# Shrinking clauses
## Introduction
When a part of a paragraph is wrapped in `@superfluous`, users of the clause can shrink down the clause with the *Shrink or expand text* button of the menu in the upper right corner, in order to hide that wrapped part.
Example:
```
Supplier will @superfluous(1, "acknowledge and") agree that timing is of the essence.
```
When **no shrinking** is applied, the existence of the special function will simply be ignored, and this clause will be shown in full:
*The Supplier will acknowledge and agree that timing is of the essence.*
However, when **full shrinking** is applied, the part within the special function will be dropped:
*The Supplier will agree that timing is of the essence.*
## Details
#### Shrinking opportunity indicators
In the actual document (left side) of Assemble Documents, it is possible to show green indicators, by enabling *“clause shrinking opportunities”* in the options button at the right side of the toolbar. By default, these indicators are not shown.
### Use cases
The typical use case of the clause shrinking feature is to hide text that can be assumed to add relatively little legal content to a paragraph. This may, for example, be the case with:
* sentences that are inserted *“for the avoidance of doubt”*
* synonyms of words that are mainly inserted because of legal tradition
* text for which all the words may be mandatory / recommended under a certain jurisdiction, but that would be considered extraneous in other jurisdictions (e.g., under many continental European law systems, *“acknowledge and agree”* instead of simply *“agree”*)
This way, you can create alternative versions of a single clause, without having to create separate “light”, “medium”, “strong” versions.
Similarly, while datafields can be used to achieve similar effects (and much more), they require more effort to insert.
### Nesting of square brackets
Clause9 currently allows up to four levels of nested superfluousness-text. Shrinking level 1 will discard any text within the `@superfluous` call, while shrinking level 2 will also show the text within the first call, and shrinking level 3 will also show the text within the second (i.e., inner) call. And so on.
{% hint style="info" %}
If you want to nest multiple square brackets, you must use [internal snippets](https://help.clause9.com/clauses/snippets).
{% endhint %}
By way of example:
This will result in the following possible paragraphs:
* **Shrinking level 1** — The Supplier will agree that timing is of the essence.
* **Shrinking level 2** — The Supplier will *acknowledge and* agree that timing is of the essence.
* **Shrinking level 3** — The Supplier will *explicitly* acknowledge and agree that timing is of the essence.
* **Shrinking level 4** — The Supplier will explicitly *and before the commencement date* acknowledge and agree that timing is of the essence.
* **Full text** — The Supplier will explicitly and*, if so requested by the Client,* before the commencement date acknowledge and agree that timing is of the essence.
### Inheriting the shrinking levels
The shrinking level applies to all clauses within a clause file. However, to allow a shrinking level to be applied to many clauses at once, the shrinking levels are *inherited* between clause files, except if a descendant would define its own shrinking level.
For example, assume that in the following example the five clauses (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and Epsilon) are all stored in separate files.
Assume that Alpha is set to shrinking level 1. Then both Beta and Gamma will *inherit* this shrinking level (because they are the *descendants* of Alpha), and will thus also show their text at shrinking level 1. Delta, on the other hand, is a *sibling* of Alpha, and will therefore not inherit the shrinking level of Alpha. The same applies to Epsilon.
Now assume that Beta is set to level 3. This will cause its descendant Gamma to also show its text at level 3, except if Gamma would define its own level. Note that changing the level of Beta or Gamma will never impact Alpha, Delta or Epsilon.
### Shrinking an entire document
If no clause is selected when changing the shrinking level, then the shrinking level of the entire document will be set. Note that the document acts as an *ancestor* of all clauses, so that — except if some clause (or one of its ascendants) would define its own shrinking level — all clauses will inherit the shrinking level of the Document. This allows you to quickly “compress” a document.
## Usage tips
Avoid superflousness-calls at the beginning of a sentence: if such part would get omitted, then the remaining part of the sentence would be shown without a capital.
Be aware that, if several sets of square brackets would be used in a single clause file, all of those sets will show and omit their text in lockstep.
menu in the upper right corner, in order to hide that wrapped part.
