list item (i). In the list of elements in the Insert Element window double click on ukl:OrderedList then ukl:ListItem and then ukl:Para to insert the opening and closing tags for these elements.
Delete the automatically generated ‘Type new ukl:ListItem here’ text and then place the cursor after the opening ukl:OrderedList tag. In the Attribute Inspector window select 'alpha' as the Type and 'parens' as the Decoration: this will automatically change the sub-entry to (a) and you will need to override this to (aa) by typing aa into the NumberOveride cell in the Attribute Inspector.
In the amending provision select the ukl:Text opening tag and copy the sub-entry text to be inserted. In the amended provision place the cursor between the opening and closing ukl:Para tags. Select the task in Resource Manager and select Legislation - Textual Amendments - Addition from the toolbar at the top of the page.
The <addition> tags will appear around the text, with the opening tagging/brackets and F-note reference appearing after the number of the entry. This process can then be repeated to insert (bb). The image below shows you what you should see when you've successfully completed the editorial task:
In XMetaL:
On legislation.gov.uk:
Note: if the inserted sub-entry has further sub-sub-entries, place the cursor after the closing ukl:Text tag but before the closing ukl:Para tag of that sub-entry, insert another ordered list and populate as appropriate.
| Warning: When you insert a new entry into a list, be sure to check whether you need to use the number override in any subsequent entry numbers in the list (not just in the new entry number you have inserted). Also, before you complete the edit, check that all the entry numbers in the list are correct in the website preview even if the XML looks OK. |
Examples of amendments to ordered and unordered lists
Inserting multiple list items as part of the same task
Amended provision in XMetaL:
Amended provision website view: 
Repealing a definition
This should be treated as a repeal of words, and you should carry out a repeal of words on the text within the ukl:text tagging of the relevant ukl:ListItem, for example:
F11 Words in s. 1(3) repealed (8.11.2006) by Education and Inspections Act 2006 (c. 40), s. 188(1), Sch. 16 para. 1(4)(d), Sch. 18 Pt. 1
Note: the repeal of a definition should be represented with 3 dots NOT a dotty line.
BEWARE of any sub-paragraphs (a), (b) etc within a definition you are repealing, and make sure after checking back in that any sub-paragraphs have been removed and, if not, check it out again and delete them manually. In the example above, after repeal of the definition of "qualifying school" sub-paragraphs (a)-(e) were still visible, and these needed to be removed manually to leave just the three dots for the repeal of words:
After the repeal of words, sub-paragraphs (a)-(e) are still visible in the Preview:
The provision is checked back out and sub-paragraphs (a)-(e) are removed (the tagging for these can just be deleted leaving the tagging for the repeal of words intact):
| For more detail on removing sub-paragraphs in a definition, see Remove sub-paragraphs when a whole definition, which is a list item, is omitted. |
Punctuation in lists
If you are adding or removing an item at the end of a list, make sure that the terminal punctuation and also any punctuation and conjunctions in previous list items are still correct. See Approach to update - Punctuation and Typography for more detail.
For example, from this:
To this:
List items in definitions usually end with a comma or semicolon. Inserted list items may be missing punctuation at the end, or may have different punctuation at the end to the rest of the list. Look out for this and correct as necessary.
Related Pages
Approach, errors and troubleshooting: