NEC on CD

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480sparky

480sparky

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Iowegia
For those of you who are wondering what the NEC on CD is like, I saved some screen shots for you so you can see what it's like.
First, the NEC on CD is a very intuitive, well-written piece of software. The 2008 allows you 2 installs, so I put one on my desk top, and the other on the laptop. This is different from the 2005 CD, which required you to have the CD in the tray to enable launching the application.
I?ve reduced the size of the screen shots here so they are smaller. Two reasons I did this?.1. is for anyone who is on dial-up, you won?t have to wait as long to see them, and 2, the text itself is not all that important to this demonstration, but more geared towards what to expect and how the program works.


When you first start the program, you get the Home view.

NEC01.jpg



The Chapters and Annexes are listed on the left. By clicking on any Chapter, it ?opens? that Chapter and shows you all the Articles contained there. Basically, it?s the index.

NEC02.jpg




Click on any Article, and you get all the Sections in it.

NEC03.jpg




Choose a Section, and you?re taken to it on the right-hand window. You'll see the Chapter, Article and Section listed in the top right window.

NEC04.jpg




Notice the vertical separator has moved. I did this to make the text on the left more readable. You can move it back and forth to suit your needs.
 
Part 2

Part 2

Now, let?s say you know you want to go right to 406.6. So you can just type in ?406.6? in the "Search" box at the top and click "Go".

NEC11.jpg



Boom?. You?re there!

But suppose you can?t remember what Section of the Code Attachment Plugs are under. So you Search for Attachment Plugs and click Go.

NEC12.jpg


On the left, you see the total number of Sections that contain a reference to Attachment Plugs. 74 total, and 21 in Chapter 4. So you click on Chapter 4, and then Article 406. 406.6 comes up as an option with the title of what you?re looking for, so you can choose it.

NEC13.jpg




The CD also has two nice customizing features?. Bookmark and Highlight. The names are appropriate.

NEC21.jpg
 
Part 3

Part 3

You can ?bookmark? any text in the book with any title you like. For instance, the new requirement for disconnects in fluorescent fixtures. Once I found it, I bookmarked it so I could find it easily in the future.

NEC22.jpg



Choose it, and in a flash, there it is.

NEC23.jpg



You?ll noticed it is highlighted. That?s of my own doing as well. Being able to highlight text is another great feature.

NEC24.jpg



You have the choice of 4 colors, Yellow, Blue, Fuchia and Aqua.

NEC25.jpg



Simply use your mouse to choose the text you want highlighted, Click on on the Highlighter tab, choose a color, and Apply.

NEC26.jpg



The text you selected has been highlighted!

NEC27.jpg
 
Part 4

Part 4

Now, there’s other great features that abound here.
One is the dynamic links built in to the text. If there’s a reference in one Article or Section to another, that reference is a link. By clicking on it, you are taken right to it. Once there, you can click on "Link Back", and you’re taken back to where you were.

NEC12.jpg



For instance, let’s say I’m at 210.10(A) as above. You’ll notice in the FPN towards the bottom 250.126 is highlighted in green as a link. Clicking on it will take me directly to 250.126. Once I’m done there, I choose Link Back, and I’m back to the image above.
Another is the Next Hit and Previous Hit buttons. Let’s say you’re searching for a term that shows up more than once in the Code. I’ll use the above image as an example.
If I were searching for a specific use of the term, I could ‘scroll’ through the ‘hits’ on the left, or use Next Hit and Previous Hit to actually find the text itself on the right. The program would take me to each Hit one by one until I found what I was looking for.


In short, the NEC on CD is well worth the money in my view. Granted, it’s not convenient when you’re out working on the job site to get your laptop out, fire it up, and launch the program just to look something up. The printed version is just fine for field use. But for the times when you have the computer on (such as here on the forum!), it’s a great way to quickly and easily access the information!
 
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To me the most valuable tool is being able to follow cross references. I am not really impressed with the interface though. I don't know if it is glitch with my system, but my wheel mouse doesn't work with it. This makes scrolling through pages a major pain. I tried the highlighting function last week, and discovered that there is no way to un-highlight if you make a mistake or change your mind. It is way better than a paper copy, but they could have done better with the interface.
 
Rick Christopherson said:
........I tried the highlighting function last week, and discovered that there is no way to un-highlight if you make a mistake or change your mind. .........
Click to expand...

Choose the text you've highlighed, then click on the highlighter. Click on Format. Choose White as a background color. Then OK.

This also gives you far more options for highlighting colors than the 4 I mentioned before (Olive, Lime, Red, Maroon, Silver, Teal, Navy, etc.) You can also change the text's font, size and color there as well.

If you haven't saved your changes if you make a highlighting mistake, you can always not save it, and your mistake will not be saved.
 
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Can the PDF versions that are on the disk be edited....ie:custom book mark,highlight,ect.? I have the '05 handbook on CD and wish I could edit the PDF ....

I bought(what I thought was authentic version) a 2008 PDF off of ebay and the thing is locked ....so I can't add anything to it. I'm not promoting pirated stuff but I sure wish I could edit a PDF of the NEC.
 
ibew441dc said:
Can the PDF versions that are on the disk be edited....ie:custom book mark,highlight,ect.? I have the '05 handbook on CD and wish I could edit the PDF ....

I bought(what I thought was authentic version) a 2008 PDF off of ebay and the thing is locked ....so I can't add anything to it. I'm not promoting pirated stuff but I sure wish I could edit a PDF of the NEC.
Click to expand...

I would think you need the password to unlock it in order to edit it.
 
If your read your contract and once breaking the seal of the CD you agree to the terms and conditions of use of the software, etc.,etc.,

Is there any consideration if one apply's this software, and the CPU hard drive crashes, or the computer is stolen, now all the appliable usuages are used up and you just get to use the CD as a searcher?

Once the CD's software and Code is loaded is it faster in a search than using the CD itself ?
 
ibew441dc said:
Can the PDF versions that are on the disk be edited....ie:custom book mark,highlight,ect.? I have the '05 handbook on CD and wish I could edit the PDF ....

I bought(what I thought was authentic version) a 2008 PDF off of ebay and the thing is locked ....so I can't add anything to it. I'm not promoting pirated stuff but I sure wish I could edit a PDF of the NEC.
Click to expand...

480sparky said:
I would think you need the password to unlock it in order to edit it.
Click to expand...



Software might do it:

http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/editor/
 
ibew441dc said:
I think I'll give it a shot, and report back......at first glance it looks like it has a free trial period:cool:
Click to expand...
Yup, that software in its trial version will permit you to extract the missing pages you need to complete the file I gave you, but it adds a watermark to the top of every page. The original bookmarks and hyperlinks are lost.

Then you can go back to acrobat pro and import the pages back into the file you already started adding bookmarks to.
 
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