The University of Memphis

Using the Handbook Editor

BFGuide

• Guidelines
• System Administrator
• Editor/Edits Allowed
• Owner

• Requesting Access
• Accessing the Editor
• Adding a New Handbook Section
• Editing a Handbook Section
• Adding New Section Content
• Editing Section Content
• Viewing a Draft Report

• BFGuide Online Editor
• The U of M's Policy and Procedures

• BFT Contact List

Adding a new handbook section is the first major step involved in adding a new guideline to the BFGuide. By clicking on the "Add New Handbook Section" link, you should be directed to a screen on which you will indicate the basic elements of your guideline. On the first line, indicate that your guideline is an Active Handbook Section, check the Draft option (keep this area checked until your guideline is finalized), and check the Table of Contents box if your guideline is particularly lengthy. Doing so will ultimately make your published guideline easier to navigate.

Next, indicate your guideline's appropriate office (i.e. Accounting, Bursar, Compensation, Parking, etc.) in the Office field. Then choose the appropriate title from the Officer drop-down box. The titles listed in this box do not go lower than the AVP level.

Unless otherwise directed, you may leave the Official Handbook Section Number, Active Date, and Revoke Date fields blank.

In the Subject Area field, indicate the appropriate area that corresponds wth your entry in the Office field.

By default, the Handbook Section Owner field will contain your username, since you are the person creating this guideline entry. This field can be changed if you are entering a guideline for another owner.

The Editors field is where you list other users who will have equal access to this guideline for editing or proofing. Multiple usernames should be entered with a comma and no spaces (i.e. jdoe,dmlinton,sadams).

The Comments field is an area where you may enter comments to other editors regarding this specific guideline. Any information typed in this area is not and never will be viewable by the public. This text entry field functions much like word processing programs such as Microsoft Word. The Comments section should also be used to indicate to the guidebook administrators whether your guideline is for public view, Business & Finance users only, or if it needs to be secured for viewing with a password. (If the latter is the case, you should identify the users/positions who would need access to your guideline.)

Once all of your information has been entered, click the Save Handbook Section Information button to save your entry, or click the Cancel button to discard your work.

Once your Handbook Section has been created, you may begin entering specific data to flesh out your guideline. Clicking on the Add New Section Content link provides a text-entry screen that looks similar to a word processor such as Microsoft Word.

On this screen, you should first indicate which type of section content you wish to enter in the Handbook Section drop-down box. You have six options: Purpose, Definitions, Procedures, Links, Related Forms, and Contacts.

Every guideline should contain a basic, one paragraph Purpose that explains the basics of why this particular guideline would be used. When entering a purpose, the Entry Heading field will automatically be filled with a default of "Purpose." Type your purpose in the Entry Heading field.

The Definitions option should be used as a place to define terms or phrases that a basic user might need explained in order to understand the descriptions within your guideline. When entering a definition, use the Entry Heading field to list the term or phrase you will be defining, and then enter the appropriate definition in the Entry Text area. Many users find it helpful to enter their definitions after having entered their data in the Procedures section, rather than trying to anticipate them prior to writing the bulk of the guideline.

The Procedures section is where the main part of your guideline resides. For each step in the process you are delineating, you should enter a new Procedure. For this section, the Entry Heading field should contain some sort of description of the step you are detailing within the process and so on, with the specific details of that step in the process entered in the Entry Text area. You may use the "Insert Link" icon in the text editor to place hyperlinks within the text of your guideline.

The Links section is where you may provide users with helpful hyperlinks to various Web sites (internal or external to the University). For Links, type the name of the link (not the address) in the Entry Heading field, and the Web address (http://www.memphis.edu for example) in the Entry Text area. When you use the http:// format, the editor should automatically detect that your text refers to a Web site and should automatically link it for you.

The Related Forms section works just like the Links section. Type the name of the form in the Entry Heading section, and provide the Web address for the form in the Entry Text section.

The Contacts section is optional. It is used to provide users with a point of contact for more details about a particular guideline. It is suggested that you do not reference specific individuals' names in this section, as doing so may eventually create inaccurate guidelines. Instead, refer to job titles, group e-mail addresses (i.e. bfsupport@memphis.edu), or, best of all, separate Web sites listing current staff members that will be maintained outside of the handbook editor.

Editing section content involves the same entry screen as used when adding section content. Click on Edit Existing Section Content, make any necessary changes and click the Save button.

The Edit Existing Section Content link also provides you with the opportunity to reorder the contents of a particular section of your guideline. For example, in the Procedures section, you will most likely want to make sure that users read through the procedures in the correct order. To accomplish this, use the numbered drop-down boxes to the left of each instance of section content and numerically order them according to your needs, then click Apply.

At any point during the entry process, you may view the current contents of your guideline by clicking the "Report" icon near the top of the Editor screen. A new window will open displaying, in the appropriate areas, any information you have entered thus far.

policies.memphis.edu

http://bf.memphis.edu/bftech/staff.php