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Thinking about
using a Pocket PC for doing Inspections?
Then, you owe it to
yourself to read this article.
Earning a living in the home or commercial building business is
all about being able to work
efficiently. It's about earning a living. XL Pro allows you to create
great looking, accurate, comprehensive reports at lightning speed. Most
inspectors, even those with very little computer experience, will be
able to create reports within minutes of installing the software.
Pocket PCs are very inefficient. 80% of home inspectors who use a Pocket PC to
do home inspections will abandon them within six months. We stopped supporting
Pocket PCs a while ago because they are not practical. We did not want to
contribute to inspector's being failing in the business. Here are some points to
consider.
1. You will always have some text that needs to be typed in (address of
the house, etc.); regardless of how extensive the comments library is. The small
screen and use of a stylus make writing notes very difficult, time consuming and
prone to error.
2. You need TWO PCs. The entire report cannot be done on a Pocket PC
alone. Generally, you are going to have to use two PCs to complete the report -
the Pocket PC and a desktop or laptop PC.
3. You are not likely to take the Pocket PC into attics, crawlspaces, and
other similar locations. You also are not likely to take it out into the rain or
snow. Inspectors often forget to put the Pocket PC in a safe place and either
damage it or lose it.
4. With a pocket PC, your focus will be more on the Pocket PC than either
the inspection or the client. Inspectors become a slave to the device rather
than the device being a tool to help the inspector.
5. It is very difficult - in fact, nearly impossible - to insert photos
into the report with a Pocket PC (now you are back to using a second PC again).
6. Pocket PCs use scaled down versions of operating systems. Scaled down
operating systems means that the Pocket PC cannot perform the more complex tasks
that save you time.
7. The small screens on Pocket PCs make it very difficult to see what you
need to see. The longer you work on the Pocket PC the more likely you are to
develop eye strain. It becomes harder to read the information on the screen the
longer you look at it.
8. You cannot see how the report is going to look until you print it.
Pocket PCs need to use a variety of tricks to make enough information fit on the
screen at one time to make it useable. (our reports are all
What-you-See-Is-What-You-Get; they look exactly the same on the screen as on the
printed page)
9. Pocket PCs are not designed for extended use. They do not have the
battery life to get through two inspections a day. In fact, most do not have
enough battery life to get through one full inspection without being put on a
charger or plugged into a PC to charge.
10. It takes much longer to complete a report using a Pocket PC. To be
cost effective and competitive, you should spend no more than approximately
30-40 minutes total report writing time. Inspectors who user a Pocket PC rarely
are able to complete a report in less than an hour. Most inspectors who use a
Pocket PC spend around two hours writing a report. Time is money!
Our software is designed for ease of use and efficiency. We are known in the
industry for having the easiest to use software and the easiest to read reports.
Those are just a couple of the reasons that we publish more home inspection
report software than anyone else. With our software it is possible to write a
very good report in 30-40 minutes. With practice, it is very easy to create a
report in 30 minutes.
Our software works very well on any portable PC that uses Windows XP (Home or
Professional) or Windows vista (any edition); including laptops, notebooks, Tablet PCs, and Ultra Portables. It
will run on an Ultra Portable or any other hand held that runs Windows XP or
Windows Vista. Our software is also more reasonably priced than most of our
competitors. You will not find the features of XL Pro Bronze or Titanium in any
other inspection report system in the under $500 price range.
Before you buy software to try to use on a Pocket PC, you may want to give me a
call. Unlike most of our competitors, our software is designed by inspectors (I
am an inspector myself and have done many hundreds of inspections using our
software - I have also used Pocket PCs to perform inspections!) I can help
you make an educated decision and I'm sure that I can also save you a lot of
time and money.
George Wells
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