Troubleshooting Tip - Editor window crashes after changing from multiple monitor to single monitor setup

Found an unusual problem this morning, and managed to help someone in our office resolve it without a support call to KSC. This is related to working with two-monitor setup, and temporarily changing to a single monitor. It will not affect the majority of users most of the time.

SpecsIntact doesn't seem to recognize the change to the monitor setup quite right for dialog boxes that were previously closed in the secondary monitor. It remembers the position the dialog box was last closed, and if that was in the secondary monitor (which now no longer exists), the dialog box is just "out there" somewhere. It appears as though the editor window is locked up, because the dialog box is off the screen and is a modal dialog box, meaning control is not allowed back to the editor window until a selection is made. Trying to end the task with Ctrl+Al+Del gives a message saying the system is waiting for a response from the user. Even after ending the task, restarting SI, updating to latest version - it still does the same thing. In our case we were trying to use the RID (Reference Identifier) button. We also made sure the display properties were set correctly, having the secondary monitor inactive.

Solution: Imagine there is a dialog box you can't see, and you need to somehow move it. Sorry, telekinetic powers don't seem to work with computers. The workaround I used is Alt, Space, M (to invoke the dialog box's move command in the application menu), hitting any arrow key at least once to grab the title bar. At this point it is possible to freely move the dialog box with the mouse to the active monitor, then choose a reference or blank tags, and close dialog box (IMPORTANT: Don't just hit cancel, or you will have to start the process over). Now SpecsIntact remembers that this dialog box was closed in the main monitor.

SI Tip of the Day - light gray for deletions improves readability of SpecsIntact sections

UPDATE: If your project requirements include UFC 1-300-09N, Don't try this for anything you submit to the Government for review (because it conflicts with UFC 1-300-09N - but many projects may only UFC 1-300-02, which has less specifics on revision format). But whatever the case, you & your designers might really like it for internal use. Just remember to change it back before publishing design submittals.

This is a one-time change, even though it is done in the editor window. Open any section, click Format menu, Font, choose tag name Deletion, foreground color Light Gray (or Gray if you like). You can also change header and note to Gray (or Cyan if you are using Gray for deletions).

Here is the cool part - deletions now recede so it is much easier to pick out the retained text and new text at a glance, while still having the benefits of seeing in context the other options that may exist.

These settings are stored in C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\SpecsIntact\INI_Files\SECTION.INI, so you could easily have two copies of it saved somewhere to make switching back & forth much easier. Sometime when I get a chance, I might try to write a simple DOS batch program or Python script that makes this as easy as clicking a button.


Click thumbnail below to view an example:

SI Tip of the Day - don't forget to reset revision format

If you have updated to the new version of SpecsIntact that was recently released, just a quick reminder -

 

Time to re-customize font settings for revision marks per UFC 1-300-09N Design Procedures 10-4.3 on page 71 of pdf:

10-4.3 Specifications or RFP Development.

Provide edited, red-lined specification sections, showing deletions from and additions to the master guide specification sections. Red-line other parts of the RFP when required by the contract. When using SpecsIntact, deletions should be shown in bold print and lined out. Additions should be shown in bold print, italicized, and underlined. This special editing feature will have to be reset each time SpecsIntact program is updated. To do this, open a job; go into a section and select “Format.” …

I'll have to pass along a feature request that the program could be taught to either (a) remember the user's settings (preferred), or (b) at least have default settings that correlate with UFC required formatting -- instead of requiring us to remember to change it back every time we upgrade!

 

SI Tip of the Day x 2 -- 1: Using a shared supplemental reference list -- 2: Update to SI 4.4!

This tip applies to working in an office where multiple users work with SpecsIntact.

 

Avoid reinventing the wheel by benefitting from each other's efforts to increase the library of supplemental references:

 

[X:]\SISGML\Masters\UFGS <-- UFGS masters are here.

create new folder:

[X:]\SISGML\Masters\[Office]\SUPP.REF <-- move the SUPP.REF file here, and change users' SI setup options file locations to use this folder. (This folder can also be added to the SI Masters so user can also share customized specifications for topics not currently covered in the UFGS.)

(In examples above, assume X:\ is a mapped drive letter for a shared network folder. Insert firm name or other name for office master folder in place of [Office]. Because drive letter are mapped, users can still use local installation of SpecsIntact. This can help some for those who use a docked laptop at the office and undock and take it with them at other times. SyncToy is the other main piece to that puzzle that I am currently using.)

The one pitfall we found with the shared Supplemental Reference List concept was that some recent changes had been overwritten by the program - simple solution: Mark the file read-only whenever you are not editing it. Also when changes are made, saving a backup copy here: X:\SISGML\Masters\[Office]\Supplemental Ref backups.

 

Then I added this little note at the top of the SUPP.REF file to remind us all (including myself) how this plan works:

<HLS>¡ ¡ ¡ IMPORTANT ! ! !

 

To avoid loss of data in this shared file, we have developed a simple procedure that must be followed when editing this file.

 

1. Copy the SUPP.REF file into the \Supplemental Ref backups subfolder. (Double-click here if you do not already have the office master folder open).

 

2. Rename the backup file using the same date format as the others in the backup folder 4-digit year, 2-digit month, 2-digit day, using today's date.

 

3. Go back up to the previous folder.

 

4. Right-click the SUPP.REF file and temporarily uncheck the Read only checkbox.

 

5. Execute any previous revisions, and then edit the file. Be sure to turn tags on. To preserve tagging structure, it is often easiest to copy an existing reference and then edit. Revisions view can be used to mark what you are changing.

 

6. Save and close, THEN BE SURE TO CHANGE THE FILE BACK TO READ-ONLY!!!

 

Keep in mind that the dates of issue should be checked periodically. In the UMRL the Government checks their list. But in our supplemental list, NO ONE is checking to keep it up to date unless we do it.</HLS>

So far so good!

 

----

 

Side note - Kudos to the SI Development team for getting so many updates into the new version 4.4! The greater awareness of presence of tailoring options and common selections across sections will be of great value. Sometime I would really like to be able to still have revision marks when using tailoring. Most agencies require it, so it diminishes our ability to take advantage of tailoring. Very nice job overall though, and thanks for listening to all the feedback!

SI Tip of the Day - More hot-keys

Here are a few more hot-keys that are often handy:

Alt+S Tags view (toggle)

Alt+R Revisions view (toggle)

Alt+N Notes view (toggle)

Shift+F8 Revision tracking (toggle)

CTRL+F Find text (to find next, use F3. Side note: If you have text selected, it will put that text into the Find dialog box. Very useful if you have just added a supplemental reference, and you want to go back to the text you were editing.)

Ctrl+B Find brackets (to find next, also use F3, if you use pause after each change)

CTRL+I Find tags (useful for location TAI options if you are marking deletions)

Alt+Z Zoom in

Alt+Y Zoom back out

Alt+G Display only English units

Alt+M Display only metric units

Alt+B Display both

For the ones you use repeatedly, it is well worth taking a moment to let those sink in. Keys on the keyboard are always right where you expect them, unlike your mouse pointer which roams all over the place.

There are many many more. Those are just my favorites for today. As you browse through menus to find commands, if you look to the right, you will see all the hot-keys. For commands that don't have an assigned hot-key, you may be able to use Alt and follow the underscored items in menus. Thus Alt, T, V runs the Validate command.

SI Tip of the Day - Global search [& replace]

To do a global text search of a SpecsIntact project (with optional replace feature), right-click a project in the tree, and click Search/Replace Job... This is especially useful if, for example, you are halfway through editing for a project, and then you receive directions from on high that the abbreviations of reviewing agencies must be changed. (In case you are wondering based on previous entry, no this is not being slammed for inventing new abbreviations for LEED. Different project. Changing AE to D per a new project requirement).

REDLINING REPLACEMENT TEXT

A nice little feature in the "Enter Search Text" dialog box is the "[x] Mark revisions" checkbox. This is good for making sure the revisions make sense in context. Once I wrote a spec for vinyl windows based on an aluminum windows spec. Short version is, I noticed it called for vinyl fasteners! So it is good to check behind our automated friend the computer.

IS THERE A WAY TO SKIP TEXT IN EDITOR'S NOTES? - YES!

Here's one more little tip - if you are searching for something like "AE" that is contained in the editor's notes in nearly all SpecsIntact sections, the results window yields less than desirable functionality - because now you have to open nearly every section and use Ctrl+F to find in many cases something that isn't even in the actual section text. SOLUTION: Make a single-file PDF using the Print/Publish dialog box. Be sure to go to the Options tab and uncheck "[_] Notes" and maybe also "[_] Revisions". Then in Adobe Acrobat (I use Pro), use Ctrl+Shift+F to find all, then type in AE, [x] whole word only - it will help you find them much more quickly.

SI Tip of the Day - Tag submittals carefully!

What a fun welcome to work this morning! SpecsIntact was crashing every time our Specs Coordinator tried to run the submittal register for a large project we are working on. There are 115 spec sections in this volume, so it took a considerable process of elimination to see just which section(s) were the culprit. To narrow it down, she and another specifier tried running the register on the first half of the volume. No crash! So they knew the offending section(s) had to be somewhere in the second half of the book. Guess what - it crashed when running the second half - so now they worked from the other direction - adding more and more sections to the mix, until when they eventually added 26 56 00 EXTERIOR LIGHTING it crashed again. As a final test, they ran a register with all the sections EXCEPT 26 56 00. No crash!

Here's where I came in. What was causing this mysterious behavior, and how could we correct it in time to get a complete submittal register to the printing company in time, including the exterior lighting submittals? I set to work with a clean section from the UFGS master in a sandbox SpecsIntact project folder, editing only the submittals Article... interesting little discovery:

The consultant had used <SUB> tags around a whole paragraph in one of the submittals! I think there must be a character limit for a submittal description, and we were majorly exceeding it. Like Buster in the movie Groundhog Day, we were trying to make it eat the whole cow, instead of bite sized pieces! Unfortunately, there was no warning or opportunity to do the Heimlich maneuver - maybe SpecsIntact's cholesterol was a little high or something because it seemed to have suffered an immediate heart attack. Software coroners, thankfully, unlike coroners for humans, have some more chances to analyze what happened and try to get it right.

After deleting the <SUB> tags around this paragraph, touching up the reviewer designations, and reassuring SpecsIntact that it would all be ok, I ran a complete submittal register without crashing! :-)

Chris

SI Tip of the Day - Submittal reviewer abbreviations

Found out the hard way a few projects back - if you use anything longer than ONE character for the first reviewer abbreviation, the entry in the Submittal Register will be split into two rows, with no reviewer on the first row, and the second row being empty except for the reviewer abbreviation appearing in the submittal item column.

The rule of thumb is the first abbreviation must by one character (such as "G" for Government review), and the second abbreviation can be 1 or more characters, apparently limited to 3. Refer to the editors notes in any spec section, and it will give you the run-down on the meaning of each standard abbreviation used by the Army. The Navy, Air Force, and NASA typically only use "G" and no other codes after that.

Problems will arise if, for example, you wish to use an Architect/Engineer designation (often "AE") or Designer of Record Approval ("DA") without preceding it with a "G". The format must

be ..; <SUB>G, AE</SUB>. You can not use ..; <SUB>AE</SUB> or your submittal register will look like this:

What you really want is something like this:

...but then it requires you to also have Government review (probably a 30-day process which is not popular on Design/Build projects unless it is really meant to be required).

Now that LEED is becoming predominant on many Federal Government projects too, a whole new level of review is being added to the process -- something this system doesn't seem to address consistently yet in the UFGS masters, nor in the submittal register at all.

After a lot of experimentation, it finally became clear that the problem revolved around using anything longer than one character - unless you have more than one review abbreviation, then it seems to accept up to three for the second abbreviation. There can be no more than two abbreviations, or it will either spill over into the Contractor schedule date column, or start a new blank row and drop them all there.

Examples of failed attempts to use more than 2 reviewer abbreviations:

A compromise that is being successfully used on one of our projects now is to abbreviate Designer review as simply "D", and LEED review as "L". Looks like we will be in good shape as long as we don't need all three for the same item! This may or may not work for Army projects either, because they often require "DO" District Office, "RO" Resident Office, etc.

So our introductory paragraph in submittals reads:

Government approval is required for submittals with a "G" designation. Submittals having a "D" designation are for approval by the Contractor's Designer, either the Architect or Engineer as appropriate for the discipline. All other submittals are for Contractor Quality Control Approval. [When used, the designation "L" following the "D" designation indicates that the Project LEED Accredited Professional will review the submittal. ] The following shall be submitted in accordance with Section 01 30 00 SUBMITTAL PROCEDURES: ...

Please comment if you have explored this at all before, and if you have any reactions yet from Government reviewers on variations in the use of this system. This posting is simply to share the tiny bit of knowledge about which number of characters will do what and where.

Software Change

Don't ever let an idea for an enhancement for Specsintact slip by. I recently submitted a Software change to Specsintact. If you think it will be helpful for you then it probably will help other SI users. My software change was as follows:

“Can an option be added that will allow me as the Specifier to select particular text, Subparagraph or article and add it to a “to do list”?

As I am editing thru sections there are constantly items that cannot be completed due to lack of info at the time. However, if that text, subparagraph or article could be flagged on a to do list then when the to do list is opened I can see the items. If I click on the item it will open the referenced section and go to the flagged area for Specifier input and completion. I see this working similar to how reports work now. If I open up a report and click on the item it takes me to the paragraph where correction is required.

This should also be added to the “Reports” under the print processing. That way if a To Do Flag was imbedded in a section and not corrected or completed it will be listed in a report during the printing process.

I see the To Do List being an icon on the toolbar while in the Specsintact Explorer mode.

It’s been a while since I have used Specsintact but now that I am back editing specifications I am creating a paper list of to do items. I just was thinking that having a generated list would be nice.”

This Software Change will be brought before the SI Board that meets in November. So with some luck they will see this as a worthy change and incorporate it into a future software update.

SI Tip of the Day - Don't manually renumber inside of Subparts!

Don't worry about manually renumbering subpart paragraph numbers. When you use the Print/Publish dialog box, it can do that for you in the output files. (However, if there are numbered or lettered lists inside of TXT, LST or ITM tags, these are not automatically handled, so do manually renumber/reletter them).

SI Tip of the Day - Using Validate Section and saving frequently reduces errors

If you are new to SpecsIntact, or even just experienced enough to know how to get into trouble, this tip may save you a lot of time.

You probably are already aware there is a hierarchy of information contained in a SpecsIntact section, and that if certain rules are violated in the formatting of the XML tags, the system will report errors when you save a section. You do NOT want to find numerous errors when this happens.

A good way to keep the errors from growing to large proportions is to check validity frequently, and save often. I like to use hot keys Alt T V because it is quicker than reaching for the mouse. There is also a toolbar button, or menu access (Tools, Validate). You effectively gain a second level of undo capability by saving each time you get a "Valid file" message. If you know you got into trouble only a few keystrokes ago, regular undo with Ctrl+Z or the left curly arrow button is fine. But if you don't know when it went to h*** in a handbasket, you now have the power to go back to a sort of "last known good" state by simply closing the section without saving. That is only a good idea if you save frequently.

By doing this every time you muddle very much with deleting or adding subparts, and similar edits, you find out quickly when you have one or two errors, and you can then easily fix them.

<SPT>Here is a sub-tip of the day, maybe even better than the main tip of the day: When you get error(s), double-click the error in the VALIDATE.LOG file, and it will magically take you to the very spot in the spec that is causing the error. Then Alt-T-V again to recheck.</SPT>

Using this process creates a feedback process in your work habits, so you end up with fewer and fewer errors and you won't have a huge mess to fix later.

Hope you benefit from this post, our first edition of the "Tip of the Day". By the way, don't be misled by the title into hoping there will be a new tip absolutely every day. But "Tip of the Day or Every Couple of Days or Sometimes Tip of the Week" would be too long and clumsy.

Finding reference standard if you don't know how the Organization is abbreviated

What do you do if you don't know the abbreviation that SpecsIntact's system uses for a reference organization? ASTM and ANSI are pretty easy to find, but how about the American's with Disabilities Act? What is it filed under? There is not Architectural Transportation Board organization listed. There are lots of U.S. agencies listed, but non appear to include the ADAAG. No organization seems to be listed that is intuitively related to accessibility.

Hmmm... what can you do to quickly & easily find it? You know it's gotta be in there SOMEWHERE. Try using your UMRL file to find it.

1. Go to C:\Program Files\SpecsIntact (or wherever you installed the SpecsIntact program to).

2. Open \UMRL\umrl.ref.

3. Use Ctrl+F, adaag, whole word. Voilà! It is under one of those CFR's, specifically 36 CFR 1191. Scroll up to find the organization. Turns out to be U.S. NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION (NARA)

4. So now go back to the dialog box, and look under NARA! After dealing with the fact they do not sort in a logical numerical order, you can easily add it to your section.