The team at SpecifiedBy recently converted the Building Regulations Approved Documents for England & Wales into web format. Founder Darren Lester talks through some of the benefits of this format…
At the beginning of 2015 we set out to convert the Building Regulations Approved Documents into a format that would make them more accessible to those who use them on a regular basis. The result of this work is a mobile-friendly, HTML version of the documents, openly available to everyone in the industry. Here are the top 5 benefits of this format:
1. Section Linking
Every section, image & table in the documents have their own unique URL, so for quick reference, you can directly link to a specific point. For example, the reference to the ‘House longhorn beetle’ in section 2B2 of Document A (Structure) can be found here: www.specifiedby.com/building-regulations/approveddocument-a-structure#section2b-2 .
This means you can link directly to specific sections within documents and drawings.
2. Copy and Paste
This is a very simple but massively helpful. The original documents are in a locked PDF format, meaning you can’t directly copy and paste. Even with an unlocked copy, you still have the issue with copying from PDFs, where you need to adjust the spaces between words and sentences.
Just being able to easily copy and paste sections for reference will save a lot of time.
Bonus: You can highlight a specific piece of text and quickly search Google for further references.
3. Links
There are a lot of references to other documents and sources within the Building Regulations Approved Documents.
We aim to provide outgoing links to these relevant sources, making it easier to find the additional information you need, and also internal links (within a single document) for easy navigation.
4. Simplified Formatting
The least a 100-odd page long technical document could be to make your life easier is well formatted!
We’ve simplified the formatting of the documents to be easier to navigate, read and scan through – no more pesky columns!
5. Mobile Friendly
PDFs weren’t designed for mobile. They weren’t even designed for web viewing actually. Downloading a PDF document and trying to navigate and pull out information on your mobile is not a pleasant experience.
Our Building Regulations documents have been optimised for mobile and tablet so you don’t endure a frustrating experience if you need to quickly check something on the go.
Our online versions of the Building Regulations Approved Documents are free to everyone, and can be accessed here: www.specifiedby.com/building-regulations .
All documents remain under © Crown Copyright 2006 and have been reproduced with permission under the Open Government Licence.
Darren Lester
CEO & Founder
SpecifiedBy
bregs@specifiedby.com
www.specifiedby.com/building-regulations
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