Frequently Asked Questions

The KU Policy Library is a repository for all the official policies at the University of Kansas. By having the policies in one location it becomes easier for the users to find and locate the information they need. In addition to this, the links to the policies become easier to maintain and are less likely to break in the future.

Hawk Drive account requests are considered for approval for KU offices and departments who will be contributing policies to the KU Policy web site. Offices and departments are limited at this time, due to license capacity, to one or two contributors (people who can add policies) to the Hawk Drive system. Public access to the policies via the web site is unlimited.

To request an account fill out the account request form.

1. Log into http://hawkdrive.ku.edu/
2. To be taken to the list of your main folders, click on the folder icon located in the upper-left corner of the screen, just below the University of Kansas logo.
3. Double-click on the policies folder to be taken to its subfolders.
4. Double-click on your departmental folder to be taken to your department’s policies.

The policy template can be downloaded here (HTML format).

1. Open a web browser and go to: https://documents.ku.edu/policies/templates/KUPolicyDocumentTemplate.htm
2. In your browser, select File » Save As, and save the page somewhere you will be able to find it. If you are using Internet Explorer, for the file type choose "Webpage, HTML only (*.htm, *.html)"
3. Open up Microsoft Word
4. In Word, browse to the location of the downloaded template and open it
5. Fill in all of the spaces that are relevant in the KU Policy Template. Delete anything that does not relate to the policy
6. Click File » Properties, and in the Title box, after “KU Policy|” enter the Policy Title as it appears within the text of your document (e.g. “KU Policy| Animals in Buildings”).
7. Click File » Save As, and change the document file name to reflect the name of your policy. The type should be: "Web Page, Filtered (*.htm, *.html)"
8. When determining a document file name, be sure not to include spaces. Use underscores ( _ ) instead if you need to create separation between the words. (Including spaces in the document file name causes the URL created by Hawk Drive to contain extraneous punctuation marks, like %20).
9. You are now ready to upload the policy.

There are two modes of upload, Basic and Advanced. Basic upload allows you to browse one file at a time, until you have compiled a list of files to upload. For more information on Advanced upload, click here.

1. Navigate to the folder to which you wish to upload files.
2. Click the Upload button.
3. Browse to the file you wish to upload.
4. If you wish to upload more files, click Add Files and Browse to the file. Repeat this step for as many files as you wish to upload.
5. Fill in your policy’s classification information in the fields that appear below the Upload box.
6. Click Start Upload.

The editing method of modifying a file is most helpful if you have a minor change to make to an existing document. This method makes use of Web Folders, a valuable tool for editing your files in their native applications.

This method only works using Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher (not Firefox). In order to run Web folders correctly, you need to have your "security cookie" set.

To edit an existing policy:

1. Log in to http://hawkdrive.ku.edu/
2. Browse to the policy’s folder.
3. Click on the Launch Web Folder icon to see a listing of all files that can be edited/updated.
4. Right-click on the file name you wish to edit, and select Edit.
5. Make necessary edits within your policy document.
6. Be sure to File → Save As → “Web Page, Filtered (*.htm, *html).” Failure to save as “Web Page, Filtered” will result in undesired changes to your policy’s formatting.
7. When saving a document that you have edited within your Hawk Drive policy folder, make sure to double check that the page title, located just below the “Save As Type” line, has been entered correctly. Click File » Save As, and then click on “Change Title”. After “KU Policy |” enter the Policy Title as it appears within the text of your document (e.g. “KU Policy| Animals in Buildings”).
8. Your changes will be reflected immediately within the KU Policy Library.

There are two methods for modifying files that have already been uploaded: Overwriting and Editing.

Overwriting:
*This method is helpful if you have made extensive changes to a document and want to easily replace the previous document with an entirely new one.

1. Log in to http://hawkdrive.ku.edu/
2. Navigate to and select the file or folder which you wish to overwrite.
3. Click the Manage button to open up the Manage menu, then select Versioning.
4. From the Versioning screen, click the Overwrite button.
5. Browse to select the file you will use to overwrite the existing file. It is important to make sure that the new file name matches the file name of the file you are attempting to overwrite. Non-matching file names will cause your policy document’s link to break.

   *Note: When overwriting a document in Hawk Drive, the file extensions must be the same. If you attempt to overwrite a file with a non-matching extension type (Example: trying to overwrite a .pdf file with a Microsoft Word .docx file), the overwritten file will appear as strange coding, and your policy document will be illegible. If you do happen to accidentally overwrite a file with a non-matching extension type, your previous version of the file will not be lost. As in the older version of Hawk Drive/Xythos, all previous versions of your files will be saved in the Versioning tab of each file’s Manage page. To revert back to your original file, simply go to the Manage page, select the “mismatched”/newest version, and delete it. Your policy will return to the original version.

6. Select Start Upload. Your new version will automatically appear within the Policy Library.

NOTE: Renaming a file to anything different than its original name will cause its link to break wherever it appears. When naming your files for the first time, be sure to name your file something that will last (i.e. make sure the file name does not contain a date in it) so that you can avoid having to rename it later.

PLEASE NOTE: When determining a document file name, be sure not to include spaces. Use underscores ( _ ) instead if you need to create separation between the words. Including spaces in the document file name causes the URL created by Hawk Drive to contain extraneous punctuation marks, like %20.

1. In Hawk Drive, navigate to the file or folder you would like to rename.
2. Right-click on the file or folder and select the Rename option.
3. Enter in the name you would like in the Rename field.
4. Click Ok to complete the Rename, or click Cancel if you would not like to rename the file or folder.

OR:

1. Navigate to and select the file or folder which you wish to rename.
2. Click the Rename button.
3. Enter in the name you would like in the Rename field.
4. Click Ok to complete the Rename, or click Cancel if you would not like to rename the file or folder.

1. Check the box next to the file or folder you wish to share.
2. Click the Share button to be taken to the Share Wizard.
3. To select users, click on Search for Users.
4. Search using user’s name or e-mail address. Select OK once you have located the user, and then select Next to continue.
5. Select the permissions you would like to grant the user (Viewer, Contributor, Full Access), and select either Next to send the user a notification e-mail summarizing their addition as a shared user, or Finish.

No. In the previous version of Hawk Drive, you could tell if you had Full Access (i.e. Read, Write, Delete, Administer) within a folder by seeing if there were Manage/Share/Lock icons in the column next to the folder. In the new version of Hawk Drive, the ability to see the “Everyone” next to your folder is serving the same purpose as those icons did. If you can see “Everyone” next to a folder, it means you have Full Access within that folder.

To view or change the permissions granted within a folder or individual file, select the checkbox next to the folder or file. In the Manage dropdown list, select Permissions.

You can now see exactly who has permissions to view and edit the policy file.

Please allow 2-3 business days after uploading your policy for it to be visible on http://www.policy.ku.edu

No, the KU Policy Library can handle documents of almost any format. HTML format is recommended so as to not require the user to have any additional programs installed.

When posting policy documents in the Policy Library template, the following formatting styles are recommended:

File name
When determining a document file name, be sure not to include spaces. Use underscores ( _ ) instead if you need to create separation between the words. (Including spaces in the document file name causes the URL created by Hawk Drive to contain extraneous punctuation marks, like %20.)

Text
For the sake of uniformity, it is recommended that the text you enter onto the Policy Library template be kept in Arial font, size 10. It is also recommended that your policy title be Arial 10 bold, so that it will stand out from the rest of the document text.

Margins
Margins should not exceed 6.5”. Margins that exceed 6.5” will bleed over the right-hand edge. Please refer to the Troubleshooting section for remedies to this issue.

1. To attach a supporting document or appendix to your policy, you will first need to upload both your policy document and its supporting document into your Hawk Drive policy folder. When you upload a document, Hawk Drive automatically generates a URL or “link” for that document.
2. Within your departmental policy folder, find the document which you would like to include as a link or attachment to your policy document, and right click on that policy to bring up a menu.
3. From that menu, select Manage >> Summary.
4. On the Summary page, Right-click on the Full URL and select “Copy Shortcut”.
5. You may now paste this link within the Related Documents section of your policy document (or wherever else within the document you would like for it to appear). For instructions on how to open and edit your documents within Hawk Drive, please refer to the “Getting Started” section of the Policy Library/Hawk Drive FAQs.

Please make sure that you are in the correct directory. The blue bar in the main menu should read: "Directory: /policies/your_user_account". If you are in this directory and still cannot upload a file, please contact the Help Desk 864-0200 and notify them of the problem.

If you are using the KU Policy Template and following the instructions found here, then the KU Logo should work correctly.

For additional troubleshooting:

1. Click on the URL to the document you have loaded.
2. Choose View, Source. Does that screen say simply

   <html>

   OR does it say

   <html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml"
   xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"
   xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word"
   xmlns:st1="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"
   xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">

3. If you see the longer message above, this is the result of not saving the document as “Web Page, FILTERED.”
4. The only way to fix this is to cut & paste your content into the new template, being sure to save it as “Web Page, FILTERED.”

Then Overwrite your previously loaded policy with that same name.

NOTE: The Overwrite function only works if you are replacing a document with another document that is named the exact same thing, and has the exact same file extension. Previous versions are being stored in the Hawk Drive database, and will still be accessible to you.

Margins that exceed 6.5” will bleed over the right-hand edge.

1. To prevent this, place your cursor at the upper left-hand corner of the document and highlight the entire table that comprises the template.
2. Then choose Table >> Autofit >> Fixed Column Width. If you are working in Word 2007, choose Layout >> Cell Size >> Autofit >> Fixed Column Width.
3. To remedy this if it’s already happened, highlight the entire table, use your cursor to drag the margin back to 6.5”, then complete Step 2 above.

If you are unable to drag the margin, look to see if you have any long URLs (links to other documents) that break the 6.5” margin point. If this is the case:

1. Place your cursor at an appropriate breaking point in the URL
2. Then choose Insert >> Break >> Text Wrapping Break >> OK. If you are working in Word 2007, chose Page Layout >> Breaks >> Text Wrapping.

This is occurring because the file name under which you saved your policy has spaces (%20) or ampersands (%26) in it.

For example, a document that has been saved as “How to Close the Door” will receive a URL that reads:

https://documents.ku.edu/policies/yourunitfoldername/How%20to%20Close%20the%20Door.htm.

However, a document that has been saved as “HowtoClosetheDoor” will receive a URL that reads:

https://documents.ku.edu/policies/your unitfoldername/HowtoClosetheDoor.htm.

And, a document that has been saved as “How_to_Close_the_Door” will receive a URL that reads:

https://documents.ku.edu/policies/your unitfoldername/How_to_Close_the_Door.htm

To fix this problem, save your file (before you load it into Hawk Drive) with a filename that has no spaces, or where the spaces are marked by underscores (see examples immediately above).

Unfortunately, if you had already loaded this particular document into Hawk Drive using the old filename, and wish to replace that document with the one that has the new filename, you will not be able to use the Overwrite function. [Remember, Overwrite only works to replace documents with the exact same extension type.] Instead, you will need to delete the document you had previously loaded, and Upload the new document. Once you delete, any previous versions associated with that document will be lost. Also, any websites that were pointing to the URL you were previously given (the one with strange characters in it like %20) will need to be redirected to point to the new URL.

If you are using the KU Policy Template and following the instructions found here, then your URL shouldn’t have this problem. For additional troubleshooting:

1. Click on the URL to the document you have loaded.
2. Choose View >> Source. Does that screen say simply

   <html>

   OR does it say

   <html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml"
   xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"
   xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word"
   xmlns:st1="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"
   xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">

3. If you see the longer message above, this is the result of not saving the document as “Web Page, FILTERED.”
4. The only way to fix this is to cut & paste your content into the new template, being sure to save it as “Web Page, FILTERED.”
5. Then overwrite your previously loaded policy with that same name.

NOTE: The Overwrite function only works if you are replacing a document with another document that is named the exact same thing. [Example: you cannot overwrite a .pdf file with a Microsoft Word .docx file.] Previous versions are being stored in the Hawk Drive database, and will still be accessible to you.