1. A computer based system for contract authoring, comprising: a processor unit; a computer screen operably associated with the processor unit; a non-transitory computer readable medium operably associated with the processor unit, the computer readable medium storing instructions executable by the processor unit to perform the steps of: receiving an unprocessed external contract document in electronic form, the external contract document comprising a plurality of text portions relating to a plurality of contract component types, wherein any contract component type is one of a contract title, a section title, a clause title, and a clause text; accessing a heuristic system describing a plurality of text patterns which identify with the plurality of the contract component types; processing the external contract document utilizing the heuristic system to automatically identify and extract the plurality of the contract component types for the plurality of the text portions in the external contract document; wherein the heuristic system is selectively operable to automatically identify and extract at least one title from the external contract document; displaying the external contract document on the computer screen; and simultaneously displaying a separate indication of the plurality of the contract component types that have been identified and extracted in the processing step as being associated with the plurality of the text portions in the external contract document; wherein the indication includes a tree structure showing separate component types and their inter-relationships that have been identified and extracted in the processing step; wherein the tree structure comprises total number of each separate component type that has been identified and extracted in the processing step.