The SNAP Program Manual displays in a 3 pane format: 

  • Menu Bar 
  • Navigation Pane
  • Policy Pane


The following is a brief description of the positions where information can be displayed, navigated to, and searched.


Menu Bar

The Menu Bar is positioned in the top pane and displays the following:

  • Contents – displays the listing of Items contained in the manual.
  • Index – provides an alphabetical list of all key words or phrases in the manual.  Type a key word or phrase in the text box or click on an Index item to go to that location in the manual.
  • Search – Type the word or phrase in the text box, then click GO.


Navigation Pane

The Navigation Pane is located on the left side of your browser.  It shows the structure of the manual with a series of Items, Sections, and Sub-Sections I & II. The Items are presented in a logical order to understand the policy needed to process a case.


Click on a closed book icon to open it to see the contents.  Once a book is opened, the icon changes to an opened book.  Click on a subfolder until you get to the lowest level of organization.  When you click on the document icon, the policy will appear on the right side of your browser window. 


Policy Pane

The Policy Pane appears on the right side of the web browser and will display the SNAP policy selected in the Navigation Pane.



Viewing Content

To resize the Navigation Pane or the Policy Pane, click on the vertical line that divides them and drag to the left or right as needed.



To expand the Policy Pane to fill the screen, click on the “X” in the upper right hand corner of the Navigation Pane.  This closes the Navigation Pane. To re-display the Navigation Pane, click Contents in the Menu Bar.



Using the Index

Like an Index in a printed manual, the Index is designed to help in locating specific information.  Click the Index icon on the Menu Bar to display a list of words found in the SNAP Manual.


Locating Index information is done in one of 2 ways:

  • Type a keyword in ‘Type in the keyword to find:’ text box.
  • Scroll through the displayed words/phrases and select to display the information in the Policy Pane. 


Using the Search Function 

Click the Search icon on the Menu Bar and type in a specific word or phrase in the text box to find instances within the manual. To search for a phrase, enter it in quotation marks in the search box.  

Example: “medical expenses”. The results will be displayed in the Navigation Pane.  Select the “Highlight search results” box to help identify where the word/phrase is found in the policy. 


All search results will be found with the total number of results indicated. The default is set to view 10 results per page.  If there are more than 10 results there will be an option to select additional pages of search results at the bottom of the search pane. You may also change the value to a larger number such as 99 to get more results per page. 


Hyperlinks

Terms in the manual that appear as blue underlined text are hyperlinks.  There are 4 different types of hyperlinks used throughout the manual that will display additional information. 

  • Link within the Item – these hyperlinks are shortcuts to a specific place within the Item.  These allow a “jump” from one part of the document to another without scrolling. To return to the previous location in the manual click the back button in the top.
  • Link to a different Item – these hyperlinks are shortcuts to a specific place within different Items of the manual. To return to the previous location in the manual click the back button in the top.
  • Link to an Intranet site – these hyperlinks will open the Intranet site window.  To return to the manual just close the window.
  • Link to an Internet site – these hyperlinks will open the Internet site window.  To return to the manual just close the window.   
  • Link to Glossary – these links will appear as blue, underlined and italicized text and will link directly to the Glossary term.  To return to the previous location in the manual click the back button in the top toolbar. You can also get to the Glossary by selecting the Glossary Item in the Navigation Pane.  The Glossary is alphabetized and you may select the letter of the alphabet at the top of the Glossary Item of the term you are looking for.

Note:  After a link has been selected it will turn gray.  To refresh the manual so that all links will again appear blue, go to Internet browser settings and clear your browsing history, then select the refresh icon.  



Grey Highlighted Text

Text highlighted in grey in the Policy Pane indicates changes made during the last release. 



Legal Base

Legal Base identifies the federal law and regulations the Item policy is based on.  Federal legal base is shown immediately below the Section and Sub-section headings, in smaller font and italics. 



Last Update

Last Update contains the most recent Source # and Effective Date of the update to the Item.