In time for 2009 legislation, all new Jones McClure Publishing code books are implementing a NEW strike-through, underline format, so you can easily and immediately see how the law has changed and how it will affect a lawyer’s case. Statutory language that has been added will be evident because it will be underlined, and statutory language that has been deleted will have a line striking through the text—just like our Texas bills do. But unlike our Texas bills, we have minimized any and all distractions by printing the strike-though, deleted text, and underline in a 60% shade of gray. Our testing revealed that this format is optimal because it allows you to easily identify all legislative changes when needed (no more hunting for old codes or pulling up bills), but it doesn’t slow you down if the changes aren’t substantive or simply don’t apply to your case—allowing you to be more efficient in your work.
Here is an example of page 45 from O’Connor’s Family Code Plus 2009. Click on the page to zoom in.
Notice how the deleted text is much lighter. While reading new legislation we found the strikethrough and underline could often overwhelm us as readers. By lightening the strikethrough text it makes it much easier to read the new underlined text. Also, a lighter underline is less distracting on the new text.
Here is an example of page 423 from O’Connor’s Family Code Plus 2009.
Again, notice how much easier it is to read.
In developing this format we had our printer run samples of different shades of lighter text. We also ran experiments displaying the text normally and a few other ideas we had come up with. 60% shade was by far our favorite. We hope you will like it as much as we do. Please don’t hesitate to let us know what you think.
Tags: legislation, O'Connor's, Texas
