Need help selecting report software

[Martin Peterson]

I would encourage all those who have not already made the trip to visit www.inspectmaster.com.

I have been a home inspector for 15 years, and I've checked out all the software that is out there, and until just recently I had been using another company's software (it's on the poll list), but always felt that most of the software that was available was too complicated and/or lacked some basic features that I wanted, like drop-down text boxes — I have always wanted drop-down text boxes. So I teamed up with one of the best software coders available to help me create the software that I always wanted to have.

Okay, so now you know I'm here to plug my own software. But let's just move on...

Even if you already use software and are perfectly happy with it, you will find that InspectMaster has some pretty great features that none of the other programs have (like drop-down text boxes). It is well-designed, easy to use, and because it is the 'premier' version it is currently being sold for considerably less than most of the other 'worthy' software out there. And it works extremely well on the new UMPC's and small laptops and tablets.

To download a copy, please click here. If you find time to offer me some feedback, it would be most welcome. Also, if you know of anybody who has been looking for inspection software for the Mac, I would greatly appreciate it if you would refer them to my website. If you would like to check out a sample inspection report generated by InspectMaster, you can click here. This will allow you to see right away how the report is structured.


Best Regards to all.

[rwand1]

You can download a trial version of Hi-Port. If I had not bought Inspect-it two years ago, I would most likely purchase this software.

http://www.hi-port.com/admin/content...fm?PageId=7695

[Jeff Knight]

Martin,
Just for the record...since it sounds like you have not done your homework on the other home inspection software out there... almost everyone of them has drop-down textboxes so I am not sure where you are getting off by saying that InspectMaster is the only that has this basic home inspection software feature.

Jeff

[Martin Peterson]

Hi Jeff,

These drop-down text boxes can be placed within existing narratives and populated on the fly? I'll stand corrected (and rephrase my last post) if you can show me one home inspection software program that can do that.

Regards,

Martin

[dbook]

I've been using Inspect Express for 4 years and can do anything I want to it, and it works in Word...I think you'll find the Inspect Express will do what you want....

[Fred Duemig]

Originally Posted by Martin Peterson

Hi Jeff,

These drop-down text boxes can be placed within existing narratives and populated on the fly? I'll stand corrected (and rephrase my last post) if you can show me one home inspection software program that can do that.

Regards,

Martin

3D can

[Martin Peterson]

Thanks for your imput, Fred, although after downloading their 95 MB demo, I find that I disagree with you, or at least your definition of a drop-down. To me, a drop down actually 'drops down' (or pops up) when you click on it, like what you find on menu bars. 3-D has a built-in existing list with check boxes that you can add to that insert words into a narrative. Close, anyway. However, as a home inspector (and it's not my intent to go 3-D bashing here), 3-D always fell under the 'too complicated' category that I referred to.

So Jeff, you said 'almost everyone of them' has them. What are they?

Jeff?

[Fred Duemig]

I kind of like the list. You see it all the time without having to "drop down". And, it can be edited, changed, added to, removed, customized on the fly.


Fred

[Scott Widick]

Home Guage ...period

[Jeff Knight]

Martin,
InspectMate from Knights Software (formerly Borealis) has had drop-downs for 10 years (which also implies that InspectNOW from ITA also does)...and as someone mentioned above... HomeGauge also created a feature called smart-text years ago which is also like drop-downs within a narrative comment. I also believe Whisper Solutions may have this feature along with Palm-Tech.

Jeff

[Martin Peterson]

Oh...now I see the reason behind your obnoxious post, Jeff. You must be Jeffrey Knight from Knights Software. Can't stand the competition, huh? Maybe you should spend more time trying to improve your "software" and spend less time being critical of mine.

[Jeff Knight]

Martin,
It was just a post to let you know that you cannot do false advertising of features you think are unique to your new software in the marketplace. I have no problem with competition...in fact I am good friends with most of my competition from Russel at HomeGauge...Will at PalmTech....Loren at InspectVue...even Carl at 3D ..... I just have a problem with someone new making false statements about their software and THEM being critical about the current software out there without doing their homework first. I was never critical about your software....just the fact that YOU were making statements that were not true.
This will be the last post I will make on this subject and I will let the inspectors make their own judgements as to whether they are true or not...and don't worry about me having time to do improvements to our software....we just came out with a v6 that has a lot of new features and we have always released a major new version of our software every 2 years for the past 10 years.

Jeff

[ehimmer]

Originally Posted by Martin Peterson

Hi Jeff,

These drop-down text boxes can be placed within existing narratives and populated on the fly? I'll stand corrected (and rephrase my last post) if you can show me one home inspection software program that can do that.

Regards,

Martin

Hi Martin,

Please take a quick look at WhisperReporter... it has Picklists which I believe are the same as your dropdown text boxes. They can be added anywhere, even in canned responses that we refer to as RapidRemarks. Use the Picklist manager under Tools to create new picklists and/or manage existing ones. Also, the picklists appear as standard text so that you can see the proper word wrap in a WYSIWYG comment area. Picklist marked text is simply hyperlinked to visually indicate that it is a picklist.. just click on it to pick from the popup list.
http://www.whispersolutions.com/WhisperReporter.htm

If you'd prefer I can quickly put a screen-cam video together on picklists if you don't want to bother demoing the product. We are not well known outside of Texas, but we'll eventually get around to getting better info and videos on our website, plus of course some advertising!

Eric

[Scott Keiper]

You gotta love the vender's fighting on the message board.

[Michael Larson]

Originally Posted by skeiper

You gotta love the vender's fighting on the message board.

I think fighting on the MB is a NACHI tradition.