Like every computer program, there are many features in IRIS which dramatically increase its power. In order to benefit, you will need to learn how to take advantage of these features. Here is a short list of hints organized by topic for how to get the most out of IRIS.

• improved searching
• using the map
• picture display

We'll be adding to this list from time to time, so please check back.

When searching for Text (word based) items, such as people's names, street names, subdivision names, etc, type only the beginning of the word(s) you are searching for.  For example, when you are trying to find properties with street names equal to "Royal Ridge Court", you may want to search for just "Royal" or "Royal R". IRIS will find all properties with street names starting with your criteria, and return them. This will help to avoid problems with misspellings and abbreviations in these fields. If you had searched for "Royal Ridge Court", and the street name in IRIS was abbreviated as "Royal Rdg Ct", IRIS would not find the appropriate properties. This provides similar advantages with people's names.

If you are searching in a field which is made up of codes, but do not know what the codes might be, simply looking at other properties can help you. Search for another property, with an address you know, for example. Look at the value in the field you are interested in. Doing this a few times will give you an idea of what the codes are, and possibly what they mean. You can also contact your local IRIS representatives, who should be able to tell you what most of the fields and codes mean.

IRIS will, by default, print a small version of the map when you print it. It will be about half the width of a portrait-formatted page. If you want a larger version of the map printed out, there are two things that you can do. Select options from the IRIS menu and check the box marked "Print Map Full Page". When you print the map now, it will fill as much of the page as is possible. However, the page will still be printed as a portrait formatted page and the map will still take up only half of the page. To see even more detail, select "Landscape" in your printer setup when printing a map. This will cause the map to print sideways on the page, allowing it to fill the entire page.

The more map layers that you are drawing, the longer it takes to draw a map. This is why the maps draw faster when you are drawing street maps than when you are drawing parcel maps, even though the coverage area is much greater. You may want to avoid drawing large scale parcel maps to save yourself time, especially if you have a slower internet connection. Drawing maps with zoom levels between 0.5 miles and 0.99 miles may take longer to draw because of the additional detail involved.

Icon layers on the map can also cause slower drawing speeds. To minimize drawing times, turn off the icon layers which you do not need or are not interested in. To do this, click on the Layers button from the Map ToolBox. Use your mouse (and the Ctrl key when necessary) to select which icon layers you want to have drawn.

IRIS will, by default, download the first picture available for each property. If you do not want this to happen, you can change the options to avoid this. Simply select Options from the IRIS Menu, and uncheck the box marked "Download First Picture in List"

If you are looking at very large pictures (e.g. scanned Plat Maps, aerial photos, etc.), you may want to have the image stretched to fit the entire image area. Click on the checkbox on the picture tab, marked "Stretch Image to Fit". This will stretch the image to fit the entire window and bring up a set of zoom and pan buttons. With these buttons you can zoom in or out of the image, allowing you to see the details you want. You can also use the pan buttons (with arrows on them) to move from side to side or up and down.