Was curious to know what platform is preferred by Architects for spec writing. In a newly created role with NuWool Cellulose we would like to make sure our products are correctly listed in the platforms used and the efficiency of those platforms.
Wesley Grubb
NuWool
Architectural Specification Consultant
Hi Wes. There is lots to choose from. Off the top of my head there is:
There is a lot to choose from. A lot of them do more of less the same thing.
I think at the end of the day having a solid product, building relationships and more importantly ensuring you protect your product’s reputation through good customer service is what ensures that products get specified.
Deltek’s platform is called SpecPoint. It used to be called MasterSpec Word files. Now it is a database program. I don’t know anyone who uses SpecPoint effectively.
UpCodes has gotten into the biz. Just learned that one.
And as far as I can tell, ZeroDocs still is. Not sure how the litigation is going.
FWIW, someone who is quite tech savvy told me that they export the sections out from Deltek SpecPoint, to Word to edit them.
Hi Wesley, and welcome to 4specs.
I don’t have any current insights for you about platforms because I’ve been retired for too long to know. Other specifiers still in practice can respond with more current information.
Specification platforms have changed considerably over the last decade or so. If you want to get in the weeds, here’s a thread started in 2022 that describes what’s been happening:
Another suggesting is making sure that your website works well and includes a number of what you believe would be the proper search words for your product(s). Many of us do general on-line searches for products and don’t go through another platform either because of subscription/access barriers, difficulty using them/too much information in them.
@Wesley Using the actual company name Nu-Wool will help your prospects find you more easily. Search engines may not return the right results for you when searching NuWool. On 4specs.com there were no search results for NuWool, but I did find your company when searching Nu-Wool.
Hi Wes. For me, RIB SpecLink is the only thing I will use.
We use what used to be called Masterspec, soon to be SpecPoint. We are using VisiSpec as our editing platform and involved directly with Deltek regarding the necessary functionality of SpecPoint. Our office masters are heavily based on Masterspec content, and we can’t really divorce those source documents from our updates and office changes. Due to our longstanding investment in that content, we don’t see the other platforms as suitable.
We are in a similar situation as Ann. Working through lots of bugs on Specpoint, but with our legacy documentation that’s where we’ll wind up.
When running 4specs (for advertisers) I would typically use variations on the name to improve local searches. I would spell the linked name the way they wanted and then use the variation in the description in the multiple sections. In this case NuWool. In the case of European based names I would omit the diacritical marks.
Thanks for the reminder @ColinG. I also found some optional settings in the indexing tool that allow “special” characters to be recognized to help with search results.
I worked on the assumption that our user would not use the special charactors as they did not know the codes to generate them. The company name was typically copied from their email with the special charactor,
There is a fairly comprehensive list of available software for authoring specifications in this thread here. The most current update is from August 2023. Does it need to be updated again?