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Williamstown, NJ
Posts: 120
Joined: Apr, 2006
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Crystal Lake, IL
Posts: 1174
Joined: Sep, 2003
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 Inspect Express
[#2] Posted: 07/12/2006 - 1:49:24 PM |  |  |
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Contact Mark Cramer at besttampainspector.com and buy his software (Intelligent Reporter). He won't tout it...doesn't have to...it's one of the best.
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Chicago, IL
Posts: 9507
Joined: Dec, 2003
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Inspect Express
[#3] Posted: 07/12/2006 - 1:55:56 PM | | |
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Can't disagree about Cramerware; it's excellent.
Having played w/Inspect Express as much as Cramerware, I'd say IE is easily equal to, and probably better if you want to customize or develop your own layout, or have the output be your personal vision. Sentence for sentence, I think Cramerware has the best boilerplate.
To answer your question.... if it's between Ahit & Inspect Express, it's IE hands down.
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Kurt in Chicago
"If I smell it, it goes in the report".............Phillip Smith...2012
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Kenmore, WA
Posts: 2101
Joined: Sep, 2004
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Inspect Express
[#4] Posted: 07/12/2006 - 8:30:40 PM | | |
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Been using AHIT InspectIt for five years now. Don't have a lot of time to talk about all the details. I haven't used anything else so I really can't compare it to anything else.
Bottom line for me is it is very flexible and has a lot of features to really customize and improve reporting capabilities. I've downloaded a sample of Inspect Express but have yet to have a lot of time to play with it.
If you have specific questions, obvioously post here or you can email me.
Out of time,
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Randy Navarro
http://www.thecompleteinspection.com |
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Spring Hill (Nashville area), Tennessee
Posts: 3384
Joined: Nov, 2003
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Inspect Express
[#5] Posted: 07/12/2006 - 9:09:44 PM | | |
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The InspectIt reports that I have seen look too much like a "punch list fill in the blank report". I don't know if this can be changed or not.
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Scott Patterson
http://www.traceinspections.com
"Minds are like parachutes they only function when open"
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Kenmore, WA
Posts: 15396
Joined: Dec, 2003
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Inspect Express
[#6] Posted: 07/12/2006 - 9:18:45 PM | | |
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Nope,
The semi-checklist is what you get. I used InspectIt for about a year after I left the franchise. The program was, in my opinion too restrictive and seemed to crash a lot. Whenever I called Gary Robertson to complain about something and to get one of their personnel to help me straighten out some bug, they would blame the glitch on my not using Word correctly. I began looking around for a better program and eventually found IE. That was 4 years ago. I bet I've had fewer total glitches and bugs in 4 years with IE than I had in 6 months with InspectIt and I'm not restricted to how much I'm allowed to write or how I want to customize my program. Best of all, it's narrative based. Oh yeah, and it runs in Word, just like InspectIt, so I know that it wasn't me that was screwing up the InspectIt program.
I've never tried Mark's product, so I honestly can't compare. However, I sent one of the Beta panels to some of the folks on the ASHI message board when DevWave was working on reformatting the way the program worked nearly 4 years ago. They played with it and someone, I think it was Walt Jowers, said it kind of worked like Mark's product. My thought at the time? "Like Cramer's stuff? Way kewl!"
OT - OF!!!
M.
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Albany, NY
Posts: 356
Joined: Nov, 2005
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Inspect Express
[#7] Posted: 07/20/2006 - 10:18:36 AM | | |
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A few weeks ago I was in the process of deciding which report software to use in my soon-to-be-launched HI business. After reading the message boards I visited about a dozen report software web sites of the products most frequently mentioned by people in favorable terms, and of those, I decided to download a half dozen demos. I ran the demos through their paces for several days and then narrowed it down to the three that I had the most "good feelings" about. Those three were Inspect Express, AHIT's InspectIt, and 3D Systems.
At that point I cracked open MS Word and made a list of some of the most important things I was looking for in my software, and I made a table where I could record how these three programs stacked up on those items. I then put the three programs through their paces paying particular attention to how each of them handled these items.
Since my report will be the tangible "product" of my interaction with my client, at the very top of my list was the ability to be able to customize the content and format of the report in any way that I see fit. Inspect Express and InspectIt had a big advantage in that regard because their reports are created in MS Word. 3D has its own built-in word processor and has some ability to customize the format, but it is not as flexible as using MS Word. Working within Word I can even automate some tasks by programming my own macros, and I can share information between Word, Excel, Access, and PowerPoint which may prove handy down the road.
Here are my notes on some of the other factors as I compared Inspect Express and AHIT. In the end, I decided to go with Inspect Express.
Overall report type/format?
InspectIt -- Pseudo checklist that flows item-by-item, but allows you to customize narrative for that item to include photos, links, diagrams, formatting, etc. It does not seem possible to change away from that basic layout. Has "positive attributes" bullet, which I find unnecessary and irritating.
Inspect Express -- Reports created in either partial narrative or full narrative styles. Partial narrative has the description of components sections written in list style, followed by narrative for observations and recommendations.
Ease of navigation between view of report as it will print, and view where you are working on creating & adding comments?
InspectIt -- Works within Microsoft Word. You see actual report in the background at all times. When a panel/menu popup is open for a particular sub-section, you must close it before you can scroll or access the document, or move anywhere else in the program. Pain in butt.
Inspect Express -- Works within Microsoft Word. You see actual report in the background at all times. You can scroll, access and edit the report while the menu popup is open (remains in foreground but can be moved around). Convenient.
Ease of editing & adding new comments to the library?
InspectIt -- Type new or edit existing comment anywhere within your report and format it as you want it to look. Select the text and then go through multiple step process to add it to your library. It is automatically added to end, then you must go through another process of editing another document to move the entry where you want it in the list. Cumbersome process.
Inspect Express -- Click of a button can store a variation of a default comment in the archive (attached to observation check box) for quick recall in the future. Right click default comment to permanently change it. Right click available “custom comment” to create and store a new default comment. Right click in scroll list to add a new choice to dropdowns. Very quick.
Ease of finding the comment you are looking for? Can I re-organize them?
InspectIt -- Within each section, comments are organized into four different option screens (Desc, Comm, Obs, Lims). Within each screen, they are then in one long scroll list – every comment as they pertain to each inspection item. This can result in a very long list. You can change the sequence of the list by editing the document which houses the list and is called by the program.
Inspect Express -- Need to flip through several tabs to find your comment. Using right-clicks, you can easily change the names of the tabs, the displayed names of the comments, and you can easily move the comments around to any position on any tab. Bottom line – very easy to re-organize them which when done, should make them easy to find.
Ease of previewing and editing the comment before you write it to the report?
InspectIt -- Preview is limited to first 255 characters, without formatting visible. Cannot edit before it is written. To edit, and make the edits permanent, you must write the comment to the report, edit it, and then go through procedure above to store it in your library.
Inspect Express -- You can preview and edit individual comments in the window at the bottom of the menu, or you can preview and edit all of your comments for a section before writing the section to the report.
Can comments combine text formatting, photos, diagrams, web links?
InspectIt -- I did not try to actually do this, but according to the documentation the answer is "Yes". You type & format the comment in MS Word and highlight it, then everything becomes part of the autotext entry that is stored within Word for that comment.
Inspect Express -- I think the comments are stored & written to the report as plain text, then you would have to format and add photos/diagrams separately. Not hard to do, but it adds time and steps to the process. Importance depends on how often I'd want to do this with comments stored in my library. Should be able to mimic the way InspectIt does this by using the "autotext" feature of MS Word, writing a macro to quickly access "autotext" at the push of a button, and storing a pointer to the autotext macro in the Inspect Express comment library for that item.
Can I label comments as “Safety Issue”, “Major Repairs”, etc?
InspectIt -- Yes. They can be created/stored as part of the comment, or several pre-defined labels can be added anywhere by pressing a button on the menu bar. Could also create simple MS word menu to add more “text inserts at push of a button”.
Inspect Express -- Yes. They could be created/stored as part of the comment, or up to ten “highlight” labels can be pre-defined & stored, to be applied to a comment as it is written to the report. Two groups of five each can have different font settings. Could also create simple MS word menu to add more “text inserts at push of a button”.
Image editing & annotating tools robust and flexible? Can location of images be controlled (word wrap, above/below, plate sheet)?
InspectIt -- basics are covered by program, can also manipulate images using third party software and pull into MS Word.
Inspect Express -- basics are covered by program, can also manipulate images using third party software and pull into MS Word.
Can I set up different sets of forms, report layouts, and comment types for different types of inspections (construction, commercial, HUD, etc.)?
InspectIt -- One template is created and used for the whole program. It may be possible to do this with some fiddling, but initially, this does not appear to be easy and may have limited functionality. I would have to research this further to see if it was even possible.
Inspect Express -- Yes, you can create different templates that have their own sets of input forms. You can also set the report to print sections in one sequence, but specify a different order of the form sections for data entry.
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Rochester, New York
Posts: 4115
Joined: Dec, 2003
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Inspect Express
[#8] Posted: 07/20/2006 - 3:00:54 PM | | |
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Freak
When you buy InspectExpress because I told you about it, make sure Mike and Rose know that I sent you and then work them like a sore rib and negotiate free updates for ME for the next year.
I called you a freak in nicest of ways
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Chad Fabry
StructureSmart Home Inspection Rochester, NY
www.structuresmart.com
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Albany, NY
Posts: 356
Joined: Nov, 2005
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Inspect Express
[#9] Posted: 07/20/2006 - 6:59:27 PM | | |
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Ok, now that we've established that I'm a freak  , I think that I might fit in here at TIJ just fine. I mean that in the nicest of ways, of course. 
Brandon
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Kenmore, WA
Posts: 15396
Joined: Dec, 2003
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Inspect Express
[#10] Posted: 07/20/2006 - 7:08:21 PM | | |
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Cantchya jest feel da luv?
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Rochester, New York
Posts: 4115
Joined: Dec, 2003
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Inspect Express
[#11] Posted: 07/21/2006 - 03:08:16 AM | | |
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Welcome to the club, Brandon
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Chad Fabry
StructureSmart Home Inspection Rochester, NY
www.structuresmart.com
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