NANY 2013 Pledge - Progress Bars of Life - v1.06.01 - December 31, 2012

[mouser]

Progress Bars of Life lets you create a set of custom progress bars that will graphically show the progress towards different events in your life.

You can create as many progress bars as you like, and display them in various ways -- for example, docked to the edge of a screen and always visible, or invisible and shown on command.

Create progress bars that show things like how close you are to the weekend, to your birthday, to your graduation, to your due date, until your death, till the end of the current hour, etc.

Some screenshots:





Early alpha for those who want to experiment.

v1.06.01 - December 31, 2012

• Right-click option to copy summary of progress bar times to clipboard.
• New layout options
• [BugFix] Floating window position was not being remembers.
• Better instructions on Progress Bar item tab of options; clearer list of items.
• Support for progress bar theme files so users can customize the look of their bars

v1.03.01 - December 5, 2012

• Miscellaneous bugfixes
• Added "Check for updates" to menus
• Did away with unnecessary dock rebuilding when applying option changes.
• Improved guage smart text for time durations.

DOWNLOAD:

• http://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Mouser/pbol/downloads/ProgressBarsOfLifeSetup.exe
• http://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Mouser/pbol/downloads/ProgressBarsOfLifePortable.zip

[superboyac]

Seriously excited.
I don't know why i like to watch progress bars, but I do.  I just hope it's not a form of mind control  .

[mouser]

I don't know why i like to watch progress bars, but I do.

well then this tool is for you.

[superboyac]

If you do include some sort of mind control, can it have something to do with hot exotic chicks?

[cranioscopical]

can it have something to do with hot exotic chicks?

here you go

[attach thumb]

[superboyac]

cranio...well, I suppose that is literally what I asked for!

[Target]

here you go...

of course it's beta so there might be a few bugs...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

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apologies to mouser for hijacking his thread...

[mouser]

Teaser screenshot, of the display window docked to the top of my screen:


Colors and looks will eventually be adjustable.

Obviously you can add as many bars as you want -- that's the whole point.  You can show the bars in a window or docked to the side of a screen.

The most common kind of bar is one where you set a start and end date and it tracks progress; you can also set a manual range and position for things that aren't date based.

You can also tell the bar how to repeat when it reaches the end -- so you can use progress bars for each minute/hour/day/month/year, and they will reset and cycle as they complete.


Potential future features:

• An API so you do things like fetch some web data to retrieve progress position.
• Ability to read or import standard calendar files so user can easily import important dates.
• Other features

[Jibz]

Nice

The lifespan bar is perhaps a bit ominous?

Also, there is perhaps some ambiguity in percentages "until" something -- like the Until Christmas bar, if there is 94% until Christmas doesn't that sound more like only 6% of the time has passed so far?

[mouser]

Yeah thats just me picking bad labels -- but you assign your own labels so call them what you will.
And of course the progress value depends on what the start date is..  Presumably you would set the start date to something useful.

[app103]

You can also tell the bar how to repeat when it reaches the end

Cool! An app that provides immortality through reincarnation! 

The lifespan bar is perhaps a bit ominous?

Not if mouser is making it possible to repeat it.  

[Jibz]

If they are all based on time, maybe let the user optionally specify a time formatting string to use instead of the percentage as text on the bar? I mean, so you could make it say "21 days" instead of "94%" on the Christmas bar, or "41 min" instead of "69%" on the Left in Current Hour bar.

The lifespan bar is perhaps a bit ominous?

Not if mouser is making it possible to repeat it. 

[mouser]

could make it say "21 days" instead of "94%" on the Christmas bar, or "41 min" instead of "69%" on the Left in Current Hour bar.

that is a very good idea, putting it on todo list.

[anandcoral]

Very good idea and app.

Can think of using it as 'countdown' for my projects, which I generally miss.

Regards,

Anand

[tomos]

Can think of using it as 'countdown' for my projects, which I generally miss.

I was thinking along these lines as well.
With that in mind, would it be possible to make it like a resizeable toolbar that you could drag the corner and end up e.g. with 1x2 or 2x4 or 1x4 format

[attachimg=#]

you could even have it like the new docking auto-hide SC "Quick Capture Bar" (could you reuse the code?)

[mouser]

you could even have it like the new docking auto-hide SC "Quick Capture Bar" (could you reuse the code?)

already done -- you can configure it as an auto-hiding dock.

however it is a good idea to let the user set the width and let it flow multiple bars on one line -- that's something i didn't think of and will add.

[mouser]

ok here's horizontal band style, dock to top of screen:

[TaoPhoenix]

If they are all based on time, maybe let the user optionally specify a time formatting string to use instead of the percentage as text on the bar? I mean, so you could make it say "21 days" instead of "94%" on the Christmas bar, or "41 min" instead of "69%" on the Left in Current Hour bar.

Do you really want it counting down the days left in your life?! 

[4wd]

Do you really want it counting down the days left in your life?! 

Since there's only 17 days left until Global Armageddon, why not?

[mouser]

With Jibz suggestion of showing times remaining in bars (it's an option):

[mouser]

Another view, docked again to top of screen:



And another:

[tomos]

Great

another request -
the ability to show how long since something happened

[mouser]

done.

[tomos]

I see the bars are different lengths - is that user-modifiable or automatic some way?
Also see different text on different bars - same query for that.

e.g.
15 wks, 5 days, 29 mins, 12 secs to go
would take up a lot less space than the same info using the full words with 'remaining' at the end.

(I know that you wouldnt have all that info on one line - but the point still valid)

[mouser]

I see the bars are different lengths - is that user-modifiable or automatic some way?

yes, there are various options for that.

e.g. 15 wks, 5 days, 29 mins, 12 secs to go

i'll have to add some settings for that; perhaps just simply a choice of long and short text modes.