I want to start getting building an InterNACHI narrative template for HG but I don’t really know how to use HG. Building a big template is pretty different from just using the program to perform inspections, so the tutorials and support have been of limited help. Russell offered to help, but he’s always swamped with work.
With HIP and Easy Inspect I had a pretty good site map in my head, understood how they were designed to work, and picked up on the features pretty quickly, but with HG, I don’t.
This will probably be a three month project, so I can’t spend three weeks writing and then realize I’ve done something wrong and go back and start over. So if anyone knows the program well and has time to give me a hand, I’d really appreciate it!
I would like to help you with this. I have used HG for the last years, I have also worked your comments into my templates. I don’t know it all, but I will help where I can.
Kenton,
I’d be glad to help you also. I’ve entered quite a few of your narratives and have a good understanding of how it’s done.
I’ve been using HomeGauge for a while now and appreciate it’s versatility.
I can help you Wednesday morning. I’m fairly versatile in the software, report fill, smart comments, connectors, columns, headers, footers, and of course comments. To really make this an amazing template would be to add your comments into a category filter. Ex. Asphalt shingles fall under that category, Wood shingles under that category, etc.
Side note to you Kenton, if you’re copying and pasting from word, you’ll get some funky printing of the comments due to Word adding hidden html code.
Thanks Richard and Steve. I’ll be working on this full time, and given that you’re all working inspectors, it’s nice to have multiple resources for help.
Category filter is what I am planning to do, although I didn’t know it was called that. It’s crucial to make narratives as easy to find as possible. Right now the library is broken down into:
Section
[LIST]
Heading
[LIST]
Sub-heading
[LIST]
sub-heading
[/LIST]
[/LIST]
[/LIST]
Any fewer levels than four and you start getting into some pretty long lists of narratives and finding the one you want becomes more time consuming.
I’ve had problems with scrap characters from html code during narrative transfer into other software, but I think I can run each narrative through Notepad to fix that. I also have the narratives in .xml format.
I already have your template completed in Homgauge and have been adding in the original narratives (Not the revised set in HIP) to the global list. They are mixed in with my own narratives, but they are easy to differentiate. I’ll be done in a couple of weeks if you want me to send a copy over to you.
If you want to learn how to use HomeGauge, the videos are actually very helpful for the basic on the program. There are some more advanced things you can do with the software that Sean and Russell didn’t even know about even though they designed it. My templates and the way I enter the comments are going to be a little different than what most people use HomeGauge, so they will require a little editing if you want to distribute the template for sale to the average user but the comments and overall classifications are there. It will save you a few weeks or months worth of copy and pasting comments.
You can sub-comment indefinitely in the global comment area.
Limitation lies in the template category filter comment area. All comments are listed in the dropdown as category and subcategory. No staggered subcategory.
Ex.
Global comments show this:
Main 1
-a.) Sub comment 1
–z.) Sub sub comment 1
Template comments show this (notice the alphabetical sort):
(a.) Sub comment 1
Main 1
(z.) Sub sub comment 1
Kenton, I have just started my home inspection business and am using HG. I have added short to the point narratives and some more descriptive as I complete an inspection. I would like trigger comments on my companion and the more detailed on the PC, but I haven’t figured that out yet. I would be happy to help in any way to make it better. Nothing will fit everyone’s needs but I think if you can make it so it’s easy to make HG your own the better it is for all. HG has great support and the tutorials are very good. Good luck Happy to help, John
I can create a global list tree and copy and paste the comments in much faster that typing anything out. Let the software worry about all those minor little variables. Don’t have time to track down issues with a single character being entered wrong which might mess everything up.
Once you have your global tree set up, entering in the narratives is a piece of cake. It’s time consuming and boring as hell, but it goes very smoothly once you get in a rhythm. With both Kenton and I working on it once I get the framework set up, it should go very quickly.
