LegisWeb™
Bill Tracking Guide
Table of Contents
How
to Filter Your Search Results
How
to Track a non-California Bill
How
to Print a Report of Your Tracked Bills
How
to Set Tracking Labels on a Bill
How
to Create a Filtered Bill List
How
to Create a Custom Bill Report
How
to View how a Bill Will Change the Law..
How
to Download a Bill into a Word Processor
How
to Create a Link to a Bill
How
to View a Bill Table of Contents (TOC).
How
to Go Directly to a Bill Section
How
to Highlight Words in a Document
How
to View the Status of a bill
How
to Lookup Statutes Directly
How
to View how a Bill Will Affect a Code Section
How
to View All Proposed Changes to a Code.
How
to Put Your Calendar into Outlook
How
to Put Your Calendar into Google Calendar
How
to View the Roster of Legislators
How
to View the Roster of Committees
Create
Tracking Groups and Labels
Set
the Default Dashboard Web Feed.
Change
Member Permissions and Info
Share
a Tracking Group or Label
THE LEGISWEB DASHBOARD
When you login to LegisWeb, you will be taken to the
Dashboard home showing your Today page.
From here, you can reach all LegisWeb features. When you are viewing a bill, you can return
to the Dashboard by clicking on the 
icon.
The top of the Today page lists the number of bills you are tracking and provides a field to add a comma-separated list of bills to your tracking.
The gray section of the Today page lists the legislative
events for the bills you are tracking.
Clicking on the 
symbol will show you the details of the
hearing or recent events.
The Upcoming events section of the Today page shows the legislative deadlines and events for the next week.
The Agenda section of the Today page shows the floor and
committee meetings being held today. Clicking on the symbol will show you the bills on the daily
file or on the committee agenda.
The top of the Tracked Bills page has an array of commands that you can apply to the list.
Launches your desktop feed reader to subscribe
to this list of bills
Creates an HTML report of this list of bills
Creates a PDF report of this list of bills
Creates an Excel report of this list of bills
Puts a link to a web feed this list on the
clipboard
Tracks the bills that are typed into the field
Opens a pull-down set of commands to apply to
the list
Expand – Open the details for the selected bills
Collapse – Close the details for the selected bills
Untrack – Take the selected bill off of your tracked bills list
Show Label Editor – Open the Label Editor
Brings up the Filter Editor to narrow down the
list of bills
Opens a pull-down list of built-in and saved
filters to apply
Sorts the list by Bill Number
Sorts the list by the date of the last History
Update
Sorts the list by Author
Check this box to make the command affect this bill
/
Open or close the details of a tracked bill
The Calendar page shows the legislative calendar and the hearings for your tracked bills.
/ 
Moves forward or backward by one month
Subscribes this calendar to Outlook or other
desktop calendar tool
Brings up the Filter Editor to narrow down
bills on the calendar. When the calendar
is filtered, subscribing to it will subscribe to the filtered version. This is useful, for instance, to create a
calendar for a particular staff member or particular client.
Opens a pull-down list of built-in and saved
filters to apply
Refreshes the display
Puts a link to this calendar on the clipboard
that can be used to subscribe to the calendar in web tools such as Google
calendar.
The Lists page contains reports, saved searches and web feeds that you have selected or created.
Launches your desktop feed reader to subscribe
to this list of lists
Puts a link to a web feed of this list of
lists on the clipboard
Opens a pull-down set of commands to apply to
the item
Delete – Removes the selected item
Share – Share the selected item with colleagues (team account only)
Refreshes the display
Opens a form to add a new feed to the list
Check this box to make the command affect this bill
Four different kinds of items can be on your Lists:
The complete list of your tracked bills
Filtered lists of your tracked bills
Saved searches
Web feeds, such as news feeds
For each item on list, you can get a number of different views or reports:
Clicking on the name of the item will show it in the left pane
Puts a link to this item on the clipboard
Creates an HTML report of this item
Creates a PDF report of this item
Creates an Excel report of this item
The Labels page allows you to define your own custom labels and groups of labels that you can then attach to your tracked bills. These labels are used for filtering and reporting.
Shows or creates labels individually or within
a group
Shows or creates groups that you can put
labels in
Opens a pull-down set of commands to apply to
the item
Delete – Remove the selected item
Share – Share the selected item with colleagues (team account only)
Refreshes the display
Opens a form to add a label or group
Selects the group to put the label into
Names the label or group
Assigns a number to the label or group, which
determines the order of items displayed
Adds the label or group
The Selection command applies to the checked
labels or groups
The Report Option sheet comes up when you select the or icon to print a report. It allows you to customize your report by
selecting which fields to include and what output format to create.
Selects PDF or Excel output
Selects the fields to include in the header of
the report
Selects the general legislative information to
include
Selects the standard tracking fields to
include
Selects which of your custom labels to include
Creates the specified report. If you want to modify the report, go back to
this page, change your options and click 
again
When you select a link to display a bill, LegisWeb presents
the bill text view. Changes in the bill
are shown in red for content that has
been removed and bright blue for
content that has been added.
Navigates to the previous or next document
Returns to the dashboard home
Creates an printable HTML view of the bill
Creates an email containing a link to the bill
Puts a link to this bill on the clipboard
Bookmarks the bill in Delicious.com
Creates a Blogger.com post containing a
link to the bill
Highlights a word in the bill
Tracks the bill and set your position on
the bill
Displays your tracking info for this bill in
the left pane
Displays the history of this bill in the left pane
Show the analyses available for the bill
Displays the official PDF version of the bill
from the State
Compares the bill to the law or other versions
of the bill
Downloads the bill into Microsoft Word,
OpenOffice or WordPerfect for editing
Adds a public comment to the bill
The dashed line area contains a “Word
Cloud” that shows the most common words in the document. The size and color conveys the relative frequency
of the word.
Using the search form in the upper left of the dashboard, type
a Bill ID or a keyword. Then, click on
the 
icon to start the search.
For example:
· Education (keyword)
· Educat* (wild card)
· College University (multiple key words, either word)
· “Building Standards” (exact phrase in quotes)
·
(all key words must be in the document)
If
you want to narrow your search results based on legislative data or tracking
status, click on the 
icon to bring up the Filter form.
In the Filter form, enter the criteria for bills to include in the results.
·
selects a event filter
·
selects the time frame to include. For hearings, this is the number of days in
the future.
·
and 
selects only tracked bills or only untracked
bills. Leaving neither selected will
list both in the results. If you select 
,
you will get a form for the tracking data:
·
In the 
area, you can select only bills introduced by
the selected author. Selecting 
or 
will open or close the individual tracking
field or author.
The search form allows you to search for current or prior session bills, statutes, the California codes, CalChannel Videos, and news sources.
The search results are sorted by relevance to the keywords. If no keywords were specified, the results are sorted by bill number. Once you have search results, click on the bill to open it.
You can also use the search to look-up bills directly by typing the bill number into the text box. For instance:
· Assembly Bill 11 (a Bill ID)
· AB11 (a Bill ID)
· ab11 (a Bill ID)
· AB11 Version 98 (a specific version of a bill)
· AB11 Section 2 (a specific bill section)
How to Save a Search
At the bottom of the search results, click on 
. The search criteria will be saved to the
“Lists” tab for future use. The saved
search is run with the most current results each time it is used.
There are three ways to start tracking a bill.
1) Use the Quick Add form on the Today page or the Tracked Bills page. Type the bill numbers, separated by commas, e.g. “AB10, AB20, SB30, SB40”. Then click on the Track button. For extraordinary session bills, type the session first. For example: “2009x3 AB14”.
2) In
search results, click on the 
button.
3) When viewing the bill text, check the Track as box. Optionally, you can set a position in the pull-down box.
You can track a bill from outside of California (e.g. Federal
legislation) or that does not exist yet (e.g. a bill that you would like to
propose). In the Quick Add form, enter a
name that begins with the # character (e.g. “#FedBill100”.) A tracking entry with this name will be created
at the end of your tracked bill list. To
associate some text with this entry, use the 
tab for this entry (see instruction
below). In this case, select “Doc Text”
in the link type pull-down before clicking Add.
The associated text can be an uploaded document or a URL.
When the bill is selected the associated URL or uploaded document will be displayed.
Reports
are available in 
HTML, 
PDF and 
Excel formats.
At the top left of 
,
click on one of the /
/ report icons. If you select the HTML report, a new tab or window
will open with the report. Print it using
your browser commands.
If
you select the PDF or Excel report, an option sheet will open. Select the fields that you want to include in
the report and click 
.
If you want to modify the report, go back to this page, change your options and
click again.
Print
a report for one tracked bill
Under
,
click on the icon to the right of the bill. A new window
will open with the report. Print it
using your browser commands.
Sort
your tracked bills
Under ,
click on a column heading (e.g. Last Update) to sort by
that field. Click on that heading again
to sort in the reverse order.
There are two ways to set the tracking info depending on where you are in the application.
1) To
set the tracking info while you are viewing a bill, click on 
at the top of the bill. In the Label Editor on the left, set any
desired tracking labels. You can also type in a Summary and Notes. Click 
to save the information.
2) To
set the tracking info from the list, check the 
box next to one or more bills and click 
,
then select 
.
The Label Editor will appear on the left.
In the Label Editor, set your tracking labels, then click 
.
See the instructions below to enter a summary, notes, related documents and events.
In the page, there is a details section for each
tracked bill. To access the details,
click 
under the bill that you are affecting.
Add
a summary to a bill
Click 
,
then enter your summary. For your
convenience, we provide the 
and the latest 
that you may wish to copy from. Optionally, you may also enter a Topic,
which will be displayed in place of the bill’s official subject in reports.
Log an event for a bill
Click 
,
then enter the event description. The
current date is provided. Edit the date
if you wish. If you have established any
Event Types, you may select one in the 
pull-down.
Click 
.
Add a related document to a bill
Click 
,
then click 
.
In the dialog box, use 
to find the file, then click 
. Edit the title of the document if you
wish. If you have established any Link
Types, you may select one in the 
pull-down. Click 
. If your document is already on the web, you
can instead type or paste the URL directly into the form.
Add notes to a bill
Click 
,
then enter your notes.
Check
bill alerts
Under ,
click on an alert icon 
,
to see the alert text.
Show
tracking details for multiple bills
Check the next to the bill(s) to be affected. Optionally, use the at the top to select or deselect all
bills. Click .
Then select 
to show the tracking details, or select 
to hide the tracking details.
Under ,
click 
. In the Filter Editor on the left, select
the labels or legislative data for the
bills to be included in the filtered list.
Click . The tracked bills list will now be filtered (e.g.
All bills with a 'Client A' label) until you clear the filter.
There are two steps to creating a custom bill list report. First select the bills to include in the report using the Filtered Bill List. Then select the data to report for each bill and the output format in the List Publishing.
1.
Save a
Filtered Bill List
Under ,
filter the tracked bill list to include the bills you want on the report. Near the bottom of the filter editor, enter
in a name for the saved filter and click 
. This saved filter will be put on the 'Lists'
page.
2.
Show/Publish
the Saved List
Under 
,
locate the line for the desired entry, for instance:
Then, click on one of the following to get the desired report format.
Puts a link to this item on the clipboard Creates an HTML report of this item Creates a PDF report of this item Creates an Excel report of this itemIf you select the PDF or Excel report, an option sheet will open. Select the fields that you want to include in
the report and click .
Open the bill. Scroll to the desired bill section. Click 
and pick 
from the pull-down.
LegisWeb compares the bill section text to the text of the current
law and shows you the difference in redlining. You can also use to show the difference between any two
versions of the bill.
You can compare all sections of the bill by clicking on 
at the top of the bill.
Open the bill. Click
on 
and select your editor from the pull-down. The
bill will be downloaded and put into an edit session. The stricken and inserted text will be
represented as tracked changes.
Open the bill. Click
on the icon to get the official State PDF file. If you want an enhanced view with changes
highlighted in red and blue, click on the icon. A
new window will open with the bill.
Print it.
Open the bill. Click above the bill and select the desired analysis
from the pull-down. A new window will open with the analysis.
Open the bill. Click the
icon above the bill. An email form will be created with a link to
the bill. Complete the form and click 
. Any recipient, even non-LegisWeb subscribers,
can click on the link to the bill.
Open the bill. Click 
at the top of the bill. A link to the bill will be placed on your
clipboard. The link can be pasted in a
web page or other document. Even
non-LegisWeb subscribers can click on the link to the bill.
Open the bill. The entire bill history is shown on the left,
with the most recent action first. If the
history is not showing on the left, click History at the top of the
bill. The History window can be maximized by
clicking on 
.
Open the bill and History. In the history,
scroll to a vote. Click 
next to the
vote result (e.g. PASSED). The votes
will be displayed below. If you hover
the mouse over a legislator’s name, their contact information will be
displayed. Click on 
to close the
votes.
Open the bill. In the History, scroll to the desired
version of the bill. Click next to the bill version (e.g. AMENDED). The TOC for the bill will be displayed
below. Each bill section identifies the action
and code section affected. The icon next
to the section indicates whether that section has been 
,
,
,
or 
since the previous version. Click on to close the TOC.
The History window can be maximized by clicking on .
Open the bill. Open a TOC. Click on any bill section. The right side window will scroll to that bill section in that version of the bill.
Display the document.
Type the word(s) that you want highlighted in the 
box then hit the enter key. All instances of the word(s) will be
highlighted in yellow. To turn highlighting
off, delete the text in the box.
See the 'Last Update' column in 'My Tracked Bills'. Also see the progress bar which indicates the readings completed in each house. If a bill is scheduled for a committee hearing, the hearing date is shown at the end of the progress bar. To get detailed status, open the bill and view the History on the left.
At the top left of the application, click 
,
click on 
. Enter the year, session, bill type and bill
number, then click on 
. Alternatively, you can type the bill number (e.g.
“AB100”) directly into the search form.
At the top left of the application, click ,
click on 
. Enter the year, session, chapter type (CHP
for laws, CHR for resolutions) and number, then click on .
Alternatively, you can type the chapter number (e.g. “CHP10”) directly into the
search form.
At the top left of the application, click ,
click on 
. Select the name of the code and click on . A table of contents of the code will be
displayed. Click on 
to open a specific heading of the code.
In the Code’s table of contents, click on the name of a
heading or section. It will be displayed
on the right. Or type in a section
number and click 
.
If a section is being affected by a current session bill, it will be listed
below the section text.
In the view of a code section, click on to compare the bill text with the current code
section text. The result will be shown
as redlined changes.
Display the code. Click on 'Table of Sections Affected (TOSA)'. TOSA lists all the changes proposed by the current session bills. Click on the section number to show the section.
The color coding on the left indicates the type of proposed change:
Added
Amended
Repealed
Amended and repealed
The bill no longer affects this section
Navigate to the 
page. Click on the icon. Accept
the dialog that asks if you want to subscribe to this calendar. A LegisWeb Calendar will be added to Outlook
and will be kept up to date automatically.
Navigate to the page. Click on the icon to copy the URL onto your clipboard. Go to your Google Calendar and click on “Add”
then “Add by URL”. In the form, Paste
the URL and click “Add Calendar”. A
LegisWeb Calendar will be added to Google and will be kept up to date
automatically.
Navigate to the 
page. The
Agenda section shows the floor and committee meetings being held today. Clicking
on the symbol will show you the bills on the daily
file or on the committee agenda. Click on the 
icon to
get a printable daily file and to see the list of all daily files available
(e.g. extraordinary session daily files).
Under 
on the dashboard (upper-left corner), click on
'Senators' or 'Assembly Members'. The
list will be displayed. Click on a name
to see the contact information and list of bill introduced by that
legislator. If you hover the mouse over a name, their contact information
will pop up.
Under on the dashboard, click on 'Senate Committees'
or 'Assembly Committees'. The list will
be displayed. Click on a committee name
to see the contact information, members, staff and list of bills currently
assigned to that committee.
LegisWeb comes with three built-in tracking groups: Position, Priority, and Status. You can add your own tracking groups and tracking labels. A tracking group is a set of labels, like a client list. A tracking label is an individual value, like a client name. A label may be part of a group (e.g. a client in a client list), or it may be a free label not associated with a group (e.g. whether a bill has a fiscal effect).
To the end-user the groups and labels look something like this:
Create a tracking group
Click 
,
select 
,
click 
,
then type in the name of your group (e.g. 'Clients'). If you want 3 label at a time to be selected
in this group (e.g. for a Position), then check 
. When you are done, click 
.
To replace an existing group, create a new one with the same name. The system will ask if you want to replace the existing group.
To delete a group, check the 
next to the group and click then pick “Delete”.
Sort tracking groups
To present groups in a specific order, assign a numeric value
in the 
box when you create it. Groups will be presented in ascending numeric
order, after the built-in groups.
Create a tracking label
Click ,
select 
.,
click .
If you want the label to be part of a group, pick the desired group in the 
pulldown list.
Then type in the name of your label (e.g. 'AT&T'). When you are done, click 
. The label will be added to the list below.
To delete a label, check the next to the label and click then pick “Delete”.
Sort tracking labels
To present groups in a specific order, assign a numeric value
in the 
box when you create it. Labels will be presented in descending
numeric order, after the built-in groups.
Click on 'My Account' in the top right of the
application. Edit the form and click 
.
A web feed is shown on the left side of the dashboard when
you first log in. To set this default feed,
click on 'My Account' to edit your profile.
Type or paste the URL of the desired feed in the 
box. If
you click on 
,
a list of suggested feeds will be displayed in a separate window. You can copy and paste from that window.
Click 
at the top left of the calendar or tracked
bill list, or to the left of
the saved filter or saved search under 
. If
your desktop application (e.g. MS Outlook) accepts web feeds, it will link to
your subscription. Alternatively, you
can click and paste the link into your news reader.
Team accounts enable each LegisWeb team member to have
different levels of capability:
Admin: Allows all task to be performed, including the ability to create/edit/delete team members. The Admin user can create/edit/delete tracking groups and labels.
Power: The user can edit the tracking info on any bill without changing the assignment and can reassign any bill to any team member. The user can share and delete their saved searches and filters. The user cannot create/edit/delete tracking groups or labels.
Edit: The user can edit tracking info of bills that have been assigned to them. The user can begin tracking a bill and can reassign a bill that is currently assigned to them.
Notes: The user can only edit the notes field of tracked bills. Otherwise, their account is read-only.
None: The user can see tracked bills, but cannot change any tracking information. The user can create a saved search or saved filter, but cannot share it with the rest of the team.
Click 
,
then click 
. Fill in the form and click 
.
Click ,
then click on the member name. Edit the
form and click .
A team administrator can restrict a team member’s account to only show the tracked bills that meet certain filter criteria. To do this, create a filter on the Tracked Bills page. Save the filter with a special name beginning with the # character followed by the member’s login identity (e.g. “#joesmith”). When that user logs in, their Tracked Bill list will only show the bills that meet the pre-defined filter criteria.
Click 
. Click on “Labels” or “Groups”, then check the
next to the desired entry. Click then pick “Share”.
Click 
. Check the next to the desired entry. Click then pick “Share”.
Navigation
Controls
Return to the Dashboard
Go Forward or Back a page
Maximize or De-maximize an item
Hide or Show an item
/
Expand or Contract an item
Refresh the display
Get Hints
Indicators
A Supporting or Opposing position
An Aye or No Vote
An Alert (activity w/in 1 week)
A Critical Alert (activity w/in 1 day)
A List or a Web Feed
A Saved Filter or List
A Saved Search
A Video Search
A News Search
A link to an external web page
An editable text area (e.g. Summary, Notes)
Command
Icons
Search
Filter
Explore
Get an HTML report/print of an item
Get
a PDF report/print of an item
Get an Excel report of an item
Get
a Link to an item
Display your Calendar
Display your Labels
Display or Create a Web Feed
Add a Web Feed
Highlight a Word in a Bill
Add a Public Comment
Save Bill to Del.icio.us
Blog a Bill
People
A person
A group of people (e.g. a Committee)
A Republican
A Democrat
Documents
A closed document (e.g. a Code or Bill)
An open document
A portion of a document (e.g. a Division)
A link to a document or a portion of a
document (e.g. a Bill section)
Text Colors
Normal Text
Inserted Text
Deleted Text
Added
Changed
Deleted
Renumbered
Annotation (not officially part of the doc)
Link
AB 2
(bill is no longer active)