Fitting Details into a Contract Clause

NOTE-- We retired the MacNail construction software back in 2000, and replaced it with Goldenseal, a complete software package for Macintosh and Windows. Goldenseal is an integrated construction business program that includes construction spec writing, plus accounting, construction estimating, and project management, We abandoned the "parts of speech" approach when we moved from MacNail to Goldenseal. It's not quite as flexible at creating a variety of sentences, but it's much easier to set up!

Details for Contract Clauses

If you are not sure where the details should fit into a clause that you are creating in the MacNail construction management software, follow these steps to check it:

1. Click in the row, and set the phrase type to 2.
2. Choose Show This Clause from the Specs menu.
3. If the sentence sounds right, continue to step 3. If it seems incorrect, click the Flags button, and choose a different way to handle Details (see page 139).
4. Click the Phrase button to change the phrase type to 3, and make sure it also sounds correct.

Some longer clauses may not sound correct using phrase type 2 or 3, no matter where you put the details. In that case, take either of the following actions in the MacNail project management software:

* Change the wording so it sounds right in all phrase types.
* Use the O flag, so only phrase type #1 will be used (see page 140).