GPO Access


COVERAGE
- Congressional Bills - all published versions of bills, beginning with bills introduced in the 103d Congress;
- Congressional Record databases -
  - Congressional Record, starting with 1994
  - Congressional Record Indexes (CRI), starting with 1992
  - History of Bills (HOB), starting with 1994
  - Federal Register, starting with 1994
  - Unified Regulatory Agenda, starting with 1994
  - United States Code

DESCRIPTION - GPO_WAIS_User_Manual is the online documentation search manual. GPO_WAIS_User_Manual includes a list of abbreviations used in the Bills database and complete instructions for searching the different databases.

Help screens vary depending where you are in the search and or display process. Learn how to type ? or h to display available commands. Some commands are case sensitive. For example, a small <j> will move down one item, a Capital <J> will move down one screen, capital <R> shows relevant documents, a small <r> makes current item a relevant document.


SEARCH TIPS

GPO ACCESS uses SWAIS commands. Look at the bottom of the screen or use the <?> or <h> keys to get relevant help commands for where you are in the search or display process. Some of the more important commands are listed below for the SEARCHING and VIEWING functions. Boolean key word searching assumes the OR operator unless you specify otherwise. (e.g. earthquake seismic, searches for either the word earthquake or the word seismic.) Sometimes the case is important. If you want to find a proper noun, e.g. Northridge, you must capitalize the first letter. A boolean operator must always be in upper case letters!

ADJ		Northridge ADJ earthquake
AND		California AND earthquake
OR		earthquake OR seismic
NOT		disaster NOT floods


* SEARCHING

COMMAND		EXPLANATION
?, h		Help
q		quits the program
<space>		selects
w 		for keywords
| |		arrows move
<return>		searches
<ctrl + C>	cancels
j, down arrow, ^N		Move Down one source
k, up arrow, ^P		Move Up one source
J, ^V, ^D		Move Down one screen
K, <esc> v, ^U		Move Up one screen
###			Position to source number ##
/sss		Search for source sss
=		Deselect all sources
v, <comma>		View current source info
s		Select new sources (refresh sources list)
X, -		Remove current source permanently
o		Set and show swais options
H		Display program history
*		Truncation symbol, e.g., seis* retrieves seismic, seismology


* At "SEARCH RESULTS" screen

COMMAND		EXPLANATION
v		display file size of highlighted document
m		email the highlighted document
o		options, allows you to set default to more than 40 documents


* VIEWING DOCUMENT
COMMAND		EXPLANATION

/(words to be searched):	search for occurrence of a word, e.g. /FBI Function is case sensitive
n		search for next occurrence of the word specified after the slash /
<space>		display next screen
<return>	display next line
f		skip forward k screens of text (e.g.:3f)
b		skip backwards k screens of material
##		continuously scroll through the number of lines specified
m (label with a letter)	place a mark at a place in the document
`(label letter)		go to a marked portion of the document `a
q		exit to search results screen


SOURCES	EXPLANATION

cong bill	congressional bills
cri	Congressional Record Index
hob	history of bills
record	Congressional Record
register	Federal Register
unified agenda	Unified Agenda
wais user m	documentation for GPO access
uscode	United States Code


Contributed by Marcia Henry, California State Univ., Northridge, 1/18/95