Word Note (No. 20)
Preparation of Bills
(except parliamentary amendments)
Document Release 13.1
Issued 25 January 2013
Updated July 2014

Contents
Table A—Preparing Bill or insert to send to Editorial staff	2
Table B—Preparing Bill for LAP copies	3
Table C—Preparing Bill for sending to CanPrint	5
Sending finalised Bills to CanPrint and Parliament House	7
Sending Bills to the Table Offices by email	7
Sending Bills to the Table Office and CanPrint on USB disk	8

Introduction
1	This Word Note sets out the steps to be followed when:
•	preparing Bills (but not parliamentary amendments) to send to Editorial staff; or
•	preparing Bills for LAP copies; or
•	preparing Bills to send to CanPrint.
2	Word Note 21 deals with preparing parliamentary amendments. Word Note 27 provides more information on dealing with Bills and parliamentary amendments and Word Note 47 provides more information on dealing with instruments.
3	If you have any questions, please see one of the IT staff.

Table A—Preparing Bill or insert to send to Editorial staff

#	Step	Comments	
A1	Spell check	•	Click on the OPC Spell Checker button  on the quick access toolbar.	
A2	Header macro	•	Click on Fix Doc button and choose Header.
•	Check for errors in header, fix as per Word Note 4.	
A3	Check Format macro	•	Click on Checking button and choose Check Format.
•	Print out results sheet and mark to indicate that all matters raised have been considered.
•	Close the results sheet document without saving.	
A4	Checker macro with drafting checklist	•	Click on Checking button and choose Checker, then tick Drafting Checklist.
•	Print out results sheet and mark to indicate that all matters raised have been considered.
•	Close the results sheet document without saving.	
A5	Checker macro with editorial checklist	•	Click on Checking button and choose Checker, then tick Editorial Checklist.
•	Print out results sheet and mark to indicate that all matters raised have been considered.
•	Close the results sheet document without saving.	
A6	Send to Editorial macro

[Word Note 14 deals with Send to Editorial macro]

[Check Word Note 46 if you have just put the legislation together or added Schedules or other slabs of text]	•	Click on down arrow at bottom of Versions button and choose Send To Editorial.
•	Updates ToC (Table of Contents).
•	Saves the main document.
•	Prints the main document double‑sided.
•	Prepares a version of the document. 
•	If the version is not the first being sent to editorial, compares with last version checked by editorial or another version of your choice.
•	Style‑marks the version or comparison document.
•	Prints style marked document.
•	Prepares and prints editorial check sheet.
•	Closes the document, version, comparison and editorial check sheet.	
A7	Collect both copies of the legislation or insert with coversheet and results from steps A3 to A5 from the printer and place them in the editor’s in‑tray.	The names of all drafters who have worked on the legislation or insert must be included on the coversheet. Legislation or inserts that do not have at least 2 drafters, including a senior drafter for a Bill or Bill insert, listed will not be accepted.
Note that the Editorial staff do not check to see if necessary consultation has been done on legislation or an insert.	

Table B—Preparing Bill for LAP copies
Note: You will normally do only one (if any) of steps B1a, B1b and B1c.

#	Step	Comments	
B1a	(R)New Act macro	•	Click on Renum button and choose (R)NewLegislation.
•	Renumbers new legislation section numbers and cross‑references.
•	Need one ^ before each section and cross‑reference number.
•	Can start the macro anywhere within a Bill. Carets remain.
•	Check for “??” after the macro has run. This shows cross‑references that were not renumbered.	
B1b	(R)Using List macro	•	Click on Renum button and choose (R)UsingList.
•	Renumbers inserted section numbers and cross‑references using a list provided (there is also a macro to assist in the creation of the list—(R)MakeList).
•	Need one @ before each section and cross‑reference number.
•	Can start the macro anywhere within a Bill. @s remain.
•	Check for “??” after the macro has run. This shows cross‑references that were not renumbered.	
B1c	(R)AmSch macro	•	Put cursor in Schedule heading before running macro.
•	Click on Renum button and choose (R)AmSch.
•	Renumbers item numbers. Doesn’t renumber cross‑references.
•	If an error in the number of spaces in item headings is reported, run the Check Format macro and ensure box No. 6 of the “Items to be checked list” is ticked to find and correct the error.	
B2	Delete drafter’s notes	•	Find “note(draft),nd” style and replace with nothing (Press Ctrl+H, click More and Format, choose Style and select “note(draft),nd” style with cursor in “Find what” field and “Replace with” field left blank).	
B3	Spell check	•	Click on the OPC Spell Checker button  on the quick access toolbar.	
B4	Header macro	•	Click on Fix Doc button and choose Header.
•	Check for errors in header, fix as per Word Note 4.	
B5	Check Format macro	•	Click on Checking button and choose Check Format.
•	Check that all matters raised by the macro have been considered and dealt with if necessary.	
B6	Checker macro with drafting checklist	•	Click on Checking button and choose Checker, then tick Drafting Checklist.
•	Check that all matters raised by the macro have been considered and dealt with if necessary.	
B7	Checker macro with editorial checklist	•	Click on Checking button and choose Checker, then tick Editorial Checklist.
•	Check that all matters raised by the macro have been considered and dealt with if necessary.	
B8	ToC macro	•	Click TOC button in OPC Tools group.	
B9	Alt + S and then make a new version of the Bill. Print the version double‑sided.	•	When making a new version of the Bill, choose the To send to LAP option in the OPC Version Maker dialog box.
•	The A4 button to print Bills with A4 margins should not be used for printing the LAP version.	
B10	Close the version and give the version with LAP memo to Legislation staff		
NB	Don’t delete the “in Confidence” and drafter’s blocks.
If your Bill has markers in it (^,@,# etc.), leave these in until preparing the Bill to send to CanPrint and include the following note in the LAP Memo:
“Numbering of the Bill will be finalised, and renumbering markers removed, before the Bill is introduced.”.

Table C—Preparing Bill for sending to CanPrint
Note: If there is not a Dymo label printer attached to your computer, consider logging in on a computer that does have a Dymo label printer attached, so it can print the label for the tag for the USB disk.
#	Step	Comments	
C1	Obtain Editorial clearance	See Word Note (No. 27) Office procedures for the handling of Bills and related matters.
The Bill is cleared by being signed and dated at the bottom of the editorial coversheet by editorial staff	
C2-C3	Repeat steps B1 and B2 (from preparing LAP copies) as necessary		
C4	Super Spell Check	Run the Super Spell Check macro by clicking on the down arrow next to the OPC Spell Checker button  on the quick access toolbar, and choosing Super Spell Check	
C5-C8	Repeat steps B4-B7 (from preparing LAP copies) as necessary		
C9	Fix House of Introduction	On the cover page, delete “HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES/” or “/THE SENATE” as appropriate	
C10	Delete special markers	Delete all ^, @, # and ~ symbols. For each symbol, find and replace it with nothing (press Ctrl+H, type symbol (^^ to find ^) in “Find what” field and ensure “Replace with” field is left blank).	
C11	Check for square brackets	Search for [ and ]. For each symbol separately, press Ctrl+F and type symbol in “Find what” field.
If any square brackets are found, a drafter needs to decide whether they should be kept or deleted, and whether any text in square brackets should be kept or deleted.
If it is decided to delete square brackets and/or text in square brackets, that should be done before taking the next step.	
C12	Check section breaks at end of document	Search for “Do not delete this section break” and delete the text but DO NOT delete the actual section break that says “Section Break (Next Page)” just before the deleted text. This break should be the last thing in the Bill.	
C13	Alt + S the Bill.
Run the Finaliser macro	To run the Finaliser macro, click on the Finalising button and choose Finaliser.
Follow the on‑screen prompts.
This macro does all the steps up to and including copying the Bill to a USB disk (2 USB disks for Protected Bills), printing the PS file of the Bill and the pre‑print checklist to the printer you have selected, converting the PS file into PDF, as well as removing the security markings from the header and footer.
Fix the Bill if the Finaliser macro produces any error messages (see the Finaliser error messages table below).
Stick the label printed by the Dymo label printer on the tag for the USB disk.	
C14	Check print	Check print carefully as Supply prints will be made from this. If you find any errors, correct them and repeat step C13.
Show the print to the drafter to make sure that he or she is happy with it and (if happy) signs the editorial coversheet to clear the Bill for printing.	
C15	Give to Bills Officer:
·	the USB disk
·	the print of Bill generated in Step C13
·	the pre‑print checklist generated in Step C13
·	the editorial coversheet signed by editorial staff and the drafter to clear the Bill for printing	The USB disk should have the file name, Bill name and date and time clearly marked on its label.
If there are any formulas in the Bill, 2 copies of a page will print showing the location of these. Retain one copy and give the other to the Bills Officer	
C16	Protected Bills Only
In step C15, give to the Bills Officer:
·	2 USB disks	The 2 USB disks should have the file name, Bill name and date and time clearly marked on their labels.	

Finaliser error messages	
C13	Error	How to locate the error and fix it	
1	Commencement Date column should be blank	Remove any dates from the column 3 of the commencement table.	
2	House not specified on first page	See C9.	
3	Portfolio not specified on first page	There is no portfolio specified on the cover page.	
4	Tildes found	Remove tildes (~) by using the Find dialog box (Ctrl+F) and typing a “~” in “Find what”.	
5	Highlighted text found	Find highlighting by pressing Ctrl+F, clicking More and Format, and choosing Highlight (leaving “Find what” blank). Remove highlighting.	
6	Hidden text found	Find hidden text by pressing Ctrl+F, clicking More and Format, choosing Font and clicking on Hidden (leaving “Find what” blank). Remove hidden text.	
7	Section break warnings found	Remove by searching for “Do not delete this section break” and delete the text but not the section break itself.	
8	Drafting notes found	Find “note(draft),nd” style and replace with nothing (Press Ctrl+H, click More and Format, choose Style and select “note(draft),nd” style with cursor in “Find what” field and “Replace with” field left blank).	
9	Revision marks found	Choose the Review tab on the Word Ribbon, click the down arrow on the Accept button (in the Changes group) and choose Accept All Changes in Document.	
Sending finalised Bills to CanPrint and Parliament House
4	We have a macro called Send Finalised Bills and Amendments to help validate that the version of the Bill being sent to CanPrint and to the Table Office in Parliament House is the latest finalised version.
5	This macro will usually be run by the Legislation staff. However, if drafters are sending Bills after hours, they will need to run the macro. The reason for having the macro is that Parliament House have advised us that they are no longer doing a line read on Bills that are not amended. Consequently, it is very important that the Word version that we send them matches the PDF version that we send to CanPrint.
6	To start the macro, select the OPC Macros Menu, Finalising and Send Finalised Bill/Amendments, or use the OPC Legislation Menu, Send Finalised Bill/Amendments.
7	The macro displays the following dialog box from which you select the destination (either the Table Office or CanPrint) and delivery method (email or USB disk), of the document you are sending.

Sending Bills to the Table Offices by email
8	A Bill can be sent by email (whether or not it has dissemination limitation markers such as Sensitive: Legal), unless the Bill has a security classification Protected. The Send Finalised Bills/Amendments macro will display the following dialog box that lists all the Bills and amendments that have been finalised and have not been sent to Parliament.

9	The macro checks each Bill to see if the date and time the Bill was last finalised is the same as the date in IBIS. If the Bill has a different date from IBIS then the file listed will be red and you will get an error message telling you that there is a problem with that particular Bill and that it will need to be re‑finalised.
10	The rest of the documents in the list can still be processed by checking the checkbox of each Bill you want to send and clicking the OK button.
11	Each document will then be processed individually. A summary screen with the Bill’s details will be opened. You can then click the OK button to confirm that this Bill is being sent or Cancel if you don’t want to send it. When you click OK, an email will be created with the Bill attached in Microsoft Word and PDF formats and addressed to the Table Office. You must click the Send button to send the email. IBIS will be updated to record that the Bill has been sent.
Sending Bills to the Table Office and CanPrint on USB disk
12	If a Bill has a security classification of Protected, it cannot be sent by email, and must be sent by USB disk. If you are sending a Bill to either the Table Office or CanPrint on a USB disk, the macro displays the following dialog box from which you select the destination (either the Table Office or CanPrint). If you select the Table Office or CanPrint, the macro will list all files on the disk.

13	If the date the Bill was last finalised is the same as the date in IBIS then the OK button will be enabled. However, if the Bill on the disk has a different date from IBIS then the file listed will be red and you will get an error message telling you that there is a problem.
14	By clicking on the OK button, a summary screen with the Bill details will be opened.
15	From the Summary screen you can click the OK button to confirm that this Bill is being sent. When you do this, a summary sheet will be created to accompany the Bill with details about what is contained on the disk. IBIS will be updated to record that the Bill has been sent.

Andrew Newbery
IT Director

Document History	
Release number	Release date	Document number	
1.0	20 April 2006	s05pu374.v01.doc	
2.0	22 February 2006	s05pu374.v02.doc	
3.0	19 April 2006	s05pu374.v04.doc	
4.0	24 April 2006	s05pu374.v05.doc	
5.0	02 June 2006	s05pu374.v06.doc	
6.0	04 July 2006	s05pu374.v07.doc	
7.0	26 July 2006	s05pu374.v08.doc	
8.0	02 August 2006	s05pu374.v09.doc	
9.0	21 August 2006	s05pu374.v11.doc	
10.0	06 December 2006	s05pu374.v12.doc	
11.0	09 February 2007	s05pu374.v14.doc	
12.0	08 March 2007	s05pu374.v15.doc	
12.1	17 November 2008	s05pu374.v17.doc	
12.2	14 January 2009	s05pu374.v19.doc	
12.3	26 August 2010	s05pu374.v26.docx	
13.0	25 January 2013	s05pu374.v29.docx	
13.1	23 July 2014	s05pu374.v32.docx