Description:
TakeTime is a Time Tracking program for the Palm Pilot. TakeTime records every task that you perform for a client. It retains a complete record of the activity date, start time, and duration of the task.Who needs a Time Tracking program? Well, I do. Every two weeks, I report my progress to my boss. Sometimes my progress on the main projects has been less than satisfactory, all because, I have been providing ad hoc support or training to my clientele. Sometimes, I look back and cannot, for the life of me, figure out where I spent all that time. Now, I can tell him that I spent 7 hours on providing training, 9 hours on support calls, 5 hours on IT-initiated meetings, and so on. Setting priorities and planning resources is so much easier with the hard facts.
TakeTime tries to simplify the time tracking process. At its easiest, stopping the previous task and starting a new one can be as simple as five taps on your Pilot. You have the option of rounding your times to the half hour or full hour. Two simple reports are readily available and running hour totals are shown at all times on the main screen.
Download:
Download the latest version of TakeTime.Non English Users:
Check the file, TRANSLAT.TXT, in the download for my offer to recompile TakeTime for languages besides English. The download includes a Deutsche version of TakeTime, TT_deu.prc.Limitations:
This is a simple program for which I have not yet figured out how to tap into the Address Book or Day Timer. Ideally, the program should take its list of clients off the Address Book. Entries in your Day Book should be automatically transferred to TakeTime. Finally, it should be able to sends its results to your favourite desktop time tracking software. TakeTime makes no attempt to handle hourly fees or costs, it simply tracks hours. For these features, you may wish to purchase a commercial software package, of which, there are several for the Pilot.As is, TakeTime will export its details and reports to the Memopad. From there, it is easy enough to copy the information from the Pilot Desktop into Excel or Word. The Palmpilot Memopad can only handle memos up to 4,000 bytes in size. TakeTime has been developed and tested on Versions 1.0 and 3.0 of the Pilot Operating System.
Technical Limits
- Largest Client Name: 30 characters
- Largest Task Name: 30 characters
- Longest Duration: 24 hours
- Largest Description: 200 characters
- Maximum Entries: Depends on Palm memory (about 3,500 entries or 100 weeks on 512 K)
- Largest Summary: 30 lines of tasks or clients
- Largest Details Report: 4,000 characters (about 70 entries or 2 weeks)
Instructions:
1) Basic Process
When you first start the program, it starts the clock running on a new task. You enter a Client, the name of the task, and possibly, a longer description. Later when you finish that task, you tap New Task. That event stops the timer on the current task and starts a new task. Once again, you enter a Client, Task, and Description. At the end of day, when you wish to stop the current event and not start a new task, tap End Task. The next day, you would tap New Task to start the timer running again.Notice that the Client and Task labels are buttons. Tapping on either of those buttons brings up a list of your most current clients or tasks based on your earlier entries. Tap on any of those clients or tasks to transfer the name to your current time entry.
The <<< and >>> buttons allow you to see any of your entries. <<< takes you to earlier entries and >>> takes you to later entries.
2) Reporting
At the bottom of the screen are three report lines. First Day indicates the date of your earliest entry in TakeTime. This gives you a sense of how long you have been tracking your activities. Client Total gives you the total hours that you have spent on the current client from the First Day until today. Total Today indicates the total hours tracked so far for today. As you pan through previous days, this total should reflect full 8 hour days depending on your workday length.Near the top of the screen is a line that tells you the current record number as well as the total number of entries currently stored in TakeTime.
At any time, you can run a report. Reports are saved in Memopad and from the Pilot Desktop, can be imported into the software of your choice. Tap on the Menu icon to the lower left from the Graffiti square. The third entry on the menu bar is Report. You have your choice of three reports. Totals by Client gives the total hours spent on each client since the First Day that you started your Time Tracking. Totals for Client gives the total hours spent on each task for the currently displayed client. Export Details sends your TakeTime database to the Memopad. The export gives the client, task, date, start time, duration, and end time for every entry. Each field is separated by tabs. Remember this, if you import your Memopad into a Desktop software package. This is often referred to as ‘Tab Delimited’.
3) Entry Correction
Forget to stop a task? Tap on the time button and you will see the standard Pilot time selection screen. Pick the appropriate end time and you will return to TakeTime with the correction duration. The task will be stopped.Sometimes you may forget to track an event. This is easily corrected. Start a New Task. Tap on the date button to change the date to the previous day. Tap on the time button to set the start time and duration of the event. Enter the appropriate client, task, and description information. Your forgotten event is now recorded.
The client, task, date, time, duration, and description information can be overwritten or changed on any record.
4) Clean Up
TakeTime allows you to remove individual or multiple events. Tap on the Menu icon to the lower left from the Graffiti square. The first entry on the menu bar is Task. Delete Task removes the task currently showing on the screen. Clear Prior removes all entries prior to the date currently showing on the screen. If the current event shown is from yesterday, Clear Prior will remove everything two days or older. Clear All wipes out all of your entries. You are now starting from scratch.Your quick pick lists for the Client and Task buttons will be empty as a result. It is a good idea to only keep two weeks on entries in TakeTime at any one time. Any more than that, may exceed TakeTime's ability to export the data through the Memopad.5) Miscellaneous
There are four other options on the Task menu. New Task does the same as the New Task button. It stops the current event and starts a new one. End Task does the same as the End Task button. It stops the current event. Goto Latest takes you to the most recent event in TakeTime. Goto First takes you to the earliest event in TakeTime.Under the Edit menu, there are six options. Undo backs out your latest action. Cut removes any highlighted text and puts it in the clipboard for pasting. Copy makes a copy of any highlighted text and puts in the clipboard for pasting. Paste takes any text in the clipboard and copies it to where the cursor is currently positioned. Select All highlights all of the text in the current field (Client, Task, or Description). Keyboard brings up the graphic keyboard where you tap out the letters. This option is useful if you have difficulty with writing Graffiti.
The Option menu has two selections. Preferences takes you to a different screen where you can select if you want times to be rounded to the half hour or hour. About TakeTime gives you the version number, my E-Mail address, and a disclaimer.
6) Disclaimer
While I have tested TakeTime, I can accept no liabilities for the use of this program. I can, in no way, be held responsible for the loss of data within TakeTime or any Pilot program due to the use of TakeTime. You use TakeTime at your own risk. TakeTime is freeware. I request no remuneration for use of this program. I do retain any copyright associated with this program, both in its name, look and feel, and in its code. Please do not plagiarize my efforts. Should you wish to extend or improve TakeTime, contact me through my E-Mail address. I would expect remuneration if you intend to incorporate TakeTime, in whole or in part, into a shareware or commercial software package. TakeTime is written in the C language, using the VCP visual programming environment and the GCC for Pilot compiler.Regards,...Ron Duffy (Toronto, carolron@pathcom.com)
Version 1.01
- Added 10 and 15 minute increments to the Preferences screen.
- Decreased record storage requirements by compressing Notes field.
- Removed display artifacts that appear briefly under Palm OS 1.0.
- Fixed crashes when Summary Reports have more than 29 items.
- Fixed possible blanking of previous records when New Task is selected.
- Fixed Object Not In Form error when Pilot switches away from TakeTime while on the Preferences or About screens.
- Fixed crashes when Pilot runs low on memory.
- Replaced IDE function that was potentially corrupting low memory.