Church Handbooks 1 & 2

[kisaac]

It's interesting that all the "clerk and leader" tools I've noticed thus far are using an HTTPS (secure) connection on new.lds.org, but when I select book 1, it drops back to HTTP as I view it. This was surprising, as it could allow "snooping" if somebody is authorized and correctly accessing book 1, but doing so on an unsecured (public?) wifi connection, and somebody with a little technical prowess and unknown intentions is monitoring the "open" http traffic. Due to the sensitive nature of Book 1, is this intended, I wonder?

[DaltonTM]

The handbook chapters were broken for some hours the other day, and are back online now. If you are still seeing a problem, "LaJackson" has it right, browsers tend to cache "AJAX" requests heavily. The second issue I'm seeing the most in here is also being addressed. If you refresh the page after having navigated to a section in a chapter it always drops you back to the first section of the chapter.

This is also because the section navigation is handled through javascript requests that only modify that part of the page, not the full page URL. We will be tweaking that so that you can refresh, or send a section URL to a friend, and it will persist where you were.

Finally...I'm intrigued by the last comment about it not being https...I'll investigate.

[aebrown]

This is also because the section navigation is handled through javascript requests that only modify that part of the page, not the full page URL. We will be tweaking that so that you can refresh, or send a section URL to a friend, and it will persist where you were.

Until that change is made to how URLs are handled, you can manually change the URL for bookmarks or including URLs in email messages or such. You just have to append the section. For example, if you are anywhere in chapter 4, the URL in your browser's address bar will be:

Code: Select all

https://new.lds.org/handbook/handbook-2-administering-the-church/the-ward-council?lang=eng

But if it's section 4.3 that you are really interested in, just add "/4.3" before the question mark to make it:

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https://new.lds.org/handbook/handbook-2-administering-the-church/the-ward-council/4.3?lang=eng

Once that is the URL, you can refresh and you will be on section 4.3 instead of going back to 4.1. And that full URL can be sent to someone in an email.

Of course, all this will be unnecessary once the "tweaking" is done, but in the meantime, this little tip might be helpful.

[geowizrd4zion]

Search is working fine for me, but when I click on any result (or simply try to go to a page) no text is displayed, only the menu bars, etc. It was working for me earlier today.

the search capability seems to be selective in that it does NOT find all instances of a search term, but returns a subset of them. for example, 16.3.3 contains the following sentence: "The bishopric may also organize a ward young single adult committee."

however, doing a search on
committee
young single adult committee
ward young single adult committee
does not return a reference to that particular sentence, although it does include quite a few others.

unless i am experiencing a unique quirk, this means that the search cabability will help you find some related items, but not necessarily the one you are looking for, or worse yet, to conclude that something does not exist in the handbook when in fact it does. (reminds me of the crippled ms desktop search, which is "faster" because it is always incomplete).

can anyone else replicate this or shed any light on it?

[geowizrd4zion]

the search capability seems to be selective in that it does NOT find all instances of a search term, but returns a subset of them. for example, 16.3.3 contains the following sentence: "The bishopric may also organize a ward young single adult committee."

i thought i found the answer to my own question in another thread, and tried a google search of:

site:new.lds.org/handbook/handbook-2-administering-the-church?lang=eng committee

which returned many more results, but still not the sentence in question!

as another example, searching for either committee or committees fails to return a reference to this sentence from 7.3.2:
They may organize committees among quorum or group members to carry out the work of the quorum or group and to fulfill assignments given in ward council meeting.

makes one long for a searchable pdf file instead of the world of javascripts...

[liddleld]

I just wanted to add some clarification on how search is working on the handbook. Results are returned at the chapter level rather than the section level. So the searches mentioned in the previous 2 posts actually do return the correct chapters in the results, although the snippet displayed on the results page may not be the sentence you're hoping to find because there may be other sentences from the chapter with the search term in them.

We do plan to change the search so that results are sections instead of chapters since it's not straightforward once you go to a chapter, where in the chapter your search term was found.

[geowizrd4zion]

<chuckle> oh, i get it, it's a game kind of like geo-caching, a search gives me some clues that get me in the neighborhood, and then i hunt around some more and find it myself...

seriously, to be useful, a search should take me straight to each and every instance of a search term, not to it's container, however defined.

in any event, the clarification IS appreciated, since i had previously assumed that if it didn't appear in a snippet, it didn't exist at all...

[jpmuofu-p40]

I was just called as an assistant ward clerk and assistant ward executive secretary. From what I can tell, the new Handbook 1, contains descriptions of the policies and responsibilities for both of these callings.

Currently, when I login to the leader resources page, it gives me access to Handbook 2 but not handbook 1 (https://lds.org/leader).

Is this correct? If so, how should I go about obtaining the information I need to fulfill my calling according to handbook 1's guidelines?

[benjamincarleski]

All the citations I see are for the executive secretaries, and assistants as needed. I would work with your executive secretary to find out what he needs you to assist with.

[jonesrk]

I was just called as an assistant ward clerk and assistant ward executive secretary. From what I can tell, the new Handbook 1, contains descriptions of the policies and responsibilities for both of these callings.

Currently, when I login to the leader resources page, it gives me access to Handbook 2 but not handbook 1 (https://lds.org/leader).

Is this correct? If so, how should I go about obtaining the information I need to fulfill my calling according to handbook 1's guidelines?

As far as the online copy, I don't think you will be able to for now. There should be an office copy that is to be shared between the ward clerk and ward executive secretary. I would talk to them about reviewing the portions that you need.