Which notes fields should I be using?

There are currently four notes fields available to be utilized for specifications. Three of these notes fields are category-centric, whereas one of these notes fields is project-centric.

Short Notes and Long Notes are the first two fields we'll discuss in this article. Both are category-centric and are additionaly local to your spec meaning they can be uniqely edited per spec. Despite being local, if you want to template these notes so that every spec in the same category within a project has the same Short Notes and/or Long Notes, Super Users (i.e. Admins) can create these notes within the firm's Spec Template. To be clear, this means that any spec within the project that matches the category criterion will initially receive these Short Notes and/or Long Notes, but they can still be edited locally within the project per spec. And further, if a Super User was to edit the Spec Template after a spec was already created in the project, the Short Notes and/or Long Notes for those existing specs would be untouched. Put differently, templated Short Notes and Long Notes only apply to specs created after the template was created or edited.

What if I want to create various notes for a supplemental-style report (not for a spec sheet) based on the spec categories in my project?

Say hello to Auxiliary Notes, which are also category-centric but do NOT appear on your spec sheets. Instead, they exist in the project's settings and can be utilized in various ways across custom exports. Auxiliary Notes must be templated in advance to first appear within your project, but like Short Notes and Long Notes, they can be edited locally within your project.

In terms of style, they're meant to feel like bullet points per category. We call these bullets Text Blocks. Recognizing that sometimes Text Blocks may repeat across spec categories and thereby Auxiliary Notes, we've developed the feature to support that specific workflow too. This means you'll create Text Blocks and assign them to Auxiliary Notes. Or said another way, Auxiliary Notes are a grouping of Text Blocks.

What if I have some notes that will be the same on every spec, regardless of category?

We've got you covered here too. You'll want to use the Project Notes field. Like all the notes discussed above, Project Notes can be templated too, a feature that was mostly designed for firms looking to reinforce the same Project Notes across all projects. But Project Notes can certainly be edited within the project too. Click the Settings tab and scroll to the bottom of the Main tab.