SpecsIntact

SpecsIntact Basic Training

This presentation is available either in person or remotely through a web meeting, for CSI specifiers who need to maximize their effectiveness with the SpecsIntact program in a short amount of time.

A quick look at a few things you need to know.

SESSION 1:

• Setting up a new project folder in SpecsIntact.

• Tags view button. At first, you should always turn tags view on when you are typing. You probably will want to turn it off when you are reading and finding your place.

• Understanding start and end tags (<START> </END>).

• A few types of tags and their buttons: SPT, TXT, ITM, LST

• Revisions view button (not to be confused with Revisions button).

• Revisions button - Probably best to always keep turned on - depends on strategy for document management and project RFP. May be better to use print/publish to hide revisions than it would be to stop tracking them, this allows reusability of specs while still complying with DoD's strict requirement for always tracking compared to master.

Remember to find out about Agency requirements if they have any that supersede the UFGS. For example, the Savannah District of the USACE requires deleted Articles to still retain the title and add - OMITTED.

• Notes view button.

• Proper cursor placement for deleting text without breaking tag structure.

• Proper cursor placement for inserting new "Subparts" without causing validity errors.

• Checking for errors - Tools > Validate or Alt T V (Urge you to do this frequently, and save frequently, that way errors will be much easier to undo).

• Bracket Replacement dialog box (Ctrl+B). Checkmark Pause After Each Change, and Don't Move This Dialog Box. Use F3 to find next.

• Respecting any existing Submittal tags, and how to create them for when new products or requirements are inserted - Similar to our recent Masterspec projects, but they must be used in Part 1 AND Part 2.

• Reference ID tags and selecting references from URML or Supplemental Reference List.

• Print / Publish dialog box.

• Headers and Footers.

SESSION 2:

• Customizing revision marks format per UFC 1-300-09N Design Procedures 10-4.3 on page 71 of pdf (source for this and many other UFC's: Whole Building Design Guide at www.wbdg.org). This is a one-time fix.

• Print / Publish dialog box review – revisions on/off, reports, overwrite existing pdf, option to make one big pdf, option to make bookmarks. (Hint: if you need a hardcopy and pdf's, don't print the hardcopy from the pdf's or you would have to open and print each file. Instead, just run the Print/Publish again and choose your local printer instead of Adobe PDF.)

• Headers and Footers – Learn how to use the pipe symbols (Left|Center|Right) – tooltip can be seen by holding the mouse still over these fields.

• Configuring Adobe PDF (another one-time fix: UNCHECK "Do not send fonts to "Adobe PDF" – accessed in printers & Faxes, right-click Adobe PDF, click Printing Preferences, tab for Adobe PDF Settings. Here you can also set up a default output folder. Side note: PDFCreator is another program that will allow you to do this - worth mentioning in case you ever need an alternative way to make PDF's in the event the Acrobat Pro and SpecsIntact do not want to agree).

• Draft Print – from within a spec section. No header/footer. No reconciling of references, numbering, etc. If sending to PDF, it can be configured to go to a default folder (e.g. My Documents\PDF) using Adobe configure

• Tailoring options (similar to LINX) – right-click a project to use globally, or use Edit > Tailoring Options in editor window of a single section. Does not use strikethroughs to show revisions, so consider using Find > Tags, T T. Then select/delete as needed. Use F3 to find next.

• Color Schedules the Federal Government way.

Advanced Individual Training

• Behind the scenes file locations: SISGML\JOBS\pulldata and \prntdata

• Copying files from Windows Explorer using drag and drop into SI Explorer

• Make your own recycle bin for SpecsIntact: Delete sections by moving to a \pulldata\deleted subfolder and using release processing to update SI Explorer – This allows for undeleting the section later, for example if the design team changes direction a couple of times and asks you to bring a section back that you had previously started to edit and then thrown out.

• Editing Supplemental Reference List in a shared network folder.

Website: https://specsintact.ksc.nasa.gov/Software/Software.shtml