Monday 4 January 2010

Working with Revisions

One item of functionality in the current software that is slightly hidden away is the Revisions functionality. NBS Building users that make use off this often give us great feedback on how they they use it to go good effect.

The good news is that this functionality has now got better for the 2010 release of the software.

Screenshots are used below to demonstrate this.

Fig 1. The user applies revision stamps against a work section as it changes over time


Fig 2. The work section cover sheet clearly shows which clauses have been modified in the latest revision

 Fig 3. Now in the 2010 version of the software, the revision details are indicated in the work section itself

Note:
One further tweak has been made to the revisions functionality - you now no longer need to have modified a clause to apply a revision label. Many customers told us they were having to "fool the software" by adding a full stop or similar to apply a new revision stamp when nothing had changed. 

3 comments:

  1. Big Thumbs Up for adding revision notes within the main text, connected to the clauses themselves.

    BTW: who revises an un-revised clause, and why?!?

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  2. Yes - this is fine - but the one clear internationally accepted convention/ method of identifying revisions in text documents [including specifications] is by the line down the side of each line of text which has changed. MS Word does this an option of track changes. This is done throughout US and US influenced areas of the world. I do wish NBS could add this feature - it would be so useful. And it is clearly identifiable on black and white photocopies.
    David

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  3. @Rich - I think the request for adding a new revision stamp to an un-revised work section would be to put a marker down in time. The previous label may have been "Building Regs approval", a new label may then be added (with no clause changes) "Tender issue". This has been quite a common request.

    @David - thanks for the suggestion of the black line. We're at release candidate stage now for the 2010 software so it's a little late to look at doing changes at this stage - but thanks for the feedback.

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