Help

Jump to: Bookmarking │ Sharing │ Mobile │ Alerts │ Embed the Search Box on Your Website

Finding Information

• Learn how to find publications.
• Learn what publications are available.
• See search tips and sample searches.
• Learn about the URL structure.
• Get help with a specific collection.
• See video tutorials and handouts.

Bookmarking Links and Searches or Generating Automatic URLs

Bookmark pages, searches, search results, and specific sections under the browse hierarchies. Pages, search results, and browse sections can be bookmarked by the URL in the bar at the top of your browser. To bookmark advanced or citation searches, click Get Bookmarkable Link in the search box.

Also, wherever you see a SHARE button, you can click Share, then click Favorites for a shortcut to save a bookmark in your browser to the page you're on.

To construct predictable URLs to documents and Details pages, GovInfo uses specific information. Visit each collection's help page in the What's Available section for the specific structure for a specific collection.

A link service and API are also available to construct predictable links.

Sharing Content and Pages

When you click on a share button, you can choose to email, post to Facebook or Twitter, or copy a link for other uses. Sharing is a quick and easy way to post links to various social media channels. For example, if you click on a share button of an individual search result, the title of the publication (along with any citation) plus the link to the content details page will be pre-filled into your post.

You may be asked to sign into your social media accounts before posting. This sign-in is handled outside of GPO, and we do not track or have any interaction with your private information.

On Mobile Devices

Simply navigate to www.govinfo.gov in the browser on your mobile device. The site display will automatically resize and shift to be optimized for the screen size on whatever device is being used. This is accomplished through Responsive Web Design, so there is no need to download an app or use a different URL to access a mobile version. The desktop version and mobile versions are the same, just simply reorganized based on the screen size.

Testing of GovInfo has been conducted on Android using Chrome, while iOS tests have used Safari and Chrome. Additionally, testing has been performed with IE11, Edge, Firefox, Chrome, and Safari on desktop.

The benefit of not using separate mobile and desktop versions of the site is that, with a few minor exceptions, the same content and functionality is available regardless of the device you are using. We have tailored the experience on smartphones to ensure that the most relevant tasks are available, while removing some which are unlikely to be used by mobile users (such as downloading complete ZIP packages of content).

Viewing downloaded files may depend on what apps you have installed or native support for formats. For example, if you download a PDF, you will need an app that is capable of opening and displaying PDFs

Alerts and Notifications

RSS feeds are available for most GovInfo collections and bulk data. We're working to provide additional options for receiving notifications so stay tuned and check our Release Notes periodically for announcements on new functionality.

Embed the Search Box on Your Website

Web managers can add the following code to websites, which will allow users to perform basic searches on GovInfo via a search widget.

<style type="text/css">.govinfo-search__container #govinfo-external-search{width:250px;border:1px solid gray;margin-right:10px;margin-bottom:5px;padding-left:10px}.govinfo-search__container{display:flex;align-items:center;background-color:#f5f5f5;padding:10px;border:1px solid #c4c4c4}.govinfo-search__container label{float:left;font-size:14px;width:100%}.govinfo-search__container #search-submit{background-color:#f26531;outline:none;border:none;color:white;padding:3px 10px 1px 10px;text-transform:uppercase;font-size:14px}</style><form onsubmit="externalFormAction();"><div class="govinfo-search__container"> <img alt="blue GovInfo logo" src="https://www.govinfo.gov/media/govinfo_eagle_homepage.png" style="float:left;margin-right:10px; height: 70px;"><div role="search" class="govinfo-search__box"> <label for="govinfo-external-search">Discover U.S. Government Information:</label><input id="govinfo-external-search" placeholder="Search govinfo.gov" type="text"><button id="search-submit" type="submit">Search</button></div></div></form> <script type="text/javascript">function externalFormAction(){var govinfoParam=document.getElementById('govinfo-external-search').value;event.preventDefault();window.open('https://www.govinfo.gov/app/search/{"query":"'+govinfoParam+'","offset":0}','_blank');}</script>

Preview:

Discover U.S. Government InformationSearch

Still Need Help?

If the help you need is not addressed on these pages, please let us know how we can do better by submitting feedback or contacting us.