Since Report Writer inspection report files can take up room over time, particularly when lots of images or attachments are included, some inspectors may wish to periodically remove older ones from their hard drive to save space or simply to make future full data backups from their 3D program faster and smaller.
Note: Before deleting any data files we recommend using Office Management File > Backup All Files option to back up all existing data as a precaution. You should be making regular backups periodically. See our prior Tips article on Safeguarding your important inspection data.
An easy way to archive old reports is to simply copy the .R3D files from the program data folder onto CD or DVD, and then delete them from the data folder on the hard drive. This doesn't remove job information from the Office Management database, so it's still easy to look up info about older jobs. And you'd still have the report files backed up on CD or DVD for safekeeping in case you ever did need to open them again. They just wouldn't be taking up room in your program data folder.
HOW TO LOCATE AND ARCHIVE REPORT .R3D FILES:
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To easily access your data folder directly, in the Report Writer, click Preferences > Preferences, and choose the File Locations tab. Click the Open folder button for your Data files to launch the folder in Explorer.
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Close any open reports in your 3D Software.
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In Explorer, you may select or highlight the items you want to copy or delete. Individual inspection reports files are saved as .r3d type files in your data folder. Generally you wouldn't want to remove other types of data files.
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Tip: In Explorer, use the Views button to display file Details, so that you can organize them by type, so that all your .r3d report files are together in the list. Then just highlight the desired files, and right-click to delete them. You may hold down your CTRL key while selecting multiple files, or hold Shift to select an entire group of adjacent files at once.
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When all the files you wish to archive are selected, right-click the group of highlighted files and Copy them. This saves them to the windows clipboard for pasting elsewhere.
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Next open your CD or DVD drive and paste them there and make a disc. (Or you could even create a separate folder on your computer for storing the older files if you just want to exclude them from future data backups made from within 3D). See your burner software for details on making a data disc.
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After you've stored copies of the report files to CD, DVD, or another report folder for archival, select them again in your 3D data folder and then right-click and simply Delete them to the recycle bin.
Now that those files are no longer in your data folder, it will make future backups from inside 3D smaller and faster.
HOW TO OPEN A REPORT .R3D FILE ARCHIVED DIRECTLY ON A DISC
If you later need to access a particular inspection report file you archived:
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You may wish to use Find in Office Management to locate the desired job there.
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If "Open Inspection" button is not available in the toolbar, then you know that particular report file linked to that job is not present in your data folder. Note the "Job Name" that designates the report filename.
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Insert your CD/DVD containing the report .r3d file into the drive as applicable.
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Switch to the Report Writer.
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In the Report Writer, click File > Open Inspection option.
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Use the file dialog window to navigate to the CD, DVD, or other report folder where your inspection files are stored, locate the desired inspection report file, and open it.
Note: If you need to change or edit an older report file information for some reason, you'd want to copy it back to your 3D data folder on your hard drive, so that windows will allow writing to update the file (since a CD-ROM is "read only memory")
ARCHIVING PDF FILES
Other inspectors prefer to print and archive final PDF printouts of their reports periodically instead, after which may may also either archive or simply remove any older original .r3d report files they don't need from their program data folder. If you create separate PDFs for each report, then archiving .PDF files may be done similarly to archiving .r3d files- by opening the folder where your final PDFs are stored in Explorer, selecting the desired group of PDF files, and copying and burning them to DVD or CD for safekeeping.
PDFs are not backed up by the 3D backup feature, since PDF (Portable Document Format) is not a 3D software program format but are basically equivalent to final "printouts", similar to printing out to your printer. So you may wish to back those up separately if you create and archive them. Since PDFs files do not require the 3D program to be opened, this is a really handy way to archive reports on CD or DVD that may be easily opened on any computer.
PDF files also retain their exact original final "printed" look. You would need to also retain the .r3d files however, if you want to be able to open inspections in 3D software. That might be useful if you want to use an older report as a starting base to a reinspect a property previously inspected, or should you need to issue a revision or corrected report for some reason. Or you may wish to retain original .r3d files until the statute of limitations in your area expires, particularly if you archived additional files, photos, or inspector notes with the report that you didn't include in your final report. For convenience, one could archive both their original .r3d and PDF final printouts for various groups of reports on the same CD/DVD if desired.
Now that you know how easy it is to manage older report files by archiving them and removing them from your software data folder, you may want to archive older report files every year, every six months, quarter, or perhaps only every few years. Or whenever you decide using the Backup All Files option in Office Management to do a full backup of all your existing data files starts taking a little too long or too large for your liking. |
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