Download Complete Instructions
Contents:
- Basic Usage
- Locating Records in OnBase
- Working with Records in OnBase
- Tips on Using the Application
Basic Usage
1. Access Limitations
10 User Limit
The OnBase Records Management application is limited to 10 concurrent (online at the same time) users. If you have trouble logging in, this will most likely be the reason. You may continue attempting to login. When a user ends their session, you will be granted access into the system.
10 Minute Inactive Limit
If you are inactive in the OnBase application for more than 10 minutes you will receive a prompt letting you know that your session is about to expire. If you wish to continue using the application, click on "Continue Current Session" and hit "OK". If not, please exit the application to make sure it remains available for other users who desire access.
Pop Up Blockers
Please make sure all pop-up blockers are disabled before trying to enter the system. To bypass pop-up blockers temporarily, hold down the 'Control' key on your keyboard while you click the 'Launch Record Search Application' button. If you are trying to enter the Records Search and your browser is automatically closing, pop-up blockers are most likely the problem.
Pop up blockers can be turned off through the 'tools' feature on your toolbar.
2. Install ActiveX Controls
Internet Explorer will try to manually download and install the necessary ActiveX controls that OnBase uses, but will sometimes hang up during installation. To help avoid these problems you can download and install the ActiveX controls prior to accessing the OnBase application. To do so, simply click on the "Download Active X Controls" link located on the Records Search page on the City of Palm Coast website and download the "activeXinstaller.zip" file. Close down Internet Explorer and run the "activeXinstaller.exe" file located in the zip file to install the controls.
3. Log into the system
Click the "Login" button to begin. The Username and Password (PUBLIC/PUBLIC) are already filled in for you.
4. Basics of the OnBase Application
When logging into OnBase you will see the Document Retrieval screen. This screen is broken up into several sections.
Document Type Groups: All City of Palm Coast records are organized by groups. These groups are categorized according to the City's departments and divisions. For example, records that pertain to the City Clerk's office are part of the City Clerk Document Type group.
Document Types: Under each group Records are organized by the type of record they are.
Keywords: Keywords help identify the specific record you are looking for. When you select a Document Type, the Keywords that are available for that Document Type will appear. As an example, when searching for records in the Building Department, some of the Keywords may be "Parcel Number" or "Permit number". Entering a full or partial keyword will help you narrow your search.
Text: The "Text" tab allows you to search for text within records. Since the majority of our records are images (scanned documents), only records that have been put through the process of having a text-copy made will be searchable.
Icons:
The binoculars icon at the bottom of the screen starts the records search once you have selected your criteria.
Clicking on the clock icon will show you your search history. You can click on a previous search to retrieve your results.
The keyword icon will clear all text for any keywords that are currently active.
The arrow icon will deselect all Document Types and Document Type Groups, taking you back to the original view you saw when you opened the application.
Locating Records in OnBase
1. Select A Document Type Group
Although this is not a necessary step when searching for records, selecting a Document Type Group helps to narrow your results and focus your search. Records are organized by the department or division they belong to. If you're having a hard time determining what department the record you are looking for belongs to, you can search across multiple Document Type Groups (see below) or contact the City Clerk's Office at (386) 986-3713 for assistance.
2. Select A Document Type
Even if you choose not to select a Document Type Group, you must select at least one Document Type.
It is also possible to search across multiple Document Types. If there are several Document Types listed together that you want to search across simply click the first one in the list, and then hold down the "Shift" key while clicking the last one to select them all.
If you wish to select several Document Types that are not grouped together, hold down the "Control" key while clicking on the Document Types you wish to select.
3. Working with Keywords
Keywords help you zero in to find the record that you are looking for. When you select a Document Type, a list of keywords associated with the Document Type is displayed in the "Keywords" panel. You can enter any word you would like to search by and type asterisks * before and/or after the word (wildcard search) in keyword fields to help you search for records. You can also type the word you want to search and then click on the = sign next to the field until it turns to brackets <> which is a shortcut. Once you type in the keyword click the search icon 
to perform your search.
Using the image on the left as an example, let's assume we want to find a Certificate of Liability for company "XYZ Inc." that did work for the City of Palm Coast. If you want to enter a keyword without using a wildcard you have to enter the exact information as it was given by the person who put the record into the system. So if we entered "XYZ Inc" into the "Vendor" keyword field it may or may not find the record we are looking for. If the person who put the record into the system typed the keyword as "XYZ Incorporated", (spelling the name out), or "XYZ Inc." (adding a period to the end), our search would not return any results. This is where wildcards come in handy, when we want to use a search that contains unspecified characters.
If we know the name of the company was "XYZ Inc", but don't know how that information was typed into the system we can use wildcards to help us find our record. If we typed "XY*" into the "Vendor" keyword field, we would retrieve all the records whose Vendor keyword started with "XY". Likewise, if we typed "*ed" into the field we would retrieve all records ending in "ed". You could also type "*YZ*" into the field and you would retrieve all the records that contain "YZ" anywhere in the Vendor keyword field.
4. Working with Keywords and Multiple Document Types
You can also search across multiple Document Types with common keywords. Common Keywords are keywords that are shared across Document Types.
In this example, the CC – Agenda Items Document Type has four keywords: Item #, Department, Agenda Date, and Subject. The CC – Agreements Document Type has six keywords: Vendor, Project, Department, Contract Date, Notification Due, and Expiration Date.
The only Keyword these two Document Types have in common is "Department", so when you Control-Click both of these Document Types to select them, the only keyword that remains under the Keyword tab is the common keyword, "Department". In this case "Department" is a drop down list, so selecting a value (let's say "Building"), and then performing the search, would give us all the records from both Document Types with the "Department" keyword of "Building".
If this was a regular input field that we could type values into, we could also use wildcards as demonstrated before.
5. Searching for Records Within a Date Range
If you know the date of the record you are looking for you can perform a search using a date range (this is most helpful with records such as agendas, minutes, etc.). First, select the Document Type(s) you wish to search and then enter a "From" and "To" date in the fields provided below the Document Type selection panel. The results will give you all of the records within the date range you specified.
The date range search can be used in conjunction with keywords to help narrow your search.
6. Searching the Text Contents of Document Types
Sometimes it may be useful to search for records using the content of the records rather than the keywords. To do so, select the Document Type(s) you wish to search and then click on the "Text" tab. Type in the text you would like to search for and then click on the search icon
. Unlike the keyword fields there is no need to use wildcards (*) and the more specific you can be the better. Not being specific enough may actually result in too many results when working with the text search feature.
Not all records are searchable using the text search feature. Only records that are text-based, or images that have been through OCR, can be searched. OCR stands for "Optical Character Recognition" and is the process of taking an image file and putting it through an application that creates a text rendition of the file so that the text of that file is searchable. Most likely when you perform a text search the first rendition of the record you will see is the text rendition, and you will have to manually switch to the image rendition. Scroll down further to read more about viewing different renditions of a record.
The text search can also be used with the date range search.
Working with Records in OnBase
1. Using the Toolbars
When using the OnBase application, you want to make sure that you can see all of the toolbars to make working with records easier.
To show the toolbars, right click anywhere on an open record, and choose "Toolbars" from the context menu. You want to make sure that the "Viewer Control" and "Pages" options are checked.
1. Saving and Printing Records
Printing and saving records is simple.
To print a record, either click on the print icon that's located to the right of the Document Type selection window and above the actual record, or, right click on the record and choose the "Print…" option from the context menu.
To save a record to your computer right click anywhere on the record and choose the "Send To" menu and then click "File". The "Save to File" dialog box will appear and you typically have the option of saving to either the "image/tiff", "text/plain" or "application/pdf" Content Types. We strongly recommend using the "application/pdf" Content type whenever possible. This will save the record as an Adobe Acrobat PDF onto your computer (this will require the free Adobe Acrobat reader which can be downloaded from the Adobe website). Acrobat PDF files are generally much easier to work with than tiff image files.
You can also save a record without opening it. To do so, right click on the name of the record in the results list window and choose "Send To" and then "File".
2. Viewing Renditions of a Record
Sometimes when viewing a record you may see a bunch of text that doesn't seem to make much sense. What you are looking at is the OCR text version of an image record.
To switch to the image rendition of the record (the way it looked when it was scanned), click on the "Alternate Rendition" icon which is located on the Viewer Control toolbar above the records display window.
Select "Image File Format" from the menu.
3. Using the Viewer Control Toolbar
Go to the first page in the record
Go to the previous page in the record
Go to the next page in the record
Go to the last page in the record
Zoom in or out of the current record
View the record at 100%
Fit the width of the record in the window
Fit the entire record in the window
Rotate the record left or right
Tips on Using the Application
The online OnBase application can seem to take over your browser and your screen, but there are some built in features that make working with and viewing records easier.
1. Working with the OnBase Interface
There are two minimize bars on the OnBase application like the one pictured on the left. One is located to the right side of the Document Retrieval pane, and the other is located on the right side of the main records display pane. These can become very useful when working with records, or trying to view large records on a small screen.
Clicking on the minimize bar located at the right of the Document Retrieval pane will minimize that section, giving you more screen space to view and browse records. You can then click the bar again, which is now located at the far left of the screen, to bring back the Document Retrieval pane.
Clicking on the minimize bar located on the far right of the screen will minimize the search results and records view pane, leaving you with only the Document Retrieval pane as pictured on the right. With only the Document Retrieval pane in view, all search results and records will open in a new window which you can scale and place anywhere on your screen.
You can click on the bar again to restore the attached records view pane.
If you need to get even more screen space to view a record you can also minimize the results list by clicking on the arrow icon in the top right of the screen as pictured below.
Clicking the arrow icon again will re-open the results list.