Click the arrows to expand or collapse the entries.

Basic Browsing

View a video on browsing a code.

Browsing a code
  • To browse an online code, click on the title that you want to view. To browse through the titles and chapters of the code, click on the plus (+) button to expand a selection. In most cases, chapters can be expanded as well to view individual sections. To collapse the entries, click on the minus (-) button. You may also browse titles and chapters by clicking on their respective links.

  • Clicking on the left and right arrows toward the top of the page allows you to read through the code chapter by chapter. Clicking on Home will send you to the home page of your code.

Navigation bar
  • Bookmarks: Add a bookmark for the page you are viewing.

  • Change Text Size: Click to adjust font size for better readability.

  • Hide TOC: Hide the table of contents while browsing the code.

  • Print Doc: Print the chapter you are currently viewing.

Table of Contents
  • Collapsible TOC: Click on the plus/minus signs to expand or collapse the table of contents.

  • Frameless Version (Mobile Viewing): Essential for best viewing and quick navigation on iPads and smartphones, including iPhones, Android and BlackBerry phones. Complies with ADA requirements.

  • Older versions of the code: Select a date to view the code as it appeared at that point in time. Previous versions of the code can be compared to the most up-to-date version as well (click on the Compare link).

Searching a Code

View a video on searching a code.

Searching a code
  • Enter a search term in the space provided and click the Search button. This will return a list of the pages that match your request in order of relevancy. To view a document in the list, click on the link.

  • After you have opened a matching document, you can use the First Hit, Next Hit, and Prev Hit buttons on the top navigation bar to navigate from hit to hit. You can also use the Next Doc and Prev Doc buttons to move between documents that have hits in them. (For PDF files, use the Next Match and Previous Match links on the PDF pages.)

Search options
  • Advanced Search Options: Use boolean searching, refine the search with stemming, phonic searching, etc. (See Advanced Options under Advanced Search tab.)

  • Scope Searching: Restrict a search to specific titles or documents. (See Scope Search under Advanced Search tab). Not all codes provide scope searching.

Saving your search
  • Click Save to My Searches to save the search terms and settings that you have entered in the search form. Saving a search with the same search terms as a previously saved search will overwrite it, even if the other settings are different.

  • Click My Searches to open a menu of saved searches. Click the name of the search to run it, or click delete to remove it. Your saved searches will last for three months unless you clear the cookies on your browser.

Printing or Saving Selections

View a video on printing or saving selections.

Making selections

You can select any combination of titles, chapters, and sections to print or to save in a variety of formats. Some codes do not yet offer print/save options at this time.

  • Selecting Material: Expand the table of contents by clicking on the plus (+) symbol next to any title or chapter that you would like to open. Click on the checkboxes beside the titles, chapters, or sections that you want to print or save.

    You can select multiple titles, chapters and sections at once. To deselect, click the checkbox again. To deselect everything you have selected, click on Clear all at the top of the table of contents.

  • Previewing your Selections: When you have made your selections, click the Print/Save Selections button at the top of the table of contents. A popup window will appear with a preview of what you have selected. If you need to change your selection, click Close Window at the top right of this window and select or deselect items in the table of contents.

Printing selections
  • Printing: Click the Print this Page button in the popup window. Your browser’s print dialog will appear. (Alternatively, you can browse to the chapter you want to print and click the Print link at the top right of the main code window.)

  • Printing in Color:

    Color images will automatically print in color, provided that your printer has the capability. Colored text and highlighting (such as the OrdAlert tags) will not print in color unless colored text and backgrounds are enabled in the browser. Enabling colored text and backgrounds is different for each browser.

    • Internet Explorer: From the menu, open the Print submenu and select the Page setup item. Click on the Advanced tab and scroll down until you find the Printing header. Check the option Print Background Colors and Images, then click OK.

    • Mozilla Firefox: From the menu, choose Print and then click the Page Setup button. Check the option Print Background (colors & images), then click OK.

Saving selections

Choose a file format from the dropdown menu in the popup window, then click the Save button to download the file. The default format is RTF; this lightweight format can be opened in most word processors (Microsoft Word, WordPerfect, etc.). You can also choose a preformatted document in PDF (for Adobe Reader), MOBI (for Kindle) or EPUB (for iPad or Nook) format. Depending on your needs, you might also want to save your selections in plain text, HTML or XML format.

Recently Codified Material

Not all codes contain these features.

Caching/reloading the frame

If you visit your code frequently, you might notice that recent updates have not appeared. This is probably due to caching. To speed up the time it takes to load a page, web browsers will store bits of the page in their memory. To make sure you're seeing the latest version of a chapter, right-click on it and choose Refresh from the menu (or This Frame > Reload Frame if you're using Firefox).

Ordinance Table

If you are not sure whether an ordinance has been codified, the easiest way to check is to use the Ordinance Table. If an ordinance has been codified, the disposition(s) will have hyperlinks to the chapters in the code where the ordinance is codified.

OrdSearch

Click on an underlined ordinance in the Ordinance Table to find all sections where the ordinance is codified.

Table of Contents

The Table of Contents frame (the left frame) is built "on-the-fly" so it should automatically reflect the latest changes to the code. Pages that are linked from the table of contents may still be affected by cookies, so you might have to refresh a page if you don't see new provisions.

Recent Updates

Highlighting recently updated sections with revised text.

Pending Updates

Highlighting sections amended by ordinances not codified yet. Affected sections link to the new ordinance.