Opening a document in the Editor
Introduction
To open a document in the Editor, you will need to be on the Project Tab.
When you open a document it will open in a new tab or window. The Project Tab will still remain open in the first tab.
Working versions are opened in read/write mode; if you open a snapshot version or a significant version, it will open read-only.
How to open a document in the Editor
On the project tab, click on the Open icon on the version you want to open. The icon depends on whether you can edit the document or just view it. See below.
The system will load the Editor and display the selected document version in read only or editable format depending on the document-level permissions:
![]() | Open the document with read/write access for editing |
![]() | Open the document read-only |
As well as opening the whole document, you can edit smaller portions of the document - see Opening and editing a portion of document.
If you’re editing a large document and finding performance is slow, opening only a portion of the document may be significantly faster.
Opening multiple documents
You can have multiple documents open simultaneously, each in their own tab.
If you open the same editable Working version twice, the second tab will be read-only, with the message pictured below at the top of the page.

If you have since closed the document in the other tab, click the link in the message to refresh the page and allow editing.
A Bill or SI/SSI being drafted in Lawmaker is presented in a similar format to the printed document, but without any page-related furniture (e.g. page numbers, running headers) or print layout (page width and page breaks)