Home Inspector Pro 3.0.4 Beta Released

[Dominic Maricic]

Hi Guys,

Home Inspector Pro 3.0.4 beta for Windows and Mac (yes you Mac lovers I'm talking to you!) is out. I plan on releasing this out to the public in the next few days so please update and test this out! If you're on a Mac please make a copy of the Home Inspector Pro folder as a backup before updating (I don't expect any problems but it hasn't been tested for the last month like 3.0 for Windows).

Mac users, please let me know if you can access iPhoto photos from the Add Photos area.

3.0 will continue to work with the 2.x license until December 30th. At that point you can go back to using the 2.x version of HIP or upgrade to 3.0. Those who purchased in the last 6 months, are on a lease or have used 2 paid monthly services for 6 months(2 websites or 1 website+upload service). We're also discussing an option to allow people to pre-pay for 2 services for a year and get it free.

Here's a list of most of the updates! Make sure to review this.

3.0.4

Design Change: While slotting photos the section items (i.e. walls, floors, cabinets, etc) drop down box will automatically pop open when you select the section in the first drop down box. This cuts the time inserting photos by 25%!

Design Change: Free 3.0 upgrade trial extended to Dec 30th, 2011.

Bug Fix: New Copy/Paste feature was missing for the 1 Damage Panel edit template screen. Now fixed.

3.0.3

Bug Fix: SketchPad wasn't refreshing the screen when you went to edit an existing sketch.

3.0.2

New Feature: Added a right click option in all fields for Undo/Cut/Copy/Paste/Select All!

Bug Fix: 3.0 broke Edit Photo text. This has been fixed.

Bug Fix: Spellcheck wasn't enabled when adding a 1 Damage Panel field to the template.

Bug Fix: Header/Footer option 2 wasn't working properly on pages > 1 on the contract.

3.0.1

Design Change: When a license file is loaded the inspector will be redirected to the Compmany Information page and told the license has been loaded successfully.

Design Change: Reverted how clicks are treated on Red>>> & Black>>> back to the method pre 2.9. The 2.9.3-3.0 version didn't work well on tablets (stylus couldn't be moved).

Design Change: SketchPad asks if you want 1/4, 1/2 or full page sketch upon opening.

Bug Fix: Fixed undo/redo in skethpad

Bug Fix: Fixed ability to click Edit to continue to work on the same sketch

Bug Fix: [[ Notes ]] will not show in caption text when printing.

Bug Fix: Fixed header font color not saving per section.

Bug Fix: Fixed Damage Description font color not loading.

3.0

New Feature: HIP Sketch Pad! This is one of the largest new features and has been in the works for almost 2 years off & on. Allows you to draw out floor plans and other diagrams, to scale within HIP. Sketchs can be the same size as a normal HIP picture (400x400), as tall as a normal picture but as wide as the page (800x400) or FULL PAGE! This is a huge new feature with tons of components and will be growing even more in time to work for pest inspections and other applications.

New Feature: Photos can now be displayed 2 OR 3 across on the report under Report Settings->Options

New Feature: There are now 3 photo quality settings for photos listed under Report Settings->Options with 1 being the lowest and 3 the highest. A setting of 2 is the default for 2 across, and 3 is the default setting for 3 acrosss. 3 will have the best quality but also will produce larger PDF's (not much of an issue with 3 across).

New Feature: Added the ability to change to font type & size of the header & footer within each section. Go to Report Settings->Print Options to make the changes.

New Feature: You can add a descriptive comment/notes/short hand, at the front of narratives that helps you find the comment easier and it won't show on the final report. For example: [[Leaking Sink]]Water was observed under the sink due to a leak. I recommend having this repaired. [[Leaking Sink]] shows within Home Inspector Pro to make the comment easier to find but will not show on the report.  Just put your "Note" within [[ ]] and you're set!

New Feature: HIP Start page. When Home Inspector Pro starts up you'll be greeted by a page containing a HIP Tip, Upcoming Events, Most Recent Message Board Posts and more! This page will not appear if you aren't connected to the Internet. It can be prevented from starting up in the future undre Report Settings->Options. You can manually visit the page by clicking on About->HIP News at the top of the program.

New Feature: Print Options (what sections you want included, and what colors) now appears before generating report. You can also choose not to have the screen show at this time.

New Feature: If you try to save the inspection you're currently working on over an inspection with a different file name, you'll get a warning message.

New Feature: Added an option to remove item number (i.e. 1. Cabinet, 2. Floors, 3. Walls, etc) within the report and summary. Set the option under Report Settings->Options->Item Options. The default is to print the numbers.

New Feature: New item separator for damage panels (observations) called Numbering added. This will auto number comments in a format using the item number/letter + comment number. For examaple if Kitchen Cabinets are item 2 then the comments within that item will be 2.1,2.2, etc. The same format will appear on the summary. This will be expanded in the future to include selection panels and a few additional options.

New Feature: A whole new, native Mac/Windows file dialog window has been added. When adding photos one at a time you can now view thumbnails of all images in the directory at once using the system dialog. Works with 32 or 64 bit versions of Java.


Design Change: Changed how files save internally to work around a bug in Java 7.

Design Change: ***!!!!CHECK MAC VERSION!!!!!***Open/Save Inspection dialogs have been updated to allow easier navigation through the system and network drives. Works with 32 or 64 bit versions of Java.

Design Change: Header/Footer format 2 now changes the contract as well.

Design Change: Page numbers will now show on the contract.

Design Change: When checking the client/agent box to upload a report the program will check to make sure you have a valid email entered in for them and warn you if you don't.

Design Change: Updated English, Italian and Spanish with much better, larger dictionaries.

Bug Fix (technically with Java, not HIP): Changed algorithms for resizing and importing images to be compatible with Java 7 (1.7).

Bug Fix: Tracked down and fixed a problem that caused photo loss for a few inspectors. This occured when the Edit Photo button was double clicked rather than single clicked and the X was used to exit the photo editor. It also occurred if you clicked Open Inspection when working on an inspection, then Save Inspection (thanks to Cameron Anderson for finding this one!). The problem is now fixed.

Bug Fix: Color of total page numbers in footer will always be correct.

Bug Fix: Eliminated the problem with the extra space in the page numbers (x of y) if there was 10 pages or less.

2.9.3

Design Change: Lists throughout the program now show 26 items in the drop down at a time just as the photo section drop downs do. Previously it was limited to 8 items.

Design Change: The selection of lists when you click Insert List now shows 26 items as well.

Design Change: All comment text boxes are the same size. This will help with continuity throughout the program.

Design Change: Inspector license field (from Company Information page) automatically appears after the inspectors name on the contract.

Bug Fix: Fixed problem that prevented Selection Description Font from saving correctly.

Bug Fix: Fixed problem where 2 lists used in a selection panel without a value would cause the program to crash when generating a report.

Bug Fix: Fixed problem with lists with a blank comment not displaying in the report properly.

2.9.2

New Feature: When selecting multiple comments and moving to Red/Black you can now 'merge' multiple comments into one. This is useful for combining mutiple narratives into one and serves as a similar feature to Lists. If you select a few comments, hold CTRL and click Black/Red the comments selected will be merged into one, but separated by a comma in the black/red area. If you hold the SHIFT key then a period will separate them. If you hold ALT then there will only be a space.

Design Change: Allow blank comments within lists (yes, we realize we removed this feature in 2.9.0!!).

Design Change: How memory is allocated to Home Inspector Pro has been changed. This should cause a performance boost on some systems.


Sincerely,

Dominic Maricic
President of Home Inspector Pro
http://www.HomeInspectorPro.com
Toll Free: 1-888-750-4777

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[Troy N. Pappas]

What is the cost for the upgrade?

[David Macy]

Downloaded, newest version.

I always have to reinstall using recommended settings. Is this common or just me?

[David Macy]

Newest download wiped out every picture of all client data files except for the cover page.


They are there in older versions of downloads.

[Troy N. Pappas]

I really like the brackets. Now I have to go back through my template and bracket all my descriptions.

I was having to erase the descriptions every time I moved the narration previously.

[David Macy]

I am going back to find the last upload. 3.03. I just want to start my next report and not have to redo all or some of my work.

New Java upload did not work for restoring pics for 3.04 version. I am using 3.02 for now. Anyone have the 3.03 upload link?

Troy you should not have to redo your brackets.

[Julian Benton]

Same with me on both of my Macs. I am using a OSX 10.7.2

Julian

[Bill Warner]

Same here... report I completed Friday didn't load photos for me either.

[Bob Elliott]

Just checked and you guys are right so we will need to wait Dom to correct it.
I advise using the older version since you should still have that icon on the desck top or in files.
The pictures are still there and not gone.
I see the cover page is the only one loading.

Since the only change really is the new auto dropdown I imagine the bug is tied to that feature.

Also notice that I am not able to turn off the start page anymore.

[Bob Elliott]

Here is a link to 3.0.3 that you can use till Dom corrects the issue with a patch.....http://www.homeinspectorpro.com/dmdocuments/HomeInspectorPro-3_0_3.exe

[Bob Elliott]

Another issue in the new release is my drop down is dropping up on some sections which is a time issue as it slows me up counting/hunting backwards

[Dominic Maricic]

Thanks Guys. That's what I get for uploading the beta version after 2am. I'm checking it out now. Just roll back to 3.0.3 like Bob suggested for now. I'll figure out what's going on now.

[Dominic Maricic]

Bob, drop down boxes have always worked like that. If your list extends beyond the bottom of the screen it flips up. This was meant for people on small devices like the CTL2Go to prevent them from having to scroll. Have you shrunk your program down or something?

[Bob Elliott]

No Dom
Maybe I did not notice however I am on a big 24" screen.

[Dominic Maricic]

Does your list drop down towards the bottom of the page? Give me a screen shot.

[Bob Elliott]

The bottom two of the 4 goes up instead of down but only on a few of them.Maybe it is because the list is longer.
It is doing that on the other version also I see so never mind.

[David Macy]

Thanks for the link.

[Dominic Maricic]

3.0.5 for Windows which fixes the drop down issue: http://www.homeinspectorpro.com/dmdocuments/HomeInspectorPro-3_0_5.exe

[Bob Elliott]

Works good so far.

[David Macy]

I can not disable the annoying HIP news with 3,05

Back to 3,03