Assemble documents

What does the lock symbol mean?

The lock symbol can be seen in a document that is part of a binder.

As long as the document is locked, it means (among others) that:

certain actions cannot be taken, such as changing the order of clauses, inserting new ones or removing clauses from the document; and
any updates made to the ‘original’ document (i.e. the document outside of the binder) will also be automatically made to the document in the binder, making sure any updates to the template are reflected in the binder template as well.

Unlocking a document (by clicking the lock symbol) then has (among others) the following effects:

clauses can be (re)moved and inserted freely; and
importantly, the link between the original document and the document in the binder disappears, meaning that any changes made to the original document will not be reflected in the document in the binder.

In view of the fact that unlocking a document breaks this link between the document in the binder and the original document, careful consideration must be given prior to unlocking a document in a binder!

For more information, please consult the manual article on locked documents.

Clause hierarchies also have a lock symbol once they are inserted in a document. Check out this article on clause hierarchies for more information.

Can I make a library clause conditional without affecting other documents?

Yes, you can.

However, making a change to a library clause applies that change to all uses of the clause. Not only all future uses, but also all uses of the clause in existing documents as well. That is why it can be dangerous to change a library clause. There is, however, a way to work around this to make your entire clause conditional for your specific document.

Insert the clause into your document.
Select it and click the pencil icon, then click “convert to independent ad hoc clause”.
Add the condition you want to the “enabled?” property of the ad hoc clause.
Hit save.

After going through these steps, your clause should have become conditional (using the condition in the ad hoc clause).

You can do this for a clause, subclause or even clauses used in an enumeration/bullet list.

What is the difference between reload contents and recalculate contents?

Reload contents (available in the visibility and actions menu in Assemble Document mode) re-fetches the entire document, and all its clauses, from the server, and then recalculates the entire document. This is roughly similar to closing the document and re-opening it again. This should only be used on rare occasions, e.g. when you know that a colleague has changed a clause in his/her own browser, and you want to fetch those changes.
Recalculate contents (Ctrl-Shift-E, available in the document toolbar in Assemble Document mode) does not load any contents from the server, and merely recalculates the already-available content. This may sometimes become necessary when some updates are not immediately reflected, although generally this is not needed. Please contact us when you notice that you repeatedly need to press this button in order to reflect certain changes, because using this option should be fairly exceptional.