View Single Post
  #4   Report Post  
Robert M. Franz
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Hello Keith

Keith wrote:
Thanks for the quick response, Robert.


You're welcome!


I've been just as perplexed as you with regard to this document...

It's a legal document (~900 pages) for a city and it lays out their
building codes, etc.


I should've guessed. OK, so we put away the idea of "understanding" and
try to "get it done". :-)


[stripped sample legal outline up to level 3 outline headings]
A. [BOLD] Vivamus sed elit at diam laoreet auctor

B. [BOLD Praesent ornare venenatis pede

C. [BOLD] Vivamus auctor feugiat magna

Aliquam diam risus, luctus non, eleifend ut, lobortis et, dui.
Donec vel urna ac dui ornare vulputate. Donec eros diam, malesuada
vitae, consequat vitae, molestie quis, orci. Nunc vel odio.

Sometimes, however, based upon the content or the author, I guess,
outline level 4 (the capitalized letters A, B and C, above) contain
"meaty" content and are entire sentences or paragraphs. Unfortunately,
there are too many of these to have someone go through and add short
headers or titles and make the sentences "bodies" instead. In
addition, we cannot convert these troublesome sections into numbered
lists.


I have next to no first-hand experience with legal documents, and the
small bit is surely in a jurisdiction totally different to where you
are. [I.e.: Devour what follows with an even bigger grain of salt then
all the rest I'm dishing up usually! :-)]

Converting those large headings into shorter ones with accompanying text
would be the most preferable solution IMHO. Especially since you mention
it *could* be done if only you had enough resources. I just wonder: Does
this document have a table of contents (TOC) [I would think so], and up
to what level? What do you expect to show up in the TOC from these
not-anymore-bold Heading 4 entries?

2cents
Robert
--
/"\ ASCII Ribbon Campaign | MS
\ / | MVP
X Against HTML | for
/ \ in e-mail & news | Word