NEWSLETTER

Improvements and New Features in BSD SpecLink-E

The summer release of SpecLink-E includes many improvements and several new features you’ll want to try.  For our quick overview, let’s start with the new features:

• There is a new report called a Submittals Log, which has been designed as an Excel export for pasting into your customized submittals log template. The report includes the full text of all submittals requirements, organized by section, so it should be a huge timesaver as you set up your submittals tracking spreadsheet for the construction administration phase of your projects.
• The Manufacturers Listed in Project report is now enabled. It includes the full text of all paragraphs tagged as ML (Manufacturer Listing), plus the relevant parent paragraphs to put the lists in context. The BSD master paragraphs are already tagged, but you will want to add tags to any user-added manufacturers, to take full advantage of this report.
• We have had user-defined tags for a while now, but we now have a new report for these tags. You can print reports by individual tags or you can print a report for all user defined tags. An example of one potential use for this feature is a report on incomplete paragraphs, which would employ a User Defined tag (e.g., IN for Incomplete) that would be used to tag incomplete paragraphs. To print a report for User Defined Tags, see the online Help topic called User Defined Tag Reports.

There have also been a number of enhancements to existing features, including the following:

• For corporate users, the Define System Roles functionality has been expanded to include additional capabilities, such as Add New Project, Copy a Project, and Copy from SL+.
• For corporate users, the Audit Trail feature can now be printed in drafts of the spec sections. By clicking on the Show Editors option in the Print dialog, the name of the last editor and the date of the last edit for each paragraph are included in the printed document.
• Context sensitive help has been enabled wherever possible. Simply press F1 to bring up the help topic for any dialog box when the particular dialog box is active.
• Demoting and Promoting a paragraph now results in elimination of any user added formatting. While this may not always be desirable, it is the most efficient way to remove any unwanted user formatting within a paragraph.
• Clicking on Export in the Print dialog for a single section now defaults to the last file type exported. Exporting a branch or an entire project defaults to exporting as a Word document. To export to PDF, it is best to click on Print to PDF.
• The software now makes an automatic backup of all databases before starting an installation of an update.

Finally, there have been a number of corrections and improvements, including much faster operation for many functions. For example, the Find dialog box opens much faster now, because it no longer saves all open documents. We have also improved the Keep with Next and Widow/Orphan functionality. This includes elimination of the situation where the End of Section notice is the only text on a page. Brackets added by the user will now print, and Spell Check no longer changes the date in the Project Tree for a section unless a change has been made.

For a more complete description of these changes and many others, please read the Release Notes for this release of BSD SpecLink-E. We think you will be pleased with the many improvements and new features.