The columns in your bill sheets and regulation sheets are controlled by the template you chose to use for that sheet. You start with our default settings, but you can create as many different templates as you need for how you want to work with your data, and share your data. You can also create custom columns to add to your bill sheets and regulations sheets allowing you to add your own custom information, like your position, your own summary of the bill, or what category the bill falls into. We will look first at creating a template, and then look at creating new columns.
For a quick overview check out this video. Details and step by step instructions follow. A complete rundown of all available columns is here.
Managing Templates
To create a new template, or edit an existing template, go to the appropriate choice in the account menu:
Both Bill Templates and Regulation Templates work the same way. For this example we’ll work on a bill sheet template. Choosing Manage Bill Templates takes you to the template manager, which has two sections, one for the template itself and one for managing the individual columns available for templates. Let’s start by looking at the template itself by choosing to make a new template or by editing an existing template.
The template screen gives you lots of options. The first thing you are going to want to do is make sure you have given the template a good name, especially if other people will have access to the template. You might have one template for evaluating bills, one for sharing internally, and another for the grid you want your members to see when they click on your map. Or different people with different roles within your company might have their own preferred columns for their bill sheets. Personally I have a different template I use when I am looking at bills from previous sessions, for example. You can have unlimited columns and templates, so build as many as you need, just make sure you give them good names so you remember what you were thinking.
Once you’ve entered a good name for your template it’s time to start working with the columns. The grid contains a list of all of the columns you can select. Columns you want to appear are marked visible, columns you don’t want to use are not. You’ll notice any custom columns you have created are listed at the bottom of the list.
The Data Column reminds you what the data is. The Column Header Text is what will appear as the label of the column. To change the Column Header Text you must edit the column itself (see the section below about managing columns). The Width is how wide you want the column to appear on the screen. A good way to tweak the width is to have two browser tabs open, one with the template manager, one with your final product (the bill sheet you are working on, or the stakeholder page on your website, or whatever the case may be). Update the width and save the template, and then refresh the screen to see the impact on your final product. Rinse, repeat. You can change the order of the columns by picking up columns using the grabber lines in the first column.
If you’ve already been using templates for awhile, you’ll notice there is a new column, the last column, Initial Sort. This column lets you set your template to sort by your own priority, or action date, or whatever else you like. This can be especially useful when you are posting legislation to your website using a stakeholder page and want the bills in a specific order.
Managing Columns
Now you know how to turn column on and off, and change their label, size, order, and sort. But how do you create new columns, or change the labels of the BillTrack50 default columns? That’s where the bottom half of the screen comes in, the Column Manager. Previously you accessed the column manager from the Account menu, but with the addition of Regulation Sheet Templates, we felt it made more sense to give you access to both the template manager and the column manager on the same screen.
Just as with templates, to get started you choose to create a new column or edit an existing column. If you edit one of the system columns the only thing you can change is the label.
The functionality hasn’t changed much from when we first introduced the column manager, so see this post for complete details and a video.
To recap the basics, when creating your own column you first choose the column type.
Text, number, date, and URL Link simply require you to give the column a name, save, and that’s it, you’re ready to add the column to your template. The Dropdown Column choice requires that you then add the options for your drop down list. Simply type in the word or phrase you would like as your first item, and then type enter. That will create your first item. You can then proceed to make as many additional items as you need.
You can come back and change the label on your columns or the items in your list any time you like. But you can’t change the data type of a column. If you need to change the data type you’ll need to start over with a whole new column. If you’ve already entered data in the old column that you would like to transfer over to the new column just drop us a note, we are always happy to help.
Regulations Templates and Columns
Setting up templates for regulations sheets work the exact same way. Just know that you can’t share columns between bills and regulations, so if you want a comments column on both your bill sheets and regulations sheet, you’ll need to create one column in each manager.
Hopefully you find these upgraded template features helpful. Don’t hesitate to reach out if you need help getting your sheets set up exactly how you want them.
About BillTrack50 – BillTrack50 is a user friendly free service that provides legislation research in all 50 states and federally. BillTrack50 also offers legislation and regulation tracking across the nation with tools to help organization stay on top of changes (bill sheets and alerts) and share legislation they are tracking with key stakeholders (legislator scorecards, widgets and stakeholder pages). If you are interested in learning more about how BillTrack50 saves organizations time and money, sign up for a demo and try it out BillTrack50 Pro for a month, for free.