Lawbook Online Research Database user guide

1. © 2004 Lawbook Co. 1 Lawbook Online User Guide
1. Key concepts and terms
Folders and Documents. These are used to arrange contents for browsing. A Folder is used to
arrange the contents of a large subject area (eg Research) or a large service (eg The Laws of Australia).
The Document is the basic unit into which the services are divided. Folders contain documents and each
document corresponds to a logical division within the service, such as a heading and its following text,
or an index or table entry. Searching and printing within this service is based on this document division.
Hitlist. The Hitlist displays the search results. There are several options to give you control of how the
Hitlist presents your results – you can choose to list your hits in either relevance order or in document
order, and you can choose to display a number of words of context from the documents in which your
hits occur.
Navigation Bar. The Navigation Bar offers options which you use to direct the software to take you
to certain information. The Navigation Bar appears at the top of your screen, under the Web browser
toolbelt. Details of the options appear below.
PDF documents. PDF documents are facsimile reproductions of law reports in their hard copy form.
Documents printed in this way can save valuable time and effort when preparing material for use in court.
Reference window. The Reference window displays where you are in a Lawbook Co. service at any
time. You will find reference information at the top of every document you view, and you can open the
Reference window by clicking the Ref button in the Navigation Bar.
Research Trail. The Research Trail allows you to keep track of visited links and completed searches.
It allows you to return to these links or repeat searches without having to start from the beginning.
Further detail appears below.
TOC. Table of Contents. There are two types of TOCs available to you: the HTML TOC and the Java
TOC. The HTML TOC provides basic functions for accessing sections of the service. The Java TOC
contains advanced features: check boxes to control the sections you search over, and the display of
several expanded branches at once. Further detail appears below.
Lawbook Online User Guide
Welcome to Lawbook Co.’s online platform, Lawbook Online. Here you will find a step-by-step guide to the
platform, which tells you how you can use this service to make your research more efficient.
Contents
1. Key concepts and terms 1
2. Lawbook Online navigation tools 2
3. Browsing the Table of Contents (TOC) 3
4. Searching 4
5. Working with search results (Hitlist) 8
6. Printing and saving text 10
7. Changing screen views 12

2. © 2004 Lawbook Co. 2 Lawbook Online User Guide
2. Lawbook Online navigation tools Back to Contents
Lawbook Online Navigation Bar
Displays the Table of Contents, with all
of the Lawbook Co. services that you
subscribe to. (Available in the cycling views.)
Displays the currently selected part of a
service. (Available in the cycling views.)
Displays the previous document in the
service.
Displays the next document in the service.
Allows you to return to visited links or
repeat previous searches without needing
to type them in again.
Displays a window showing the location
within the service of the document
currently being viewed.
Allows you to view and print a document,
and includes a line at the bottom
describing where the printed material is
taken from. In the Java view, you are also
able to view and print multiple documents,
as well as your current search results.
Allows you to choose among 4 different
views: default HTML, HTML cycling view,
default Java, and Java cycling view (see
below for descriptions).
Links back to this User Guide.
Displays contact details and email
addresses for Lawbook Co.’s training and
support staff.
Returns you to the Global Search page.
This is the initial page that you see when
you enter Lawbook Online.
Lawbook Online Navigation Bar after you execute a search
The following features appear on the Lawbook Online Navigation Bar after you have executed a
search, in addition to the features mentioned directly above:
Takes you to the previous hit in a document.
If you are at the beginning of a document
you will be taken to the first hit in the
previous document.
Takes you to the next hit in a document. If
you are at the end of a document you will be
taken to the first hit in the next document.
Takes you to the previous document that
has hits in it.
Takes you to the next document that has
hits in it.
Clears the search so that the Hitlist no
longer appears, and hits are no longer
highlighted in the documents.
After viewing each hit document, this
button will return you to the full list of
search results.

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3. Browsing the Table of Contents (TOC) Back to Contents
You can use the Table of Contents (TOC) to browse within
your services in Lawbook Online. To expand the TOC
branches, click on the folders (in HTML views) or on the
+ signs (in Java views). To view the actual sections of the
service that you want to read, click on the document
symbol or title.
• The TOC appears on the left side of the screen in both HTML and Java Default views, allowing
you to see both the TOC and the document simultaneously.
• In the HTML and Java Default views, the part of the TOC corresponding to the document that is
open in the document area of the screen will be highlighted automatically.
• In the HTML and Java Cycling views, you can view the TOC in full screen mode by clicking on the
TOC button in the Navigation Bar.
• The TOC features display bubbles, which allow you to view the full name of a document without
needing to enlarge the TOC frame. Hover your mouse over the document title to bring up the
display bubble.
• For details on the HTML and Java views, see Changing screen views.
Display bubbles
Click to view
the document
Click to expand
Click to view
the document

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4. Searching Back to Contents
There are several ways to conduct searches in Lawbook Online:
• using the Global Search form;
• using the Easy Search form;
• using the Product-specific search forms.
Global Search form
• The Global Search form allows you to search over any or all of the services to which you have
subscribed.
• The text box allows you to enter one or more key words. Standard search operators, such as AND,
OR, NOT, phrase searching, wildcards and nested searching, are supported. Full details on using the
operators can be viewed by clicking on the “operators” link.
• You can display a number of words around hits in the search results. Show context in the search
results list allows you to choose 5, 10, 15 or 20 words of context around your hit words from each
document in which the search gives a result, with 10 words of context set as the default. This option
helps you to determine the more relevant documents from your Hitlist of search results.
• The search results can be ranked by Relevance or Contents Order. Relevance Order will be selected
by default and is determined by factors such as the number of occurrences of the search terms in
the document, and the term’s occurrence in headings, for example. Contents Order will display the
documents in the Hitlist in the same order that they are displayed in the Table of Contents.
• You can also select the Previous Search button to recall your last search, allowing you to edit your
previous query. This function will bring up the previous search entry for this form by selecting this
button located both under the search options at the top of the page as well as at the bottom of the
search page:
Clicking the Search button will run a new search.
Select Global Search
Select to display the
results by Relevance
or Contents Order
Type the keywords
into the text box
Displays 10 words
around hits in the
search results list
{Select one or
more databases
to search
Click on the
Previous Search
button to recall
your last search

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• You can select services to search over. The services to which you have subscribed are listed on this
form, and are selectable to limit your search to the selected service(s). If no services are selected, the
search will execute over all services by default.
To search over one or more services simply click in the appropriate check boxes. If you want to search
all the services except one or two, a quick way to do this is to click in the “Select all” box, then
uncheck the services you want to exclude.
• The title of each service is linked to a Product-specific search form designed to search specific
categories of information within that publication. For more details on these search forms, see
Product-specific search forms, below.
Easy Search form
The Easy Search form is intended for users who are not familiar with the operators and search syntax that
are available for online searching. You can select the Easy Search form from the drop-down list of search
forms above the Table of Contents (in Default views) or in the blue navigation bar (in Cycling views).
There are five text boxes on the Easy Search form which correspond to different search syntaxes.
1. containing all these words:
A search using this box will look for documents that contain every search word entered. In other
words, this corresponds to an AND search.
2. not containing any of these words:
This corresponds to a NOT search. Use this box in combination with other boxes to exclude words
from your search. For example, if you search for liability in the “containing all these words”
box, with limited in the “not containing any of these words” box, the search will find all hits for
“liability” when it doesn’t occur in the same document as “limited”.
Select Easy Search
Select one or more
databases to search
Type the keywords
into one or more
of the text boxes}Select to display the
results by Relevance
or Contents Order
Select to expand the
scope of your search
Select Easy Search
Displays 10 words around
hits in the search results list
Click on the
Previous Search
button to recall
your last search

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3. containing one or more of these words:
This will find documents that contain any of the words that you enter. It corresponds to an OR
search.
4. containing this exact phrase:
Only the words together in the specified order will be found. This search corresponds to “ “ syntax.
5. containing these words near each other:
This is a proximity search, which will find the terms only if they occur close to each other. It corresponds
to the @ syntax.
Note that the TOC displayed with the Easy Search form gives you the option of selecting any level
within any service to search over (it is distinguished from the normal TOC by a blue background). See
Searching within a product below for details.
You can also select the Previous Search button to recall your last search, allowing you to edit your
previous query. This handy function will bring up the previous search entry for this form once the
following button, located below the five text boxes, is selected:
Clicking the Search button will run a new search.
Product-specific search forms
Each service in Lawbook Online has a specific search form, designed to narrow your searching to
categories of information contained in that service. An example is The Laws of Australia search form, below.
Searches that use these forms will show results from that service only. The categories of information
(which correspond to fielded, or tagged, text) are typically some or all of the following:
• Legislation references
• Case references
• Journal article references
• Other references such as books, reports, gazettes.
You can open the Product search forms in any one of three ways:
1. Click on a product title on the Global Search form
2. Select the product title from the Select Search Form drop-down list (in the top left corner of your browser)
3. Using the TOC, go to the front screen of the service, and follow the Search this Service link.

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Searching within a product
It is possible to focus your searching at a particular level within a service. This is useful when you
are researching using a topic within The Laws of Australia or Australian Digest, or if you need
to research across a particular jurisdiction in Unreported Judgments, or a particular Act within
Commonwealth Legislation, for example.
If you select the Global Search or Easy Search form from the Select Search Form drop-down list,
the form will be displayed with a searchable version of the Table of Contents. The searchable TOC is
distinguished from the normal TOC by a light blue background.
In the HTML views, the searchable TOC (below) allows you to select any one branch of a service at any
level for searching. The selected branch will be highlighted by a yellow box. So, for example, you may
select Title 9. BANKING AND FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS in the Australian Digest, and the search you
perform will be limited to that section of the service.
In the Java views, the searchable TOC (below) allows you to select several branches of one or more services
for searching. Click in the check box beside the branch to select it. In the example below, three parts of the
Australian Digest are selected, and the search you perform will be limited to those sections of the service.
HTML view Java view
Your search will be conducted
in the sections of the service
where the check box is ticked

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5. Working with search results (Hitlist) Back to Contents
Search results are displayed in a table, or Hitlist. Each item in the Hitlist corresponds to a document in
a Lawbook Online service. Each page of the Hitlist contains up to 25 results. By default the results are
ranked by Relevance, and show the Full Document name and the service title in Lawbook Online.
The first result shown in the Hitlist is automatically displayed in the Document frame. All search terms
will appear in the document in red.
The display of the Hitlist will depend on the screen view that you have selected:
• Default views (HTML & Java) - Hitlist is displayed at the bottom of the screen.
• Cycling views (HTML & Java) - Hitlist is displayed full-screen. You can toggle between the Hitlist,
Document and TOC by using the buttons in the Navigation Bar.
In the Java views the number of results will be displayed in the TOC next to the corresponding service
and document. In the example below, you can instantly see that a search for the phrase “constructive
knowledge” has returned 22 results in the Commonwealth Law Reports and 33 results in the Federal
Court Reports. If you scrolled down the TOC, you would find the number of results displayed beside
each service that contains results. By expanding each branch you can locate each document within the
service which contains the results.
Links to the results
documents
Total number of result documents listed.
Numbers 1-25 displayed on this page.
To access documents 26-50 click on the
Next Hitlist link on the left.
The service
containing the hit
Words of context
around the hit –
in this case, 10
words of context
has been selected
22 results in the Commonwealth
Law Reports and 33 results
in the Federal Court Reports

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Customising the information presented in the Hitlist
There are options that you can choose when searching that customise the information presented in the
Hitlist:
The Show context in the search results list allows you to choose 5, 10, 15 or 20 words of context
around your hit words from each document in which the search gives a result, with 10 words of
context set as the default. This option helps you to determine the more relevant documents from your
Hitlist of search results.
The View results by option allows you to select Contents Order, which will display the documents in
the Hitlist in the same order that they are displayed in the Table of Contents.
The Navigation Bar also offers tools for navigating through your search results. See the section
Lawbook Online navigation tools after you execute a search for details.
Research Trail
The Research Trail keeps track of links that you have followed and searches that you have executed in a
current session of research on Lawbook Online. It enables you to quickly return to a visited link or to
recall and execute a previous search.
The Research Trail records the last 20 links followed and/or searches executed. The list will be displayed
in order of most recent to oldest link followed or search executed.
Access the Research Trail by clicking on the Research Trail link in the Navigation Bar as shown in the
diagram.
Clicking on the above link will open the Research Trail window and selecting an item will display the
linked document or display the search form.
Note the Research Trail can be closed or minimised without losing the last 20 entries.
Access the Research
Trail by clicking here
Links are indicated
by a chain icon
Both the name of the
search form and the
terms used are shown
for searches
A search term is
indicated by a
magnifying glass icon
Placing your cursor over
a link will show its full
link name (path) and
place the link in context

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6. Printing and saving text Back to Contents
The method of printing a document will differ depending on whether you are operating in an HTML
based view or a Java based view.
How to print a document in HTML view
• Click on the Print View button in the Navigation Bar. This will load the current document into a
separate browser window.
• Click on the File menu from the browser, and select Print. The Print dialogue box appears.
• Click on OK/Print.
How to print a document in Java view
• Click on the Print View button. The following screen will be displayed:
How to print the current document
• Select “Print the current document” and click on Continue. A new window will appear displaying a
Print View of the document. The Print dialogue box will also open.
• Click OK/Print.
How to print multiple documents
• Select “Print multiple documents selected in the table of contents”.
• In the TOC, click on the boxes next to the documents you would like to print and a tick will appear
in each box. You can select up to a maximum of five documents.
• To create page breaks between each document, select “Add page breaks (start each document on a
new page)”.
• Click on Continue. A new window will appear displaying the documents that you have selected.
The Print dialogue box will also open.
• Click OK/Print.
How to print your search results
• Select “Print the current hitlist” and click on Continue. Your search results will open in a separate
browser window. The Print dialogue box will now open.
• Click on OK/Print.
How to print a selection
You can also print a selection of the text displayed onscreen:
• Select text by clicking and dragging your cursor over the text.
• Select Print from the File menu OR right click on the highlighted text and select Print.

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• Click in the circle beside Selection in the Print dialogue box.
• Click on Print/OK.
How to print PDF version
Law reports with the option to print a PDF version of the report will display the following text at the
bottom of the document: Click here for PDF print version
• To view the PDF, click the hyperlink.
• Click OK on the dialogue box – the PDF will launch in Adobe Acrobat Reader®
.
NB: Depending on the size of the file, this may take some time.
• Click on the Printer icon from within the Adobe Acrobat Reader®
window.
NB: If only a few pages of the document are required to be printed, you must enter the page ranges
of the actual PDF document, not the page numbers printed on the page as these are the page
numbers as they appear in their printed form.
• To return to Lawbook Online close the Adobe Acrobat Reader®
window.
How to save a document in Java view
If you are in one of the Java views, you can use the Export Options feature to save a document or
multiple documents.
• Click on Print View.
• Click on the Export Options link. The following screen will be displayed:
How to save one document
• Select “Download the current document”.
• Click on Continue.
• A pop-up box will appear which states “To save to disk, select Save As from the File menu”. Click OK.
• Select Save As from the File menu. The Save Web Page dialogue box appears.
• Enter the name you wish to call the file. Click Save.
How to save multiple documents
• To download a number of documents at the same time into the one document, select “Download
documents selected in the table of contents”.
• In the TOC, click on the boxes next to the documents you would like to print and a tick will appear
in the box. You can select up to a maximum of five documents.
• Click on Continue.
• A pop-up box will appear which states “To save to disk, select Save As from the File menu”. Click OK.
• Select Save As from the File menu. The Save Web Page dialogue box appears.
• Enter the name you wish to call the file. Click Save.

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7. Changing screen views Back to Contents
Preferences can be adjusted by clicking on the Prefs button on the Navigation Bar and clicking on the
view that you wish to select.
The available views are:
a. Default HTML View
This is the view that is used when you login to Lawbook
Online (the default view). It provides a three frame view,
with the Navigation Bar, HTML TOC, and Document. It
adds a fourth frame after you have submitted a search,
which displays the Hitlist.
b. HTML Cycling View
Provides a two frame view, with the Navigation Bar and
a main frame in which you can display either the current
Document, the HTML TOC or the Hitlist. You can toggle
between these displays by using the “TOC”, “Doc” and
“Hitlist” buttons in the Navigation Bar. A third frame
with the HTML TOC is displayed when you select a search
form from the drop-down list. This selection is particularly
useful for smaller screens.
c. Default Java View
In the Java view the Navigation Bar, Java TOC, Hitlist and
Document appear in a four frame view. The Java view
provides increased search capability because you can
search over any selection or combination of material on
the site.
d. Java Cycling View
This view provides two frames, with the Navigation Bar
and a main frame in which you can display the current
document, Java TOC or Hitlist. You can toggle between
these displays by using the “TOC”, “Doc” and “Hitlist”
buttons in the Navigation Bar. A third frame containing
the Java TOC is displayed with the Global or Advanced
search forms when they are selected from the drop-
down list of search forms.

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Save View Preference
You can save your preferred view so that each time you login to Lawbook Online that view will be
automatically selected.
If the check box on the Preferences page is selected, your preferred view will be recorded and saved.
If you select the Add Lawbook Online to Favorite sites button (which is also displayed on the
Global Search form), then the next time you enter Lawbook Online via this bookmark, your preferred
view will be used.