Zip tips

Save time and get the most from your forms software by learning how to use these features.

by Staci Rosa   

Send forms by e-mail

Sending e-mail from ZipForm is as easy as opening a transaction, clicking File from the menu bar and selecting Send Mail. ZipForm will create an e-mail message and attach that form to the message. The e-mail will include a note from ZipForm that gives recipients a link to the Web site where they can download a viewer they will need to view the form. (The automatic e-mail feature works this way with Windows-based e-mail only.)

Add your comments to a form

Do you want to add a comment to a form? Add a sticky note. Click Tools > Notes > New. These notes automatically stamp the date and time that the note is created. The notes appear on the screen but do not print. You can change the background color and font by clicking the upper left corner of the note and then selecting Change color or Change font. You can also move this note anywhere on the form by clicking in the rectangular box at the top of the note, then holding down your mouse button and dragging it to the desired spot.

Save typing time

ZipForm has a clause editor to help you create a database of clauses, so you don’t have to type them out each time. If you find yourself typing the same verbiage in your transactions, create it as a clause and insert it with a few clicks of your mouse when you need it. To access the clause editor, click Tools > Clause Editor. Click New Clause, then type the clause into the large dialogue box. Give it a title, and, if you want, a category. You can add as many clauses as you like. Then, when you want to insert a clause into a form, open the clause editor, select the clause you want, and click Use Clause.

Fill in the blanks only

Do you know the language in the contract forms like the back of your hand? You can view only the blank fields on a contract for faster entry. Turn on the dialogue view to remove all other contract verbiage. Click the dialogue-view icon at the center of the menu bar. The icon looks like a square box of lines and is located to the right of the icon that looks like a pencil. Fill in the blanks as you normally would and, when finished, click on the dialogue-view icon again to disable this feature. The verbiage in the form will return and you can verify the information is in the correct fields.

Get a better view

Do you find yourself squinting to read forms on your screen? Increase the displayed font size. Click Window from the menu bar and select Zoom. You can zoom as much as 500%. (This does not affect the font size when forms are printed.)

Return to header

If you want to return to the transaction header box where you initially put in the property address and the buyer and seller names when you started the transaction, click Edit from the menu bar and select Edit Transaction Header.

Protect your forms—lock the information

You can lock a transaction to prevent changes to the information you filled in. When locked, this applies to everyone, including you. If you find that you are not able to make changes to your own transaction, it may be locked. To lock or unlock a transaction, click File > Lock/Unlock Transaction. A password is required to lock or unlock a transaction. Hint: Make it a memorable password—there’s no record of this password unless you write it down somewhere.

Find forms quickly

Have you found yourself sitting in front of your computer unable to find the form you want? Most Texas ZipForm users have at least two forms libraries installed in their ZipForm software: the Texas Real Estate Commission library and the Texas Association of REALTORS® library. What’s the difference? The TREC forms library contains 31 forms that are all promulgated and/or approved by TREC (six residential contracts and some addenda). These forms use an 8.5-point font for the input fields.

The TAR forms library contains these same 31 forms plus an additional 86 forms (listing agreements, commercial forms, etc.) that are authorized for use by REALTOR® members. Forms in the Texas Association of REALTORS® library use an 11-point font in the input fields. If you start your form search by selecting the Texas Association of REALTORS® forms library in the Form Manager box and select the All Forms button in the left column, you’ll most likely find the majority of the forms that you need without spending a lot of time searching through the different form categories (Listing, Purchase, Lease, Miscellaneous, Back Office).

Other forms libraries are also available. On TexasRealtors.com, go to Technology > ZipForm > Local Add-on Libraries to see if your office, local MLS, or local association of REALTORS® forms are available to add to your ZipForm software. (View directions on adding a new library.)

Let the program "auto-fill" information for you

When beginning a new transaction, start typing transaction information into the cover sheet first. The cover sheet will auto-fill information to all other forms you add to the transaction. The cover sheet can also provide important transaction information for you and your assistants. You will find the cover sheet listed as a form at the bottom of the Miscellaneous Forms category.

You can type in information for buyers, sellers, listing and selling brokers, a whole page of property information as well as escrow, lender, appraisal, and title information. All of this information will auto-fill into all of the other forms in this transaction, and all you’ll need to type in are the few other variables (sales price, financing, etc).

In order to take advantage of the auto-fill feature, it’s important to keep all forms in a particular transaction together in one file folder. When opening ZipForm, choose Use an existing Transaction. Whether you use the cover sheet or simply start with an individual form, ZipForm continues to auto-populate information into forms as they are added to a transaction. For example, if you initially fill in a buyer’s name on one form, ZipForm will automatically fill in that buyer’s name in all required places on all forms in that transaction. Each time you need to add a form to or remove a form from a transaction, make sure to open the original transaction first. Click File from the menu bar and then Add/Remove Form to manage the forms in your transaction. There is also an add/remove-forms icon (second from the right) in the menu bar.

Find out automatically about updates

ZipForm’s new auto-update feature will connect to the Internet and notify you when library and program updates are available. You can set the program to run the automatic update each time the software is opened, daily, or weekly. Weekly is enough for most people. Although ZipForm will automatically check for updates, you must manually select to download the update files. You can click Update Now to retrieve these update files, or you may bypass these updates and come back to them later. If the Update Now button is not enabled, everything you have is up-to-date. You can also manually check for updates any time you like by clicking Help > Check For Updates.

The auto-update feature is available in ZipForm Revision 1.4. To see what version you have, click Help > About. If you do not have revision 1.4, you may want to download it. (View instructions on downloading updates.)

Get all the forms you need for a transaction at once

Instead of hunting for individual forms each time you create a new transaction, create a template. When you open the template, you will automatically collect all the forms you need for that type of transaction.

To create a template, start a new transaction. From the Form Manager box, select a form for by clicking it once, then click Add Form. Repeat this process for every form you want included in this transaction template. After closing the Form Manager, select File > Save Transaction As Template. When you want to open all those forms at once, open the template. Click File > Open Transaction (or click the open-folder icon on the menu bar). On the left side of the Open Transaction box, click Templates, select the template you want from the list, and click Open.

You can also "personalize" forms by using templates. Use the cover sheet as one of the forms in the template, and fill in your personal information and any other information you want to appear each time you use those forms. When finished, save the transaction as a template.

Staci Rosa is the REALTOR® Store manager for the Greater Dallas Association of REALTORS® and its three satellite offices. She also teaches ZipForm classes at GDAR and provides on-site training at local real estate offices for GDAR members.

Photo © Corbis Images.

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