Pick Rest Days

Location on ribbon: Tab DVD Cons → Group QAQC and Diary → Menu Diary Menu

Command ID: btnRestDays

What it does

Opens a calendar so you can tick the days a task is not worked on, then writes those dates into the selected cells as dd/MM/yyyy values joined with + — exactly the format the New Diary generator reads from its rest-days column.

Use it to avoid typing long date strings by hand, especially when a task pauses on scattered days for rain, material shortages or public holidays.

How to use

1. Select one or more cells in the rest-days column of your work-item catalog.
2. Click Diary Menu ▸ Pick Rest Days.
3. The Pick rest days window opens. If the active cell already holds a date list, those days come back ticked so you can edit rather than retype.
4. Click days on the calendar; hold Ctrl to add more. Clear all unticks everything.
5. Click Fill cells. The joined date string is written into every cell you selected in step 1.
6. Run New Diary to expand the catalog day by day with those rest days excluded.

Example

"Block work, level 3 perimeter" runs from 20 to 30 November but stops on two rainy days, 23 and 25 November. Select that row's rest-days cell, click Pick Rest Days, Ctrl-click 23 and 25 on the calendar, then click Fill cells — the cell receives 23/11/2021+25/11/2021. When New Diary runs, the block work does not appear on those two days.

Notes

• A selection is required before running the command; otherwise the add-in reports "Select cell(s) in the rest-days column first."
• The selection is capped at 500 cells — anything larger is refused with a prompt to select just the rest-day cells.
• Ticking nothing and then clicking Fill cells clears the selected cells.
• Values are stored as text (with a hidden leading apostrophe) so a single date is not converted into a locale-dependent date value.
• The pre-ticked days come from the active cell of the selection, while the fill applies the same string to every cell in that selection.

Related

• New Diary — reads this rest-days column when generating the daily diary.
• Diary Template — the standard construction diary form.
• Export Category — extracts columns from the record catalog into a form layout.