Product Q&A

All Products

Q. I’ve lost my update CD or I didn’t receive it! What do I do?
A. Check with the point of contact in your company to see if they received the CD directly. If not, you may be on the Download only list and the CD was not shipped to you. If that is the case, go to our website at http://www.bsdsoftlink.com/downloadcenter/userspage.htm. Download the file to your local drive and then double click on the file to start the installation. If you are a SpecLink subscriber, you will also need a serial number to complete the installation. That number is slp4457117. You should also download the Release Notes for your application because they include information you will probably need, and they change every quarter.

Q. Can we install a single user license version on our file server?
A. Yes, you can use the Network Server installation and then you can install as many Client machines as you like. Your single user access key will restrict the usage to one user at a time.

BSD SpecLink & PerSpective

Q. How do I select all paragraphs in a section?
A. There is no way to select all paragraphs in a section at once. If your purpose is to print out the section for someone else to review, what you need to do is to print the Master Text Copy or Draft Copy report. Click on the printer icon or File | Print and click on the Down Arrow to the right of the Report to Print field. If the section has any user added paragraphs or edited text choose the Draft Copy. If you have not done any editing, choose the Master Text Copy report. Both reports will print all paragraphs whether they are selected or not, and will include all choice options for choices. You may also want to turn on the Master Notes and/or Project Notes (in Report Options) to print all available information about the section.

Q. I have several user-added paragraphs that I would like to move to another section in the same project. How do I move them?
A. The best way to move several paragraphs of text at a time is to drag across the text of the paragraphs with your mouse so that they all turn black in the background, and click the Cut button. (If they are master paragraphs, and not useradded, you can choose Copy instead.) Then, in the section you would like to move the paragraphs to, click to place your cursor in the paragraph below where you want the cut (or copied) paragraphs, and then click on the Paste button. (You do not need to insert an empty paragraph before pasting.) All the text is copied above where you had your cursor.

Q. How can I globally change the font in my specification?
A. Go to the Tools menu and select Customize Styles. Click on the Fonts tab and click on the Fonts button to the right of each level. You can change the Font, Style, and Size in this box. This will change the font for the text within each section. To change the font in the headers and footers, choose View | Show Header/Footer, highlight the header and footer text and choose the font from the toolbar in the Customize Header/Footer dialog box.

Q. I am editing a paragraph with a blue choice and I do not want any of the options that are in the choice. How can I edit the blue choice text?
A. You cannot edit blue choice text in a master paragraph. In order to get the text you want, you will have to copy the master paragraph. There are two ways to do this.
Option One: If you want to keep the blue choice and just add more choices or edit existing choices, copy the whole paragraph by placing your cursor in the paragraph so that it is blinking and click the Copy button. Then Paste it above or below the master paragraph. You will be able to place your cursor in the blue choice field in your new paragraph and choose from the Document menu, Choices, Edit Choice.
Option Two: If you do not want to keep and edit the blue choice field, then copy only the text of the master paragraph to a new paragraph. First create a new paragraph by clicking at the beginning or end of a paragraph and pressing Enter. Then drag across the text of the master paragraph and click the Copy button. Click in the new paragraph you created and click the Paste button. All the text can now be edited.
Be sure to select your paragraph and deselect or exclude the master paragraph. You may also want to insert a Project Note to let subsequent users know which paragraphs they are supposed to use.

Q. I will be creating a lot of front-end documents for my office master and I will need to mention a term in them that changes from project to project. Is there any way to easily change that term without finding and editing it in each document where it appears?
A. There are replaceable terms in the Summary Information screen that you can use to change information throughout the documents. If the term you need is not one of those listed, there are keywords that are not used in any of the master documents and that you can use for your term instead. In PerSpective, the keyword Design Professional is not used in any of the sections. In SpecLink, the keyword Design-Builder is not used in any of the sections. Just edit the text in Summary Information to whatever you need. Then, click in the user paragraph where you want that term to appear, and from the Document menu choose Choices...Add Choice. From the Choice Group Type drop-down, select the keyword that you used, click the Add button, and click the OK button. The term will appear in green text. If you edit the text in the Summary Information screen, the green text will update throughout the project.

Q. How do I rename/renumber a section?
A. To change the name of a section, click on the name of the section in the Tree panel so that it displays in the Document panel. The current name of the section displays in the Sequence 0000 paragraph in the Document Panel. Drag across the entire name in the Document Panel so that it is highlighted then type the new name over the old name. Click on another paragraph so that your edit will be saved. The Tree Panel will update to the new name and the new name will print in the header or footer when the Section Name keyword is used. This will also update the name in the automatic Table of Contents report. If you want to renumber a section, right click on the name of the section in the Tree panel. Choose the option to copy or cut section. Right click on the correct folder in the Tree Panel and choose paste section. At this point you will be able to renumber and also rename the section.

BSD Costlink AE and CostLink CM

Q. I am using the Link to Excel feature to link the quantities of the tasks in my estimate to the overall size of the project that I enter in my Excel spreadsheet. When I change the size of the project, some of the quantities are decimal values when they should be whole numbers. For example the number of trees required changes based on the length of a sidewalk, so I created a formula to calculate the number of trees. Sometimes the value is 4.52 trees. I want it to be 4 or 5. Is there anyway to do that?
A. In Excel, edit your formula to read =ROUND(your formula,0). The zero after the comma will cause Excel to round to the nearest whole number. If you want Excel to always round to the next higher number or always to the next lower number, use ROUNDUP or ROUNDDOWN respectively.

Q. I want to copy just folders from the assemblies database into my project. How do I do that?
A. You can do that by dragging and dropping using your right mouse button. It is easier if you have both databases open and tiled vertically. When you drop the folder into the project database, choose the option Copy Folders Here. If you do not need all the folders you copied in, you can use the Delete Empty Folders option under the Tools menu to remove the empty folders.

BSD CostLink AE

Q. I don’t see the Models tab in my CostLink/AE project. How can I make use of the modeling feature?
A. In order to use any of the 73 RS Means building Cost Models, you need to start a project using the template called Uniformat II Project Template with Models.MPJ. Once you have a project started with this template, you will have both the Cost Models and the Model Additives tabs in the Summary Info dialog box.

More questions? Contact BSD Technical Support:

• Toll Free: 800-266-7732
• In Atlanta: 404-365-9226
• Email: support@bsdsoftlink.com