Default Comments

[Brian E Kelly]

What is the easiest way to format my report with default comments/narratives?

[Stephen Stanczyk]

Welcome to the Land of Sanity Brian.  You will find a helpful group of people here from all areas and organizations.

I think if you want to have default language that will show up on each report, the best way is to build it as a Document.  Go to "Edit Documents" and write it out or copy it from your previous library.  You can place the document in front of a particular section or on the same page as a section at the very beginning.

I have a series of items to do with more or less the same subject but with minor changes based on age or type of house.  I keep a "General Information" tab with a lot of the disclaimers in this area.  For example I have "Environmental Issues" as one of the tabs.  That includes Lead paint, asbestos, mold, noise items (RR tracks & Airport flight paths).  I check them if I need them.  If not, nothing is checked and they don't appear.

I think the best bet for what you want is the documents.

Karma for you for finally coming out of the desert and into the Land of Milk and HIP.

[Dominic Maricic]

I like that Steve!

On top of what Steve mentioned. There are a few guys that do that and have asked for the feature, I think they're all former IV guys actually. You can save an inspection with pre-filled info then open it up later and rename (which from what I understand is basically what IV was doing).

There's a few ways to better implement it and I have put it on the to-do list as there's enough guys asking to get it done. I need a little more discussion on it though to make sure it's implemented in a way that's useful to guys.

When it was discussed previously most guys didn't want it as they were afraid to leave things selected that shouldn't be. How did you handle that previously?

When you save a pre-filled inspection and later update the template, do you want the template narratives to update with it (i.e. you add some good comments in your bathroom)?

How many variations of one template would you have?

[Brian E Kelly]

Welcome to the Land of Sanity Brian.  You will find a helpful group of people here from all areas and organizations.

I think if you want to have default language that will show up on each report, the best way is to build it as a Document.  Go to "Edit Documents" and write it out or copy it from your previous library.  You can place the document in front of a particular section or on the same page as a section at the very beginning.

I have a series of items to do with more or less the same subject but with minor changes based on age or type of house.  I keep a "General Information" tab with a lot of the disclaimers in this area.  For example I have "Environmental Issues" as one of the tabs.  That includes Lead paint, asbestos, mold, noise items (RR tracks & Airport flight paths).  I check them if I need them.  If not, nothing is checked and they don't appear.

I think the best bet for what you want is the documents.

Karma for you for finally coming out of the desert and into the Land of Milk and HIP.

Thanks Steve, it seems like I will need to make quite a few documents and insert them as Headers.  I have been fooling around with this all day so far and am slowly catching on.

I may make a go of it yet.

(my other software still works, but they no longer support it, just a matter of time until it no longer functions properly)

[Brian E Kelly]

I like that Steve!

On top of what Steve mentioned. There are a few guys that do that and have asked for the feature, I think they're all former IV guys actually. You can save an inspection with pre-filled info then open it up later and rename (which from what I understand is basically what IV was doing).


Not exactly what PV did, but sort of kind of.

Most of my defaults were set up to functioning as intended, but none of them would show up in the report unless they were clicked.



There's a few ways to better implement it and I have put it on the to-do list as there's enough guys asking to get it done. I need a little more discussion on it though to make sure it's implemented in a way that's useful to guys.

When it was discussed previously most guys didn't want it as they were afraid to leave things selected that shouldn't be. How did you handle that previously?

When you save a pre-filled inspection and later update the template, do you want the template narratives to update with it (i.e. you add some good comments in your bathroom)?

How many variations of one template would you have?

One Master template.    But if you did not click Garage, or two car garage of three car garage, then they would not print.

Lots less clicking, typing, and making red or black then here. 

[Dominic Maricic]

Okay, that is already in the program then. Go to Edit Template, click Garage on the left and click copy to make as many as you want.

Go to Report Settings->Section Colors & Print Order and uncheck any pages you don't want to print. You can also change the print order here.

Report Settings->Options->Item Options, uncheck Print Items even if there's no comment if you don't want ITEMS within a page (dishwasher, kitchen sink, etc) to print if you haven't said anything, added a pic or added a rating (assuming you're using ratings).

[Brian E Kelly]

Okay, that is already in the program then. Go to Edit Template, click Garage on the left and click copy to make as many as you want.

Go to Report Settings->Section Colors & Print Order and uncheck any pages you don't want to print. You can also change the print order here.

Report Settings->Options->Item Options, uncheck Print Items even if there's no comment if you don't want ITEMS within a page (dishwasher, kitchen sink, etc) to print if you haven't said anything, added a pic or added a rating (assuming you're using ratings).

I already see I will be able to customize this more than PV, which is very cool.

Ya I turned the ratings off, and found the turn off print function...

I am slowly getting it... and it seems to have limitless possibilities Dom.... very cool

[Dominic Maricic]

You have lots of inspectors before you which have paved the way We just listen, decipher and implement.

[Brian E Kelly]

You have lots of inspectors before you which have paved the way We just listen, decipher and implement.

It looks very promising Dom.

Hopefully by the end of the Month I will have a template I like and can navigate easily.

[Dominic Maricic]

Sounds great. You know where to find us if you have any questions.

[Tim Spargo]

Here's a different question Dominic..

Looking through the tut's, I see there is a fair amount of info...

I would likely set up most of the program on the desktop... then xfer over to tablet for working edition...the TEMPLATE is easy enough to move I see..

What about the Intro's and supporting DOC's, report settings etc.?

[Bob Elliott]

Feel free to g chat or e mail my way also.
I like the copy function in the template and use it all the time.

You honestly have no need of separate templates once you catch on.
Just copy a bathroom section and rename it to location.
After that go to report settings and drop down to color and print order.
find the section to highlight and click it up or down to set where it will appear in the PDF.

[Bob Elliott]

Feel free to g chat or e mail my way also.
I like the copy function in the template and use it all the time.

You honestly have no need of separate templates once you catch on.
Just copy a bathroom section and rename it to location.
After that go to report settings and drop down to color and print order.
find the section to highlight and click it up or down to set where it will appear in the PDF.

It all moves with the program Tim.
Just be careful with the docs as when you change them there is no default setting as of yet unfortunately.
A check or uncheck stays that why every report.
If you absolutely need a photo in docs there is a work around.

[Tim Spargo]

I guess what I'm asking is if I have the prog set up on the Desktop to customize (or finish up) can I transfer over... or do I just need to copy down and set up facsimile set ups on each.

Facsimile... I typed that, ugh.

[Bob Elliott]

No .
Go to your computer files and look inside to see all the templates,client info,etc.
It will all transfer.
You can transfer individual clients say with a usb drive by just going in the files and picking it from client reports.
Look for the name of the file that you saved.

[Dominic Maricic]

Tim, the docs are in the Home Inspector Pro\Data\Documents folder. The docs are usually just for section intros so they're not touched much once you have them all setup the way you want. You can move them between machines like you're moving the template itself. The reason they're separate is they're universal and can be shared among templates.

[Tim Spargo]

So copy/paste templates as well as copy/paste documents folder... there ya go!

Just so I understand...
If I tweak the docs via edit / assign to intro's closing comments etc., THEN copy/paste the sections between machines.... will this then incorporate *how* you had then set up from the machine they came from OR just allow them to be assembled.

Lastly...

The report settings for colors/fonts and such... any way to make these similar as well? Just asking cuz... I think there's gonna be some editing going on

[Bob Elliott]

Settings will all transfer Tim.
You can copy over or just some.
If you have a client named the settings used for that client will transfer with it.
You can have different default templates (as many as you wish)

[Dominic Maricic]

What Bob said. The colors are in the template (.tpz) file. Copy the template, colors come with it. The templates store within them what documents are needed. Copy the docs over and you're set (as you said).

I think Bob's pointing out that each inspection file in Client Data also stores a copy of the template used within it (the .tpz). So you can actually transfer a client inspection (.hzf) and when you move it to another machine to finish working on the report, hit Save Template and the template from the inspection will update the template on the machine automatically (except for the documents). Wow, that was too long of a sentence! Let me know if that makes sense.

[Bob Elliott]

It sure explains easier with pictures.
We need to get you doing some You Tubes.