V4.0 User Guide Last Updated: July 2010

Transcription

1 V4.0 User Guide Last Updated: July 2010

2 1.0 Getting Started Welcome to StarterSearch.com, Fidelity National Title Group's most comprehensive prior policy lookup application. In order to provide title operations and authorized agents with the ability to quickly search and view starter policies from the convenience of their computers, FNTG has worked to create a national policy repository and The national policy repository is an electronic warehouse that stores tens of millions of policies from in house production systems (i.e. Simon, Team, and NGS), as well as, scanned images of documents created outside FNTG applications. The repository will continue to grow to include all FNTG historical and ongoing policy-related data and document images. Starter Insights, a repository of scanned prior policies and formerly operated by Property Insights, has been added to the national policy repository. Through StarterSearch.com, users can search, find, and view policy information and PDF images of the policies produced by any of the FNTG title brands and their agents stored in the national policy repository. Startersearch.com provides authorized users with a single point of access to starter policies, eliminating the time and cost associated with researching, locating and procuring these documents through other more labor intensive methods. Created with the needs of title operations in mind, the Web-based tool is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so users can search for starter records when it is most convenient. Search results are conveniently displayed through the web application, where users can quickly locate available starter records using a variety of standard search criteria. 1.1 Instructions for Obtaining a User ID and Password In order to gain access to StarterSearch.com you must be either an employee of a Fidelity National Title Group direct operation or an agent of a FNTG title brand. Agents must be sponsored and authorized by their FNTG title manager. If you meet this criteria and are not a registered user of StarterSearch, please fill out the appropriate request form, and or fax it to the contact listed below. Agent Access Request Form Employee Access Request Form StarterSearch Support Phone: Option 8 StarterSeachSupport@fnf.com Fax: Monday through Friday 5:00am 6:00pm PST Excluding Federal Holidays 7/28/ Fidelity National Title Group 2010

3 1.2 Introduction StarterSearch is a web-based application. To access StarterSearch you will need a computer which has access to the internet, and a compatible web browser. Currently, StarterSearch v4.0 supports Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. To view images of starter documents you will need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer as well. To access the StarterSearch application and start searching for your starter documents 1. Open your supported web browser 2. Type the following into the Address Bar: 3. Press Enter This will bring you to the homepage of StarterSearch.com. 1.3 Home Page On the homepage there are several sections. On the right there is the News & Announcements section. You will see news articles relating to StarterSearch scrolling in that box. If you would like to learn more about a particular article, you can click on the text, and be taken to the full article. 7/28/ Fidelity National Title Group 2010

4 In the center are two important boxes. The first has a link to the Getting Started page, where you can find applications for new accounts and contact information for the Support Desk. The Overview link has more information about how we collect our data and where the documents come from. To Login, look to the top right for the Username and Password boxes Home Page The Home page is the first page that you will see when accessing the edoc StarterSearch web page Getting Started Page This page allows new users to download the documents which must be approved and signed by their underwriter, and faxed to the support center prior to gaining access to StarterSearch Overview Page The Overview page gives an explanation as to what StarterSearch is, and why it is needed News & Announcements Page The News & Announcements will display any and all articles which are written by the StarterSearch staff for public viewing. Check back here regularly to stay up to date on all StarterSearch news Login The login box allows you to enter your username and password. Once logged in, you will be taken to the search page to begin searching for starter documents Timeout StarterSearch will automatically logout an inactive user after 30 minutes. After 30 minutes of inactivity the user will be notified that they will be logged out if they do not respond within 10 seconds. If the user does not respond, the login screen will appear, and the user will need to log back in to continue using StarterSearch. 7/28/ Fidelity National Title Group 2010

5 2.0 Searching Once you have successfully logged into the StarterSearch webpage, you will be taken to the Search page, which looks like this: At the top of the Search page, you will notice a new navigation bar. This bar has four links Search This link will allow you to save searches and also open previously saved searches. See section 2.2 for more information on saved searches User This link will allow you to either update your password, or change other personal information such as address and phone number. You can also setup your personal preferences from this menu. See Section 4 for more information on your preferences Help This links you to contact information for the Support Desk, search tips and allows you to provide feedback about the application Log Out The Log Out link is pushed over to the right hand side of the navigation bar, next to your name. This will allow you to logout and discontinue use of the StarterSearch application. 7/28/ Fidelity National Title Group 2010

6 2.1 Search Menu Search Fields Search fields are now all on one page, so you no longer have the need to scroll to see them all. The fields are split up into four sections, Common, Property, Document and Parcel. The first two fields are required, State and Product Type State By default you will have access to your home state, and all documents within that state. In addition to these two fields, you are required to enter either a City or a County name. After making selections for Product Type and State, you will need to enter either a county or city to continue searching. This is not true when searching by policy number. You can search by policy number throughout an entire state, without entering a county or city Product Type As the default option, internal FNTG employees will have access to Starters, Policy, Prelim, Commitment and Endorsement document types. Tip: Users should use Starters as the Document Type to get the most results, as Starters will search for Policy, Prelim, Endorsement and/or Commitment documents Requirements With the exception of the Policy Number, you are required to enter a City or County no matter what other search criteria you are using. Policy Numbers can be searched on simply by selecting the Product Type and State. Some fields are tied together, and must be used in unison. For instance, if a Book number is entered, then a Page number must also be entered. Other fields are not tied together, for instance, you can simply enter an Insured Name, or Buyer name, and no other information. Tip: It is recommended that you enter information in as few fields as possible. This will give you a greater chance for finding the document, and speed up the search process Effective Dates The effective date fields (Effective From and Effective To) have been removed from the main search page. However, they can be used to refine a search after the results are displayed. 7/28/ Fidelity National Title Group 2010

7 2.2 Search Tips Using the Wildcard for Searching The wildcard for a search is the asterisk symbol (*). We recommend only using the wildcard to generate a greater number of "hits" to your query when necessary, as it will likely add time to your search. Users can use the wildcard in front of, in between, or after entering characters into a field. The wildcard is available with a minimum of one character in each field, meaning you must provide at least one alpha-numeric field with the wildcard. Note: Wildcards will not be available in the Acreage fields The following examples show a few options for how the wildcard characters can be used for searching: Buyer = Stephen* - will return all records which begin with Stephen Buyer = *Stephen - will return all records which end with Stephen Buyer = *Stephen* - will return all records which contain the text Stephen Buyer = Stephen * Smith - will return all records with a buyer name of Stephen Smith, even if a middle initial is used in the field APN Searches Dashes can be removed from Policy Number and APN searches for ease of use. If your Policy or APN number is " ", when searching, it can be entered as The system will find the property either way. Leading zeros are not required, and we recommend that you remove any leading zeros from these searches, as well as Title/Order Number searches Apostrophes Apostrophes should not be used when searching, e.g. If the name of the insured is "O'Malley", omit the apostrophe so that it appears as "Omalley" Subdivision or Condo When searching for a Subdivision or Condo, enter the appropriate information in the Subdivision field. If the search is unsuccessful, enter the Subdivision or Condo Name in the Street Name field Clear Button If the Clear button is selected, all fields will be cleared. 7/28/ Fidelity National Title Group 2010

8 2.3 Saved Searches Creating a Saved Search If you often use the same search criteria as a base for various searches, you can save those criteria for quick access in the future. To save a search, enter the search criteria that you want to auto-fill at a later time. Once the information is entered into the fields, put your mouse cursor over the Search button at the top of the page. You will see a menu appear with the option for Save Search, and you will click that. You will be prompted to enter a name for your search criteria. Enter the name, click OK, and the system will confirm that your search criteria has been saved Running Saved Searches To access your saved searches, put your mouse cursor over the Search button at the top of the page. You will see a menu appear with the option for Open Search, and you will click that. The Open Search box will appear with an alphabetical list of your saved searches. If you click on one of the saved searches, it will display the details of that search. You can double-click on one of the results to open that search criteria and auto-fill the fields you previously saved. 3.0 Search Results Once the search criteria have been entered, the button below may be clicked with the mouse, or press the Enter key on your keyboard. If all fields need to be cleared in preparation for a new search, you may click the button. Search results will be returned on the Results tab, in Grid View by default. 7/28/ Fidelity National Title Group 2010

9 3.1 Results Results Tab Results will be displayed under the Results tab. This displays any starter documents which are a perfect match of the search criteria which has been entered. In the below screenshot, a property address was used to search for an address of 1* Main in Orange County, CA. The application tells the user that there are 483 documents which match the search criteria in the repository. To display the Document Details of any of the results, you can simply double-click on the row you want to display Select Columns to View You can select the columns to view by clicking on the columns button located toward the right side of the page in the upper yellow bar. The button looks like this: When that button is clicked a menu will appear with various checkboxes. Each checkbox is labeled with the name of a data value. You can select the specific columns you want to display in your results, as to help speed up your searching. These settings will need to be set each day. We will be working on a more permanent solution in the near future Refine Search If your search results are too many or too varied, you can refine your search without needing to go back to the Criteria tab. To refine your results, click the Refine Search Results button, located toward the right side of the page in the upper, yellow bar. The button looks like this: When clicked, a menu will appear with the all fields which contain data in your results. You can use them to select a specific piece of data. 7/28/ Fidelity National Title Group 2010

10 3.1.3 Summary View If you would like to see a view of your results that appears more like the older system, you can switch from Grid View to the Summary View. Summary view has a look and feel more like the older versions of StarterSearch and can be accessed by clicking the Summary View button on the right hand side of the upper, yellow bar. The button looks like this: Sorting You can sort the search results by any column by clicking on the column header. 3.2 Document Details When you are ready to view a document s details, you will double-click on the row in the Results tab as shown above. Double-clicking on the result will bring up the details below, in the Document Details section Document Details Screen The Document Details screen displays the information listed above. Fields which are not indexed for the document are lighter in color to show the missing information. In addition to the text displayed, there are five important buttons to recognize. At the top right of the Document Details screen, you will see this image. By clicking the image of the document the application will bring up an image of the actual document. The images are loaded as PDF (Adobe Acrobat) files, and you will need the Adobe Acrobat Reader to view these files. 7/28/ Fidelity National Title Group 2010

11 Tip: The Adobe Acrobat Reader can be downloaded from this website: Next to the document image link is a dropdown menu to perform other actions. By clicking this arrow, you will be able to print the details page and maintain a hard copy of the document details, or report any issues that you may find with the documents, images, or indexing of the documents. Above the Vesting Information, you will find a button to copy that text. This button will allow you to copy the vesting information directly to your computer s clipboard. This will make it easy for you to paste it into any other program you may be using. Above the Legal Information, you will find a button to copy that text. This button will allow you to copy the legal information directly to your computer s clipboard. This will make it easy for you to paste it into any other program you may be using. 4.0 User Preferences StarterSearch v4.0 includes a Preferences option to setup application preferences and make your experience more enjoyable. Through the preferences, you can setup default entries for State, County and Product Type. You can setup which results style you would like to see, and what data columns are displayed in your results. To access the Preferences option, put your cursor over the User button at the top of the page, and select Preferences. 7/28/ Fidelity National Title Group 2010

12 4.1 General Options The first screen you will see are your General options. This page allows you to save your username and password to make logging in easier. You can also have the system save your search criteria should you be timed out of the system. This way when you log back in your search criteria will still be there for you. 4.2 Search Options Click Search in the left hand menu to view the available different search options. On the Search Criteria screen you can setup your default State, County and/or Product Type settings. This will speed things up for users who often search in the same State and/or County. You can specify a state without specifying a county. There is also a checkbox for Automatically perform search when opening a saved search. This will automatically launch a search when you select a search that you have previously saved. 7/28/ Fidelity National Title Group 2010

13 4.3 Results Options Click Results on the left to access the Search Results screen. This screen allows you to specify if you would like to see the Grid View or Summary View when results are presented to you. There is also a Summary option on the left hand menu, under Results. This allows you to specify how many results will be displayed on each page of the Summary View, if you use that option of viewing your results. The last option in the left hand menu is Grid. This is the page where you can select which columns of data to display in your Grid View results page. Use the checkboxes on this page to determine which data you will view by default. You can always change these on the fly while searching, but this will setup the Grid View to your own personal preferences. 7/28/ Fidelity National Title Group 2010

14 5.0 Error Reporting StarterSearch allows you to notify the support team that a problem has been found with a document directly from the interface. When you double-click a document from the Main Results section, you will see the indexed information on that document in the Document Detail section below. There is a button on the far righthand side called Report Issue. Click that button to report an error either with the indexed information (displayed text in the StarterSearch interface), or with the image itself. When you click this button, you will see a new window appear. This window will have several selections, and a field for you to enter a brief description of what is wrong with the document. 7/28/ Fidelity National Title Group 2010

15 Doc Id, State and County will all be auto-populated for you. 5.1 Issue Types Indexing Issue Indexing issues have to do with errors which can be seen through the StarterSearch interface, or information which is provided without viewing the actual image. If there are misspellings, juxtaposed number, or any other erroneous information on the screen, then this is the selection which would be made Image Issue Image issues are problems with the actual image of the document. Images may be too blurry, or too dark to read. Some images may be missing pages of the document. Any problems with the PDF image would be defined as an Image problem. We request that you provide the section in which the issue appears by selecting Property Info, Policy Info, or Legal Info. This will help to narrow down the best solution for the problem. It also provides tracking ability so that any patterns can be detected. Finally, we request that you provide a short description of the problem. Explain clearly what the issue is, and be specific so that the problem may be dealt with quickly. 7/28/ Fidelity National Title Group 2010

16 6.0 Troubleshooting This section describes tips to making the StarterSearch experience as smooth as possible. 6.1 Adobe Acrobat Reader The Adobe Acrobat Reader is required to view all images found within the StarterSearch application. When a user clicks to view an image, a popup window will appear, displaying the document image. If Adobe Acrobat Reader is set to display the PDF file in a separate window, a blank Internet Explorer page opened each time an image is viewed. To set Adobe Acrobat Reader to display the image in the popup window, follow these simple steps: Step 1: Open Adobe Acrobat Reader, using the icon placed on the desktop. Step 2: Once Adobe Acrobat Reader is open, select Edit at the top, and go to Preferences. Step 3: Once on the Preferences menu, select Internet under Categories, and check the box that reads Display PDF in Browser. 7/28/ Fidelity National Title Group 2010