Guides / Proposals

Opt, and switching a row on or off

Opt is a number, not a checkbox. It is how many of a part the room has, and clearing it takes the row out of the price without deleting it.

What you need first

  • A room on the take-off with at least one block

Every row in a block has an Opt, and it is the column that does most of the work on a real job. By the end of this page you will know how to scale a row, how to switch one off, and what the sheet does about a choice you have not made yet.

Type a number into Opt

Opt is how many of that part the room has: eight drawer banks, twenty-two feet of upper, one island panel. The Total on the right is the rate times the Opt, and it moves the moment you leave the cell.

Clear Opt to switch the row off

Empty the cell and the row is off. It stays on the sheet with its name and its rate, the total greys out, and the block total drops. Nothing is deleted, because a row you turned off today is one you may want back on Thursday.

The same block with one row switched off at Opt, its total greyed out, and the priced row above it still on
  1. 1A row on, scaled by the number in Opt
  2. 2Opt cleared: the row is off and priced at nothing

Read the count in the block header

Beside the block name is a count of the rows that are on, with the block's subtotal on the right. Collapsed, that one line is the whole answer for the block, which is how a six-room sheet stays readable.

Do not confuse Opt with Quantity

Opt is per row. Quantity, at the foot of the block, multiplies the whole block, and its label changes with the unit your workbook gave it: Linear Feet, Square Feet or Quantity. Two lockers of the same build are one block at a quantity of two, not two blocks.

Watch for the warning about open choices

If a group of rows has nothing on, the sheet says so above the Save bar: a group with no row on is priced at nothing, so the total is lower than the job. It is a warning rather than a block, because sometimes nothing is the right answer.

Save before you draft

Opt changes live in the page until you press Save. The draft reads the last saved sheet, so a row you switched off and did not save is still in the document.

What happens next

Scaling a row is one thing. Pricing one differently for this job without touching your catalogue is another, and that is the next guide.