TOPIC: Request for new feature(s)

Same with me Bob.  My main template tabs and sub-tabs are:

Utilities:      Electrical(16), Plumbing(12), HVAC(14)
Structural:    Roof(7), Attic(10), Foundation(10)
Outside House:  Exterior7), Grounds(10), Garage(12)
Inside House:  General Interior(15), Bathrooms(16), Kitchen(14), Laundry(9)
General Notes:  Information, disclaimers and general info / maintenance tips (17)
General:        Major wording on my report recommendations  Always goes first and into defect so it is first in summary.
                Also has inspection conditions for my records but none of these are printed.

Each to his own.  That's what makes the world go round....

Close though I separate Heating and cooling and add garage to exterior with no grounds section other than lot grade ,gates,vegetation,etc as separate sub file tabs.

My personal opinion would be to have (using my lingo) main files and sub files (tabs)include a special child tab which would in essence be a sub file of the sub file.
I have always used a tree method of storing information as it is much faster to navigate.

Look at Tree Pad software if you do not understand.baisly it is simular to mind maps in that you have a main subject followed by subfiles called children.The children can have children.

An example I will type out here would look as follows...

Exterior > Garage > Garage components >

Right now we are limited to ...
Exterior > Garage.........

So to sum up you would have no limit to subsets and could easily find issue comments that way.The option in edit would be to add children at each tab.

Exterior > Garage > Components > Car door > Eye beam > functioning

Garage would only show the subsets when clicked on and not until however I am not sure if that can be done in Java as I am not Dom so it is only a wish list.

Interesting idea David. Just wondering how it would speed up reporting. Are you talking about when you are going through the house and recording your findings as you go?  I can see that would be faster as you inspect and you have items potentially going into electrical, walls, ceiling and windows all from one room.  That would keep you from clicking back and forth from tab to tab constantly. But if the inspector does his reports using the photos when he is back at the office, then it doesn't seem like it would save much time. Were you envisioning some other time saving benefit other than during onsite data entry?

Cameron-- Bingo!!! My thoughts are for on site reporting like you stated.

3.0 is out on Beta guys and I am getting ready to take it for a spin.

I suppose if the reprogramming was so much that this idea wouldn't happen for a while, then a hybrid of inspection styles might be used to reduce inspection or report time. Suppose an inspector is doing what you describe and one portion of his inspection process is room by room and the other is system by system, he could:

1. Separate out the components which are room or system oriented into two parts of his inspection process.
2. Start with major system components, i.e. plumbing, HVAC, Electrical panels, roof, foundation, visible structure, attic.  Take photos and do data entry as you go on all the system components.
3. Then do all the room by room components, i.e. exterior facade, interior walls, floors, ceiling, kitchen, bathrooms.  Only take photos during this section, or alternatively, do photos but only do electrical entry of data. This would eliminate clicking all around in HIP.
4. Do all the rest of the data entry at the end or at the office using a system by system template which has only one tab for GFCIs, Wiring, Walls, Ceilings, Floors, Bathrooms, etc.

So this would address the need for speed by rearranging the inspection process instead of the the template(which can't change yet according to Dom).

One other method would be to just scrap data entry during the inspection, but use an inspection process which is almost entirely room by room and then build the report using the photos at the office with a primarily system by system template.

Actually, I just remembered seeing someone's template on here who had it set up with very few tabs, but a lot of menu items at the top of the HIP window. I suppose that method would eliminate a lot of clicks as well. A template could be set up with a GFCI menu item which would only take two clicks to get to from anywhere in the report since it would only have one tab.

It would be nice to have “universal tabs” which could be placed in several different sections but they always contain the same info. I'm sure that's a big programming deal though.  Anyway, those are some thoughts, for what they're worth.