For example, say most houses in your area have many things in common: copper plumbing, 100Amp copper romex, R32 fiberglass truss attics, wood frame brick veneer for instance--the list goes on.  One might set ones forms or create a separate set of forms with those comments or items selected by default.

If you plan to have different selections for different types of buildings/inspections, you'd probably want to set up separate form groups for those.  Information about creating an independent form group can be found here: http://www.3dinspection.com/Tips-and-Tricks/making-an-independent-copy-of-a-form-group.html

Once you have your separate form groups for different types of buildings/ages, you may want to use use the "Defaults" option to set your usual or common selections to be automatically pre-marked for any new reports you start.  It's easy.  To do so, you simply set the desired narrative comment as a "default" by turning on that checkmark in your narrative item properties.  This is mentioned in the Getting Started Guide for Custom Form Studio found in your program HelpDesk under the FAQ topic "Can I Make Items Always Print On My Inspections?"  These can be set up from in the main Custom Form Studio, or even from the Report Writer.

For example, if you wish to set items that way from an open report in the Report Writer, you might use these steps: While in the inspection field for the item, use Add or Modify button in the middle of the Narratives menu to either add a new item or modify an existing one you want to set that way.  While editing the item, if you want it to automatically import when you start new future reports, click on the "default" box, which turns the item into an automatic default.  After compiling your changes when you next exit the program, any future inspections you start will automatically have any "defaults" marked off and filled out in your report.  If they don't apply for an inspection you can easily un-check them and mark a different comment.

When using defaults, you may also find the navigation option to jump through any fields not inspected or changed useful to quickly review your defaults to make sure they are correct before printing.  The article here has information about that option- http://www.3dinspection.com/Tips-and-Tricks/tracking-inspected-completed-items-on-a-report.html