WARNING: the documentation is still a work in progress so bear with us. Please send your comments and notes so that we can improve it further.

The AKOMA NTOSO schema documentation consists of a set of pages in which you will find the semantic meaning and the technical explanation for each one of the structures used in the AKOMA NTOSO schemas.

The semantical documentation is intended as an aid to the "drafter" who is in charge of marking up parliamentary, legislative and judiciary documents and translating them to the AKOMA NTOSO format. In the semantical documentation you find for each element:

• its purpose;
• use cases;
• correct examples;
• incorrect examples;
• a set of external/internal references that can be read in order to understand the best way to use an AKOMA NTOSO structure in the legal context.

The technical documentation is intended for the "tool maker" who is in charge of development of tools and applications used to process AKOMA NTOSO documents. In the technical documentation you will find, for each schema's structure:

• description of the XML pattern that the structure belongs to;
• description of the structure itself;
• the context of the structure;
• a collection of valid examples;
• a collection of invalid examples;
• a set of external/internal references.

The AKOMA NTOSO documentation can be browsed using three different perspectives. So, for instance, a jurist may find it more beneficial to read the documentation per document type, e.g. judgments, while, for the XML experts navigation based on the Elements Categories would probably be more suitable. So we have created different indexes to provide the readers of the documentation with a navigation that best fits their different expertise and information needs.The three indexes in which the documentation is presented are:

• Schema Definitions - In this index, the structures of the schema are grouped by the classes of the XSD schemas (attributes groups, elements groups, simple types, complex types, elements and attributes).
• Elements Categories - In this index, the structures of the schema are grouped by the XML pattern that each of them belongs to.
• Document Type - In this index the elements of the documentation are grouped by the six types of legal documents (acts, bills, open documents, reports, debate records, and judgments) currently supported by AKOMA NTOSO. In this index the schema structures are grouped by the the document types in which they can be used.

We have also developed the "Quick References" document that is supposed to provide a quick explanation of all AKOMA NTOSO elements. Currenlty the “Quick References” are available in alphabetical order but we are planning to have them also by “categories” and “document types”.

Please feel free to provide us with your inputs and suggestions which will be very much appreciated.