TOPIC: Calculating Clicks

Here's something for everyone to think about when deciding how you want to construct your comments:
Comparing Selection Panel Comments to Damage Panel Comments
To add a selection panel comment to a report: 1 click to highlite = 1 click per comment
To add a damage panel comment to a report: 1 click to highlite + 1 click to move to Black or Red = 2 clicks per comment
Comparing Complete Comments to Comments Containing Lists
To add a damage panel comment containing one list: 1 click to highlite + 1 click to move to Black or Red + 2 Clicks to open <<LIST>> + 1 click to select item in list = 5 clicks per one list comment
To add a damage panel comment containing three lists:= 11 clicks per three list comment (you can do the math)
If you want a formula for how many clicks it takes to add a damage panel comment:
Total number of clicks/comment = 2 + 3 times the # of lists
For a selection panel comment it's 1 + 3 times the # of lists

You might not consider any of this significant until you consider adding, let's say 100 comments into your report and you have structured all of them to comment-build from maybe three lists, like maybe <<MATERIAL>>, <<LOCATION>>, <CONDITION>> or something like that.
Adding 100 damage panel comments to your report with each comment containing 3 lists represents 1,100 clicks! Even if you do it in a selection panel you will only save 100 clicks.  Now compare that to having the complete comment available to add without any lists--the differences are pretty dramatic.  To add 100 complete damage panel comments to your report only takes 200 total clicks, a savings of 900 clicks compared to our comment building option containing 3 lists. 900 extra clicks in the field starts to get particularly significant in my opinion, if that's how you do your report.
Don't get me wrong--I'm definitely not arguing against the <<LIST>> feature--It's essential in simplifying comment entries in your report, but I think everybody needs to be smart about it.  I would suggest you try the simplest approach first which is comparing the trade-offs between a comment with and without lists before making your whole report full of cool comment-building options.  Sometimes it takes a lot af trial and error to decide, but starting simple is probably always the best approach.  For what it's worth--

I agree with you 100% Bob. Thanks for bringing this up.

One big reason I've had other people switching to HIP from other programs is that the programs were structured around lists to the point where every comment had 5 or more lists in them. This caused the reports to take way too long to do.

Use Lists where they definitely help. Use it where you want to find comments easier and it will save time. Write out the comment in other places or you could end up taking longer to do your report.

One more thought which might help put this in perspective--I think this makes sense, but I often have glaring holes in my logic, so be gentle if you find one-Thanks

Let's say you wanted to directly compare between a set of single comments and a single comment-building comment containing three lists with three items in each list. Which is easier? How many single comments would we have to create to come up with the equivalent of our comment-building comment?  My brain is a little rusty, but I think the answer derives from the nine comments in the lists taken three at a time.  If I'm right, it would take 27 single comments (3x3x3)to include all of the combinations. Once I created these 27 comments (which might sound like a lot of work) any one is available in the report with just two clicks (provided you can find them easily and have the front-end time to create them). Now let's look at our comment-building comment--Building each of these 3-list comments takes 11 clicks. Instead of going through the pain of creating 27 comments to cover what I can do by creating one comment-building comment containing lists, it is only going to take me 11 clicks to create any of the single comments I had to create individually. Sounds good, right?  However, think about the next report, and the next, etc..  With my single comments, to get any one of them into my report takes only two clicks--So my click ratio is 2:11.  In 50 reports I have only had to enter 100 clicks to get any one of them into a report. In 50 reports I have had to enter 550 clicks to get the same comment in my report using my comment-building comments. It keeps diverging as you increase reports--100 reports=200clicks vs. 100 reports =1100clicks. It seems to me that at some point single comments might make a better return on your time investment, but each to their own.  At least consider this as you move forward building comments.  There is a break-even point somewhere.