A method (and structure) for editing elements of a first document based on elements of a second document, wherein the elements of the first have a template structure with each template including at least one match condition, the match condition being an expression in the template that describes a subset of nodes that are matched in a tree structure, and wherein the elements of the second document have a tree structure to which this matching is applicable, including comparing a first user-selected fragment of an element from the second document with a second user-selected fragment of an element from the second document to determine if a match condition exists that describes the relation between templates in the first document for which the match condition matches the two user-selected fragments of the second document and permitting at least one of a plurality of predefined editing operations on the first document if such a match condition exists.