Author Topic: IDEA: Very simple timeclock utility (Read 87136 times)

iphigenie · « **Reply #25 on:** July 21, 2007, 03:47 AM »

I have been using titlelog quite a bit, put it on my machine at work and passed it to a few people as a suggestion to "help see where their time goes"

An oddity I seem to have is that even when I mark myself as "off to lunch" or "on the phone" with the pre-canned activities, the "what have you been doing" box does pop up as well

Might get a look myself to see if it is by design or a fluke

urlwolf · « **Reply #26 on:** September 15, 2007, 05:59 PM »

I think timekeeper (see dc review here) is a good match for this, and a bit more advanced than titleLog (not much!).

Armando · « **Reply #27 on:** September 15, 2007, 10:25 PM »

thanks brett,
I've just discovered this. Will see if it can help me track a bit better what I do... Where do all these hours go?

I have been using titlelog quite a bit, put it on my machine at work and passed it to a few people as a suggestion to "help see where their time goes"

An oddity I seem to have is that even when I mark myself as "off to lunch" or "on the phone" with the pre-canned activities, the "what have you been doing" box does pop up as well

Might get a look myself to see if it is by design or a fluke
-iphigenie (July 21, 2007, 03:47 AM)

hummmmm. It doesn't do that with the ahk script I downloaded. Are you using the script or the exe?

One thing I've noticed : the comments inserted with the "add comment to log..." don't show in the log window. I wonder if that's by design or not.

brett · « **Reply #28 on:** September 16, 2007, 12:43 AM »

Just a quick note.

There are a number of things I want to change/update here. I think I will add it as my GTD of 2007.

Brett

suleika · « **Reply #29 on:** January 05, 2008, 06:32 AM »

I've been trying out titlelog - it's lovely and simple. Has anyone tried exporting and/or manipulating the log? I'd really like to stick it in a spreadsheet and do all sorts of things with it, like adding up the times spent on logged items, assigning blocks of times to projects, creating graphs. I'm not experienced enough with spreadsheets to do this without false starts and a serious learning curve, so I'm wondering if anyone else has already tried something like this.

Armando · « **Reply #30 on:** January 06, 2008, 01:57 AM »

It's lovely, isn't it ?
I've tried exporting the log, but didn't do anything fancy.
Like I said in my previous post, the only thing that bothers me at the moment is that the comments inserted with the "add comment to log..." don't show in the log window. It's not that important though... Titlelog just helps me to find out were all my precious time goes...

Anyhow... I'm impatiently waiting to see if someone more experienced will be able to answer your request...

brett · « **Reply #31 on:** January 07, 2008, 05:56 AM »

Hi all.

There are a number of things I want to change/update here. I think I will add it as my GTD of 2007
Brett
.

thanks for the good words, but sometimes I need a massive push.
I tend to start a lot of things, get them to about 90%, then do something else.
Overall, I am very easily distracted. (beer, women, sport, butterflies, etc )

So what is in v01.02.23

I was never happy with the way the text was written to the file so that has been tidied up.

Fixed writing log to file
Fixed idletimeout over the top of canned messages, (thanks Armando)
Added a Summary Log
Added "" to text file
Added filters in detail view.
Added Save in filter view, ie save the results as a CSV file. (suleika)

Screen shots show same log, unfiltered, and filtered.

IDEA: Very simple timeclock utility

IDEA: Very simple timeclock utility
and the status bar with summary

IDEA: Very simple timeclock utility

If I dont get distracted to much next step is to allow filtering over selected multiple days.
ooh, look, a butterfly...........

Brett

tomos · « **Reply #32 on:** January 07, 2008, 07:05 AM »

great stuff brett
looking forward to revisiting it

tomos · « **Reply #33 on:** January 07, 2008, 08:11 AM »

Added a Summary Log
-brett (January 07, 2008, 05:56 AM)

this is super - you can see how long you've spent at each programme

I'll have to face the truth now
helpful, but sometimes ..

nosh · « **Reply #34 on:** January 07, 2008, 08:56 AM »

OMG brett, I actually started swatting away at your display pic with a piece of cloth and then when the "bug" didn't budge I really freaked out coz I thought it had somehow managed to get trapped behind the screen and I was like "please don't die there please don't die there please don't die there!!!!" lol! I'm keeping it - it's a super prank to play on someone!

tomos · « **Reply #35 on:** January 07, 2008, 09:05 AM »

Added Save in filter view, ie save the results as a CSV file. (suleika)
-brett (January 07, 2008, 05:56 AM)

cant figure that one out

ah okay - just change file ending

would it be difficult to make an option to save Summary View as CSV file too

(or is there a way to filter detailed view to show like summary view - dont think so)

true nosh

I kindof jumped and had to look a couple of times when i saw it first

Armando · « **Reply #36 on:** January 07, 2008, 08:37 PM »

Nice!! Thanks Brett. The new version seems to work really well !

Sometimes I'd like to be able to resize the window, but it's a detail, really.

Oh... another butterfly...

(I can perfectly understand the butterfly problem...)

suleika · « **Reply #37 on:** January 08, 2008, 06:12 AM »

I'm using the new version today too. It's looking good.

I'd like to be able to resize the window too, btw.

At some point I'm going to have a go at playing with it in Excel. I'll post about it.

brett · « **Reply #38 on:** January 08, 2008, 07:36 AM »

Hi all.

A few more additions.

+ should now be able to load 'from' and 'to' dates in Summary and Detail views.
+ changed tray menu, now has 'explore log folder'
+ all log's now saved as CSV files (was txt)
+ filter saves as csv extension by default
+ made height/width larger. (will work on auto-resizing listview control)

- open in notepad, see above due to date spans.

needs more testing, as early days.

suleika
At some point I'm going to have a go at playing with it in Excel. I'll post about it.

before playing in excel, you should try the filters in the detail view. I would be surprised if they did not achieve most objectives.
When you have the right filter, use the 'save current list' button to save the filtered items.
What I am pleased about is that it should/will filter over a date range.

This alone will give the user a handy productivity tool.

Tomos
this is super - you can see how long you've spent at each programme

even better now, you can see how long for a date range.
And in detail view, filter down to one particular item.

Large Screen shot of Detail view, filtered to Firefox with Donation in title, Status bar show how much time spent over three days.

IDEA: Very simple timeclock utility

Brett

Armando · « **Reply #39 on:** January 09, 2008, 09:44 PM »

Wow, thanks Brett!! Very very nice.
I use your utility every day.

brett · « **Reply #40 on:** January 25, 2008, 05:09 AM »

New update to Titlelog v1.0.47.03

+ summary view is now a two pane display
left is application, right is all titles logged for that application

+ summary view sorts to most used

+ error check in detail view when updating search

Screenshot shows
Notepad++ used for 1hr 3 minutes today
Each 'window title' in right pane and time on each

Screenshot - 25_01_2008 , 9_51_08 PM.png

IDEA: Very simple timeclock utility

Footnote.
There have been some requests for how to track time spent on a project.
Label each project with a unique identifying tag. You should then be able to do a filter on that tag over a range of dates, and Titlelog will return the amount of time on the project.
ie design a web page for Bill, every file that you save on bills project should have a unique number and look like 'Bill web page P6592.html' 'Bill P6592.xsl' 'Bill P6592.doc'
as long as the Application lists the filename in the title, you now have a record of how much time is spent on that project, and you can perform multiple searches for P6592 and you will be presented with a breakdowns of your time.

Next update will mainly be trying to improve speed and optimize.

All feedback of all type is well received.
Brett

tomos · « **Reply #41 on:** January 25, 2008, 06:29 AM »

downloaded

Armando · « **Reply #42 on:** January 25, 2008, 11:29 AM »

Thanks brett!

suleika · « **Reply #43 on:** January 30, 2008, 03:25 PM »

Thanks for the update. The summary view is more useful now.

I was taking a good look at some recent log files today (to try to work out where I had spent my time while doing my tax return preparation), and annotating them, using Excel. I have a request for a couple of changes which would make this kind of thing easier.

Would it be possible to use formatting that Excel would recognise as date and time etc? I'm thinking of, for example, yyyy-mm-dd (rather than yyyymmdd), and hh:mm:ss rather than mmss. This would make the raw data much more valuable and easy to use. I would also very much prefer to have the time recorded with a value for seconds, and not only hours and minutes, both so that I can further manipulate it in Excel and also to keep that column in chronological order even if I sort it. (Items being out of order within the span of a minute isn't going to mess up any durations, of course, but it could make for confusing reading of comments, for example.)

This would mean that the time recorded would look identical to the time elapsed, but there would be no need to change it in the view from within the application. Just as there is currently a "hidden" column (only appearing in the export, and not from the application) where the time elapsed is listed unformatted, you could have a hidden column where the time recorded is listed with Excel-friendly formatting.

I am sure this would open up possibilities for more interesting analysis of the log, so I hope you will seriously consider it.

nosh · « **Reply #44 on:** January 31, 2008, 10:15 AM »

Can brett or anyone familiar with AHK tell me how to mod this to trigger a function (Summary Log, in my case) on single-clicking the tray icon?

jgpaiva · « **Reply #45 on:** January 31, 2008, 10:20 AM »

@nosh: simple! just add "menu,tray,click,1" to the top of the script!

nosh · « **Reply #46 on:** January 31, 2008, 11:46 AM »

OK. Had to make the item default before it started working. Thanks for putting me on the right track, jgpaiva!

vixay · « **Reply #47 on:** June 24, 2008, 04:05 AM »

Need to change line 639 in latest TitleLog v01.17.28
from:

Code: AutoIt [Select]

Run, C:\Windows\explorer.exe "%A_Scriptdir%\Titlelog\"

to:

Code: AutoIt [Select]

Run, %A_WinDir%\explorer.exe "%A_Scriptdir%\Titlelog\"

as i've windows installed on the D: drive. But it's a good practice anyway...

And for the double clicking default behavior (similar to what nosh wanted), the following line needs to be inserted at line 56

[Select]

Menu, tray, Default, Show Summary Log...

as for Suleika's requirements...
Do a search for FileAppend in the AHK script.
Change all the lines containing

Code: AutoIt [Select]

"%A_YYYY%%A_MM%%A_DD%"`,"%A_Hour%%A_Min%"`,

to

Code: AutoIt [Select]

"%A_YYYY%-%A_MM%-%A_DD%"`,"%A_Hour%:%A_Min%:%A_Sec%"`,

I haven't tested this, so i can't guarantee it'll work. It will most likely break the Detailed & Summary views as that relies on the fact that the data stays in this format. Alternatively a quick text to columns and a formula can take care of this for you in excel. (text to columns fixed width 4,2,2. Then in the next cell put a formula combining the values e.g. =DATE(I1,J1,K1))

Also what happened to the icon? It's not showing up anymore, i remember the first version had an icon.... is it because i'm running the AHK script? I thought you could embed the icon in the script itself by uuencoding the image...

willwilliams · « **Reply #48 on:** June 27, 2008, 03:50 PM »

This seems to be a lovely utility

Can I adjust something so that the detailed log shows the most recent activity first, rather than having to click it back to that, after getting the data updated?

Also, FWIW, I'd rather not have the toolbar entry showing - no privacy/key log concern for me.

brett · « **Reply #49 on:** June 28, 2008, 06:34 PM »

My work will ease off a lot over the next couple of weeks, so I should get time to do some more work on this,
Vixay, really appreciate your input, will incorporate your suggestions.
Will, can add your options no problems (i think)

I am building a new PC, so slowly adding and growing to my new shiny animal.

Brett