'Org notes' can be added to user-created articles, clauses, and sections. This includes user-created content imported from MS Word, PDF, NBS Building, NBS Create, and NBS Landscape.


Overview

'Org notes' are practice guidance notes that are “anchored” to the organization and are always linked to specific individual clauses. In effect, creating an org note means it is visible (shared) in any project or master folder within the organization’s domain where the linked clause exists. 


Effects

  • Creating org notes – authors should keep in mind that the scope of org notes is to communicate practice information relevant to ALL projects. Notes about individual projects should be entered using Spec Notes.
  • Copying – when a specification article, clause, or section is copied and that item is linked to an org note, the target location will also be linked and the org note is displayed.
    • This is a benefit if the org note remains relevant for the target (copied) article, clause, or section.
    • Articles and clauses that have an org note should not be edited by the user to mean something different. This could render the linked org note irrelevant. We recommend inserting a new article or clause instead of editing an existing one.
  • Deleting org notes – since org notes are saved with the organization, deleting any org note will delete its existence everywhere (not just the instance of the article, clause, or section being viewed).
  • Modifying org notes – any time an org note is modified, authors should keep in mind that edits to an org note are visible in every instance of the clause, not just the current one.



How do 'Org notes' for user-created items work?

When an 'Org note' is attached to a user-created item (such as an article, clause, or section), it is assigned a unique ID. When the item is duplicated, the ID is copied along with it. The org note appears for all items within the organization that share that ID.

For example, if you insert an organizational note against a user-created section in, say, ‘master spec A’ and copy that section into ‘project spec B’, both items will share the same unique ID. The org note is displayed against both sections. If you edit or delete the note, the change will automatically apply to both.


The benefits of this approach are:

  • You can make changes to the org note in one place and be confident your changes are displayed everywhere the org note is displayed.
  • Your org notes for user-created items will continue to be displayed when the user-created item is copied within your organization.
    • Note: When clause items are copied into other organizations, the org notes are not displayed in the target organization.


Top tip: When you need to create a new article, clause, or section we recommend inserting a new item instead of copying an existing one, especially if there is an org note attached. 

Copying the existing item will result in the org note showing for both. If the new item you are creating is unrelated to the item you copied, the org note may not be relevant.