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A HUGE time-saver for me would be the ability to select several photos from the Misc section and move them to another section all at once.
Currently, I take most my exterior photos from the home screen to where all the photos are placed in Misc, and then I slot them later either on mobile or on desktop. I do this often for other areas as well, such as unfinished basements, where I walk around and take a bunch of photos of various items that need to be slotted differently. If I could, for example, select all 10 photos that pertain to Siding defects and move all 10 from MISC to the Exterior:Siding section all at once, that would be amazing. Most of my time spent on reports is slotting each photo, one at a time, to their appropriate section. Its not so bad on the desktop, but when I need to do it on mobile it is quite time consuming. What are your thoughts?
The following user(s) said Thank You: Devin Spaulding
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It hasn't been suggested before but could definitely be something we look at adding. Is there any reason you aren't taking most photos from directly within the area when selecting narratives?
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Dominic Maricic
Home Inspector Pro Home Inspection Software - CEO |
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Cool! The reason I am not taking photos from directly within the area is because it takes a lot of time to switch back and forth between various sections when I am inspecting large general areas where many items are present within different sections, like with the exterior. For example, while walking around the exterior I am looking at soffit/facia, gutters, cladding, windows, grade, foundation, etc. That is a lot of stopping and selecting a new section each time I take a photo (which is a lot) because I could have a picture to take from each one of those sections on each side of the home. While in a bathroom we have doors, outlets, walls/floors, water closets, sinks, showers, tubs, etc....all within their section of Bathroom. That is a lot of extra clicking.
Now when I am on the roof, I usually take the pictures directly into the Roof Exterior section because most of my pictures at that point are of the Roof Exterior. Same thing when I am doing the AC/Condenser or Service Panel or Furnace, But when I am outside, or in the attic, or an unfinished business, I am looking at things across many sections. In those areas, it is so much easier to just take a picture of an item in misc/main area and keep walking than to have to stop and find a new section within a section each time I take a picture. I probably take an avg of 150 pictures per inspection, much more than that for a home in poor condition. Then I will slot them on the desktop when creating the report. However, if I could move multiple photos at once, for example, I could select all my siding/trim pictures together (usually a lot) and move them all to Exterior/Siding section with one swoop, instead of one at a time, having to re-choose the section each time I want to move a photo. This to me is the most accurate and time efficient way I have found to move through the inspection. I would love to hear from other people as far as how they move through their inspection while taking pictures and choosing narratives along the way. It is almost as though I am batch/adding and sorting, as far as the steps in my report creating goes. I think the goal is to eliminate as may extra steps as possible, yes? If an inspector takes 150 photographs and has to navigate to a different section more often than not each time he takes a picture, that is a lot of extra clicking to move out of the current section, go to section, then to sub-section. If I could select all 15 of my photos of siding at once, and then move them all to Exterior:Siding section at the same time, I have just eliminated almost 30 strokes that I have to execute just for that section, not counting the scrolling to each picture and the double-tap on each picture to initiate the move option in the first place Does any of this make since? It would be a big game-changer/time-saver for me. What do others think/know/experience? What is some other advice out there? I have been using HIP since October 2017, love it, but still trying to find the most efficient way to use it.
The following user(s) said Thank You: Devin Spaulding
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Maybe I'm missing it due to user error, or perhaps the way my templates are setup somehow limits my ability to move / rearrange any photos once added into report end / summary section. It would be awesome to have the ability to swap photos after adding them at the end of report. I always look at it afterward, and feel like something should be moved or grouped with something else before it in the list, but I would need to then delete photo where I want the one I'm moving to go. Then it kinda messes up the whole flow unless I initially had put a blank space / no photo in between each photo. I'm unsure what or if changes have been made in regards to photo addition / editing in the newest HIP update for Mac, but the Photos app has never and still doesn't appear to always play nice with HIP for whatever reason. For e.g., if I want to batch add, it currently seems like I will likely need to manually transfer photos / deal with the regular, separate folder system with pics physically stored on drive, not just linked to Photos app. That way it contains the actual image file and not just like the alias master link thing Photos uses. Confusing...at least for me...and I'm sure Apple has not and / or does not care to lend much assistance by offering just a bit more lenience overall as far as allowing their core OS app lineup to be slightly more open source / compatible and actually supporting some collaboration / mingling with select 3rd party apps. Nope... Apple Maps or nothing for everyone mentality only worsens. Anyway, I guess the whole point I'm trying to make is that I would love to be able to swap photos after they have been added to the end of the report and I would also really like to be able to batch add photos directly from the Photos app in OSX when used as image chooser from within HIP. Thank you to anyone who actually reads through my long, convoluted ramblings or for any insight, such as good photo tips for OSX users specifically.
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