Drafting Legislative Files (Word Text Editor)

Step 1: Create a new legislative file

Step 2: Drafting legislative file text using Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word Editor Limitations:

When you use Microsoft Word as your editor in Legistar, while most formatting will carry over to Legistar properly, note that it may not appear in Legistar exactly as you have entered it in Word. This applies to the following:

• Rich text format (RTF) code attributes such as bolding, font style and color, underlining, bulleted and numbered lists.
• Indentation (Best practice is to use preset tabs)
• The Track Changes feature, which you use to record edits

Additionally, the Word Editor has the following limitations:

• You should not insert tables, graphics or images into the text file.  Our best practice recommendation is that you include them as attachments.
• The Preview screen under the Text File tab is the least perfect replication of your formatting in the Word document. The Text File Report offers the closest replication of the Word document. When you are in the Files module, you can run this report by clicking Reports and selecting the report name from the Reports menu.
• RTF code cannot be larger than 100MB (this is not related to file size)
• You cannot use footnotes in the Word Editor

Step 3: Add attachments to the legislative file

You can add attachments of any file type and size to legislative files.

Warning! Attachment names should never include special characters (such as #, $, or ^). Remember the attachment name will be the hyper link that appears on the agenda. You may rename the attachment by entering the new name in the Name Field and selecting Update Attachment Details in the bottom of the screen.

1. Select the Attachments tab within the legislative files module.
2. To attach a file, click Attach from the bottom left-hand corner of the interface, locate the file for import, and click Open. The file is now attached to the legislative file. For more options, click the Attach dropdown arrow, and continue to the next step.  *(You can also select CTRL to select multiple files while viewing files in your window.)

Important Note: You can also drag and drop attachments from your desktop directly into Legistar. You must open your documents library outside of Legistar for this function to work. If there is a Granicus logo in the document screen you can only load one attachment at a time. If there is no logo, you may drag and drop multiple files. 

Select the files you want to attach, and drag and drop them onto the Attachments screen. The File Size field displays the uploading progress for each file.

  

3. If you select the Attach dropdown arrow, you can do the following:

• Attach File: locate the file for import, and click Open.
• Attach Hyperlink: enter a hyperlink in the field, and click OK.
• Scan: select a source from the Scan option, click OK, enter a Description and Expiration Date, then click Save.

Note: If you need to delete a file, select the file and click Remove.

4. To open an attachment, you may double click it, or highlight it and select Launch.

Step 4: (Optional) Add sponsors and related files to the legislative file

1. Click the Associations tab.
2. Click Edit next to Sponsors.
3. Select one or more sponsors from the Available Sponsors list.
4. Click the arrows to move and rearrange the sponsors in the Selected Sponsors list.
5. Click Save, then click Close. The selected sponsors appear in the Sponsors field.
6. Click Edit next to Related Files.
7. Select one or more legislative files from the Available Files list.
8. Click Save, then click Close. The selected files appear in the Related Files field. Related files will appear on your public-facing Insite page as hyperlinked File IDs under the hyperlinked attachments.

 

Note: You can also add code sections and indexes to the legislative file. Click Edit next to Code Sections to create new, import, and edit existing code sections. Click Edit next to Indexes to relate the file to a specific topic. You can also create new and import indexes.

Step 5: (Optional) Enter information in the Details, Info1, and Info 2 Tabs

The Details, Info 1, and Info 2 tabs contain customizable fields that may be named differently for your organization. Click each tab (if in use by your organization) and fill in these fields as needed. The following figure illustrates a Details tab example:

 

Step 6: Create an Approval Tracking Request

Note: Skip this step if you are not using ATS.

1. Open a legislative file and verify you are in Edit Record mode.
2. Click the Approval Tracking tab.
3. Click the Add Sequence drop-down button and select an approval sequence from the menu available. This sequence contains the list of approvers for this file. 
   
    
   
   If necessary, you can add an approver to the list:
   1. Click New on the bottom of the screen.
   2. A pop-up window will display. Click Append to add an additional approver.
   3. On the right side of the screen, select an Approver Name.
   4. Select the appropriate Action Type. If they are an approver, select Approver from the drop-down. If they are only receiving an FYI Notification, select FYI.
   5. Select the appropriate Email Template.
   6. Enter the number of Due Days.
   7. Click Save towards the upper left corner of the screen.
   8. If necessary, reorder the approvers using the up and down arrows.

Note: You can also select an existing approver and click Delete to remove them from the sequence if necessary.

4. Click Start. This does the following:
   1. Email Notification:  An email is sent to notify approvers of pending items with a hyperlink to the Approval Response Web form. The email has a standard message that your Legistar system administrator can modify.
   2. Approval Status Update: The file status changes to Approval Review.

Note:  After you start the approval tracking process, only the approval requester and assigned approvers can edit the file until the approval process is complete.

 

Note: If you want to edit a file or add additional people to the approval sequence after sending it for approval, click the Approval Tracking tab and click Pause to pause the approval process. This enables you to edit the file or modify the sequence.

Step 7: Search for legislative files

Note: You must be in Search Mode before you can locate a file; click the Clear button at the top of the screen at any time to return to Search Mode. This does not delete information, it simply removes all the information from the screen so you may search again.

1. Enter search criteria in any of the fields at the top of the screen (e.g., Type, Status, In Control).

2. Click Search. If there is more than one record found, click Yes to display all records.

3. Click a record in the list to open it.

EZ Text Search:

Enter keywords in the EZ Text Search field. Click the magnifying glass icon to open a text box for further defining your search. EZ Text Search only searches through legislative file text fields, and also the text and titles of attachments; drop-down and date fields are not searched. Also, EZ Text only pulls up exact phrases to your search text.
 

Date Range and Wild Card Searching:

Within the Search menu in any Legistar modules, you can use the following date range search tools alone or in conjunction with the date entry shortcuts:

Item	Description
>	Enter ”>” before a date or shortcut, i.e. “>1/1/2013” to find a date greater than or after the entered date or number.
<	Enter ”<” before a date or shortcut, i.e. “<1/1/2013” to find a date less than or before the entered date or number.
*	Enter an asterisk * at the end of the search term to only search for records that return results beginning with the search term. For example, enter 13-02*.
?	Enter in place of a character when you are searching for more than one spelling of a term, for example, “peter?n” will return Peterson and Petersen.
##/##/#### to ##/##/####	Enter ”##/##/#### to ##/##/#### ”, i.e. “01/01/2013 to 08/21/2013” to find a specific number of dates within the range.