Each volume generally covers a six-month period of a given administration and presents content in chronological order, with headings providing the dates of the documents or events.
Since then, various private compilations have been issued, but there was no uniform publication comparable to the Congressional Record or the United States Supreme Court Reports.
Beginning with the administration of Jimmy Carter, the Public Papers series expanded its coverage to include additional material as printed in the Weekly Compilation, including detailed appendices of supplemental material: Digest of Other White House Announcements, Nominations Submitted to the Senate, Checklist of White House Press Releases, and Presidential Documents Published in the Federal Register.
In 2012, the Government Printing Office and the Office of the Federal Register released a mobile web application (http://m.gpo.gov/dcpd) that catalogues the daily public activities of the president of the United States and enhances features of the online Daily Compilation with user-friendly search capability, allowing users to access presidential content by date, category, subject, or location.
Volumes covering the administrations of presidents Herbert Hoover, Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald R. Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, William J. Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama are also included in the Public Papers series.