Help - A Guide to Techlink

This guide has been written to help in the use of Techlink and to guide you through its facilities. The guide has been aimed at someone who has little or no knowledge of how the internet, or an internet browser, works.

We recommend that the internet browser used to access Techlink is either Mozilla Firefox or Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 or above. Though Techlink has been designed to work with Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 or above with no discrepancies, earlier versions of Explorer may cause problems as well as possibly affecting peripheral references in this guide such as how to create a homepage (see later). If this is the case, and you face any problems in carrying out anything included within this guide, please do not hesitate to contact us and we will try to help you.

Please note that this manual has been written on the basis that the browser being used is Microsoft Explorer 6 (herein referred to as Explorer).

Contents

General How To Save, Print and Move Make Techlink Your Homepage Adding Techlink To Your Favourite Pages Setting Your Browser's Cache Settings Entering Techlink Navigating Techlink Other Help

Sections Home/Summary Bulletins Section Information Library Ask Section The 'Related' Buttons Search Help About

Mobile How to use Techlink Mobile

How To Save, Print and Move

It is useful to note some of the browser's own abilities so that they can be used to enhance the use of Techlink.

Though the controls explained will be referring to Explorer, most other browsers do have the same options.

Back	All browsers work on the principle of turning the pages of a book. (Hence the reference to pages.) Each time you access a different part of the Techlink website you are 'turning a page'. With this in mind, if you know you have visited a 'page' before and you wish to go back to this page, you can use the 'BACK' option (on the toolbar near the top of the page) to go back as many pages as you wish until you find the one you were looking at before.
Forward	This works on the same principle as BACK, but allows you to go forward through pages.
Print	Any screen that you see within Techlink can be printed off. If the print button is used it will print off all the contents of that page, NOT simply what is shown on the monitor. This means that if the page can be scrolled down (using the scroll bar on the right of the screen), the print option will print out all text and diagrams from the top of the page to the bottom. The browsers are unable to highlight specific areas of text to print off. Therefore, if you wish to only print out a specific part of the page, we recommend that you use the copy function to copy the text you desire to print into a standard word processing package and print from there. Techlink font is too small when I print a page out If you find that, on printing any page on Techlink, the type is very small, you will need to change your printer settings. To do this, follow the following instructions: 1. In Internet Explorer go to the File button near the top of the screen. 2. Choose Print preview from the dropdown 3. At the top of the screen that appears will be a drop down that has Shrink to Fit in the box. 4. Change this setting to 100% 5. Choose OK and then proceed to print the document as normal.
Home	If you wish to return to your homepage (ie. the page that your browser opens when first loaded (see below)), just click on the HOME button.
Save	Though not available as a button on screen, it is possible to save any Techlink screen on to hard disk to read offline. To save go to the 'File' tab at the top of the screen. Scroll down to the 'Save As' option and click on it. Choose where you wish to save the file. When accessing the page from a disk later, simply clicking on the name of the file will automatically bring up your internet browser with that page open. Please note, however, that because of the dynamic style of the site if you save the page to view much later the information may no longer be current.

How To Access Techlink

Make Techlink Your Homepage

Unless your internet connection is being used for anything other than Techlink we first recommend that you make Techlink's homepage the page that your internet browser opens first when connecting.

To do this you need to do the following (please remember this is based on the Internet Explorer series):

1. Run your internet browser.
2. From the menu's at the top of the screen choose Tools (or View if Tools does not appear).
3. Go to Internet Options.
4. Choose the 'General' tab. (This may already be selected.)
5. Leave all settings as they are except for the white box at the top in the Home page section. Place your cursor within this box and delete its contents (if any).
6. Having deleted the contents type the following within the box:

http://www.techlink.co.uk

7. Choose Ok at the bottom of the box.

Once this is done, each time the browser is started it will send the machine straight to our homepage.

Adding Techlink to your Favourite Pages

If your internet access is being used for more than just access to our homepage, it is recommended that you set our page as a Favourite for ease of access.

1. Run your internet browser.
2. On screen, under a series of buttons you will see a long, thin white box with 'address' written to the left of it.
3. In this box, delete whatever contents may be in it so that it is blank.
4. Having deleted the contents type the following within the box:
   
   http://www.techlink.co.uk
   
   Then press enter.

This will take you to our Techlink homepage. However, to stop you needing to type this each time you want to access our page you can instead set it as a Favourite.

1. From the menus at the top of the screen choose Favourites.
2. Select Add to Favorites from the menu.

This will now save our homepage as a Favourite. Now whenever you want to go to our homepage all you need to do is:

1. Load your Browser
2. Go to the menu at the top of the screen and choose Favourites.
3. There you should see a 'Favorite' called 'About Techlink Interactive'.
4. Click on this 'Favorite' and it will take your browser to our homepage.

(Note: the same method can be used if you wish to keep any of our other pages as bookmarks, such as the 'Bulletins: What's New' page (see later). To do this just go to the page first and then choose to "add" a bookmark from the Favourites menu.)

Setting Your Browsers Cache Settings

Due to the dynamic nature of the site, it is recommended that your computers cache settings are changed so that the most up-to-date information is always shown.

1. From the menus at the top of the screen choose Tools (or View if Tools does not appear).
2. Go to Internet Options.
3. Choose the 'General' tab. (This may already be selected.)
4. In the Temporary Internet files press the Settings button.
5. Where asked to "Check for newer versions of stored pages" select "Every time you start Internet Explorer". If you find that this setting will not change you need to contact your internet administrator to have this setting changed.
6. Returning to the Temporary Internet files press the Delete Files button. Press OK.
7. Returning to the Internet Options screen click OK.

Entering Techlink

Once you are at our homepage, you will see a general page available to any internet user explaining the various work we do. If you see a "Summary Page" then you are already signed in, otherwise you will need to provide the site with your username and password to access the various sections.

In the left-hand column you will see two boxes. In the username box type in the username you have been given. Please note that it is case sensitive. Move to the second box (press TAB on your keyboard or click inside the box) and type your password. Again this is case sensitive, but unlike the username all that will appear on screen is * for each letter typed. Below the Password box there is a “Stay Logged-In " option. If you leave this box empty then you will be required to enter your username and password each time you access Techlink. If you are the only person who uses your computer to access Techlink then tick this box and it will remember your details and automatically Log In for you whenever you access the site. Having provided your sign in details, click the "Log In" button. If you make a mistake entering your sign in details then a red message will appear on the page informing you that you have provided incorrect details and you should enter your details again. Below the Login box you will see a link, "Go To Mobile Version". This link is explained later in the Help guide, in the section entitled How to Use Techlink Mobile.

Navigating Techlink

On the left-hand side of every page is a navigational menu.

To enter the desired function just click on the word. The section you are currently viewing is highlighted with a white arrow and a pink background.

Home

This button will take you back to your Home page. This page displays the bulletins and library sections that have been added or updated on the site over the last 7 days, along with notifications of any other additions that have been made to the site. To view a document, click on it's title which appears in blue and is underlined.

Information Library

Library Archive

To access the Library, click on the Library link on the navigation column on the left of the screen. You will then be presented with the list of subject headings.

You can scroll through the list either using the scroll bar on the right or by using the shortcut letters at the top. Just clicking on these will take you to the subject area.

You will be presented with the topics contained in that heading. This will include the name of each topic and a brief synopsis of its contents. To choose a topic to read just click on the blue title and the text of that topic will be shown.

On entering the topic you will see what subject heading the topic has been filed under, the name of the topic and a synopsis of the topic, as well as a last updated date, ie the last time any amendment was made to the topic. This will also give a brief explanation of what the last change involved. Below this there may also be a list of contents. Although you can scroll through the entire text using the scroll bar on the right of the screen you can click on any of the contents headings to take you to that specific area within the text.

You will notice through some of the library texts that there are blue underlined words. These are links. Often these will be statutory provisions or regulations that give legislative support to our texts, but which are often too long or cumbersome to include within the text itself. Just click on the link and a separate browser will open up with the reference document in it. After reading the reference document you can close the browser to be returned to the Library text.

For an explanation of the 'Related' buttons see later.

It is important to note that the constant developments in taxation and law mean it is difficult to keep the Information Library up to date at all times. It is therefore important to read the Information Library in conjunction with the Bulletins on that subject so that you can keep up to date on all the latest developments in that area.

Bulletins Section

To access bulletins, click on the Bulletins link on the navigation column on the left of the screen.

Recent Bulletins

On choosing this button you will be faced with a screen listing 'Todays bulletins' and 'Recent bulletins'.

The bulletins under 'Todays bulletins' are those that have been written and placed onto the internet the day you have logged on, so clearly these will change each day.

'Recent Bulletins' list those bulletins, grouped by date in chronological order, that have been written and placed onto the site over the past 30 days.

Each bulletin summary shows in blue the title of the bulletin (and by clicking on this you can bring up the bulletin itself) and below this is the subject heading it has been filed under.

On clicking on a bulletin title the bulletin will appear on screen showing the subject heading it belongs to, its title, a short synopsis of its contents, and the date on which it was posted. Below this will be the content of the bulletin itself. Just use the scroll bar or arrows on the right of the screen to read its contents.

Within some bulletins you will notice that some of the text is in blue and underlined. These are links. Often the words that have been highlighted are either statutory provisions or regulations that the bulletin is referring to but which are often too long or cumbersome to include within the text itself. Just click on the link and a separate web browser will open up with the reference document in it. After reading the reference document you can close the browser down, and will be brought back to the bulletin.

For an explanation of the 'Related' buttons see later.

Bulletin Archive

Under the Bulletins link on the navigation column you will see a link to Archive.. Any bulletins that have been posted over 30 days ago are filed within this index. To access this index click this button.

You will then be presented with an alphabetical list of subject headings dealt with by Techlink. To find the subject which you are interested in either scroll down using the bar on the right, or click on a letter at the top of the screen to move you more quickly to a part of the list.

Having found the subject heading you are interested in click on the blue underlined title. (note: If you wish to view documents other than bulletins relating to this heading, click the corresponding icon to the left of the heading).

You will then be presented with a list of all the bulletins written on that subject in chronological order. Again just click on the blue title to read the bulletin.

The list will show the bulletins produced in the last year. To view older bulletins you need to choose the period of time you are interested in from the “Show bulletins from:” dropdown near the top of the screen.

Need to Know

To access Need to Know, click on the Need to Know link on the navigation column on the left of the screen.

You will see here a list of the Need to Know topic headings in blue on the left, with the date they were last updated on the right. By clicking on the blue link you will be taken to the topic itself.

Each topic will give you the date it was last updated. Below this there will also be a list of contents. Although you can scroll through the entire text using the scroll bar on the right of the screen you can click on any of the contents headings to take you to that specific area within the text.

Techlearn

Here you will see an archive of the Techlearn Lectures in chronological format. For each lecture there will be the title of the lecture, below which will be a synopsis of the issues covered within it, along with the date is was added to the site. Clicking on the blue link will take you to the lectures summary page.

This is the overview page for the Techlearn lecture you have chosen to view.

At the top of the screen you will be presented with a summary of the lecture. This will detail the title of the lecture, which consultant has created and voiced the lecture, the date it was recorded, a running time of how long the lecture will last, as well as links to Techlink. The links are supplied to give you further, more in-depth information on the subject areas contained in the lecture by taking you to the most relevant parts of the Techlink library.

Below this you will see buttons marked "Start Lecture and "Download PDF. Pressing the “Start Lecture” button will open a new browser screen within which the lecture will start to play. Like the Technews videos these require streaming and so there may be a short delay before the lecture begins to play. Pressing the "Download PDF" button will download the slides and script used in the lecture, as a PDF.

The lecture features an animated powerpoint presentation that has the lecturers voice recorded in conjunction with it. These lectures have control buttons at the bottom of the screen that enables you to close the lecture completely, pause and start it.

Once you have finished watching the lecture you can close this lecture screen by clicking the large cross icon at the bottom left of the screen.

Newsletters

Each quarter Technical Connection produces a client and professional newsletter targeted at financial advisers. These newsletters feature articles written by our consultants on relevant developments on tax, tax planning, trusts, pensions and financial planning with retail investment and protection products . These articles include a commentary on how these developments will affect your clients your professional connections, and are available for download.

On this screen you will see the most recent client and professional newsletter. Each newsletter will have its title (in blue) below which will be the title of all of the articles included in that newsletter. To the right of this are two icons, pressing the one marked PDF Version will enable you to download to your computer an Adobe Acrobat non-editable version of the newsletter, pressing the one marked MS Word Version will enable you to download to your computer a Microsoft Word editable version of the newsletter. When clicking on either of these icons you will be given the choice of whether you want to “Open” the newsletter for viewing now, or whether you wish to “Save” it for viewing or editing at a later date.

Ask Section

The Ask facility has been designed so that Techlink users who subscribe to the full service can ask any technical question, if they have not been able to find the answer within the other resources of Techlink.

Mailbox

On entering the Ask screen you will be presented with a screen showing a list of questions asked by your company for the Techlink consultants to answer.

Each new question asked by your company will show the senders name, the date on which the question was asked and the title of the question asked. To the far right of the screen, under 'Answered' you will see either Yes or No. This offers you a quick way to tell whether our Techlink consultants have answered the question. Next to this is the option to mark the question as read.

You will also see buttons to Recent Questions, Post a new question, and to the Question Archive. These will be explained later.

Each time you, or a member of your company asks a question (explained later) it will appear on this screen. If you click on the title of a question the screen will change to show the title of the question, the date on which it was posted, who its was asked by, and the question itself. If we have not answered the question a note will appear at the bottom of the question saying the question has not yet been answered but is being looked at. (Note that you would already have been aware that the question had not been answered because on the first screen it would have had No under 'Answered').

If we have answered the question our reply will appear underneath the question, giving the date on which we replied, and the name of the consultant who has answered it. (Note that you would already have been aware that the question had been answered because on the first screen it would have had Yes under 'Answered' and would have had 'Re:' under the question title itself.

Regardless of whether the question has been answered or not, you will see a button marked follow-up. By clicking this you can add any further details to the question you may want to, or can ask us further questions on the subject having read our reply.

If you are happy that the question has been answered to your satisfaction by pressing the Back button you will return to the Mailbox screen. On the far right of the screen is the option to mark the question read. By putting a tick in the box and then pressing the Mark Read button (at the bottom of the page) the question and answer will be filed in the Q&A Archive (explained later) and will be removed from the Mailbox screen.

Please note that if you mark read a question not asked by yourself, this question will be marked read for all members of your own company, and will leave this screen. We would therefore request that you only mark read those questions asked by yourself.

Post a New Question

If you want to ask a question for the Techlink consultants to answer press Ask on the navigation column on the left side of the screen and then choose Post New on the dropdown that appears.

The screen that appears will already have registered your name and the date the question is being asked. Below that is a scroll down list of all the subject heading within Techlink. You need to highlight which heading or headings the question most relates to. This heading will be used to archive your question for later reference.

Below this, in the box marked "Subject", you are required to type a subject name for the query. The question can be named whatever you wish, however the closer it is to the contents of the question, the easier it is to recognise when searching through questions later on.

In the third box is what your question is to be. Simply type in the query you have. There is no restriction as to its length.

Below this box you will see an option to mark whether you wish the question to be open to viewing by other users. This is explained in more detail later, but essentially if you mark the question as being open this means that any other user of Techlink can read your question. If you do not wish it to be open then only members of your own company will be able to read your question.

Once you have completed typing the message you need to click the 'Post Question' button at the bottom right of the screen, at which point it will be received by the Techlink consultants to be answered.

If you have made any mistake on the question, or decide you do not wish to send it then you can click the button 'Reset'. This will then give you an empty form to fill in again.

Recent Questions

On talking with our subscribers, many felt it would be a good idea to build up a library of questions and answers. With this in mind we have the 'Recent Questions' section. Whenever a user asks a question for the Techlink consultants to answer they are given the option as to whether they wish it to be a private question (for example if it is in regard to a company product) or whether they wish it to be an open question (for example if it is a general tax query the answer to which could be helpful to other users).

If you want to view recent questions, press Ask on the navigation column on the left side of the screen and then choose Recent on the dropdown that appears.

Each question summary has the title in blue of the question (and by clicking on this you can bring up the question itself), and below this the subject heading(s) it has been filed under (which becomes relevant later).

By clicking on the name of the question, the question will appear along with any answers given by the Techlink consultants, and any follow-ups from the question.

You may notice that some of the questions listed within this section do not have an answer from the consultants. This is because any question, if marked as an open question, will appear in this list as soon as it is posted. This is so that clients can see whether a question they are about to ask hasn't also been asked recently.

If you are interested at lookingt at any questions asked more than 30 days ago then press choose Ask on the navigation column on the left side of the screen and then choose Archive on the dropdown that appears.

Question Archive

Each question that has been asked and answered is filed under one of the Techlink subject headings.

When pressing the Archive button you will be presented with an alphabetical list of subject headings dealt with by Techlink. To find the subject which you are interested in either scroll down using the bar on the right, or click on a letter at the top of the screen to move you more quickly to a part of the list.

Having found the subject heading you are interested in click on it.

You will then be presented with a list of all the questions and answers asked on that subject in chronological order. Again just click on the blue title to read the questions.

The 'Related' Links

Techlink has been designed around subject headings, with all Bulletins, Library texts, questions and reference documents being linked to these subjects. At the top or bottom of most screens you will see buttons for some, or all of 'Bulletins', 'Library' and 'Questions'. These are here to guide you around the site to find further reading on the subject area you are currently investigating. If you choose 'Bulletins' you will be taken to a chronological list of all bulletins that have been posted under the topic area you are currently investigating. For example, if you are currently in the Library looking at a topic within Self Assessment, pressing the 'Related Bulletins' button will take you to a chronological list of all bulletins written on Self Assessment. If you choose 'Library' this will take you to the list of topics we have written in the Library around the subject heading you are currently investigating. For example, if you were reading a bulletin on taper relief, that has been filed within "Capital Gains Tax Reliefs", the 'Related Library' button will take you to the Capital Gains Tax Reliefs topic index in the information library. If you choose 'Questions' this will take you to the list of questions and answers that has been asked on the subject heading you are currently investigating. For example, if you were reading a Bulletin on inheritance tax the related Q&A will take you to a list of any questions asked on inheritance tax.

Search

The Techlink website also offers a search function. This enables you to search through the whole or selected parts of our website for certain words. This means that rather than going through all the subject areas and all the cross references you can instead search the entire website for keywords.

To access this click on 'Search' on the navigation column on the left.

You will then be presented with a form in four parts:

• Keywords
• Headings
• Search in
• Over the last

Keywords

Within this box you need to type what you want the browser to search for. This means that if you wish the browser to search the Techlink site for mention of 'pensions', you need to type 'pensions' within this box. If you wish to search for more than one word e.g. ‘self assessment’ then you will need to put a plus sign between the words ‘self+assessment’.

Subject headings

Here you can, if you wish, limit the headings the search will work through. If left as the default setting the search engine will search through all the headings.

If you wish to limit the search simply scroll down the list using the scroll bar on the right until you come to the subject area you wish it to search for. Click on the subject heading and it will become blue.

Within

The search will not work unless you say which areas of the Techlink site you wish to search in.

Here you have four options - to search for your words through the Bulletins, the Library, Need to Know, or Ask. By putting a tick in any of the boxes on the left (by clicking on them) you can search through whichever areas you choose for your requested words. By default it will search through all the areas.

Over the Last

The search is already set to search through the entire archive of whichever area you have chosen. However you can determine over what period you wish the search to run by this drop down menu. Thus, for example if you only wish to search through the previous week's bulletins, you will need to open the drop down menu and highlight "less than a week" By default it will search for documents from the last year.

Once these details have been filled in click on the 'Submit search' button at the bottom to start the search.

Search Results

When the search results appear the screen will show the headings under which you searched, ie Library, Bulletin, Need to Know and Ask. Under each of these will be the list of all documents which contained the search criteria, and which area of Techlink they were filed under, and, or the date on which it was published on the site.

When you have found a search result that interests you, just click on the blue link to be taken to that document. The search word can be found highlighted in yellow each time it appears in the document.

Profile

Your personal profile is a feature enabling you to receive an email alert whenever a bulletin, library, Need to Know, Technews video broadcast, or Techlearn lecture is added or updated on the website - keeping you up to date with the very latest information.

To enable this feature, simply fill in your details in the User Information section, making sure to give a correct and current email address. Below this section is “Email Alerts”. Place a tick in the box next to each subject area you would wish to receive an alert on. If you would like to be alerted whenever any amendment/addition has been made select "Receive alerts on ALL topics".

Other Help

If you require assistance please do not hesitate to telephone Derek Lovell or Clare Thomas at Technical Connection Ltd on 020 7405 1600 or e-mail host@techlink.co.uk.