Overview
Links are the way SpecLink Cloud changes the status of related paragraphs and/or choices when you select text. They are a powerful productivity tool for improving project coordination, automatically adding relevant information, and excluding incompatible options.
This articles covers the following topics:
Review the Linking Basics video here.
What are Links?
Links are connections between individual paragraphs of specification text that are executed when a particular paragraph is selected for inclusion in the project.
There are 2 types of links:
- Source Links - impacts the current paragraph. Source links are viewed mainly for information but they can be created by the user.
- Target Links - where the current paragraph will cause an effect. Target links are where most user defined links are built.
The steps for creating source and target links is the same, however it's important to note that source links (master and user-defined) are mainly viewed for information while users normally build user defined target links.
Linking Options
Links can be created to any paragraph or choice in the project. All links start with a source of paragraph or choice, and end with a target of paragraph or choice.
Link Options are:
- Paragraph Links link a paragraph to another paragraph or a paragraph to a choice all within the same section.
- Choice Links link a choice to a paragraph or a choice to another choice all within the same section.
- Cross-section Links are a variation on Paragraph and Choice links with the result taking place in two sections as opposed to the same section.
Typical Links:
Typical uses for links are:
- To exclude conflicting requirements; for example, if 2 statements have mutually exclusive options, each statement will be linked to exclude the other.
- To highlight alternative text, when there is not enough information to choose between them, or to determine whether a paragraph is needed or not.
- To highlight the titles of sections referred to in cross-references within other sections (to prevent inadvertent omission of sections needed).
- To select appropriate installation and quality assurance requirements whenever a product specification is selected. Basically, anything else in the spec that should be included because the product specification is included is selected by links.
- To automatically include the full citation of referenced documents, if desired by the user (making it unnecessary to manually coordinate the References article in Part 1 of each section or the consolidated list of references in Division 1 of the specs, both of which are optional).
- To automatically include cross-references to other sections in the Related Sections article in Part 1 of each section, if any reference to another section is included elsewhere in the section. For instance, if Part 2 of the section says something like "Glass: As specified in Section 08800" there will be a cross-reference to Section 08800 in Part 1, which will automatically be turned on by a green link, which will activate a yellow link to highlight Section 08800.
Because there is always text that might not apply to every project, we cannot always determine exactly which text to select via green links. Any of the pieces of text that are highlighted with a yellow link (or not linked at all) can be automatically selected via user-added green links, if that is appropriate. An office master can be densely linked, to increase spec preparation efficiency to whatever degree is desired.
Linking Actions
SpecLink Cloud includes thousands of intelligent links that perform the actions listed below.
- Links that select another piece of text. This is a "green" or "yes" link. These links activate a paragraph based on a previous selection. A green bar will appear next to the sequence number. (“0214” in the image below.)
- Links that highlight or recommend another piece of text. This is a "yellow" or "maybe" link. These links suggest a paragraph for review based on a previous selection. A yellow bar will appear next to the sequence number. (“0215” in the image below.)
- Links that exclude another piece of text. This is a "red" or "no" link. These links alert that if this paragraph is activated, there may be a conflict with a previously activated paragraph. A red bar will appear next to the sequence number. (“0216” in the image below.)
The image below displays three paragraphs that have been linked and represent each type of link.
The master database contains over 170,000 links in total, linking text within sections and between sections.
Bypassing Links
It is important to note that the user has the “last say” and can exclude a green "yes" paragraph and its links, as well as include a red "no" linked paragraph at any time.
See more details below:
Excluding a Green Link
There may be times when a sequence that has been activated by a link needs to be deactivated.
Follow the steps below to exclude a Green link within a section.
- Locate the "yes" or "green" link within the section. The image below displays the automatically activated paragraph sequence number 0060.
- Right click on the sequence number to access the "exclude and ignore links" feature. This acts as a toggle to turn off, and then on again if necessary, the links associated with the sequence number.
Including a Red Link
There may be times when a sequence with a red (or pink) link needs to be activated.
Follow the steps below to include a Red link within a section.
- Locate the "no" or "red" link within the section. The image below displays the alert of conflict that occurred when paragraph 0065 was manually activated. Paragraphs 0063, 0064, and 0066 display the red link alerting of a conflict with 0065.
- Even though the red link appears, click the sequence number of any paragraph to manually activate that paragraph. The image below displays paragraphs 0063 and 0065 as activated.
A Note about Linking and Levels
In cases when there is a green link activating a paragraph, deactivating the source link will also deactivate the related target link.
In the image below sequence 0057 "A. Source Paragraph" is the source paragraph that activates sequence 0057 "B. Target Paragraph".
When sequence 0056 is deactivated, sequence 0057 will also automatically deactivate as shown below.
Manually activating the target paragraph of the green link will ensure it remains active, even if the source paragraph is deactivated.
In the image below, sequence 0057 is activated by the link (green bar) as well as by the user (white font / blue background).
Manually activating the sequence overrides the source links attempt to deactivate the sequence.
Linking Basics Video
Watch the video below to see the basics of linking in action:
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