Editorial Update/Starting Update Tasks
This page details the steps you take to navigate the editorial site and start update in XMetaL for all types of amendment.
Starting the task in the Editorial Site
The following instructions explain how to navigate the editorial site to start your update task; starting from your dashboard up until the point you have checked a provision out for edit. The Overview gives an outline of the process and links to more detailed instructions in What you will see on the Editorial Site.
| Update Troubleshooting contains advice on any error messages you may see whilst carrying out update tasks. |
Overview
- 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 purple heading Online Update and Review Online Update, this will take you to the Starting Update page.
- On the Starting Update page, scroll down to the Help and Support section beneath the 'Points in time you have been allocated to update' graphic. At the bottom of this section you will be able to download the Effects Spreadsheet, which will contain the details of the effects you need to apply in your update task.
- Before you begin any update tasks, you need to check the Effects Spreadsheet and familiarise yourself with the effects for the Point in Time you are updating. You can filter the IF Date1 (or IFCO Date1, 2, 3, etc., if relevant) so that it only shows the effects with the commencement date of the Point in Time you are working in. The data in the spreadsheet will alert you to any limitations to the amendments that might mean you need to carry them out as limited extent or retained text amendments, and any additional information that should be present in the annotations. This will determine how you carry out the update and any checks you need to make to the automatically generated annotations. In particular, identify if there are any:
- qualifications to the type of effect;
- limited extent amendments (compare the Affecting and Affected extents (and TAs, if present). Note: whilst the Editorial System does flag potential limited extent amendments with a warning message, you shouldn't just rely on this message to alert you to possible limited extent amendments as it doesn't always appear when it should: always double check the extent information for yourself;
- savings;
- comments for the editor;
- notes;
- appended or suggested commentary;
- qualifications to the In Force Date;
- commencement orders bringing the effect into force (or further into force).
- Once you have checked the Effects Spreadsheet, return to the Starting Update page. Select the green Start Task button, this will generate the update task and then take you to the Update Overview page.
- On the Update Overview page, click on either the grey Details button which appears to the right of each provision in your Point in Time or the green Continue update button which will take you to the Update Details page for the first amendment listed on the Update Overview page. You will be either be taken to the Provision Level, High Level, Auto Annotations or the Blanket Amendments Update Details page depending on the type of amendment and the level at which it will need to be made. Tip: It is a good idea to check any auto annotations first, before starting the textual amendments at provision or higher-level because if any of the tasks have not been correctly associated with a provision this will need to be corrected and the update task will then need to be reset to generate the auto annotations.
- From the Update Details page you will be able to check out the provision that you need to amend. When you select the relevant Check out for edit button, this will launch XMetaL, the program that allows us to edit the legislation. 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.
- Now set up your XMetal workspace, and you will be ready to start the update task.
| Warning: Don't move on to carrying out the amendment in XMetaL unless you have consulted the Effects Spreadsheet and are aware of any limited extent amendments, savings, comments for the editor, notes, appended commentary or in force date qualifications. You won't be able to carry out the amendment until you have researched the effect. |
What you will see on the Editorial Site
This section provides a description and screenshots of the different pages you will encounter whilst following the instructions in the Overview.
The Starting Update Page
The Starting Update page shows all of the 'Points in Time' that have been allocated to you for editorial 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.
Downloading the Effects Spreadsheet
From this page you need to download the Effects Spreadsheet, which contains the TOES data for the effects you will be applying:
- Select the Download file button.
- In the pop-up save the file and select OK.
- Open the Excel document from the Download Folder of your browser:
- Click Yes in the pop-up.
- Once the Excel document has loaded, click Enable Editing on the yellow banner at the top of the 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.
- Auto Annotations: 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 Details Page - Provision Level
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 it may 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 that you need to consider during update, this will be flagged here with a red exclamation mark. If you click on the red exclamation mark, you will see a note with further information about what this means. You will also need to look more closely at the information recorded in TOES to work out the implications for your amendment.
- You can expand the amendment tasks by using the small purple arrow which appears to the left of the type of effect under affecting legislation. This will give you relevant details originally recorded in TOES, 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. You can also see the details for any commencement orders that might have brought the effect into force.
- 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 in the preview pane too, labelled as the Newly Edited version.
- There is also a Preview Provision button, so that you can preview the legislation as it will appear on the website within the context of the whole item of legislation, and will also enable you to check the timeline at provision and higher levels.
- You can view the Update Editor Checklist by clicking on the Checklist towards the top right hand side of this page.
The Update Details Page - High Level
The Update Details page for high level amendments is slightly different: the details given are the same as for provision level amendments BUT there is no preview facility built into this page. You will need to select the ‘Preview Legislation’ option to preview the amendments on completion. Underneath the amendment details you will be presented with a Table of Contents of the item of legislation you are updating. From this Table of Contents, you can check out higher levels of data e.g. Main body, Schedules, Parts, etc.
- Check the amendment instructions. In particular you should confirm where the amendment is to be made:
- Scroll down the Table of Contents and decide what level you are going to check out in order to make the amendment. For example, for an insertion you need to locate where the provision is to go and then check out the parent level e.g. Cross-heading, Chapter, Part, Schedule to which that new provision will ultimately belong. For a high level substitution, you will need to check out the entire Schedule, Part or Chapter. (For further information on the structure of documents see Introduction to XML Tagging):
You need to check out the document out in this way to make sure that you can position the new provision in the right place in the item of legislation, with the correct XML tagging.
Note: If the document you are editing is very small or old there may be no cross-headings or Parts etc. In this case you should check out the Main body or Schedules. The options to do this are available at the top of the Table of Contents on the Update Details page. Alternatively, if the document you are editing is very large you can just check out the Main body framework or the Schedules framework to prevent the check out/in process from timing out. See more on framework checkout options below. - Once you have located the relevant provision, you need to check it out to complete the amendment. Select the Check Out for edit button which appears next to the provision in the Table of Contents, this will launch XMetaL, ready for you to carry out the amendment.
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.
Note that you can view the Update Editor Checklist by clicking on the Checklist towards the top right hand side of this page.
Framework checkout options
The framework checkout options in the higher level Table of Contents allow you to check out higher level provisions without also checking out the content of their children. Instead you see the number and heading of the higher level provision followed by placeholders for each child provision immediately under it.
This example shows the Schedules element checked out with a placeholder for each individual Schedule:
This facility enables us to insert new high level provisions, for example a Schedule into a particularly large Schedules element, without the check out/in process timing out.
However, substitutions of whole Schedules/Parts/Chapters should be done by checking out the individual Schedule/Part/Chapter itself. See the Higher Level Substitutions page for more detail about carrying out high level substitutions.
This facility also enables us to open large Parts, Chapters and Schedules in order to correct C-note annotations where it is unnecessary to access the child provisions.
Auto repeal and batch repeal functions
You can carry out some update tasks directly from the High Level Update Details Page, such as auto repealing a high level provision (or whole item of legislation), or batch repealing a range of provisions. When the auto repeal option is available, you will see an Auto repeal button next to the relevant provision (this button is always available for the whole item of legislation, but you should only use it if you need to repeal the whole item of legislation). There will be a batch repeal tab next to the High Level tab when the batch repeal function is available.
For more detail about how to use these functions, see Higher Level Repeals - Auto repeal function and Higher Level Repeals - Batch Repeal function.
The Update Details Page - Auto Annotations
The Update Details page lists all of the auto annotations that have been automatically applied by the Editorial System for non-textual amendments (including coming into force effects) when the PiT you are working on was generated. 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 it may be classed as a limited extent amendment.
- Link to the affecting provision so that you can check the details of the amendment.
- If any additional information was recorded with the effects that you need to consider during update, this will be flagged here. If you click on the red exclamation mark, you will see a note with further information about what this means. You will also need to look more closely at the information recorded in TOES to work out the implications for your amendment.
- You can expand the amendment tasks by using the small purple arrow which appears to the left of the type of effect under affecting legislation. This will give you relevant details originally recorded in TOES, 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. You can also see the details for any commencement orders that might have brought the effect into force.
- There is a preview panel at the bottom of the page where you will be able to see the newly updated version in the preview pane too, labelled as the Newly Edited version.
- There is also a Preview Provision button, so that you can preview the legislation as it will appear on the website within the context of the whole item of legislation, and will also enable you to check the timeline at provision and higher levels.
- You can view the Update Editor Checklist by clicking on the Checklist towards the top right hand side of this page.
Applying “coming into force” effects
Note that you can view the Update Editor Checklist by clicking on the Checklist towards the top right hand side of this page.
- For provision-level amendments, if you started your update task by selecting the Details button next to the provision details on the Update Overview page, once you have carried out your amendment you will be able to navigate straight to the next amendment using the Next Amendment button on the Update Details page. If you used the green Start Update button (or Continue Update button after the first amendment has been made), you will come back to the Update Overview page after each amendment.
- Once you have completed all the amendments on the Update Details page, select the green Return to Task Overview button to make sure that all the updates have been carried out for the Point in Time you are working on.
- You should find that the bar chart diagram has turned green indicating that either part or all of the amendments within the provision at that Point in Time have been completed.
- Once you have completed all the amendments for the Point in Time you are working on, you can either select the green Next Step button to move onto the next Point in Time or Complete Update to submit your work for review.
Setting up your XMetaL workspace
- Once you have selected the green Check out for edit button from the Update Details page, select Save file in the pop-up. When the document has been downloaded open it by either:
- double clicking on it in the Downloads box, or
- right clicking on the file in the Downloads box and selecting 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.
- Once XMetaL has opened, you will see the provision that is to be amended (referred to as the amended provision) in the upper pane of the screen (full view). The screenshot below shows the view in XMetaL when the amended provision has just opened, by default the legislation will be shown in ‘tags on view’ and the Tasks in Resource Manager will be collapsed.
- In the lower pane, the Resource Manager window shows the amending tasks you need to carry out. To expand the list, click on the small cross to the left of the word 'Task'.
- To open your amending provision (the provision which makes the amendment), double click on the expanded task in Resource Manager and enter your credentials in the pop-up. The provision will open in a new pane, you can work with the amended and amending provisions each in full view or alternatively you can view both panes simultaneously by tiling the windows (simultaneous view). The screenshot below shows both amended and amending provisions opened in full view in XMetaL, you can navigate between them by selecting the appropriate tab above the Resource Manager window.
- Firstly, using the tabs above the Resource Manager window, select the task-update tab to put your cursor in the amended provision pane,
- Secondly, select Window - Tile Horizontally from the menu bar at the top of the page. The amended provision pane will be the top pane and the amending provision will be the bottom pane. You can move these windows by clicking on the bar at the top of each window and dragging to a new position; for example, if you prefer to have the amending provision at the top and the amended provision at the bottom.
- You are now ready to carry out your amendment. For further guidance on carrying out amendments, see Textual Amendments and Non-textual Amendments
It can be useful to view both the amending and amended panes simultaneously. To change the view:
Tips:
- If the Resource Manager window does not open automatically it can be opened by selecting View - Resource Manager on the toolbar at the top of the page. The Resource Manager window can be moved around the page to a position that suits you for editing.
- In some cases double clicking on the task will fail to open the amending document. In such cases it is possible to manually open the amending document.
Related Pages
Approach, errors and troubleshooting: