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Tutorial Instructions

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Current as of November 16, 2004
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Army Knowledge Online(AKO)
Introduction to AKO for the Family Member
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Objective

• The objective of this tutorial is to help you
  learn of the many uses of AKO for you as a Family
  Member in the U.S. Army community .

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Getting logged in to AKO
www.us.army.mil
The first step is to get logged in to AKO. To do
this, in the Address line of your Internet
browser, you would type in www.us.army.mil and
either click on Go (as shown by the arrow on
the right) or press Enter.
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This is the general AKO login screen. If you
have never used AKO before, you will have to
register as a new user. Click on Register for
AKO and Ill show you how to register.
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If you are authorized to be a Full-Account user
(see list), you would use this selection, even if
you are a Family Member of another Full-Account
holder.
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If you fall into this list, you would select this
option to register. The registration process is
pretty straight-forward and self-explanatory, so
I wont go through those steps in this lesson.
However, you will need to know the AKO user name
of the person who will sponsor you to complete
the process.
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Just keep in mind that AKO is a government site
and there are rules for its use. One of the
rules concerns user names and is stated here, so
make sure you follow it carefully.
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Once you have registered, and AKO and your
sponsor have approved your registration, you can
log in to AKO by selecting this option. Go ahead
and click on Login to AKO.
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This is the AKO Home page. Every time you log in
to AKO, this is the page that will be displayed.
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Much of what you see here is for the use of your
sponsor. But the purpose of this tutorial is to
show you the many options AKO offers YOU as a
Family Member.
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Before I get into specifics, let me show you some
of the features of the Home page so you are more
comfortable navigating around it.
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In this section you will always find current
messages and announcements of general interest,
including any new files in your subscriptions
(more on that in another lesson).
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Here you will always find Army-wide announcements
and news, and useful links.
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There are several navigation bars to access
useful AKO applications. So lets take a look at
some of these.
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Lets first look at your account page. Click on
My Account to open up your account page.
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From this page you can view your current account
info, update some of it, change your password,
mail options, vacation message, IM preferences,
and manage sponsorship.
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Now lets take a look at the AKO Help page.
Click on Help to open up this page.
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I would recommend you visit this page often while
you are learning how to use AKO. It has a lot of
good sources of help for you.
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For example, here you will find tutorials just
like this one for a variety of AKO applications.
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And in this section, you can view Frequently
Asked Questions. Youd be surprised how many
people might have the same questions as you have.
You can also contact the AKO support staff with
questions of your own.
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Here you will find AKO user guides. They are
quite helpful and can be printed off for easy
reference in the future. The Quick Users Guide
and the At a Glance guide are especially useful
and easy to follow for the first-time AKO user.
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And finally, you have the option of providing
feedback directly to the AKO support staff.
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To return to the Home page, simply click on X
in the upper corner.
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Now, here is an application you, as a Family
Member will find useful. Go ahead and click on
the email link.
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This is the AKO email program, with the same
basic functions as most other email programs.
This is a free service for all AKO users, and you
are automatically set up with an email address in
the format username_at_us.army.mil.
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Click on LOGOUT to return to the Home Page.
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Now lets take a look at another useful
application for you as a Family Member. Click on
files.
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Click here for more info
This is AKOs document management system.
Documents can be uploaded, downloaded, and even
discussed with other AKO users online and in
real-time. This is particularly useful for a
Family Member and a deployed sponsor to share
files such a photos, letters, etc. You can learn
more about how to use this application from the
Files tutorials on the AKO Help page.
Click here for more info
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Ok. Now lets look at the Forums page. Go ahead
and click on forums.
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AKO Forums is an ideal application for discussing
topics with other AKO users that are of
particular interest to you.
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This page displays the many Discussion Forums
that have been created by AKO users. Click on
the AKO Discussions Forum to see how it works.
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Here you see the many particular topics within
the AKO Discussions Forum that AKO members have
created. Click on this one to open it up.
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These are threads written and submitted by
individual users.
Note you can write your own reply to any
particular thread.
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Click on Home to return to the Home Page.
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Two AKO applications that you will find
especially useful as a Family Member are Instant
Messenger and Chat. Let me explain what these
are.
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The AKO Instant Messenger application allows you
to have real-time conversations through your
computer, usually between just two people.
 Unlike email, messages are delivered almost
instantly, and are usually not saved.  IM is kind
of like a typical telephone conversation you
chat in the same way through typing on your
computer rather than talking into the telephone
receiver.
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AKO Chat is very similar to AKO IM.  Like AKO IM,
AKO Chat is a way to have online conversations
through your web browser.  Unlike AKO IM,
discussions through AKO Chat are usually among
more than just two people.  If AKO IM
conversations are like a telephone call, AKO Chat
conversations are like a conference call.  Every
Chat is an online discussion forum, and all
conversation occurs in real-time.
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Now, over here on this side of the Home Page is a
section called My Favorites. Clicking on this
link opens a drop-down menu to a list of your
shortcuts to portal pages, documents, discussion
forums, group lists, and web links. Also
included are options to manage each of these
links.
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Clicking on the Self Service link opens a
drop-down menu to a list of useful sites. Lets
take a look at a few of these. First, go ahead
and click on My Benefits.
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This page contains a host of valuable links.
Take a couple of moments to review them.
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One of the most valuable Self-Service pages for
you as a Family Member is My Family. Click on
this link to open up the page.
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There are so many valuable links and good
information on this page for you. Look over this
page, and when you get on-line, check out all the
links!
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Now lets check out the My Finance page and see
what good information there is for you there.
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This is another useful page for you one with
some valuable links concerning financial matters.
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Now click on My Legal to go to a page with some
helpful links and information concerning legal
matters.
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This page contain a host of valuable links
concerning family legal matters. Take a couple
of moments to look them over.
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Now, one of the most important issues to Family
Members is health care. Check out My Medical
to see how useful this page is to you.
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Wow! Look at all the valuable information and
links available to you. You definitely have to
check these out when you get online.
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Click on My Personnel to open up that page.
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Most of the links on this page are of interest to
your sponsor, but you may find some useful links
for you too.
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The last page we will look at is My Travel. Go
ahead and click on this link to open up the page.
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Here again, many of the links on this page are of
interest to your sponsor, but you may find some
of them helpful to you too.
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The last link I want to show you on the Home Page
is Army Quick Links. Click on this link.
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You may find this a useful page to go to often.
It contains many links that could be of value to
you as a Family Member.
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Dont fret if youre feeling a little lost at
this point. Just take a few minutes to
experiment with each of these options in this
lesson and you will soon become more comfortable
with AKO and find that is will be of great value
to you.
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Summary

• In this lesson you have learned the many uses of
  AKO for you as a Family Member in the U.S. Army
  community .

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Was this lesson helpful to you? Feedback would
be appreciated.Fred NightengaleTraining
Instructor84th Army Reserve Readiness Training
Command (Prov)Readiness Training AcademyFort
McCoy, WisconsinDSN 280-7235Email
fred.nightengale_at_us.army.milClick here to end
lessonClick here to start lesson again
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Reference Slides
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