Workflow: Construction Diary
The standard workflow for a site engineer — take the project's work-item catalog, expand it into a day-by-day diary, attach site photos, print or export to PDF per Nghị định 06/2021/NĐ-CP (Decree 06/2021 on construction quality management), and send it to the client at the end of each week or month.
Objective
- Input: a work-item catalog (Excel) with a start / finish / acceptance date for every item, plus a folder of site photos.
- Output: sheet
DM_NKTCholding the day-by-day diary listing → copied into the diary form → a monthly PDF diary pack for the client.
Key point
The add-in's New Diary command does not produce a Word file. It reads your work-item catalog and spreads those items across each day of the period, writing the result to sheet DM_NKTC inside the same workbook. Layout and printing are handled afterwards with the diary form + the print/PDF commands.
Workflow
Step 1 — Open the diary form
DVD Cons → QAQC and Diary group → Templates → Diary Template.
The add-in opens C:\DVDAddin\Template\FormNKCT.xlsx — a form that already contains every item that must be recorded: date, weather, labour, plant, materials, work of the day and the supervision consultant's remarks.
Save As immediately under a name such as NhatKy_DA_XYZ_Thang5.xlsx so the master template in the installation folder stays untouched.
Step 2 — Prepare the work-item catalog
On a sheet in the same workbook, build the work-item catalog. The New Diary command needs exactly 4 required columns and 1 optional column:
| No. | Work content | Construction start | Construction finish | Acceptance date | Rest days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Foundation excavation, grids A–C | 01/05/2026 | 04/05/2026 | 05/05/2026 | |
| 2 | Blinding concrete for footings | 05/05/2026 | 06/05/2026 | 06/05/2026 | |
| 3 | Fixing pile-cap rebar | 07/05/2026 | 12/05/2026 | 13/05/2026 | 09/05/2026+10/05/2026 |
| ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... |
Required:
- Work content — text; this is exactly the line that will appear in the diary.
- Construction start / finish date — a real Date type, not text.
- Acceptance date — Date type.
Optional:
- Rest days — the days on which that item is not worked, joined by
+. Leave it blank to mean continuous work.
Besides the table, add two cells holding the start and end date of the diary period (for example B2 = 01/05/2026, D2 = 31/05/2026).
Numbering the No. column
Use Numbering for the No. column — the command skips hidden rows and counts a merged cell only once, which is exactly how a records catalog should be numbered. For the date columns keep using Excel's fill handle; the Numbering command only fills numbers and a text prefix.
Step 3 — Declare the rest days from a calendar
Typing the string 23/05/2026+25/05/2026 by hand makes format errors easy. Instead:
- Select the cell(s) in the Rest days column — at most 500 cells at a time.
- DVD Cons → QAQC and Diary group → Diary Menu → Pick Rest Days.
- Click the days on the calendar (hold Ctrl to pick several) → click Fill cells.
The days already ticked when the calendar opens are read from the active cell, but when you click Fill, every cell in the selection receives the same string. The value is written as text, so a single date is not turned into a number by Regional Settings. Ticking nothing and then clicking Fill cells clears the contents of the selected cells.
Step 4 — Expand the catalog into a day-by-day diary
DVD Cons → QAQC and Diary group → New Diary. The Create construction diary window appears:
| Field | Example value |
|---|---|
| Source data range | A5:H60 |
| Start date cell | B2 |
| End date cell | D2 |
| Construction start column | C |
| Construction end column | D |
| Acceptance date column | E |
| Work content column | B |
| Rest-days column (optional) | H |
Every input box has a ⤴ button for picking the reference directly on the worksheet. Click Generate diary → sheet DM_NKTC produces a day-by-day listing from 01/05 to 31/05: on each day, whichever items are running appear on that day, except on the days declared in the Rest days column.
Overwriting cannot be undone
The result overwrites sheet DM_NKTC. If you have edited that sheet by hand, those edits are lost and Ctrl+Z will not save you — save the file before rerunning.
The columns you declare are interpreted as worksheet columns (the real column letters), not as positions within the selected range.
Step 5 — Prepare and insert site photos
Organise the folders by day:
D:\Anh\
├── 01-05\
│ ├── IMG_001.jpg
│ └── IMG_002.jpg
├── 02-05\
│ └── ...Shrink the photos before inserting them. A 4000×3000 px phone photo weighs 4–6 MB each; paste them into Excel as-is and the file swells to hundreds of MB:
DVD Addin → File and Print group → File Tools → Resize Images → pick the photo folder → enter the maximum longest side (for example 1200; the default is 800).
- The originals are left untouched; the results land in the
ResizeOutputsub-folder. - Only
.jpg,.jpegand.pngare processed, and only the images directly inside the folder you chose — it does not descend into sub-folders, so run the command once per day folder. - Running it a second time skips images that already exist in
ResizeOutput; to switch to a different pixel size, delete (or rename) that folder first.
Inserting them into the diary — choose one of three ways:
| Command | When to use it |
|---|---|
| Pictures | Pick many files at once and the add-in lays them out in turn across the range you selected |
| Insert by Name | The table already has a column of image file names — each row matches exactly, never shifts |
| Pic Comment | The photo only appears on hover, keeping the printed layout tidy |
Both Pictures and Insert by Name ask for the margin between the image and the cell border (default 2, 2–5 recommended) and then fit the image neatly into the cell, merged cells included.
Pic Comment works quite differently: it sets one image as the comment background of the active cell (selecting a whole range still processes only one cell), does not ask for a margin, and comments are not printed by Excel's default. Use it for internal reference photos; if a photo has to appear on the printout, it must be inserted straight into the cell.
Step 6 — Print and export to PDF
Option 1 — a few sheets, quick export: select the sheets to send (Ctrl / Shift on the sheet tabs) → DVD Addin → Sheets → PDF.
The result is one PDF file per sheet placed next to the workbook, named <workbook name>_<sheet name>.pdf. This is not a single combined file.
Option 2 — a whole month, one volume: DVD Addin → Batch print:
- Number range: Continuous
1→31(each iteration is one day). - Driver cell (number): the cell holding the day number; the rest of the diary page uses formulas that look up against this cell.
- Sheet-print cell: the cell holding the names of the sheets to print each iteration, separated by
+. - Filename cell: the cell with the file-naming formula, for example
="NK_"&TEXT(B1,"yyyy-MM-dd"). - Tick combine all PDFs into one file → the whole month comes out as one continuous volume for signature.
The driver cell really is written to
The add-in writes the iteration number into the driver cell while it runs. Save the workbook before a large batch print, and do not type into any cell while the command is running.
Step 7 — Send it to the client
DVD Addin → File and Print group → Send Email.
The compose window lets every field point at an Excel cell instead of being typed: To, Cc, Subject, Salutation, Recipient name, Company, Body. Click the ⤴ button next to each field to pick the cell.
The Attachments box accepts several paths (one file per line), or points at a cell holding several paths separated by Alt+Enter line breaks.
Send to several parties in one click: enable the Batch section, choose a Continuous range or a Discrete (1+3+5) list, and specify the Driver cell (n) — each iteration makes the sheet recalculate the recipient and the subject. To attach a PDF per iteration, enable Export sheet(s) to PDF and attach per iteration.
Always click Preview for the first iteration (it opens the Outlook compose window without sending) before clicking Send.
Outlook is required
The command sends mail through Microsoft Outlook with an account already configured on the machine. The add-in does not send directly through an SMTP server.
Optimising the workflow
Extract a slim catalog for submission
A records tracking table is usually very wide (many remark and signatory columns), whereas the form submitted to the client only needs a few columns. DVD Cons → QAQC and Diary group → Diary Menu → Export Category:
- Declare the source range and pick up to 10 columns to export, in the order you want.
- Choose the Base column (row detection) — only rows with data in this column are exported.
- Tick Skip hidden rows if the table is filtered.
- The result is written to the target sheet starting at cell B6 (rows 1–5 are reserved for the form header).
Tracking incidents during the month
Agree on keywords in the Remarks column:
[SC]— serious incident.[CC]— schedule delay.[AT]— occupational safety violation.[VT]— material shortage.
Count them with an ordinary Excel formula:
=COUNTIF(GhiChu; "*[SC]*")Or build a PivotTable that counts by type to feed the monthly report.
Archiving client / supervision consultant replies
DVD Addin → File and Print group → Email Menu → Import Email: pick the Outlook folder, pick the folder to save attachments to, set the From date / To date range, tick the file types to extract (.pdf, .doc/.docx, images…) → click Import.
The message contents go into the Output sheet, and the attachments are downloaded into the folder you chose. This is how you keep a trace of site correspondence without forwarding each message by hand.
Sheet Output gets overwritten
If the workbook already has an Output sheet, its previous contents are replaced and Ctrl+Z will not save you — run the command in a separate workbook dedicated to archiving.
Compliance with Nghị định 06/2021/NĐ-CP
For the diary to be accepted as legally valid by the client / supervision consultant, the dossier needs:
- A cover page with the project information (project name, client, designer, construction contractor, period).
- Each daily page recording: date, work package, quantities, labour, materials, weather, incidents.
- A signature block for the representatives of every party: supervision consultant, client, construction contractor.
- Site photos as evidence.
- Continuous page numbering and continuous day-by-day entries.
The FormNKCT.xlsx form already lays out all of these items, but it only supports the layout — it does not replace the specific form and rules required by your project's client / supervision consultant. Check it against the project's records requirements before issuing it in bulk.
Long-term storage
Once every party has signed and the pages are scanned back in → upload them to the cloud for archiving:
- One folder per month, one parent folder per project.
- Back up regularly.
→ When a legal audit comes years later, the full data is still there.
License gating
| Command | Requirement |
|---|---|
| New Diary | Needs a license (Standard or PRO) |
| Export Category | Needs a license |
| Send Email / Import Email | Needs a license |
| Batch print | Needs a license |
| Diary Template, Pick Rest Days, Resize Images, Pictures, Sheets → PDF | Free |
During the 30-day trial, all of the commands above are fully available. After that you need to activate a license.
Related
- Construction Diary — the whole command group in detail.
- Merge to Word — if you also need to issue a Word document from this same data table.
- Send Email — batch email sending.
- Resize Images — shrink site photos before inserting them.
- Workflow: Batch Acceptance — the parallel workflow for acceptance records.