Abstract: A structured text system for generating a finished project plans and specifications for constructing a building, the system including a master specification and standardized information embedded in other documents. The system uses keynote references that are inserted into other documents, such as drawings produced by a CAD system, to construct a partial project knowledge base, which knowledge base is then used to guide the editing of a master specification to yield an initial project plans and specifications. The keynote references are found in a catalog of standardized notes and are arranged to be searched by their attributes, using an interactive index utility. The keynote references are included on the CAD drawings, or like computer readable documents, from which they may be extracted for later use in constructing or updating a project knowledge base.