BS7671, OSG et al - Effective Markers and Referencing

[Happy Jack]

A bit of an odd one, I'll admit, but I'm relatively late in settling on a system of annotation to help me find common information fast and to cross-reference it for review. I know this isn't terribly exciting, but I'd be curious to hear / see how others have implemented their system, and what things have worked particularly well. A nod towards the more senior members of the forum here.

I'm ideally looking at something as non-destructive and flexible as possible; early on, a few at college began to stick, mark, highlight, fold and scribble, only to decimate their once pristine copy of BS7671 to the point of it being bloated and grungy.

There was one suggestion - I understand amendments used to be shipped loose-leaf - that I take my literature to reprographics and ask them to cut the spine off and hole punch the lot. That really does appeal to me, and along with aligning my referencing with the Guidance Notes, colour-coding and all, is probably the approach I'll take.

Thoughts? Links to stationary and useful accessories would be a bonus. If I haven't already bored you to tears...

 

[Marvo]

Lol, this is a very interesting subject, far more interesting than chasing girls and drinking beer which I was doing at your age


I discovered the wonders of pdf documents a few years ago. They're very handy because I often need to know about a particular issue that's covered in multiple regulations such as installation regs, commercial machinery regs, building regs and environmental regs to name just a few.


We have a database of over 4000 regulations we refer to, some are standard installation electrical and HVACR regs, some are special environment regs for mining and marine industry, some are H&S regs and also many ISO, IEE, BS and other foreign regs so life gets complicated very quickly.What I did is to get all my regs in pdf text documents and file them in appropriate directories and sub-directories. If I open any pdf document I can run a word or phrase search in either just that document or in all the documents in the same directory or even in all the documents in multiple directories. Also you can add bookmarks for quick reference in the individual pdf files to highlight sections or items that are commonly required or referred.

 

[Rampage]

I used the small post-it note strips as tempory measure, then later when I needed more marked in the regs book, I cut the strips into small pieces and used Sellotape to hold them in place and also to protect them.
I have (complete guess) 25 along the top marking out sections and things you need to know for regs etc and everyday items on the side of the book such as T&E CCC and 60898 fuse charts.

The GN3 book I took straight to Staples after I bought it, they cut the spine off and ring bound it, due to it's reputation!

 

[Happy Jack]

Thanks for both your input. The thread idea struck me on the bus. Essentially a dead leg for being so tedious. I figure the broad appeal may register some interest, after all, what use is information if one is unable to locate it?

 

[Happy Jack]

I discovered the wonders of pdf documents a few years ago.

I've recently migrated all of our .pdf files from our shared Dropbox to Google Drive, and begun to accumulate various documents and literature in earnest. It certainly serves us better, but the OCR system they deploy isn't always as accurate as I'd like. Perhaps I'm asking too much.

What system / storage do you use, Marvo? I assume it's all online or otherwise cloud-based?

I used the small post-it note strips as tempory measure, then later when I needed more marked in the regs book

Ay, this is more of the flavour. I've been eyeing something like this as I really haven't seen anything quite like it.

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[Marvo]

Nope, we're not that advanced in Africa and our internet speeds are atrocious so I just keep them on my office server. All the pdf's I have are indexed and text searchable. Just scanning a paper version isn't going to cut it because as you say the OCR function isn't great, you need to get hold of the official electronic versions I'm afraid but it's well worth it in the long run.