InspectFaster Home Inspection Software Tour Guide

InspectFaster Home Inspection Software is capable of running on multiple computer operating systems, including Windows, Windows TabletPC, and Mac OS. This guide uses images and video captured from the Mac OS interface, but the functions are the same on all systems.

• Creating a New Template
• Importing InspectVue Libraries
• Creating a New Inspection
• Backing up and Importing Inspections and Templates
• Working with Report Narratives
• Creating Dropdown Text Boxes
• Working with Images
• Attaching a Company Logo
• Inspection Report Documents
• Home Inspection Codes and Notes
• Generating a Home Inspection Report
• Changing from List View to Tree View
• Instant Search Filter
• Headers and Footers
• Registering Your Inspection Software


Click here to download the Guide as a .pdf file.


Creating a New Template

A sample "Master" template containing many hundreds of narratives has been provided with the software to help you get started. The narratives in this library should be considered samples only, and we assume no responsibility for their use. The narratives you ultimately use must be of your own creation, edited and arranged in a manner to satisfy your needs and any Country, State, County code or licensing requirements, home inspection association standards, etc. that may be applicable.

Editing hundreds of narratives may seem like a time-consuming task but it does not need to take place all at once. Each time you select a narrative during the inspection process you either accept it as it is or you make changes to it, and this way the narratives gradually become your own, helping to create your own personal 'identity'. Ultimately it is up to you, the user, to manage and accept the responsibility for the contents of your templates and the use of the material they contain.

The sample "Master" template should always remain just that — a "Sample". When you are ready to start customizing a template, first create a copy of the Master template and then use the new duplicate template (obviously, you should name it something other than "Master") as your working template. For instance, if you pretty much stick to residential inspections, you might want to call your first new template 'Residential'. Any changes that you make to the new 'Residential' template will be saved, and these changes will appear in the new Residential template every time you launch the program.

Note: InspectVue R4 users can convert their existing InspectVue libraries into InspectFaster templates by using the "Import" button provided on the splash page. See Backing up and Importing Inspections and Templates.

We strongly recommend that you make a backup of any new template you create. If your hard drive crashes or any other similarly unexpected disaster occurs, you would not want to lose all your work. The templates are stored in a folder named, aptly enough, "Templates", and will be found in the InspectFaster folder. Use the "Backup" button provided on the splash page to make backups of your templates.

Creating a new template is easy— highlight the "Master" template and then duplicate it using the "Copy" button on the "Splash" page of the program. The splash page is the first window that appears each time you launch the program.

 "Splash" page

This is what a Template window looks like (we've compressed it a bit so that it fits on this page):

Regardless of what you name your Template, it will always be structured the same. There is a top-level folder named "Narratives" that contains three levels of folders. The top level is referred to as a "Section". Open a Section folder and you'll find "Category" folders. Open a Category folder and you'll see "Component" folders. Inside the Component folder is where you'll find your inspection "Narratives".

 

Once you've made a new template, the contents can be easily modified to meet your needs. Using the various icons highlighted below, "Sections", "Categories", "Components", and "Narratives" can be created, copied, renamed, deleted, or moved ("dragged and dropped"). Or you can start from scratch and create a template from the ground up (although you'll still need to make a copy of the Master to work with). Once you have created a new Template, it will appear in the Templates list.

Note: The same set of icons and tools found in the Template can also be found in an open Inspection when in the "Tree View". The "Tree View" window allows you more flexibility when it comes to making "on-the-run" changes (i.e. adding Sections, Categories, Components, and Narratives) to the inspection report while in the field. When you are in an open inspection, to switch from the default "List View" to "Tree View", or vice-versa, simply click on the "Change View" button.

"List View"

To change from the default "List View" (above) to the "Tree View" (below),
click on the "Change View" button on the bottom of the window.

"Tree View"

Creating a New Inspection

When you are ready to start a new inspection, just click the "Start a New Inspection" button on the splash page and the "New Inspection Wizard" will guide you through the steps needed to create the inspection. The very first time you use the program, you'll be prompted to "Add an Inspector". Next, you'll need to choose the Template that you want to use for the inspection. Choose the new template you just made. Finally, you'll be asked to give the inspection a name. You can name it anything you like.

Every time you create a new inspection, the default "List View" will appear (see image above). As you can see, the "Narratives" tab at the top of the window is highlighted. This is where we select the narratives that are to go into the inspection report. The narratives will appear once a Component is selected. If you click on a Section, Category, or Component, you will notice the two tabs towards the bottom of the window named "Codes" and "Notes". Only when you highlight/select a narrative do these tabs change from "Codes" and "Notes" to "Narrative" and "Images". See Home Inspection Codes and Notes.

Working with Narratives

All narratives are contained in Component folders. In order to create a new narrative, you must first open (or highlight) the folder in which you wish to create the narrative. Narratives can be created in an open inspection, or back in the template. For illustration purposes, let's work on creating a new narrative in the "Master" template.

We'll start by opening the Exterior section folder, then the Site Features category folder, then the Yard Walls component folder. This will activate the "New Narrative" icon (because Narratives go inside the Component folders). The Component folder does not need to be "open" for you to create a new narrative inside it.

Clicking the "New Narrative" icon opens the New Narrative window. Enter a short, descriptive name for the new narrative. This is referred to as the "Narrative Summary"(and which will appear in the final Summary Report, so it needs to be neat and concise if you plan on generating "Summary" reports with your "Full" inspection reports). We'll type in "New narrative name", then click OK.

This creates the new narrative. By default, the new narrative is placed at the bottom of the list. You can move it later (just "drag and drop" it where you want it to appear in the list).

Clicking on the new narrative will activate the editing window, where you add the wording for the full narrative.

 

The last thing we need to do before we finish up is select an appropriate 'Header'. This header will appear at the beginning of the narrative in the inspection report, to help further inform and guide the reader towards taking the most appropriate action.

Creating Drop-Down Text Boxes

With InspectFaster Home Inspection Software, you can easily create and insert drop-down text boxes into your narratives. When you are ready to insert a text box, place your cursor where you would like the box to appear, and then click on the "Insert Dropdown List" icon.

An empty dropdown list box appears. Clicking on the list box will activate the "Edit Dropdown List" icon.

Click on the icon to open the "Drop-Down Box Properties". This is where you will create the list.

 

Once you've typed in the item, click OK.

Once you've completed the list, click OK.

That's it. You've created a dropdown list. The items in the list can a single word or number, or they can be a whole sentence. Or paragraph...

Backing Up and Importing Templates and Inspections

At the bottom of the splash page are two buttons — "Import" and "Backup", that are used for backing up (saving to another location outside the program) and importing both Templates and Inspections.

If you are working with multiple computers, you can use the "Backup" button to transfer your Inspections and Templates between the computers — even if one is a Mac and the other a Windows PC.

Important: If you wish to transfer an Inspection from one computer to another, you must first make sure that the Template you created the Inspection from is on both computers.

Importing InspectVue Templates

If you are an InspectVue R4 user who has been looking around for something a little different but much easier to use, InspectFaster has just the answer for you. We have created a very easy way for you to transfer your InspectVue libraries over to InspectFaster.

To import your InspectVue R4 libraries, first locate the library you wish to import. InspectVue stores your library files in a folder named "ProgramData", which is located on your C drive. Open the ProgramData folder and you'll see another folder named "Porter Valley Software". Open that folder and you'll find a folder named "InspectVue R4" that contains all your libraries and inspection files. InspectVue library files end with "&IVL".

Click the Templates button, then click the "Import" button. Select and click the "InspectVue" button, then locate and highlight the library you wish to import. Click the "Choose" button. Give the program some time to import the library. Large libraries may take a minute or so to import.

NOTE: The original InspectVue section name are often changed within the InspectVue program. You may need to rename some of the Section folders once they've been imported into InspectFaster (very easy to do).

InspectVue R3 users — If you purchase InspectFaster, we will convert a single library free of charge. Additional R3 libraries can be converted for a small fee.

Working with Digital Images

With InspectFaster, you have the option of importing one image at a time, or the whole 'roll' at once. This can be done in both the List View and Tree View. Once you've selected the narrative that you want the image to appear under, click on the Images tab to open the "Image Strip" window.

Once the image tab is open, click the 'Add a picture to the inspection' icon.

 

This will send you searching for your inspection images folder. If you don't have a folder dedicated to inspection images, you'll need to make one. When you find the image you want, select it, and it will appear in the image bar. Just check the small check box next to it, maybe use one of the image tools to highlight a defect, and that's it.

Can't see the defect? we'll, that not a problem (it's a flexible gas connector that's been run through the sidewall of a cabinet). When you click on the image tools, the image becomes very large. The image also becomes magnified when you run your cursor over it, which will help you when it comes time to fit your images with your narratives.

You can select as many images as you like to appear under any given narrative. Please keep the images under 800 x 600 dpi, and make sure that the file size of any given image does not exceed 150-200 KB. Exceeding these size limitations may cause memory/functionality issues, so you should experiment with the trial demo to ensure that you can be certain that the software will perform as desired on your End User computer.


Attaching a Company Logo

On the opening "Splash" page, click on "System Preferences" and select the "Logo" button from the top of the Preferences window. Select your logo from its location. InspectFaster will Import JPG and PNG files. For best results, we recommend that your logo image be a minimum 600 dpi., and that it be no larger than 65x250 pixels. If your image is larger (taller) than this, it will likely push everything else beneath it onto a second page, or create a second blank page. There are a number of free image resizing programs available on the internet to reduce the size of your logo if this is necessary.


Codes and Notes

InspectFaster includes separate windows for Notes and Codes. Codes and Notes appear only when a Section, Category, or Component is highlighted/selected. This is structured so that you can easily store notes and codes in individual Sections, Categories, and Components (but not the narratives), providing you with a convenient (click of a button) way to check for code violations, product recalls, etc.

You can "toggle" between the Codes and Notes windows, and insert codes or notes for viewing during the inspection process. Each Section, Category, and Component have their own individual notes and codes areas. If you go to the ICC website, you can copy and paste the entire 2006 IRC code book into Notes and Codes!

Although the easiest way to insert information is to just copy and paste it in, you can also manually type in anything that you think may come in handy while out "in the field".

Creating and Importing Documents

To get a new document or report page into the template (and your inspection reports), you just need to import it as a PDF file. You can import existing PDF files (Inspection Agreements, SOP's, etc.) or create PDF documents in a word processing program, and then import them into InspectFaster.

After you click the "Generate Report" button, the "Report Preferences" window appears. The first tab (named "Report Pages") contains all the Report Pages. At the bottom of the window there is a button for importing PDF's. The name of the document you import will appear as the title of the report page. PDF's imported into the report pages will appear in the Table of Contents, and have headers and footers just like any other page of the report, so page numbers will appear on all PDF's.

A Change of View

When creating inspection reports, you have the option of using the default "List View" or the "Tree View". The "List View" offers some advantages over the "Tree View" in terms of having a very simple and uncluttered interface, but the "Tree View" provides you with tools not available in the "List View", such as the ability to use the search filter and to create new Sections, Categories, Components and Narratives "on the fly" and within the inspection itself without having to open and edit the template.

To change from the List View to the Tree View, click on the "Change View" button at the bottom of the inspection window.

Instant Search Filter

In the Tree View, the user can use the search filter feature by simply entering a keyword or keywords and getting instant results. Once the results are displayed, the user can check the narrative that they are looking for, and then exit by clicking the "throbbing" erasor/binoculars icon.

Generating the Inspection Report

When you are finished with the inspection and selecting your narratives, it's time to generate the home inspection report. At the bottom of the inspection window is a "Generate Report" button. Click it to bring up the "Report Preferences" window. This is where you select the report pages you want to have appear in the report. You can drag and drop the pages into whatever order you like.

 

Next, click on the "Report Content" tab. Every narrative that you've previously selected to include in the full Inspection Report has a "Heading", and for the Summary Report you now have the option of printing only those narratives with certain Headings. For example, you can generate a Summary Report that only includes those narratives tagged with "Deficient" and "Safety" Headings. We know lots of agents that will like you when you do this for them.

By default, all Headings are selected. By checking the box in the lower right corner, you also have the option of having the full narrative appear in the Summary Report in place of just the narrative summary (the short description of the narrative).

The third tab is for "Report Options". This is where you can select to "Include Narrative Pictures" in your report and where you choose the size of the Pictures that will appear. You can have one Large picture, two Medium pictures, or three Small pictures appear side by side below a narrative. You can select as many, or as few, images as you like.

If you have a client that would like the report font size to be larger, you can elect to increase the font size here by using the slider, from small to large. If you include a lot of pictures in your reports, you can help keep the report file size down by decreasing the picture quality. If you have only used a few pictures, you can increase the quality.

This is also where you select where the report will appear on your computer. For example, if you create an "Inspection Reports" folder, you can elect to place all generated reports into this folder.

 

 


Headers and Footers

The only thing left to do is fill in your "Headers" and "Footers". Space has been designated at the top and bottom of each page to allow you to insert additional information, such as the page number, and the total number of pages in the report. You can type in the information or use "Macros", which are selected from a list by clicking on the "Insert Macro" icon. The following images demonstrate this process.

 

Hint: Type in the word "Page" in front of the first macro, and the word "of" between the two macros.

You will quickly notice that the name that you registered the software under appears in the footer of the report pages. This is a security feature, but one that you can use to your advantage. For example, you can type in the words "Inspected by" in front of your name, followed by the "on", and then the inspection date macro (you can insert words between macros). If you like, you can move your name to the Header if you prefer to have it appear there instead of the Footer.

You can have more than one line of information, so you might also decide to place the date of the inspection on its own line.

That's all there is to it. All the information will appear in future reports, so that you don't have to repeat this exercise every time you generate a report. For this reason, there are plenty of navigation tabs and buttons to move through the process quickly as you become more familiar with the program.

The only thing left to do is click the "Print PDF Report" button. Your inspection report will appear as a .pdf file at the location you have designated. You can open the .pdf file and print the report, or, to save printing and delivery costs, attach the file to an email and send it on its way. Using this method, we can almost guarantee that your clients (and their agents) will appreciate your quickness and efficiency as you save yourself time and money.


Purchasing your copy of InspectFaster Home Inspection Software

Until you have purchased a commercial license for InspectFaster, the home inspection reports you generate during the 60 day demo period will include text that reminds you that you are running a trial demo version of InspectFaster and encourage you to purchase a commercial license. Once you have purchased a license, this text will go away.

To purchase a software license, go to www.home-inspection-software.com/products.php. Once there you will be guided through the purchase process, which is both easy and secure. Once you have purchased the software, we'll email you a commercial license key right away.

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