TOPIC: Resurrecting old topics/ideas on template formatting

The suggestion to add text editing (specifically a additional color) to text in the selection and damage panels was discussed in detail a while back. It seemed most of the inspectors really just wanted to highlight a word or phrase every once in a while, but not color the entire section blue, red, etc.  Since the beta version is adding lists to the selection panels, the window for choosing your drop-down list comments seems like a natural place to add basic text editing.  The inspector is already opening the window to choose his list comments so he could just as easily bold, color, underline, etc. in that same window. I suppose the programming for that is a years worth of work, but it sure could be handy.

Second, would it be possible to allow editing of the rating boxes and their layout?  For instance, allow the user to list them vertically with longer terms (greater than 5 letters) after each checkbox and maybe colorize them.  Many inspectors (based on the samples I've downloaded from the HIP site) are using a workaround to get these general terms (serviceable, satisfactory, hazardous, etc.) into a description panel anyway. I did a mockup of an example with some random notes, and it doesn't change the space taken up very much, especially if you only use 3 or 4 ratings. I attached it below.  I've noticed Dom has very specific reasons for the exclusion or inclusion of certain features, does this have one?  Has this idea already be considered?

Thanks,
Cameron Anderson

Hi Cameron,

The reason behind only going horizontal with ratings had to do with spacing. If you only had one comment to make, or just checked off a rating it would take up to 5 lines of space. Doesn't seem like much but when you multiply it across hundreds of items in a report it could easily add an extra 5 to 10 pages on the report. If you look at most items on an inspection, the mass majority of them just use one line.

That being said, I really like the look of your mock-up! We're always trying to strike the balance of making easy to use, flexible software and feature bloat. There's a lot of people switching right now from the old program on the market, which is a great program, but is suffering from such feature bloat that new people can't figure it out, and existing users are tired of using it. Having a short hand for the ratings with an explanation in the section header works and is even required in the state of Texas.

I like it's look so much (especially with the different colors) that I'm going to put this on the to-do list anyways!

The process of switching to allowing more formatting in the narratives is already underway. It's been something hard to work with as it really goes against the whole simple of HIP and keeping it simple with the three colors. For example, colors marked as red are converted to red when added to the PDF. What do you do if a word has been changed to blue within the program? Do you change it on the summary too? Lots of other questions go with this too. Even bold is an issue because the original font could be bold. Some fonts do not have a bold version. Just lots of fun things like that! But the process is underway

I think I just heard my newest favorite phrase of the week: "Feature Bloat"  That is a word picture that you just can't get out of your head.

Cameron

Hah. Unfortunately I can't claim it as an original. I've heard it from several users switching programs!