Swapping parties in a text

What this does

Task menu ▸ Switch Party

Takes a text written from one party's point of view and rewrites it from the other's. Meant for contracts and pleadings: "the contractor undertakes" becomes "we undertake" – with everything that follows linguistically.

How to do it

1. Select the text.
2. Invoke Switch Party.
3. Enter the two names, separated by a comma: first the existing one, then the new one. The add-in offers the example: Elvis Presley, Taylor Swift.

Without a comma and two names you get: "Please enter two names separated by a comma."

The markup question

Depending on your settings, a note appears first saying no markup will be applied, asking whether you want to continue that way or with markup.

Take the markup here. Switching parties reaches deep into the text, and you want to see everywhere it touched. Without markup you have to compare the whole passage against the original.

What you have to check

This is not a search-and-replace. The model also turns the perspective around, and that is where things typically go wrong:

• Rights and obligations have to move with it. Check for each clause that the obligation now sits on the right side.
• Deadlines and conditions often belong to one side only. They must not simply be mirrored.
• References to sections and annexes have to stay unchanged.
• Third parties in the text must not be renamed along with the rest.

In legally binding text the result is a draft for somebody to review professionally – not a finished contract.

When nothing happens

• No text selected.
• The name input was cancelled or contained no comma.