Recent Enhancements to Brookers Online

February 2009

Login Screen

You will now be prompted to login to Brookers Online from a standard entry page. An email link is included on this page in case you require assistance with the process. This page will also include a link to information on other Brookers Online databases should you wish to discover more of Brookers Online.

Please note: Subscribers with an IP fix will not be required to login.

Client Focused Databases Page

After logging in, you will only see the databases you subscribe to. This will enable you to quickly pin point databases you want to search and increase the accuracy of search results.

BriefCase, ViewCase, FindCase Labelling

For those who subscribe to BriefCase, the database title will now clearly tell you whether you also subscribe to ViewCase, and/or FindCase. For example if you subscribe to FindCase you will see: BriefCase (summaries, ViewCase PDFs, and FindCase Judgment Text).

CiteCase Symbols

CiteCase symbols will now only be viewable in case law products if you subscribe to CiteCase. Subscribing to CiteCase allows you to quickly verify whether a case is good law and extend your research to find citing references to support and strengthen your legal argument.

May 2008

Legislation PDFs

Brookers Online legislation is now available in Adobe PDF format, meaning users can easily and quickly download a PDF of an entire Act or Regulation. PDFs of legislation use the same style and formatting as Brookers legislation handbooks, which gives a professional output when printed. Users can also take advantage of other Adobe Acrobat features, such as searching, browsing or the ability to quickly scroll through pieces of legislation. This feature is available in the new Print Options menu as ‘View this Act/Regulation’ next to a PDF icon.

Please note: Legislation PDFs do not contain Commentary, Updater information, Editorial or History Notes, and require Adobe Acrobat 5 as minimum.

Document export

Users can now export Brookers Online documents to text (RTF) format. This new feature instantly creates a Microsoft Word version of a document, with all formatting retained, making capture of Brookers Online materials for use elsewhere easier and faster. This will be of great value to users who frequently copy portions of legislation to incorporate into their own documents. This feature is available in the new Print Options as ‘Export this document’ next to a Microsoft Word icon.

Please note: document export has a size limit of 2 megabytes (approximately 150 pages) and is only available from Databases on the new Brookers Online platform. Exporting to Word 2000 or earlier is not supported.

New Print Options menu

This new menu has been added to the right sidebar above the ‘Document Options’ menu and contains all print and export functions, including the new ‘View this Act/Regulation’ (PDF) option.

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ViewCase PDFs

Judgments in ViewCase are now available as PDF files. ViewCase previously used the TIFF file format when downloading judgment images. Unfortunately not all users have the necessary software to access and view TIFF files, and for this reason all ViewCase TIFFs have now been converted to the more standard PDF format. Please note: some Court of Appeal cases (between 1995 and 2005) will still display as HTML documents in ViewCase.

Improved Printing of Search Results

Search Results are no longer paginated when using the 'Print this document' option. This allows users to easily print out complete search results in one go, without having to do so page by page.

Improved Legislation Table of Contents

The table of contents for an Act or Regulation now displays section information (e.g. “Sections 1-10”) next to Parts and Sub-Parts.

Context Sensitive Display Options

The Display Options menu in the right side-bar is now context-sensitive. This means for example that options such as “Hide/Show Commentary” only appear in documents where Commentary is available, and the "Full Text" option will only appear in BriefCase if there is a full-text judgment available for a case.

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Context Sensitive Quick Search

The Quick Search area in the left side-bar no longer displays a “Section” search box when not in a legislation database.

Improved Legislation Lay-out

The presentation of legislation documents has been re-styled to improve readability, with more screen white space and less indenting.

Expandable and Collapsible Content Blocks

In BriefCase, CiteCase and FindCase, individual blocks of content (e.g. ‘Case Summary’, ‘Full Text' etc) are now separately collapsible and expandable. This is similar to the Hide/Show option and has the advantage of not completely hiding content when collapsed.

CiteCase/FindCase Search Functionality

Users can now include CiteCase or FindCase individually within the BriefCase advanced search template.

Improved Page Navigation

Page navigation in long documents (e.g. ‘jump to page 1, 2, 3’ etc. of a document) now appears at the top as well as at the bottom of the page

Improved Display of Historic Versions

The text of an historic version of a section of legislation is now displayed within the History Note itself. Previously historic versions were displayed as pop-ups.

Export of Legislation Tables of Content

A piece of legislation's Table of Contents is now included in an export (to PDF and RTF).

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For more information on these new enhancements, or to arrange a demonstration, please call 0800 106060 or email service@brookers.co.nz. Alternatively contact your Account Manager, Online Specialist or Trainer direct.