Handbook of Local Government Law

The Handbook works best with Adobe Products, which can be downloaded at no cost. Use Adobe Reader to view, search, or print the Handbook. 

Installation

Download and extract the folder to your computer. After you download the “2024 LGA Handbook”, you will see a listing similar to the following:

You must extract the folder from the compressed (zipped) file. If you do not, the links and search functions will not work. To begin using the Handbook, right click the file 2024 Title Preface TOC.pdf and select open with Adobe. From the table of contents, you can click any chapter title to go to that chapter or you may go to the 2024 PDF Chapters folder and select any chapter.

NOTE: Mac computers unzip automatically but you still must use Adobe for full search functionality.

Depending on which version of Adobe Reader you are using and which operating system is running on your computer you may see a message similar to the following when you open the Handbook or try to search for the first time. If you see this message, be sure to check the box circled in red above, then click Load. This will ensure the proper search index is loaded every time, and you won’t see the message again.

Ensuring the LGA Handbook Search Index is Selected

The first time you Advance Search the Handbook, you will see the Advance Search window as shown below in Search Tips. Before entering your search terms, be sure to click the button next to the index named 2024 Index.pdx (if the button is not already selected). You will only have to do this once—the correct button will be selected by default on every subsequent search.

Search Tips

Adobe Reader’s Advance Search and Previous View/Next View Buttons

When searching and viewing the Handbook, there are two important tools in Adobe Reader:

The Advanced Search button is an option under the general search function. Click on the magnifying glass, the three dots, and then Advanced search. You should then have a menu for searching across all chapters. If you are using an older version of Adobe Reader, review the search tips instructions here.

You can do a more sophisticated search by selecting the Refined Search Results link.

The Previous View and Next View buttons are available under page navigation. They allow you to use the links in the document yet quickly get back to where you clicked on the link. To access them, click on the tiny arrow on the page icon, scroll down the menu, and then pin Previous View and Next View.

The Previous View buttons takes you to the last page viewed (not the previous or next pages in the chapter). If you follow a link to a different chapter, it will open in a new window. Either x-out of the new chapter or click on the tab for the original chapter to return to where you were.