Question 8

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8. How do I create a before & after or multiple tract appraisal?

How you want to assemble your appraisal will determine what method you should use to create the appraisal.

If you want to keep all of the tracts in separate containers and adjust the page numbering to reflect all of the tracts, go to the Multiple Containers section.
If you want to merge all of the tracts into one final container at the end, go to the Merge Containers section.

Multiple Containers Report

The first step is to create a 'dummy' container that will name all of the forms in the report so that the Table of Contents is correct and the total number of pages is known. See the image below for an example.

The first few forms are introductory forms such as the Summary of Appraisal Information, Summary of Values, Definition of Value, Area Description, and Property Location Map. These forms can all be inserted at the beginning of this container because they will be used only once in the report. Those forms that you will be duplicating throughout the report should be inserted into separate containers. Those forms in this particular container are just comment forms that were renamed. The purpose of adding all of the blank forms is to have all of the pages numbered consecutively.

To rename a form, you can either double click on the yellow title bar or right click on the yellow title bar and select "Page Properties".

The Page Properties screen that comes up has a Title box at the top. This is where you enter the name of the form. You can also add spaces to give the Table of Contents more dimension. The Page Properties screen is where you determine whether the form is included in the page numbering of the container and also if the form is on the Table of Contents. You have to make this change on each form.

Create a new container for each tract or a new container for the 'before' appraisal and the 'after' appraisal. They should look something like the image below.

To edit the page numbering, go to the menu Edit > Preferences > Document > Operation tab. At the bottom right of the tab, there is a check box with "Automatic Page Numbering" after it. Uncheck this box. Now you can edit the starting page number and the ending (total) page number.

In this example, Tract I starts on page 16 and the total number of pages in the report is 61. You would enter 16 for the "Start Page No" box and 61 for the "of Total" box and then click on "OK".

Your page numbering should now be correct. The first page in this container should state:

Repeat this process for all of the containers in your report.

You are now ready to print the forms from each container that you want in your report and assemble the pages into one report.

Merge Containers Report

The first step is to start with an empty container and add the introductory forms that you need (e.g. Summary of Appraisal Information, Summary of Values, Definition of Value, Area Description, Property Location Map, etc.). See the image below for an example.

Create a new container for each tract or a new container for the 'before' appraisal and the 'after' appraisal. They should look something like the image below.

NOTE: You may want to just put the sales sheets in the last tract container of the report so that, after the merge, the sales forms are at the bottom of the report.

Once you have all of your containers complete with the forms desired and done with changes, you are ready to merge the containers into one.

The following are a couple of things to note before you start the merging process.

- Make sure that the reports are completed before you merge them.
- Once you have merged the files, you should not edit anything.
- You can move pages once the reports are merged, but it is not recommended.
- It is recommended that you start with an empty container. If you find a mistake in the report after the merge, you can go back to the original report, make the change, and merge the reports again.

The first part of merging two or more ClickFORMS reports into one container is to start with an empty container. Click on the menu File > New > Empty Form Container.

Once you have the empty container open, go the menu File > Merge Files.

A new screen will come up with the option to browse to the report you want to merge into the empty container. Select the report and click on ‘Open’.

The forms from the report you just selected will be added to the empty container.

Continue with the steps above, starting at the "Merge Files..." section, until you are finished adding your additional reports. Make sure to save your file with a different name so that you recognize this as the 'final' version of the appraisal.

* If you need to move some of the forms, you can do that without disturbing the numbers but AgWare does not recommend it.
* If you discover an error in one of the forms, it is best to start the merging process over. If you do not start over, you take the chance of disturbing the numbers on the forms. AgWare recommends that you start over.