Create, Manage & Update Office Masters
Office Masters are a collection of Work Sections that have been combined into a single document, with majority of the customisation already applied, and then saved as a template for later use.
When a new project comes up, you can use your saved Office Master and immediately be well on the way to a completed specification document.
Only users you have added to the Office Masters privileges panel are allowed to create and update the practice Office Masters.
Creating an Office Master is the same process as creating a new specification, you must populate the work flow area with work sections by adding them from the Masterspec Library or creating a custom section.
To create an Office Master from your logged in User page:
- Click on the Office Masters tab in the top menu
- Select New Office Master, fill in the required fields and click Add. It will join the list of existing Office Masters.
- At this stage you are now able to edit your Office Master as you would in a specification document.
You have two options when creating an Office Master - creating a new specification from Blank or Cloning an existing specification and adapting it to function as an Office Master.
When creating an Office Master from Blank:
Go to the Office Masters tab Build your specification as you normally would, adding sections to suit the Master you wish to create
Once completed select ADD and a new blank Office Master will be created and shown in the practice Office Masters listings.
By selecting Show Detail information about the Office Master is displayed. You can edit your setup information by selecting Edit Setup.
By selecting Edit detail the blank Office Master is opened in a Masterspec Window. Note the sections list on the left is not yet populated.
You have the option of adding work sections from the Masterspec Libraries your practice subscribes to, from already existing Office Masters, or from existing specifications your practice has created.
Note that there is no Q&A tool available at this stage - by definition an Office Master is generic, not project specific, and all available clauses from the Masterspec Master will be loaded.
Once you add a section you then edit the section to suit the Office Master content you wish to create. The section will edit the same way as a normal work section
See Edit a Work Section and Edit a Clause for more.
TIPS AND TRICKS: Your new Office Master should be generic, reflecting the approach your practice takes to a construction task without being project specific. Always remove any unwanted clauses and complete as many tildes as you can to reduce the amount of work when the Office Master is used.
When creating an Office Master by cloning existing specifications:
Go to the Office Masters tab - the system will display a list of all the practice specification projects. Select the project containing content you wish to clone.
The system will ask you confirm your choice, with any applicable cautions or warnings - in this case the older specification is linked to an old version of MasterKey - any related Custom Keynotes will not come through with the import. Select OK
In this case we chose the Demolition section to be cloned and it is now ready for editing to suit the concepts of the new Office Master.
It will be necessary to edit the Office Master to ensure that no project specific information still exists. At this point you may delete some of the work sections from the new Office Master if you don’t need them. The work section will be required to be edited from “project specific” to generic.
The system will warn you if there are any updates to make to the work section - in this case run the Update Manager.