1. A computer based system for contract authoring, the system comprising: a processor unit; a computer readable medium storing instructions executable by the processor unit to perform the steps of: receiving an external contract document in electronic form, the external contract document comprising a plurality of text portions relating to a plurality of contract component types, respectively, wherein any contract component type being a contract title, a section, a clause title, or a clause text; accessing a knowledge base describing a plurality of text patterns which identify with the plurality of the contract component types, respectively; processing the external contract document utilizing the knowledge base to automatically identify the plurality of the contract component types for the plurality of the text portions in the contract document, respectively; displaying the external contract document on a computer screen; and displaying indication of the plurality of the contract component types that are identified in the processing step as being associated with the plurality of the text portions in the contract document, respectively.