Enables search and test for at least one value in layers of audience specific data comprising language, regional, regulatory and/or cultural specific values per layer. The word “audience” for the purposes of this specification means a group of document consumers such as people or computers that are associated with a language, country, region, regulation, culture or any other user defined division. A search utilizing at least one embodiment of the invention occurs with respect to data that makes use of rule-based inheritance. Testing multiple audience layers for all values that meet a specific fine or coarse grained search criteria allows quality assurance testing across all target audiences for a document before publication.