Signing, terms and clauses / Revision marker
A revision and version marker that is visible on every page
The document's revision letter or number, its date, and often a short change note, printed so that anyone holding a copy can tell whether it is current.
Why this block is harder than it looks
A revision marker is only useful if it is on the page a person is holding, which means every page, which means it belongs in the page margin rather than on the front. That is the easy half. The hard half is that it competes for the same margin space as the folio and the registration notice, and there are only so many margin boxes. The other trap is that a revision marker printed only on the cover is worse than none, because a document circulated as loose pages then carries no version information at all and people keep working from superseded sheets.
The decisions that make it work
Reasons rather than a description of the code. Each of these is a choice that has a wrong answer, and the wrong answer is usually the default.
- Put the revision in a page margin box so it appears on every page, and share the box with nothing else that matters.
- Combine it with the issue date. A revision letter alone cannot be compared with another copy without knowing which came first.
- Keep the change note on the cover or on a revision history page, not in the margin. The margin carries the identifier; the explanation belongs where there is room for it.
- Set it at the same size as the folio and in the same colour, so it reads as document furniture rather than as content.
- Do not put it in the same margin box as the page number. Two pieces of information in one box makes both harder to find, and these are the two things people look for most.
- Use a revision history table on documents that are reissued often, with one row per revision, so a reader can see whether the change affects them.
The fragment
Markup and the CSS it needs, and nothing else. It expects a document that already has a page rule and a base stylesheet, so paste it into one rather than opening it on its own.
<style>
@page {
size: A4;
margin: 24mm 20mm 26mm;
@bottom-left {
content: "Rev C, issued 14 March 2026"; /* on every page */
font-size: 7.5pt;
color: #666;
vertical-align: bottom;
}
@bottom-right {
content: counter(page) " of " counter(pages);
font-size: 7.5pt;
color: #666;
font-variant-numeric: tabular-nums;
vertical-align: bottom;
}
}
</style>
<table class="rev-history">
<thead><tr><th>Rev</th><th>Date</th><th>Change</th></tr></thead>
<tbody>
<tr><td>C</td><td>14 Mar 2026</td><td>Clause 4.2 amended, appendix B added.</td></tr>
<tr><td>B</td><td>02 Feb 2026</td><td>Delivery terms corrected.</td></tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<style>
.rev-history { width: 100%; border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 8.5pt; }
.rev-history th, .rev-history td { padding: 3pt 5pt; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; }
.rev-history thead th { border-bottom: 0.5pt solid currentColor; }
.rev-history tr { break-inside: avoid; }
</style>What breaks when it is built the obvious way
Printing the revision only on the cover page. Documents are photocopied, stapled, split and pinned to walls a page at a time, and a page with no revision on it is a page that will still be in use two revisions later.
How to prove it survived pagination
Render a five-page document, print pages three and four only, and see whether you can tell which revision they belong to. If not, the marker is in the wrong place. Then confirm it has not crowded the folio out of its own margin box.
Where it sits in a finished document
This page is one block. The document it belongs to has a page rule, a base stylesheet, a header and everything else around it, and repeating all of that here would make thirty pages that say the same thing. The statement of work template is a complete file with this block already in it, so take that and change the fragment rather than assembling one from parts. The property doing most of the work here is covered on its own page, with the support caveats that belong there rather than here.
Frequently asked
Will this fragment work on its own?
Not as a whole document. It has no page rule, no margins and no base type, because those belong to the document rather than to the block, and duplicating them in every fragment would mean thirty copies to keep in step. Paste it into a template that already has them.
Why does it look right in a browser and wrong in the PDF?
Because a browser window is one continuous surface and a document is a stack of fixed rectangles. Nothing in a scrolling view exercises a page boundary, so every break rule in the fragment is inert until the content is paginated. Render the real thing with enough content to cross two or three boundaries, then look.
Do I need a special option on the render request for this?
No. Everything on this page is CSS and markup, which is your side of the boundary. What the render has to give you is a real page size with real margins, and after that the layout is decided by the stylesheet.
Other parts of a document
The blocks that sit next to this one, and one from the next group along so you are not sealed inside a single kind of problem.
A governing law and jurisdiction clause that stays findable
The short clause naming the law that applies and the courts that will hear a dispute, usually near the end of an agreement.
A confidentiality marking on every page that cannot be missed
A classification such as confidential or commercial in confidence, printed on every page so a single sheet carries its own handling instruction.
A consent statement with a tick box that records a real choice
A statement the reader agrees to, with a box or a signature recording that they did, on a form completed by hand or pre-filled.
A part title page that starts on the right and carries no folio
A page carrying only a part number and title, used to separate the major sections of a long document.
Statement of work, as a complete file
The whole document with this block already in place, ready to copy and change.
@top-center and the margin boxes in paged output
The property carrying the weight here, with its real support status.
Every part of a document
The full list, grouped by the kind of problem the block poses.
Paste the fragment into the playground inside a page rule and see what it does at a real page size. That is the only way any of this gets confirmed.