Writing the Report > Linked Text

Text can be marked as "Linked" which covers several link types described below. To mark text as "Linked", you first need to select the text that you want to apply the linked text attribute to:

Selecting text using the keyboard

Place the text cursor on the first character to be marked. Hold the shift key down and use the cursor keys to highlight all the text that you want marked.

Selecting text using the mouse

Move the mouse cursor to the start of the text to be selected. Hold down the left mouse button and drag the mouse over the area to be selected.

Once the desired text has been selected, you have a choice of how to link the text.

Linked Text

Marks text that can be duplicated in one or more areas of the report. Two tags are provided:

•The <$LinkedText:xxx> tag, where xxx is a qualifier, can be used for creating an auto summary page of the report or the separate Summary Report that you can send to a Realtor, or used on any other page where the <$LinkedText:xxx> tag is used and resolved into. Each text that is marked as "Linked Text" can have one or more qualifiers associated with it. This allows text to selectively appear in different areas of the report using different <$LinkedText:xxx> tags where xxx specifies a specific qualifier. For example, there might be some text you might want to appear in an area of the summary for "Monitor Only", and other marked text to appear in another area of the summary titled "Repair or Replace". The list of qualifiers that are available is managed by the Picklist Manager, accessible using the gear button button to the right of the Qualifiers dropdown within the Linked Text's Selection Dialog, or you can use the Picklist Manager directly for the specific picklist called "Linked Text Qualifiers", so you can create qualifiers that mean something to you. Linked Text qualifiers are also used to create a Report Summary, or a ISN Repair Request Summary Upload for ISN (Inspection Support Network), that is useable and editable by Realtors for their clients. See the topic on creating and uploading a Repair Request Summary to ISN.

Linked Text qualifiers can also be used to automatically select a topic checkbox having the same name as the qualifier if you enable that option (see below under "Linked Text Dialog"). A typical use of this is to create a RapidRemark and set it to be linked to the summary. If you had included a qualifier of "Deficient" it would also automatically check the "Deficient" topic checkbox when that RapidRemark is added to a topic comment. If you were to mark some existing text as linked text and include the "Deficient" qualifier, it would also auto-check the respective topic checkbox when applied.

•The <$LInkedPar:xxx> tag where xxx is a paragraph name rather than a qualifier as above. This tag is used to simply duplicate a single paragraph elsewhere in the report, without any headings or other options that the <$LinkedText:xxx> tag provides. You must assign a paragraph name to the paragraph you want to duplicate by placing the caret anywhere on the respective paragraph, and then use the following main menu sequence: Edit > Paragraph > Name, or right click and use Paragraph > Name from the popup menu. Each method will prompt for a paragraph name or allow you to edit the existing one. Multiple paragraphs can have the same name, in which case all of those paragraphs will be duplicated by a single <$LinkedPar:xxx> tag. The paragraph name will also appear when viewing extended attributes. Hint: Use the Custom Toolbar to streamline insertion or editing of paragraph names.

Topic Link

Marks text which will allow you to select a topic that the Adobe Acrobat reader will jump to when it is clicked on, providing an interactive PDF experience for your clients. A list of available topics that can be selected for the current report is presented in the Topic pull down list.

Hyperlink

Marks text which will allow you to specify a URL (i.e. website) link. Clinking on this type of link when in the Adobe Acrobat Reader will cause a web browser to be invoked and the URL specified to be loaded. Enter the desired URL in the space provided.

File Link

Marks text which will allow you to specify a file to be opened. This can be useful to provide additional information from another file or video that might be useful to your client in understanding the report. Enter the desired file in the space provided. Use the Browse button to help locate the desired file.

Linked Text Dialog

By default, the toolbar will show the Link Text Icon if no other option mentioned above has yet been chosen. If you chose it, it will re-apply what was last used if you have already chosen one (hovering over the button will pop-up a reminder as to what will be applied), otherwise you will be presented with the following dialog:

LinkedTextQualifier

Selected Linked Text Option:

•Do not prefix/number the instance of the text being linked
There is a linked text option that can automatically prefix or number linked text which adds this to each linked text that is resolved. Use of this option can selectively prevent some linked text from being prefixed or numbered yet still allow other linked text to include it. Refer to Linked Text preference settings for more information.

Global Linked Text Options

•Allow multiple qualifier selection
Linked text can include multiple qualifiers in case there is a need to resolve the same linked text in multiple areas of the report or to automatically select a topic checkbox such as "Deficient".

•Auto-select qualifier that matches Topic caption
There may be situations where you want to make all linked text in a topic be associated with the qualifier that matches it. For example, you might want to have all linked text under the Windows topic to be marked with the qualifier "Windows". To accomplish this, you must also have qualifiers that exactly match the topic caption.

•Auto-check topic checkbox that matches qualifier
When linking text, you might want to automatically check one of the Topic Checkboxes (if used). For example, if you mark some linked text as "Deficient" you can have it automatically check the "Deficient" topic checkbox if it is not already checked.

•Always open this dialog to select the qualifier(s) to use when marking selection as linked
When linking text, sometimes it is easier to always use the dialog when selecting one or more qualifiers, especially if you change the qualifier frequently or when using a tablet. By selecting this option, each time you click the toolbar link text button, it will invoke the dialog shown above, pre-selecting the current qualifier(s).

As mentioned earlier, when clicking the Link Text icon, it will re-apply what was last used if you have already chosen one. To chose a new qualifier, click the down arrow to the right side of the link button which pops up the following menu. If you expand the Linked text menu item, you can quickly select from qualifier list or select Selection Dialog to open the dialog shown above.

LinkIconOptions

Notes:

•Each of the link types can be modified later by examining the properties of the linked text. To do this, simply right-click on the linked text in question, and select Link > Properties from the pop-up menu. This will display the current link settings and allow you to make changes without having to remove the linked text attribute and then re-applying it.

•To remove the linked text attribute, right-click on the linked text, and select Link > Remove from the pop-up menu.