Utilizing Views & View Tags

Overview

Every paragraph within the RIB Master is tagged to appear in one of three views. Views are intended to make the operation of activating sections faster by presenting the most important or essential content available in cumulative views.

In this article:

• Defining Views
• Setting the Default Project View
• Setting the View from within a Specification Section
• View Tag Column
• View Tag Summary Count
• Applying View Tags to Paragraphs
• View Tag Level Hierarchy

Please review Tagging Basics before applying View Tags.

Defining Views

• Outline View - Paragraphs tagged as Outline are designed to be used as an Outline Specification. This will primarily be the most essential paragraphs within Part 2: Products but may also contain paragraphs within Parts 1 and 3 as well. Many users associate Outline View with the Schematic Design or initial phase of construction.
• Short Form View - Paragraphs tagged as Short Form, along with the Outline paragraphs, are designed to be used as a Short Form Specification. Short Form includes all of the paragraphs within Outline view. Many users associate Short Form view with the Design Documents phase of construction.
• Full Spec View - All paragraphs are included in the Full Spec view, including the Outline and the Short Form tagged paragraphs. Many users associate Full Spec view with the Construction Documents or final phase of construction. 

Setting the Default Project View

You can set the default project view for your project.

1. Access a project from the Dashboard by clicking the project name.
2. Click the Summary Info Tab.
3. Use the Default Project View menu to set the default project view as pictured below.

Setting the View from within a Specification Section

You can change the view of a section by selecting the appropriate view from the View Toggle Pull down menu or quick toggle button located on the SpecLink Cloud Toolbar while editing a section.

The View Toggle dropdown menu will display the three view options to make the selections.

The quick toggle button, indicated by the colored box, will automatically switch the view to the next level, from Full Spec to Outline to Short Form and then back to Full Spec.

When you have switched to Outline or Short Form View, the document window will display only the paragraphs tagged as Outline and/or Short Form. 

If you are in Outline or Short Form view and you insert new paragraphs or paste copied text into the section, the new paragraphs will inherit the tag of the view you are in. When copying, moving, demoting or promoting paragraphs in Outline or Short Form view, SpecLink Cloud will check to be sure that Outline or Short Form paragraphs are placed under parents that are tagged as Outline or Short Form, as appropriate.

NOTE: If Outline view is selected when printing, auto-numbers will not print. This means that paragraphs such as "1.03 Submittal" or "B. Material List" will print as "Submittals" and "Material List" instead.

View Tag Column

In order to have the section set up to always have the view tag column showing. There are two ways to achieve this. First, open the Show/Hide Columns dropdown menu and select the "View" option. This will keep the column showing the view tag of each paragraph visible at all times within the section. If the View Column is no longer needed, simply unselect it from the Show/Hide Columns dropdown list.

The second option to have the View Tag column visible is to open the "Tags" option in the Sequence Manager. 

View Tag Summary Count

You can view the number of paragraphs tagged as Short Form and Outline Form by accessing the Tags area of the Sequence Manager located on the left side of the document window.

Applying View Tags to Paragraphs

The View column in the sections window displays the tags currently applied to each paragraph.

Follow the steps below to add a view tag to a paragraph.

1. Locate the paragraph you want to add a view tag and LEFT-CLICK where a tag would be within the View column. If there is already a tag on the paragraph, left-click on the existing tag.
   
   
   
   
2. The Add View Tag menu appears. Search either Outline or Short Form from the list.
   
   
   
   
3. Once a tag is selected, a checkmark will appear next to the tag and it will be applied to the paragraph, as shown below with the Outline Tag selection. 
   
   

View Tag Level Hierarchy

When adding a view tag, it is important to note that Outline and Short Form tags follow the paragraph's level hierarchy. This means that when a child paragraph is tagged with a view tag, the parent paragraph must be tagged with a view tag as well. SpecLink Cloud will show a notice pop-up to alert the user if tagging a paragraph would break level hierarchy.

Outline and Short Form have their own hierarchy as well, where a Short Form view paragraph cannot be the parent of an Outline view paragraph. For more about level hierarchy, please click here.

Clicking OK on this notice pop-up will automatically apply the related tags to follow the hierarchies. Shown below is the notice pop-up when trying to add an outline tag to a child paragraph of short form tagged parent paragraph. Clicking OK will automatically apply the outline tag to both paragraphs.

Watch the video below to see Views in action...

Learn More:

Tagging Basics
Create User Report Tags
Utilizing Master RIB Report Tags
Normal/Active View Toggle
Understanding NP/NS Tags
Generating Individual Tag Reports