Addition to Software Suggestions

[Cameron Anderson]

That's exactly what I was envisioning, Bob. I like the idea of duplicating the comments which are inherently greater in their importance. Your comments seem specific enough to use that approach and it's a great practice to limit your liability.  If you have an issue which is important enough to be a summary comment in one house, it is a good practice from a legal standpoint to always make it a summary comment.   That would also somewhat break your comments into two larger categories which may speed your report time up as well.  You might even leave the “Description text” empty in the damage panel and just use whatever separator you currently use so those comments just look like an extension of the other comments, only they are colored red.

The changing of your layout would be fairly quick too, but I would just change a few tabs and see how it works for you during a few inspections. You would definitely remove a lot of clicks.  The only other down sides I see beside the loss of the merge feature would be the auto captioning of photos  using selected damage panel comments, but I say this in good fun and total seriousness, your comments would NEVER make a good caption!  If you are using the damage panel then you would still have the photo slide show available to you.  I can't really think of anything else negative about making the switch, but again, it's the type switch I would test first.

I'm still thinking about your original method of putting the keyword in front of the comments. It sparked another idea I wanted to pose to Dom.  Would it be possible to have a system in the damage and selection panels similar to what HTML language uses to insert "developer notes" which doesn't actually show up on the final webpage?  So, for instance anything you put in between {{ }} or [[  ]] in the damage panel, selection panel or red/black sections would not print in the final report.  Would that be possible?

[Bob King]

Hey Cameron-
It's interesting isn't it? The <<lists>> addition kind of freed up the selection panel to maybe be used as something totally different which you easily seem to have figured out. I would never have thought of that in a million years.  Hats off to you--it's been a very interesting and valuable discussion for me so far.  I guess I should have been an architect--it certainly seems to have worked for you . 

DrBob

[Cameron Anderson]

Thanks for the encouragement, these discussions are mutually helpful. I'm considering setting up some of my sections in a similar way to what we discussed. I don't currently use the summary feature so some of my sections(like the cosmetic ones) would lend themselves very nicely to using the selection panel for damage comments.  If it speeds up my report writing and doesn't change the finished look of the reports, I'm keeping it.

I was never a licensed architect though, by the time I finished my degree I hated my chosen profession!   But it was a good degree for home inspections, a lot of training in problem solving.

[Dominic Maricic]

I love reading these discussions

Cameron, that could be a possibility down the line.

[Cameron Anderson]

I love reading these discussions

It's your fault Dom, HIP keeps getting more and more flexible.   



I also wondered if you could set up the photo slide show to work with tabs that only have one or two selection panels. Bob's discussion made me see that would lend itself nicely to quickly inserting illustrations and having a paragraph above, or setting up some of your damage comments with selection panels.  There are some items throughout the house that may have a photo but don't really need the red/black columns. Setting those up with selection panels would eliminate several clicks per tab.

[Dominic Maricic]

The problem with allowing photos to be added to selection panels is that it would add a ton of drop down boxes to the photo slotting pages. I can add it to the list to allow it for one or two selection panel only pages though. I do have a lot on the to-do list right now though!

[Cameron Anderson]

I can add it to the list to allow it for one or two selection panel only pages though.

Yeah, that's all I was thinking anyway. 

it would add a ton of drop down boxes to the photo slotting pages

Not sure I understand that, but it doesn't sound good.

I do have a lot on the to-do list right now though!

That I understand.

[Bob King]

Hey Cameron-
I thought you might want to see this after all of your efforts to try to support my unconventional ideas. You may already know this, but remember your question to Dom about incorproating the HTML convention of {{}} or [[]] to maybe "hide" my keywords?  It turns out if you use the selection panel like you suggested rather than the damage panel it already exists!  If I add <<KEYWORD>>Comment to a selection panel, anything included in the <<>> is not returned in the report. Don't ask me how, but I'm sure it must have something to do with Klingons. I attached a sample template page and the corresponding report output to show the differences between how the two panels (one selection, one damage)handle the same input differently--It really is a versatile program! The only active list I created is <<LIST#1>> which contains the comment "List Item #1".  None of my <<KEYWORD#...>> inserts have a list attached to them. You can still use the lists feature in the selection panel,it just shows up a little wierd in the section but ends up perfectly OK in the report.  In addition, if for some reason you want the comment contained between <<>> (I don't know why you would since we have worked so hard to eliminate it)just add it as <<::...>> and everything after the :: is included.  Dom's probably reading this thinking "I could have told you that"--I think he is just waiting for all of us to catch up someday

[Bob King]

Looks like I didn't add the template page to the last post-here it is

[Dominic Maricic]

That's pretty funny. That's the side effect of me setting up the program to ignore List triggers for lists the might not exist anymore or were a failed attempt to add manually. I should be able to do the same in the damage panels. Now I can claim that HIP has the keyword feature too I love new features that weren't on purpose. Thanks Bob.

[Bob King]

Hey Dom-
Should I add CA sales tax to the programming invoice I'm sending you?

[Cameron Anderson]

I demand royalties for suggesting the idea that lead to the discovery which was already unknowingly programmed int...   Oh forget it.   

[Cameron Anderson]

I got a good laugh out of that discovery Bob & Dom.  I'm actually strangely happy for you both.  It is kind of cool, the only problem is everytime a new feature is introduced, I find myself pondering for a month all the ways it could be manipulated.  I really need to sleep sometime.

[Dominic Maricic]

You won't be sleeping for awhile then. I'll need you guys to start beta testing 3.0 shortly

[Dominic Maricic]

Thinking about this 'new feature' a bit more. What do you think about making it so the short annotations would be in the format:

[[Loose Toilet]] Great comment about loose toilet goes here.

The reason I'm suggesting [[ ]] instead of << >> is to help differentiate the comment from a List comment.

[Bob King]

Dom-
Excellent suggestion-much less cause for confusion

[Cameron Anderson]

Yep, then we all won't spend hours clicking on what we think are lists only to end up cursing the name of "Dom".   

Oh, and here's my suggestion for "Great comment about loose toilet goes here":

     Toilet is loose.

Sort of an anti-Bob King comment don't you think?  Just out of curiosity, what is your "loose toilet" comment Bob?  (Or at least one of them.  )

[Dominic Maricic]

LOL

[Bob King]

Sorry Cameron, but my simplest one exceeds the 5000KB file size requirement for a post   Like you gave me the idea before, I'm saving those comments for the "Dr Bob's Big Book of Home Inspection Comments and Other Remedies"--It might need two volumes, however.  Now with the addition of [[]] maybe even three volumes ....  BTW, now that Dom is going to use symbols you suggested, I really think you need to press him on the royalties issue--I'll back you up, I promise (trust me-I'm a doctor)

[Cameron Anderson]

my simplest one exceeds the 5000KB file size requirement for a post

That is hilarious!