Ask Dominic

[Jeff Knight]

Originally Posted by relliott

It seems there is always a trade off Jeff.
I need full internet and access to my files if I ever even concider doing on site.
I pride myself on the look of my reports and need full manipulative control of both photo , comments and documents including exactly where they are placed.
I need to be able to download from the field and not need to do it over.

Robert,
When you say "on site" are you talking "printing on site" or are you talking "data collection on site" ? You do not have to compromise at all in the look of your report if you are using a handheld to "collect" your inspection data.

You collect your data and then export the data which creates an RTF file you open in Word and then you can do ANY manipulation you want in Word...pictures, comments, other documents. We are not trying to reinvent the wordprocessing wheel when there already is one out there.....or are you talking about downloading your completed report to the internet in the field at the end of your inspection ? Then how much time are you spending on site doing all this picture manipulation, comment placement, document inclusions, diagram inclusions etc ?

I am just trying to figure out exactly what solution you are ultimately looking for.

Jeff Knight
Knights Software Solutions, Inc.
www.knightssoftware.com
"Leading handheld inspection software for 10 years."

[Bob Elliott]

True about the flash drive as you would need to download , then upload back to the second one.
I am just learning also and have crash coursed much of my info thanks to Dom.

[Bob Elliott]

Jeff I do not use word
I use open office
Word proccessors are slow , and the software program I have with HIP dowloads my 150 to 200 pics in less than a minute.
Photos are big in this business and I do not see a word proccessor being that fast.
I am talking finishing and uploading to the clients E-mail site.
Paper and ink are expensive.
The only thing I print is my NACHI Inspection Aggrement..

[Russel Ray]

Originally Posted by relliott

Jeff I do not use word
I use open office
Word proccessors are slow , and the software program I have with HIP dowloads my 150 to 200 pics in less than a minute.
Photos are big in this business and I do not see a word proccessor being that fast.
I am talking finishing and uploading to the clients E-mail site.
Paper and ink are expensive.
The only thing I print is my NACHI Inspection Aggrement..

My version of Word is extremely fast. It's allowed me to do up to 23 inspection reports in one day, and that's also back when I was printing them and delivering them in the car. Good thing I don't do any of that stuff anymore--I upload them to my own web site and send the Client an email link, which then drives traffic to my web site.

I just plug my camera memory card into a card reader and move the pictures to my hard drive. It also does a few hundred pictures in less than a minute.

Then I use Picture Resizer to chop all of them down to 640x480--also takes less than a minute for a few hundred of them.

[Bob Elliott]

How long would it take to upload 200 pictures.?

[Jeff Knight]

Robert,
I believe you can open RTF files in Open Office also so you can use Writer also...no need to use MS Word. Some of our clients use WordPerfect also...any word processor that can open the universal word processing standards of RTF will work just fine.

[klott]

What's the difference between a Tablet and a Laptop?

[Bob Elliott]

Jeff , I am doing business on occasion with a Mortgage contractor and they send me excell sheets that must be filled out, but they can,t seem to open mine as I convert to Open office and need to ship them PDFs or they never open for them.

[Bob Elliott]

Ken a tablet is like a laptop that has a flat screen facing you that you can carry as a clip board.
It has a touch screen so you can drag info or tap your information with out the need for a keyboard.
Just Google it and see the images and reviews.
They also are usualy able to adjust to brite light better from what I have read.

[Dominic J. Maricic]

Originally Posted by lkage

Thanks Dominic.

Can you tell me why just looking at the date of a file to sync can be a problem? Isn't the date brought forward any time changes are made?

I appreciate your help.

Usually it's not. Unless you screw up a file and sync it rather than replacing it with the old copy. Or if one of your clocks are off. Usually it's a seamlessp rocess, I'd just rather work with one copy, so I do it online with Google docs.

[Dominic J. Maricic]

Originally Posted by relliott

Jeff , I am doing business on occasion with a Mortgage contractor and they send me excell sheets that must be filled out, but they can,t seem to open mine as I convert to Open office and need to ship them PDFs or they never open for them.

Bob, you need to tell Calc to save the files in Excel format before you send them back to the contractor and you'll be fine.

[Dominic J. Maricic]

Originally Posted by rray

My version of Word is extremely fast. It's allowed me to do up to 23 inspection reports in one day, and that's also back when I was printing them and delivering them in the car. Good thing I don't do any of that stuff anymore--I upload them to my own web site and send the Client an email link, which then drives traffic to my web site.

I just plug my camera memory card into a card reader and move the pictures to my hard drive. It also does a few hundred pictures in less than a minute.

Then I use Picture Resizer to chop all of them down to 640x480--also takes less than a minute for a few hundred of them.

Russell, I still haven't tried a word based inspection software program, and I know your just using straight word. How to you add the images into word. Do you have to click insert photo for each one, one at a time, or do you have some sort of macro. I'm sure programs like Jeff has it setup simpler in Word, I'm curious as to how you do it.

[Russel Ray]

Originally Posted by dmaricic

Russell, I still haven't tried a word based inspection software program, and I know your just using straight word. How to you add the images into word. Do you have to click insert photo for each one, one at a time, or do you have some sort of macro. I'm sure programs like Jeff has it setup simpler in Word, I'm curious as to how you do it.

I don't include in my report all 250 pictures that I take. As my attorneys told me, "Don't include a picture unless it shows something that you saw that your Clients could not see (for example, under the house or up in the attic), or it shows something that does not have a layman's term associated with it (such as the TPR valve at the water heater). Consequently, there are no pictures of doorknobs or light switches in my report. I don't include pictures just to prove that I know how to take pictures or to make the report long. I like my reports short and sweet, which is why I went to an Internet-based interactive report.

The most pictures I ever put in a report was, I think, 51, because it was a monster property in bad shape and my Clients were not at the inspection; they were still in Boston.

Coming from the old academic world, I put all my pictures in one section at the end, Section D. Consequently, I insert whatever picture I need in a special table that I created in Word for that purpose (three pictures per row) and then simply add a caption.

[Bob Elliott]

Your lucky to already have a good referal base.
I would hate making people need to go looking for which pic matches which comment by fliping their eyes up and down , like a tennis match.
My referal base is growing because of my easy to understand and educational report.
A picture is worth a thousand words (and does not mis -spell )

[Brian E. Kelly]

Originally Posted by klott

What's the difference between a Tablet and a Laptop?

$500.00 to a $1000.00. And one more thing to drop.