Hi Guys,
The next installment of Home Inspector Pro, 2.6 has been publicly released. I'd like to thank all the beta testers who've helped out over the past month (many of which are here on AR) in checking out the features added in since 2.5.7. A lot of discussions have taken place via email, phone and especially on the message boards on http://www.homeinspectorpro.com that have contributed to this update. Home Inspector Pro is built by you, the inspector. We're just putting together what you want to see. There were a few more features I was hoping to get into this version, but a major ad campaign that we had setup came out a few days early so we had to put this version out now so people downloading the trial would see the latest and greatest. If you'd like to be a part of how the program is shaped, make sure to participate in the message board discussions!!
You can download the new versions update by logging into http://www.homeinspectorpro.com and click on Software Updates on the left hand side if you are already a user, or the Download Trial button if you're not.
Here is a list of some of the latest updates since the last public version 2.5.7 a month ago.
New Feature: Spellcheck added in English, Spanish, French, Italian and German. Added to add add/edit comments, edit documents, footer, contract, and photo caption windows. You will see words underlined and can also hit F7 to run a complete spell check to run through the entire document, comment, etc. Right click on the words spelled incorrectly to see suggestions.
New Feature: Report PDF sizes are now up to 300% smaller. A beta tester sent me an inspection with 200 photos, it was only 4 megs.
New Feature: Copy button added to Edit Template. You can now make a copy of an entire section such as the bathroom with one click. Very useful for people who want a separate page for each Bedroom or Bathroom. Or to work on multi unit complexes.
New Feature: Report PDF's are now 128 bit encrypted. Encryption is set to prevent anyone from editing the PDF's in any way, but still allows text to be copied from the pdf to another program (in case it's needed). PDF annotations (comments added on top of the pdf itself) are currently disabled as well, but this may be made an option up to inspector in the future. Let me know what you think. Attempts to decrypt(hack) a PDF are arguably illegal via the DMCA which provides the inspector with an additional layer of security.
New Feature: The caption field for photos is now a drop down that is automatically populated with the black & red comments you have selected for the section the photo is going to appear in. Red items appear first (as they would be used as captions more often) then a ------, followed by the black items.
New Feature: Added ability to read in PNG images for the company logo.
New Feature: Click on a photo in the Photo pages and a large version of it will pop up. Click it again to make it go away. This is very useful when working on small resolutions and on UMPC's like the Samsung Q1 and the Asus EEE PC (they have 7 inch screens so the images are small unless you click on them). The images will also remain up if you want to browse to another section in the program and use them for reference.
New Feature: Finally finished this feature. When you use the report upload service it will now list your email address as the reply to address. It will have to list our email address as the from to minimize spam filters from blocking it, but the important thing is that if the client or agent hits reply, the emails will now go to you. Give it a spin. Keep in mind this means that you need to keep an eye on any emails bouncing back to you as bad now as we won't receive them, you will. Often these end up in the spam filter, so check there and make sure to mark them as not spam to teach your
New Feature: Inspectors are now notified via email when an Agent or Inspector views their report through the report upload syste,
New Features: Added popup when you hover over section names in the Print Settings area that lists the entire section name.
New Feature: Remove Company Name on Cover Option added under Report Settings->Options.
New Feature: License number now appears on the normal cover page (previously it only appeared on the Texas cover page).
New Feature: Added a move up/down button to the red & black comments so you can rearrange their appearance.
New Feature: Rotate image 90 degrees clockwise/counterclockwise now added to edit photo.
New Feature: You can now change the line thickness used to draw arrows, rectangles, etc in the photo editor. Set this in Report Settings->Options->Photo Editing.
New Feature: You can now change the default color used to draw arrows, rectangles, etc in the photo editor. Set this in Report Settings->Options->Photo Editing.
New Feature: Added a new separator between comments: Bullets
New Feature: Added a new separator between comments: Bullets & New Line
New Feature: Added a new separator between comments: New line and extra line (double spaced)
New Feature: When performing a bulk photo import you can choose to skip the cover page slot, allowing you to easily add a cover photo afterwards without removing what's in the slot first.
New Feature: When performing a bulk photo import you can choose to add the photos to every other slot. This leaves a blank place for another photo to go next to each photo. This is very useful for adding infrared photos.
New Feature: When in the template editor, double click on any inspection items to change the tab name or the panel names.
New Feature: Added a Other Info to client info that will appear on the cover page of the report.
Design Change: & and ' are no longer valid characters for the inspection and pdf name. They are not compatible with internet URL's so cause problems when uploaded online.
Design Change: When a client views the report online, the size of the pdf clickable icon has been increased.
Design Change: On the photos page clicking on the Section drop down or Item drop down will create a larger popup box than before, allowing longer titles to be read and differentiated from each other.
Design Change: When you click on Add or Edit Comment the cursor will automatically be focused on the edit box so you can start typing without clicking on the text area first.
Design Change: Logos are now stored as PNG instead of JPG for better quality.
Design Change: Company logos are now converted to a higher resolution for better quality. We advise you to reload your company logo if you'd like it to be higher quality. A page width image should be 800x150 pixels.
Design Change: Company logo position adjusted when positioned at the top of the cover page.
Design Change: If you are using 800x600 resolution the checkboxes on the add photo page are moved to their own line so they are visible.
Design Change: The gray bar that splits 2 panels (runs horizontally) can now be moved farther up/down so that all of the Edit Comments section can be seen when running in 800x600.
Design Change: Photos are now printed on the report in the order the appear in the Add Photos section, not in the order they are added. Before if you had left a space open on the first page, but it was the last photo added, it would appear last in whatever section you added it to.
Design Change: Added more color options to Item Description.
Design Change: Added more color options to Report Settings->Formatting
Design Change: When you click on Edit Comments, the text box above Add has been removed. Now you click on Add Comment and get a popup box that will allow you to enter in multiple comments.
Design Change: The Template Editor now only has a Save button. The cancel button was removed as it was not practical to try and maintain all the changes and then reverse them. Since it's so easy now to make changes to panels, it isn't necessary anymore.
Design Change: When you double click on a comment to edit it you now get a MUCH larger edit box with the ability to hit enter to create multiple paragraph entries.
Design Change: Renamed the "Add Photos" menu to "Add/Review Photos"
Design Change: Should not need to slide the gray horizontal bar down now to get access to the edit description box.
Design Change: All the client info now shows in the Additional Comments area for the Texas Template layout
Design Change: Preview Report button has been renamed to Generate Report. This is to eliminate confusion with inspectors who were trying to preview older reports.
Design Change: Removed the Print Report button. It wasn't being used, every inspector we talked to previewed first, then printed. This keeps things simplified on the button bar. The Print Report still exists under the File menu if you need it.
Design Change: Added a little more space inbetween Page 1 of xx when xx is greater than 10
Design Change: The help button on the toolbar now takes you to the animated tutorials on the website instead of in program documentation.
Design Change: When you enter Edit Photo mode the "Draw Arrow" button will be selected as soon as you enter. Since this is the tool used the most, it will save you a click if it's what you're going to be using first.
Design Change: The drop down boxes used to set where the photos will appear now display up to 25 items at once before creating a scroll bar. Previously only 10 were shown which meant you had to scroll at time. 25 was chosen as the max as it's the most that can be shown on an 800x600 resolution computer.
Design Change: Made it so that when you have 2 panels on the screen the split will be closer to 50/50. This is to help out on smaller resolutions.
Design Change: The new larger edit boxes will move a word to the next line if it doesn't fit, rather than splitting the word across lines.
Design Change: Spell check set to ignore capitalization.
Design Change: Spell check suggestions limited to top 15.
Design Change: Draw circle now works by clicking once for the center of the circle and clicking again for the radius.
Design Change: Moved each sections title up 3 pixels to accomodate lowercase p,q,y crossing shading title below.
Design Change: Clients state now prints in the top right corner as well.
Design Change: If you check a rating box that item will print if you have selected the option box to only print items if a comment is selected.
Design Change: Changed spell check so the when you right click you immediately see the spelling suggestions.
Sincerely,
Dominic Maricic
Home Inspector Pro
http://www.HomeInspectorPro.com
1-888-750-4777
