User manual for “Single-User Online” subscriptions

General information

Features

The electronic format (PDF) of the Construction Codes and Guides presents a number of value-added features, such as hyperlinks and instant search capability, while preserving the same layout as the printed versions.

Once you activate your subscriptions, the publications are available to you from any computer (Mac or PC) connected to the Internet anywhere in the world.

Hyperlinks

The Codes and Guides contain thousands of internal links to referenced Articles, Sentences, Clauses, Subclauses, Tables, Figures, Appendix Notes and defined terms. Clicking on these links takes you directly to the text of the stated reference.

Updates

With the CODES–GUIDES Online Library subscriptions, you always have access to up-to-date publications. Your main Library page displays the most recent version of your publications as well as all the previous ones. Activating one version of a publication (e.g. first printing) gives you access to all subsequent versions of the 2010-2015 Code-cycle edition of that publication. A Revisions and Errata section at the beginning of each Code lists the changes that have been made since that document was first published (Guides are seldom updated between editions).

Searching

You can search for terms and phrases within your publications using the built-in search functionality of Acrobat Reader. Consult the Acrobat Reader Help menu for detailed information on performing searches in PDF documents.

Printing

Printing is disabled for the Codes and Guides. You can copy and paste document excerpts (text, tables, figures, etc.) into a word-processing application, such as MS Word, and print them.

Copying

The publications you have purchased are copyrighted by the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and protected by Canadian Copyright Law and international treaty provisions. Your right to reproduce portions of the documents is limited by the Licence Agreement: please read it carefully before copying any excerpts. Such excerpts may only be incorporated into a single new document and must not be altered in any way that could affect their meaning. The source of an excerpt must be acknowledged.

You can copy and paste document excerpts (text, tables, figures, etc.) into a word-processing application, such as MS Word.

Technical support

Technical support information on the CODES–GUIDES Online Library is available on the web site under Client support.

Minimum system requirements

Internet access

You must have Internet access to register and to activate and view the online publications.

Hardware

Any recent PC or Mac desktop or laptop computer should be adequate for using the CODES–GUIDES Online Library: 1 GB RAM, 100 MB of free disk space, 2 GHz processor.

Software

• Supported operating systems and Web browsers:
  • Windows XP SP3, Windows Vista or Windows 7
    • Internet Explorer Version 7.0 or greater
    • Firefox 4 or greater
  • Mac
    • Safari 5.0.2 or greater.
• Javascript and cookies must be enabled.
• Adobe Acrobat or Reader must be installed.
• FileOpen plug-in for Adobe Acrobat or Reader must be installed.

Once Adobe Acrobat or Reader is installed, download and install the FileOpen plug-in. To confirm that the plug-in is successfully installed, open Acrobat or Reader and find the item for Acrobat Third-Party Plug-ins; you should see FileOpen WebPublisher listed there.

Viewing secured PDF files

Mac

1. Install FileOpen and Acrobat Reader (if not installed yet).
2. Verify FileOpen plug-in is properly installed:
   1. Open Acrobat/Reader > Preferences > 3d party plug-ins
   2. FileOpen WebPublisher should be listed there.
3. To ensure that PDF files open in Adobe Acrobat or Reader and NOT in PDF Viewer:
   1. Open Acrobat or Reader.
   2. Go to Preferences > Internet.
   3. Check off “Display PDF in browser using” and select “Adobe Reader XXX” from the drop-down menu. Make sure it is the app with the FileOpen installed, see item 2.
4. If using Mac 10.6 see instructions from Adobe:
   Acrobat PDF Plug-in Does Not Load in Safari 64-bit Web Browser on Mac OS X Snow Leopard (v10.6).

Your online subscription

Overview

Once you have successfully placed your order for an online subscription through the NRC Virtual Store or NRC Construction's Client Services, you will receive a confirmation email within 1 business day containing your Sales Order Number, your Customer Number (PDS), the list of publications you purchased, and a link to the CODES–GUIDES Online Library Web site. If you don't receive this confirmation email in your inbox, check your junk mail folder as some email systems may place it into this folder.

Getting started

Before you can view the publications to which you have subscribed, you must complete four initial steps:

1. Install Adobe Acrobat or Reader.
2. Install the FileOpen Plug-in.
3. Register as a CODES–GUIDES Online Library user, or sign in using an existing account. Note that the Library is not the same system as the Virtual Store where the Codes and Guides are purchased, so your Virtual Store login will not work.
4. Activate your publications.

The main log-in page is the starting point for new and registered users (see Figure 1).

If you are a new user, click on “Click here to register,” which will take you to the registration form (see Figure 3 in the next section).

If you are a registered user, you can activate your subscriptions, view activated publications, or review the status of active subscriptions by logging in with your User Name and Password. When you log in, you may be prompted to answer your user verification question (see Figure 2), which you specified upon registration (see Figure 3 in the next section).

Registering as a user

From the main log-in page (Figure 1), new users are directed to the registration form (see Figure 3). Enter your information in the mandatory fields (read the instructions carefully).

Check off “Do not ask user verification question on this computer” if you are the only person using this computer. This will set a security cookie on this computer so that you will not be prompted to answer the verification question on this computer again. (This step needs to be completed only upon initial log-in or if a security cookie is deleted.) When you log in from a different computer you will be prompted to answer the verification question.

Click on “Register” to submit your registration. A confirmation screen will appear (see Figure 4).

Click on “Return to Login” to get back to the main log-in page (Figure 1) and proceed with activating your publications.

Activating subscriptions

You can activate all your publications at once or only some of them. You can always activate your remaining publications at a later date. The period of each subscription starts upon activation.

Once you are registered as a user, you can activate the subscriptions that you purchased. You will need the following information to do so:

• the User Name and Password used to register for the CODES–GUIDES Online Library
• the Sales Order Number, and
• your Customer Number (PDS).

If you have multiple Sales Orders, repeat the activation steps for each Sales Order. When you log in, all active publications will be available to you, regardless of the Sales Order.

To activate your subscriptions:

1. Go to the main log-in page for the CODES– GUIDES Online Library.
    
2. Enter your User Name and Password, then click on “Log in.” The page shown in Figure 5 will appear.
   

   Figure 5
3. Click on “Activate subscriptions” to start the activation process. The page shown in Figure 6 will appear.
   

   Figure 6
4. Enter the Sales Order and Customer Number (PDS) for the order that contains the publications you would like to activate.
    
5. Read the Licence Agreement. You must accept the terms stated in this agreement to proceed. Click on the box beside “I agree with the Terms…,” then click on “Continue.” A list of purchased publications will appear (see Figure 7 for an example).
   

   Figure 7
6. Select the publications you would like to activate and click on “Activate subscriptions.” The page shown in Figure 8 will appear.
   

   Figure 8
7. Click on “Access my publications” to download your publications.
    
8. “Log out” to end the session.

Accessing active publications

To view your active publications, enter your User Name and Password in the main log-in page (Figure 1) and click on “Log in.” You may be prompted to answer the user verification question you specified upon registration (Figure 2). Type in the answer you provided and click on “Continue” to log in.

Your active publications will be listed on the page entitled “Access my publications.” Figure 9 shows an example.

Viewing publications

To view an active publications, click on the link indicating the printing of the publication, under the document title (Figure 9). The document will load and may open in a separate window.

Resetting your password

You can re-set your password by clicking on “Forgot your password?” from the main log-in page. You will need your User Name and the email address provided upon initial registration. Fill out the form (see Figure 10) and click on “Reset password.”

You will receive an email containing your new temporary password and a link to the “Change Password” page. Click on this link and follow the instructions on screen to change your temporary password (see Figure 11).