AUTOSAVE COST ESTIMATE
Here is a feature that you will love – Autosave, with user customisation!
As a user, you want the program to automatically save a copy of the unsaved data so that if the worst happens, you don’t lose what you are working on, and you want the application to be able to easily restore your unsaved changes.
Autosave is a global function – so you can set it and forget it.
You also have the ability to define autosave intervals, retention days, and maximum autosaves.
Here’s how…
First, go to the FILE, OPTIONS then COST ESTIMATE. Under AUTOSAVE, the checkbox will by default be ticked to automatically save changes to Cost Estimates. Here you will see options to configure the autosave feature.
You can autosave to a TEMPORARY FILE, or directly to the PROJECT – where the application will automatically save your unsaved Cost Estimate information at intervals that you can set. You cannot select and recover different autosaves when the save function is set to PROJECT because, on this setting, it autosaves the most recent copy of the cost estimate data directly into the project, as if the save button has been pressed.
Saving to a TEMPORARY FILE gives you the option to set the autosave time intervals, the number of days you want to keep the autosave files for, and the maximum number of autosave files you can keep. You can have a maximum of 365 autosaves per Cost Estimate with a maximum retention of 365 days. Press OK, and the function is active.
You can only access the Recover Autosave window within the Cost Estimate window while the item is able to be edited and when you have this feature set to save as a TEMPORARY FILE.
The Autosave will start when you make unsaved changes. The Autosave timer will stop once a SAVE has been made, and restarted again at the next change.
For example, with a default time of 1 minute, as soon as you have been in the Cost Estimate with unsaved changes for more than 1 minute, you can RIGHT CLICK and go to RECOVER AUTOSAVE. You will see the Autosaves that have been created for this specific Cost Estimate.
From here, you can review each of the saved versions of the Cost Estimate with a preview on the right-hand side to make sure you are selecting the correct version. No calculated values are stored, as they may not be correct at the time that you recover the autosaved Cost Estimate. As such, only user entered information is shown in the preview.
Once you have selected the correct version, click ‘RECOVER’ at the bottom of the window. It will replace the existing Cost Estimate with the version being recovered.
Be aware that the TEMPORARY FILE option autosaves your changes to a temporary file for you to choose from, but does not hard *SAVE* the project when you recover. This gives you the option to accept the recovery, SAVE and CLOSE the Cost Estimate, or CLOSE without saving.
If you are not happy with the changes to the Cost Estimate, you can close the Cost Estimate and select NO when you are prompted to save the changes.
Undo cannot be used to reverse the recovery of a Cost Estimate Autosave. Autosaves are only removed based on the Temporary File retention rule that you configure in the Option window. The Autosave option only applies to data in the Cost Estimate window.
And that’s an introduction to Autosave for Cost Estimates.
LIGHTS… CAMERA… ACTION!
A lot of work goes into generating Tips & Tricks videos, but they are still part of our “More Done, More Fun” culture here at Pronamics.
It’s not just recording the odd video in a funny voice, or editing screen shots with old fashioned star wipes. Creating Tips & Tricks videos requires our training and marketing team to learn the features of Expert Estimation, which in terms strengthens our ability to support our clients.