NOTE: These instructions assume you have already established your Preference List Account, that you are familiar with the logon process, and that you have started (named) at least one Preference List. If you have not yet done so, creating a Preference List Account is described here. Logging on to your account is described here. Creating a Preference List within your Account is described here.
Also note that depending on your browser and display settings, some of the items referred to in this document as "to the right of" may actually wrap and be on a second row as you view the frame.
If you haven't already done so, logon to your Preference List Account. To the right of each Preference List name click on the link labeled "Adv. Maint." and take a look at the Advanced Maintenance page. The Advanced Maintenance page may appear overwhelming when first viewed. Don't worry, we'll break it down and explain its parts, and hopefully you will see how the parts work together to help you maintain your preference list(s) with power and ease. You may want to print these instructions so you can have a reference handy while you learn to use Advanced Maintenance.
The Advanced Maintenance page is comprised of four browser frames. 1) The "Header" frame. 2) The "List" frame. 3) The "Search" frame. 4) The "Selection List" frame. The four frames work together to help you add bills to, or remove bills from, a preference list.
The Header frame is at the top of the Advanced Maintenance page and is displayed across the full width of the page. It is separated from the other frames with a horizontal gray bar. Note that you can "mouse over" to click-and-drag this bar to increase or decrease the size of the frame (or any other frame). The Header frame displays information about the current preference list, and can be used to add bills to the list if you know the bill number(s). There are several elements and functions in the Header frame; each is described below.
In the upper left corner is the list selection box. It displays the name of the current active list, ready to be maintained.
If you have more than one preference list, you can change from one list to another by using the drop-down box to select another list. When you make the selection, the List frame will change to reflect the information for the newly selected (active) list.
Immediately to the right of the selection box is the active list item count.
This tells you how many items (the total introduced bills and bill drafts) are in the active list. Although the box with the number of bills ("2" in the example above) appears updateable, it is not. The count is calculated whenever you open the list, add bills, or delete bills.
To the right of the item count is a "View" button.
This button displays a web page where you can view the active list, and the current status of each bill contained in the list, without frames.
To the right of the "View" button is a link to "Help".
The link takes you to the Advanced Preference List Maintenance Help page (the document you are reading right now).
Again moving to the right, there are single bill add boxes.
You can add a single introduced bill OR a single bill draft to the active list with these boxes by entering the bill type and number OR bill draft number, then clicking the "Add" button. This functions very much like the Add Single Bill process on the Update Preference List page. The process is described here.
To the right of the "Add" button is the "Return" button.
Selecting this will return you to the Preference List page.
At the middle of the Header frame is the "Update E-Mail Address" button. Displayed to the right of the "Update E-Mail Address" button is the e-mail addess you provided when you created your Preference Account.
Note that the "Update E-Mail Address" button and your e-mail address will only display when the current active list contains at least one bill or bill draft. Also, if you did not provide an e-mail address when your Preference Account was created, the Update Preference List page will display "No E-mail Address on Record" next to the Update E-mail Address button and "No E-mail Address" in the "Notify of Hearing" column. If you want to receive hearing notifications, you must use the "Update E-mail Address" button to add or change your e-mail address. You can not receive e-mail hearing notifications without an e-mail address.
At the bottom of the Header frame, below the "Update E-Mail Address" button is the "Log Off Pref Acct" button.
Clicking the button will log you off of your current Preference Account, and allow you to return to the main LAWS session page.
Other than on the Advanced Preference List Maintenance page, the "Log Off Pref Acct" function will appear as a link (rather than a button) in the header portion of all LAWS pages while the user is logged onto their preference list. More information on the "Log Off Pref Acct" link can be found here.
To the right of the "Log Off Pref Acct" button is a "toggle" that allows you to default your choice of receiving email notifications for scheduled bill hearings.
By setting this toggle to either Yes of No, any bills added to your preference list, from that point forward, will have the Notify of Hearing flag set to match the toggle. It will only affect bills added to your list after being set and will not change any current Notify of Hearing settings. Also, this toggle will not prevent you from manually resetting the Notify of Hearing flag from individual bills by using the toggle in the Notify of Hearing column itself. You will not see this option unless you have provided an email address.
The List frame is immediately below the Header frame, and is displayed across the full width of the page. The List frame consists of two sections. The upper section displays all introduced bills in the active list (if any). The lower section displays all unintroduced bill drafts in the active list (if any). Note that the bill numbers in the introduced section, and the bill draft numbers in the unintroduced section are hyperlinks. Clicking the link will display the detail status page of each bill.
If your list has more that a handful of bills, you will need to use the scroll bar on the right to see all of the bills on the list.
Both the introduced and unintroduced bill sections contain check boxes used to delete bills from the active list. You can delete one or more bills by checking the box(es) then selecting the "Delete" button.
There are up to four "Delete" buttons (one at the top and bottom of both the introduced and unintroduced sections). Clicking on any of these buttons will delete the checked bills in both the introduced and unintroduced sections.
To the right of the "Delete Checked" column are the "Change Hearing Nofitication" and "E-mail Hearing Notification" columns.
You can toggle the "E-mail Hearing Notification" status on and off for one of more bills by checking the box(es) in the "Change Hearing Notification" column then selecting the "Change" button.
There are up to four "Change" buttons (one at the top and bottom of both the introduced and unintroduced sections). Clicking on any of these buttons will change the "E-mail Hearing Notification" status in both the introduced and unintroduced sections for any bills checked in the "Change Hearing Notification" column.
Note that you must set the "E-mail Hearing Notification" status to "Yes" for any bills you want to receive E-mail notifications of scheduled hearings, hearing cancellations and/or changes.
Notifications will be sent only for scheduled hearings, hearing cancellations and/or changes for those items having future dates of NO MORE THAN 7 days from the current date. For example, if today is the 10th and a hearing action is entered for the 18th, notifications will not be sent for that hearing until the evening of the 11th -- seven days prior to the scheduled hearing. If today is the 10th and a hearing action is entered that day for the 14th, notifications will be sent that evening -- the first evening within seven days of the scheduled hearing.
Note that notifications are sent once per bill per event (i.e., scheduled hearing, hearing cancellation, hearing change). For example, if today is the 10th and a hearing action is entered for a hearing scheduled for the 15th, notifications will be sent that evening to those who have that bill on their on their Preference List(s) with e-mail notification turned on (set to 'Yes'). If you did not have e-mail notification turned on when the notification was sent, but later add e-mail notification (say on the 11th) you WILL NOT receive a notification for the already scheduled hearing because the notification was sent out on the evening of the 10th (the action was added prior to when you turned on notification). If after adding e-mail notification (on the 11th) the hearing is cancelled on the 12th, you WILL receive notification of the cancellation because you turned on notification prior to the action being added.
Now that you have seen how your list information and bills are displayed, you are ready to use the powerful features of the Advanced Preference List Maintenance screen to build your list(s). This is accomplished using the two bottom frames. The "Search" frame is located in the bottom left part of the page. The "Selection List" is in the bottom right. Note that prior to executing a search in the Search frame, the Selection List frame will be empty. The two frames are used together to help you build a list of bills you want to track. You do not have to know bill numbers, just find the bills you want and add them to your list!
The Search frame, at the bottom left corner of the screen, is used to find bills based on criteria you select.
Note: The "Search By:" field can not be edited. You must make your search selection by using the provided links discussed in Step 2 below.
Use the following three steps to find bills:
Step 1. Set the search to look for introduced bills, unintroduced bill drafts, or both. Use the two check boxes to make your selection. The default selection is both.
Step 2. Click on one of the search criteria links. Your choices are: Subject, Sponsor, Requester, By Request Of, or Return All Bills. All of these, except Return All Bills, will bring up a list of values where you make a selection by clicking on it. For example, clicking on the Subject link will bring up a subject list like this:
Note: Some popup blocking software may prevent the list of values from displaying when a search criteria link is selected. Most popup blocking software have options that will allow you to by-pass the blocking feature on an as-need basis. If you have this problem, see your popup blocking software documentation for instructions on how to do this.
Use the scroll bar to move down the list. Once you have located the subject of interest, click on the subject description link. This will close the list box and put the selected subject in the "Search By" box of the Search frame.
As noted above, clicking on the "All Bills" link will not display a list of values, but will put "All bills" in the Search By box. In this case, the search would return all bills and bill drafts (assuming both the Introduced and Draft check boxes are checked).
Step 3. Click on the "Search" button to populate the Selection List frame on the bottom right part of the web page. If any bills or drafts meet your search criteria, the Selection List frame, will display a listing of those bills.
Users should note that, although the "Search Box:" appears to be updateable, it is not. Search criteria must by selected using one of the provided links.
The Selection List frame, at the bottom right corner of the screen is empty until a search is executed in the Search frame as discussed above. After performing a search, the results will display in the Selection List frame. With the search results showing, you are ready to use the Selection List frame to build your preference list. This is where you will see the real power of the Advanced Preference List Maintenance!
The bottom right frame lists the bills found in your search, and gives you the opportunity to add them to your list. Just like the List frame in the middle of the page, the bill listing in this frame is display in two sections -- Introduced Bills on top; Unintroduced bills below. Of course if your search did not include one or the other, then you will not see both sections. Also like the List frame, every bill and bill draft listed is a link to the detail information page for that bill or bill draft.
There are two methods of adding bills to your list from either section. The two sections (the upper Introduced Bills section and the lower Unintroduced Bills section) operate independently, so you must add from both if you want to add both introduced bills and bill drafts.
Method 1. Use the "Add" column check boxes in the right-most column of the frame to mark the bills you want to add to the list. You may need to widen the frame or use the horizontal scroll bar to see the "Add" column.
Then, click on click on the "Add Checked Introduced Bills" button (to add checked introduced bills)
or click on the "Add Checked Unintroduced Bills" button (to add checked bill drafts).
Because the introduced and unintroduced section operate independently, you will have to pay attention to which section you are working in to ensure you select the correct button. Once you click on the button you will see the bill count in the Header frame increase to include the number of bills currently on the list.
Keep in mind that if you try to add a bill already on the active list it will not add it again. So, you may have selected four bills to add, but the bill count may not increase by four if one or more of the bills is already on the active list.
Method 2. Use the "Add All Introduced Bills" and/or "Add All Unintroduced Bills" buttons to add all bills from your search to your list. Note: these buttons are available only if you built the Selection List with a limited search (i.e., by Subject, Sponsor, Requester, or By Request Of). The "Return All Bills" search will not display the "Add All..." buttons (think about it).
You do NOT need to check bills (use the Add check box) to add bills with this method! These buttons are located at the bottom of their corresponding section of the frame.
Hopefully by now you are beginning to see the power of this Advanced Maintenance page. Here are a couple of scenarios that may give you some ideas.
Scenario One. You want to track all bills Sponsored by your Senator and Representative. First, create a list, "My Representatives". Then, come to this Advanced Maintenance page and make sure "My Representatives" is the active list. Using the Search frame (bottom left) check "Introduced Bills" then click on the "Sponsor" link to get the list of legislators. Select from the list; in this sample we selected representative Darrell Adams.
Now, click on the "Search" button to populate the bottom right, Selection List, frame with all of the bills where Darrell Adams is the Sponsor. Move over to that frame and click on the "Add All Introduced Bills" button. Now all of the bills that Representative Adams is sponsoring are on your list. Move back over to the Search frame, select a Senator, and repeat the add process. In about as much time as it has taken to read this you have your list built. You can come back later, as often as you like, and repeat the process to get any new bills added to your list; the process will not re-add bills already on the list.
Scenario Two. You are interested in Agriculture related bills. First, create a list, "Ag Bills". Then, come to this Advanced Maintenance page, use the Search frame (bottom left) check both "Introduced Bills" and "Drafts" (if you want to include drafts) then click on the "Subject" link to get the list of subjects. Select from the list; in this example we select the subject "Agriculture".
Now, click on the "Search" button to populate the bottom right, Selection List, frame with all of the bills where Agriculture is an assigned subject area. Now, since you only want some of the Agriculture related bills, move over to that frame and scroll through the lists putting a check mark in the Add column of the bills your are interested in. Often times the short title of the bill is descriptive enough to tell you what the bill is about. If you need more detail on the bill (you're not sure if you want it on the list or not) then click on the bill number link to go to the bill detail page. From the detail page use your browsers Back button to return. Once you've selected the bills for your list, click on the "Add Checked Introduced Bills" button. Now all of the bills that you selected are on your list. Repeat the add process for unintroduced bills if you want them on your list. You can come back later, as often as you like, and repeat the process to get any new bills added to your list; the process will not re-add bills already on the list.
Obviously there are many options for building your lists. Experiment a bit with the criteria in the Search frame, to gain a better understanding of the different options.
