Report software

[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, structured 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 (depending on which are relevant to "stove" and/or fireplace"), 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 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.

[Jeff Knight]

Michael,
InspectMate from Knights Software (formerly Borealis) also has this "smartText" feature and has had it for over 10 years...You can also control the order of each item in the drop downs inside a comment to have the most common ones at the top of the list to limit having to scroll to find the item you are looking for. This is especially important on the handheld version.

Jeff Knight
www.knightssoftware.com

[Russell Buchanan]

Originally Posted by Jeff Knight

Michael,
You can also control the order of each item in the drop downs inside a comment to have the most common ones at the top of the list to limit having to scroll to find the item you are looking for. This is especially important on the handheld version.

Jeff Knight
www.knightssoftware.com

HG uses an arrow button so you can arrange these items up or down in any order which limits scrolling. http://www.homegauge.com/inspector/support/tours3.html