Bridges Policy Manuals for RSS Understanding and Navigating the SharePoint Manuals Updated: 10/22/2013

OBJECTIVES After completing these exercises, you will be able to: – Understand the basic structure of the BAM policy manual. – Know where to find the Policy Manuals SharePoint Site. – Access Policy Manuals from the SharePoint Site. – Navigate the Policy Manuals to find information you may need to complete your registration support job functions. 2

The Bridges Policy Manual group consists of four different Manuals: BAM-Bridges Administrative Manual BEM-Bridges Eligibility Manual BPB-Bridges Policy Bulletin Log BPG-Bridges Policy Glossary In addition to the Bridges Policy Manuals, there is a separate State Emergency Relief Manual group. Bridges Policy Manuals 3

The manual item primarily used for registration support is BAM. BAM is ordered in a certain way referred to as the “shape” of the manuals. You will find it much easier to find the policy information you are looking for if you keep this shape in mind. 100 Series of Items-Applications 200 Series of Items-Case Actions and Redeterminations 300 Series of Items-The Case Record 400 Series of Items-Issuance of Benefits 500 Series of Items-Replacement of Benefits 600 Series of Items-Administrative Hearings 700 Series of Items-Overissuances and Recoupment 800 Series of Items-Data Exchanges Order of BAM-Bridges Administrative Manual Order of BAM 4

In order to access the policy manuals SharePoint site, first go to the DHS- Net Home Page. On the left hand side of the Home Page, you can find links to various areas of the DHS-Net. “Policy News and Tips” is found under “Popular Links”. CLICK on “Policy News and Tips” to go to this page on the DHS-Net. Finding the SharePoint Manuals 5

Another way to access the manuals is to follow this “Bear Track”: DHS-Net > Tools > Technology > Tools and Resources > Policy News and Tips Finding the SharePoint Manuals 6

Once you have arrived at the Policy News & Tips page, you can see that there is information here regarding when updates have been made to the manuals, and which manuals have been updated. In Left Navigation you select “Converted Policy Manuals” to continue to the actual manuals. Finding the SharePoint Manuals 7

This link takes you to actual manuals. When you get back to your office, you can save this page in the DHS Net as a Favorite, and you will be able to access it much more readily. Notice that there are more manuals here than we discussed previously. Some of these are used by different divisions within DHS. Navigating the SharePoint Manuals 8

The Manual Groups are arranged in alphabetical order. Click on the “+” sign in the box next to the Bridges Policy Group, and this will show you the different manuals that are contained in that group. Clicking the “-” sign will close it back up. Navigating the SharePoint Manuals 9

After clicking on the “+” sign next to BAM, we can see all the individual Manual Items for that Manual. Navigating the SharePoint Manuals 10

This is the Navigation Pane. You can enter a word or words to search in the search bar to find policy relating to specific programs or a circumstance. By clicking on the 009 Bridges Administrative Manual Table of Contents hyperlink (or any manual item hyperlink) a separate Word Document that contains the actual policy will open. Notice some of the features of this page. These features are found on each page of the manuals. This view is for browsing by pages. Here you can find the results of searches you have done. This view is for browsing the Item’s headings. Navigating the SharePoint Manuals 11

In In order to view an item from the TOC, you must hold down the Ctrl key as you click on the item you wish to view. You will receive a message warning you that it may not be safe to open this file. It will be safe to open any files that are contained within the manuals, so select “OK” Navigating the SharePoint Manuals 12

In order to demonstrate the search function, we have selected BAM 115-Application Processing. Navigating the SharePoint Manuals 13

We have chose to research “standard of promptness”. There are several ways to search for the information you want. You can scroll through the headings in the Navigation Pane to see if what you are looking for appears as part of a heading. You can see that Standard of Promptness does appear as a heading. If you click on the tab, it will take you to the part of the Manual Item where this heading appears. The most thorough search can be accomplished by using the search bar in the Navigation Pane. Type the word or phrase you are looking for. As you type your words, the first instance that meets your search criteria will appear in the Manual Item, highlighted in yellow. Navigating the SharePoint Manuals 14

The final box is a search box. Here you will enter the word or phrase you are searching. You are looking for a “Standard of Promptness”. Below the search box you have two choices, “Whole Word” and “Consider Case”. If you did not check the box for “Whole Word” the search engine will give you results that only partially matched your criteria. In this case, it would bring up every instance in BAM 115 where the word “of” appears, or any instance where the letters “o” and “f” appear together, even inside a word. If you check the box for “Consider Case”, the search will only yield results where all the upper and lower case letters match. Now that you have entered all the criteria related to the information you are seeking, you can hit the “Search” button. To clear all the information and start over, click on “Reset”. There is an alternative way to search for information in the Manuals. At the Policy Manuals Home Page, on the left hand side, there are several drop boxes. First you must choose the Manual Group you wish to search. Bridges Policy has been selected.Policy Manuals Home Page Next, select the Manual you want to search, based on what you need to know, and your knowledge of how the Manuals are “shaped” or ordered. In this example, BAM has been selected. An item can also be selected, here 115 Application Processing was selected. Navigating the SharePoint Manuals 15

Once the search engine has completed the search, a message will appear letting you know results are available. By clicking on “115 Application Processing” you will be able to see the results of the search. Navigating the SharePoint Manuals 16

The results are displayed the same way for this type of search, with the headings in the Navigation Pane highlighted, and the actual instances of the phrase “standard of promptness” highlighted in the text of the Manual Item. Navigating the SharePoint Manuals 17

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