Report software

[mmonroe]

I am new to the field and I am in the process of choosing a software, any suggestions??

What software do you use?(poll)

Inspectvue

Homegauge

Bestinspectors.net

Other

[Dale Duffy]

Originally Posted by mmonroe

I am new to the field and I am in the process of choosing a software, any suggestions??

What software do you use?(poll)

Inspectvue

Homegauge

Bestinspectors.net

Other

Here is some past information regarding HomeGauge, which I highly recommend.

http://www.nachi.org/forum/showthrea...ight=homegauge

[ekartal6]

Same Here. Just finished a four bedroom home with defectos.. in 40 minutes on a PC.

[Blaine Wiley]

Easy to customize, Easy to use, Great people to deal with....HomeGauge. I've had more compliments about my reports in two years with HomeGauge than I had in the previous 10 years with my old report system!!!

[Harold E. Miller]

I use Inspector FX http://www.newimagesoftware.net/soft...pector_fx.html

I really like this program. You should check it out. If you want to test drive it just download it free to evaluate.

[lcapaul]

Originally Posted by mmonroe

I am new to the field and I am in the process of choosing a software, any suggestions??

What software do you use?(poll)

Inspectvue

Homegauge

Bestinspectors.net

Other

I use InspectVue, it's good, but takes many, many hours of editing to make usable, and those of us who use it have been waiting 18 months for a promised new version, it seems that PV has other projects and developments more important to them than Home Inspection Software.

I like Home Gauge, I was going to switch this year, we were promised that the new InspectVue release was only weeks away, that was several months ago.

If you are just starting out and don't want to spend the bucks for InspectVue or Home Gaouge, consider Report Host, no software to buy, pay by report, and they now have a version for your laptop. It's a great value.

[jlerch]

Originally Posted by lcapaul

I use InspectVue, it's good, but takes many, many hours of editing to make usable, and those of us who use it have been waiting 18 months for a promised new version, it seems that PV has other projects and developments more important to them than Home Inspection Software.

Wow, and here I thought I was the only one disappointed with the lack of the long taunted, super duper version 5. What else is in the works for PV that we aren't seeing the new release?

[lcapaul]

Originally Posted by jlerch

Wow, and here I thought I was the only one disappointed with the lack of the long taunted, super duper version 5. What else is in the works for PV that we aren't seeing the new release?

In his newsletters Lorne says they are busy developing software for big business that includes some kind of "drill down" feature, he blames the delay, his latest announced release date was 20 June 07' on Viista, but several other companies have come out with completely new software that is Vista Capable, he announced a delay 7 or 8 months ago that was also caused by Vista, I'd like to believe him, but after all the delays it's pretty hard to "keep believing", I have the suspicion that a new for lucerative market for PV is what is really delaying the release of Version5. I know I won't pay them another $250 next year if there is no new version, it will be HomeGauge for me, I would have bough it at the Orlando Convention last year if it hadn't been for there 'New Version of InspectVue" coming out soon, and that Russell didn't have his PDA Version of HG up and running yet.

I like InspectVue, but after using it for 18 months, and then playing around with HG, it does seem pretty clumsy, the new version is supposed to fix that.

[jlerch]

Hey Lewis,
I too have been holding on in hopes of the new version, and have delayed investing in a different software. I have spent a considerable amount of time tweaking PV and still find it clumsy, and not very friendly. It has it's good points, but just like anything else today if it doesn't evolve, as promised, then it will surely die.
Too many times I've heard "it won't be long now" and the only results liken themselves to "my dog ate my homework" syndrome, as if inanimate object like Vista could raise it's ugly head and personally destroy all the progress for the last year.
I'll just wait, but like you I'll hold on to my 250 until some commitments are kept.

[Bruce Thompson]

Mark,

I switched 3 mos. ago to Interspect Voice. I've gotten several compliments on the reports.

www.interspectvoice.com

Bruce

[mmonroe]

Thanks for all your help everyone.

[Nolan Kienitz]

Originally Posted by mmonroe

I am new to the field and I am in the process of choosing a software, any suggestions??

You can demo Whisper Reporter for no charge.

http://www.whispersolutions.com/

[gporter]

I Like Them. I use Inspectware.

[William R. DeVries, CMHI]

Don't forget the AHIT.com report it plus
word based and works on pda
as a backup you can have a few manual check box books in the truck in case battery death to finish the report

and also XL Pro over at bestinspection, looked at the demo seemed ok never tried it though

[mthomas2]

Whatever you use, expect to spend a *lot* of time customizing it to your desired report format and style.

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One thing I like about Homegauge is that you can embed "smart-text" in other smart-text, this means for example that you can define and edit a component description list in one location and the changes will take effect in all other smart-text that you have set up to reference it.

Another advantage of this feature is that you can build you own nested drop-down lists, strucuured and linked as you wish.

For example the top level drop down list for "SFBA' can in turn pop up "Fireplace" and "Stove", and each of these in turn can bring up drop down lists for "Hearth/Extension", "Firebox", "Facing and Trim", "Clearances" and so on, and the "Firebox" list in turn can bring up a drop down list shared by "Stove" and "Fireplace", so if you are attempting to do real-time reporting on a PDA your drop down list at any point is never more than a few items long.

And you set this up, not the Homegauge, so you can structure it pretty much any way you want - in this respect Homegauge (if you wish to use it this way) is a simple "programming language" as much or more than it's a conventional report "writer", and a template is a "program".

OTOH, you don't have to use this nesting capability to produce a good report.