Linked Text in Legal Documents

Question

I'm working on a lease that has 24 variations, or 24 variations. For simplicity sake let's just say that sections 1-12 are all the same, but #13 is unique to each version, 14-18 are all the same but #19 is also unique to the version. If the text is just basic flowing from column to column page to page etc. is there a way to abstract chunks of that text that will flow into a single/mutliple linked text boxes?

As you can imagine propegating very simple changes is very time consuming and mind numming work that just screams there is a better way.

Bonus points if this can also seamlessly address numbering etc.

I'm also open to using InCopy if that provides an elegant solution.

Dave Creamer of IDEAS · Answer

This is an interesting problem. I can think of a couple of possibilities but they all follow a similar theme. All are using a primary text frame.

Create your sections separately in Word using styles, import and match up styles to ID's styles. Edit the unique sections as needed.
Create your sections in ID in separate frames, set text frame options to auto-adjust the height. Select the frame and export as an ID Snippet. Place the snippets into the primary frame. Edit as needed.
Export the sections from ID as InCopy files. Place into primary text frame. Unlink to edit the unique ones.
A more complex option would be to input the sections into a database (MS Office for Windows includes Access). Create a filter for the desired sections and export as Word. Place in ID.

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded