Contents:

Introduction
Entry View
Group View
Action Button
Preferences
Thumbnail
Installation
Package
Project history
Future plans
Known bugs and problems
FAQs
Enhancement suggestions until now
Registration
Disclaimer
Acknowledgements
Links

Introduction

TimeCards (TC) is a little application specifically designed for tracking time spent working with different projects. During the development of TC rapid, efficient entry of data was the driving requirement leading to an interface that requires 1 to 4 taps on the screen to enter a Time record. When time entries are added to TC comments can be appended as well.

Application Funtionality:

• Rapid data entry through simple intuitive interface.
• Aggregated views of time entries and comments displayed by day/week/month/year/arbitrary period.
• Data export to Tab delimited format.
• TC 1.5 is still a NOS 1.x application yet functional under NOS 2.0.

Limitations in TC:

• No searching.
• Undo command is not functional.

From the Author:
As the Author and a constant user of TC I am interested in  receiving feedback  from users be it bugs or enhancement suggestions. I have released TC into the public domain as shareware and thus request a small fee be payed to me if you use TC after a trial period. Since I live in Germany I can take both Marks and Dollars.
Some registered users encouraged me to raise the price. I did now some enhancements that I personally do not need, therefore I followed their encouragment.
The price for TC is now US$10 or DM 15. See registration.
 

Entry View:
 

1. Select the current processing day to edit.
2. Navigate quickly to the Newton's system date (if not already there).
3. Drag the edges to resize the application.
4. Advance the current day one day backwards or one day in forward.
5. Starting Time for the current entry. Tap to select new time and date. The End Time, if present, will be moved to the same amount.
6. Check this boxes to select the entries that will be considered by those commands of the action button which need preselection.
7. End Time for the current entry. This is optional. If you tap on it the current time will be used as the End Time. Tap again to change or delete it if you want to. The End Time cannot be earlier than the Starting Time. If it would be, you are asked now if you want to adjust the Starting Time to the new End Time. This way the entry will be moved and will have a length of 0. That way no negative, impossible duration can be entered but you still have the flexibility to change End Times arbitrarily.
8. Minus picker. Subtract time from the duration.
9. Duration. The calculated period of time between this and the next record, optionally reduced by the time chosen in the minus picker. (Note: The last record will have '?:??' in the duration column. ).
   Since Version 1.2 you can specify the duration with the End Time as well.
10. Times shown can be rounded by the following amounts:
    • 'none': no rounding
    • round at 5 minutes
    • round at 10 minutes
    • round at 15 minutes
    • round at 30 minutes
    • round at 1 hour
11. Info button for about, help and preferences
12. Static date that can be used as a reminder the last time TC was synchronized with another application.
    (Note: This date is manually set by the user. Not automatically by TC. As an example: I use this date as a personal reminder of the last time I manually transferred TC entries to an internal project accounting system used within the company that I work for).
13. If you resize the application, this is for maximizing it again.
14. Scroll records up.
15. Scroll records down.
16. Scroll records left.
17. Scroll records right.
18. Toggle between Entry View und Group View.
19. Add a new record.
20. Thumbnail.
21. All choices you created for this picker (the picker list).
22. Delete a choice for this picker.
23. Edit  a choice for this picker. In the appearing slip you can either change the current item only or all of its usages in the existing entries.
24. Create a new choice for this picker. If the corresponding entry is not empty and that string is not currently in the picker list the entry can be copied into the picker list. Else you can create a new string.
25. Erase the current entry of this picker.
26. Edit the current entry of this picker without adding or modifying it in the list of choices. In the appearing slip you can either change the current item only or all of its usages in the existing entries.
27. Column for optional comments.
28. The header for optional comments. All column names can be edited now. Tap twice quickly on the name to rename it.
29. Resize the columns by dragging the thick lines at the right border of each column heading.
30. Column for project names.
31. Checkbox for entries. When checked (the default), this entry will be considered in the Group View. If the Route checked Project Entries only preference is activated, only the checked entries will be routed and exported.
32. The header for project names. All column names can be edited now. Tap twice quickly on the name to rename it.
33. action button.
34. Fees column. See preferences for more details.

• Beg route
  (used to specify the mileage when starting a trip, for example the driving to a customer)
• End route
  (used to specify the mileage at the end of that trip)
• Distance
  (automatically calculated by TC)

On NOS 2.x devices you enter mileage numbers with the digital number entering facility provided by the system. On NOS 1.x devices (or if you use the NOS 1.x build of TC) you have to write the numbers in the edit field that is provided by TC.
The dialog that is used for entering mileage will be preset with the last mileage you entered.

Group View:

1. Total time.
   (Note: Entries that have unspecified time periods are shown as '+ n*???' where n represents the count of those entries.)
2. Show the period for (relative to the current processing day)
   • day
   • week
   • month
   • year
   • arbitrary period
3. Defines the number of hours in one working day.
   (For example: When a work day is 4 hours long then for 7 hours the displayed time would appear as '1 days, 3:00'.)
4. Group the entries by project or project and comments.
5. List of all comments for the project (only if grouped by project exclusively)
6. Names of projects.
7. Duration after subtracting the times entered through the minus picker from the total time.
8. Sum of the times in the minus picker for this project.

Action Button:

• Print Routing Period (Print Item on NOS 2.x devices)
  On NOS 2.x devices renaming this label is not possible if you use NOS 1.x routing. That's why we have to put up with the 'Print Item' label.
  Print all Entries whithin the corrent Routing Period. You can print an arbitrary period of entries. There are no restrictions like for creating notes.
  The layout of the printed page can be manipulated with the size of the columns in the Entry View.
   
• Fax
  Fax all Entries whithin the corrent Routing Period. You can fax an arbitrary period of entries. There are no restrictions like for creating notes.
  The layout of the printed page can be manipulated with the size of the columns in the Entry View.
   
• Mail
  Due to incompatibilities between the old and new NOS, on an NOS 2.x device mailing is not available.
  On an NOS 1.x device, the mail body has the same content as the result of ‘Print Day’. The addressee might save the mail body to a file and postprocess it. When you do not set the preference ‘Routing in non-proportional metrics’, the addressee might have to experiment with fonts because a proportional font is assumed.
   
• Make Note
  Create a Notes entry for the current Routing Period in the ‘unfiled Notes’ folder. This is the only way to Email on NOS 2.x devices with TC. It can be a nice detour way of routing for printing and faxing, if you want to edit the information before sending it out. If you encounter low heap situations (especially on NOS 1.x devices) while creating Notes, set the current Processing Date of TC to a date whith no entries. Choose the correct Routing Period. Then make Note. If this does not help, reduce your Routing Period.
   
• Set Routing Period
  Sets the period of time that specifies which entries will be routed. The default is the Current Processing Day.
   
• Delete Period
  A dialog will be opened waiting for a period of days to be entered. The default period is the Current Processing Date only.
  When ‘Delete’ is pressed, all entries in the specified period will be deleted unrecoverable.
   
• Export Period
  A dialog will be opened waiting for a period of days to be entered. The default period is the Current Processing Date only. Start a terminal emulating program on your desktop computer with a ‘record incoming data to file’ capability or something similar. Set the communication parameters of your terminal session to 9600 baud, no parity, 1 stop bit, XON/XOFF protocol. Start the ‘recording’. Now press ‘Export’. When all data has been sent to the desktop, you should be able to open the recorded file with a spreadsheet or whatever you want. Data is sent in tab delimited format. That is, fields are separated by tabs and rows separated by newlines.
   
• Copy Selected
  First select the Entries to copy  with their leftmost checkbox. Then choose Copy Selected from the action button.
  A dialog will be opened waiting for a period of days to be entered. The default period is the day after the Current Processing Date.
  When ‘Copy’ is pressed, all selected entries will be copied to each day in the the specified period, merging with the Entries possibly already there.
  This choice is available in the Entry View only, because selecting entries is possible in the Entry View only. That way confusion can be avoided.
   
• Delete Selected
  First select the Entries to delete  with their leftmost checkbox. Then choose Delete Selected from the action button to delete the selected entries. This is done without asking again. Note that undo is not available.
  This choice is available in the Entry View only, because selecting entries is possible in the Entry View only. That way confusion can be avoided.

Some words on routing

1. Export
   Export can be done in tab delimited format via a serial connection. The preferences ‘Routing in non-proportional metrics’ and ‘Space lined routing’ do not apply to the export functionality.
    
2. Non-proportional vs. proprtional
   With routing (except Export) you can decide whether TC should assume a proportional font (Newton’s System font) or a non-proportional one. A proportional formatting looks fine while printing, faxing or looking at the created notes. But if the addressee of the data (transfered, for example, via Email) needs to have aligned column formatting, it probably is better to choose non-proportional metrics. Note that with this choice the columns are not correctly aligned when printing or faxing or looking at your notes. Note also that routing with proportional font might be VERY SLOW on NOS 1.x devices.
    
3. Print, Fax and Email
   The Email functionality uses the NOS 1.x Email system only.
   Printing and faxing stores it’s information in TC’s soup entries, one per page. So an arbitrary period of time is supported.
   This is different from creating Notes. Notes are restricted in length. All Entries of the Routing Period go into one Note. If the Routing Period you have chosen is too long, you may encounter low heap situations.
    
4. Creating Notes
   Since TC does not directly supports Email on NOS 2.x devices, you can create Notepad entries. This can also be used as a way to manipulate routed data afterwards, by editing the Notepad entries after routing them from TC and then route those Notepad entries again.
   Note that Notepad  entries are restricted in length. So it is your responsibility to constraint the Routing Period to reasonable values.

Preferences:

Section Misc:

• Align times to the right
  Times can now be shown aligned to the right.
   
• [New] ends last Entry if day changes
  Caution: New behavior in version 1.4:
  If this preference is set, the following rules apply:
  • If the Current Processing Date is one day prior to the System Date, and the last Entry of the Current Processing Date has no End Time, and the System Date has no Entry, and the System Time is between 0:00 and 0:01, using the New-Button will set the End Time of the last Entry of the Current Processing Date in addition to creating a new Entry at the System date.
  • If the Current Processing Date equals the System Date and the last Entry of the Day before has no End Time and the System Date has no Entry and the System Date passed Midnight when TC was open (Rollover), using the New-Button will set the End Time of the last Entry of the day before the System Date and will create a new Entry at the System date.
  This behavior, combined with the new date rollover feature (TC now 'follows' the System Date when midnight passes by)  is usefull when you are working across midnight.
   
• Previous Project as default on new Entry
  Sometimes you may do different tasks (probably noted in the ‘comments’ column) for the same project one after the other for a while (say, for some days). When this preference is checked, a new Entry will be created with the same value in the ‘project’ column as its predecessor within the Current Processing Date. This saves a tap on a new Entry.
   
• Animate Deletions
  Do the deletion animation as provided by the system. Uncheck this preference if you want to get rid of the deletion animation (at least in this application).
   
• Fractioned Durations
  In all events of time durations within this application, replace the normal hour and minute representation with a decimal notation.
   
• Route/Export checked Project Entries only
  When this preference is checked, only those Entries that are checked in the ‘project’ column for being visible in the Group View are exported or routed. This gives a way to distinguish between ‘more important’ and ‘less important’ entries, whatever use that will be for you.
   
• Routing/Export according to visibility settings
  When this preference is checked, only those columns that are checked under the ‘Column Visibility’ section of the preferences will be exported, printed, faxed or mailed (on NOS 1.x devices only). Otherwise all columns will be routed regardless of the visibility settings.
   
• Route/Export Entries with mileage only
  When this preference is checked, only those entries that have mileage information will be routed or exported. Otherwise all entries will be routed or exported.
   
• Routing in non-proportional metrics
  When this preference is checked, a non-proprtional font will be assumed. Use this if you want to transfer information to an addressee that uses non-proprtional fonts. For example this may be usefull if you want to mail the routed information. This preference is ignored by Export.
   
• Space lined Routing
  When this preference is checked, while routing an empty line will be generated between every entry. This preference is ignored by Export.
   
• Digital Clock
  On NOS 2.x devices, you can replace the analog clock and the am/pm-radiogroup with the digital clock in the dialogs for entering times.

Section Deletion of printed or faxed data:
Data to be printed or faxed is stored in the application’s soup.
Since the documentation I got for NOS 1.x routing is not very detailled, I didn’t found a way to have those informations automatically deleted. So this is a simple way to get rid of all of it provided it is older than one month.

Section Project fees:
Choose a ‘Project’ with the picker. Enter a fee. This information will be used for the fee column on a fee per hour basis for the corresponding project. A very simple model is used (duration in hours) * (fees per hour). But it is nice to have an rough overview of the fees for each project. For backward compatibility issues, those fees are stored separately. This means, if you rename a project, you have to readjust it’s fee. For the same reason, the application has to go through all Entries in your soup. This may take some time. But this has to be done only once after opening the preferences dialog. To efficiently manipulate fees, you can open the preferences dialog and manipulate some fees at once.
 

Thumbnail:

Opening TC takes some time since many views have to be opened. To shorten this time drastically the thumbnail view can be used instead of closing the application. When the thumbnail view is shown, TC is 'hidden' but still opened (and using memory, sorry). Tapping on the TC icon in the thumbnail view shows TC again very quickly. You can drag the thumbnail view in the empty areas to get it 'out of your way' when using other applications. Closing the thumbnail view shuts down the application completely.
 

Installation:

Prior installing TC, you should create a full backup of your Newton device.
It is always a good idea to create a backup before installing unknown software.

If you already have installed a version of TC, please remove it first.
 

Latest Package:

Below are links to download the releases of TC.

TC 1.5a (02/04/2000)

This version is based on some enhancement suggestions from registered users.
The mileage feature has been added for my personal usage as well.

Bugfixes:

• While routing and exporting all Entries with a minus picker setting of 'minus all' did not reflect this setting in the duration column correctly. This is fixed now.
• Selecting and deselecting the project checkbox could result in an error 48205. This did not affect the functionality, it was only annoying. This bug has been fixed.
• The digital clock sometimes did not show the correct time when the dialog was opened. Fixed.
• An error occured when an Entry was added at a day where Entries existed with a later starting time. This did not affect the functionality, it was only annoying. This bug has been fixed.

• Possibility for entering mileage
   
• 2 builds of TC.
  TC is designed as a NOS 1.x application. But it can use some protos that are only available on NOS 2.x devices (digital number pickers and the info button).
  Unfortunatly, building a package for the Newton 20 platform and running it on NOS 1.x devices produces an error on establishing a serial connection. Therefore Export does not work in this situation on NOS 1.x devices.
  On the other hand, creating the package with an original Messagepad platform file results in a package that lacks the NOS 2.x protos. All this leads to the following 2 builds:
  1. NOS 1.x build.
     This build will run on all devices but lacks the nice digital number pickers and the info button which are available on NOS 2.x devices.
     This version will be named ‘NOS 1.x build’ if you open the about dialog with the info button.
  2. NOS 2.x build.
     This build will run on all devices, but the Export functionality will not work on NOS 1.x devices.
     It offers the digital number pickers and the NOS 2.x info button on NOS 2.x devices.
     This version will be named ‘NOS 2.x build’ if you open the about dialog with the info button.
• NOS 2.x compliant info button (using NOS 2.x build and running on an NOS 2.x device only)
   
• Print, Fax, email (NOS 1.x only) and creation of a Note for an arbitrary routing period of time.

• tc15apkg.hqx - File
• tc15apkg.zip - File

TC 1.4a (04/05/1999)

This version again is based on some enhancement suggestions from registered users.

Bugfixes:

• Changing months is now possible without jumping over some months. This is fixed by 'slowing down' the appropriate dialog.
• Entries starting at 0:00 were visible at the previos day. This is fixed now.

• Time Colums can be aligned to the right
• Setting the Endtime of an entry to a time prior it's Starttime is now possible - the Starttime will be adjusted to be equal to the Endtime in those cases.
• Optional use of the digital clock for setting times (on NOS 2.x devices only)
• In the Group View the time period  will be shown above the Period Picker
• If Entries are stored on external memory cards, TC should handle ejecting and inserting of those cards correctly.
• No more 'Grip of death' (hopefully!).
• New ends last entry if day changes has now improved functionality:
  • If the Current Processing Date is one day prior to the System Date, and the last Entry of the Current Processing Date has no End Time, and the System Date has no Entry, and the System Time is between 0:00 and 0:01, using the New-Button will set the End Time of the last Entry of the Current Processing Date in addition to creating a new Entry at the System date.
  • If the Current Processing Date equals the System Date and the last Entry of the Day before has no End Time and the System Date has no Entry and the System Date passed Midnight when TC was open (Rollover), using the New-Button will set the End Time of the last Entry of the day before the System Date and will create a new Entry at the System date.
• Rollover: TC now follows the System Time passing midnight. This is checked every minute. If the System Date changes, TC will show the Entries of the new date (with at most 1 minute delay).

• tc14apkg.hqx - File
• tc14apkg.zip - File

 This will consume approximatly 109K on your Newton device.

TC 1.3a (August 29, 1998)

This version is based on some enhancement suggestions from registered users.

The new features are:

• Print, Fax and email (NOS 1.x only) of the current processing date.
• Copy entries to other days.
• Time periods can be displayed as decimals (in hours with minutes as fractions).
• Fees.
• Delete, Export and Group view for an arbitrary period of days.
• Specify all column names yourself.
• Hide columns of your choice.
• Go directly to the Newton's system date without opening the date selection dialog.

Version 1.2a (April 13, 1998):

This version is based on some enhancement suggestions from registered users.
The new features are:

• A new optional End Time of each entry. The duration of an entry is now calculated as follows:
  If there is is an End Time defined for this entry, the duration of it is the span of time between its Start Time and its End Time, optionally deducted by the time chosen in the minus picker.
  If there is no End Time defined for this entry and there is a follow-up entry for that day, the duration of the entry is the span of time between its Start Time and the Start Time of the next entry, optionally deducted by the time chosen in the minus picker.
  If there is no End Time defined for this entry and there is no follow-up entry for that day, the duration is unknown, indicated by '?:??'.
  Please note that by setting the End Time of entries you can now create concurrent entries. Since TC is NOT a project management software (and will never be), there is no way to tell TC that you have to split your work intensity on those concurrent times. I assume that the average user of TC is not Napoleon and though can not do a lot of things at the same time without loosing performance on each task ;-). So it is up to you to make shure not to add entries up to a level of concurrency that doesn't make sense.
• The picker list items can now be edited directly in the list and they can be added as a copy from an entry.
• If you are editing an entry, you can either change it in the current entry only or in all existent entries. Please note that when changing in all existent entries this operation can be time consuming and even fail if there is not enough free storage and you are changing to a longer string than the original one. This could be avoided by using a more elaborate mechanism for storing information, similar to relational databases. But it is very unlikely that I will change the internal structure in that way.
• With the checkbox besides the project name you can specify if this entry is regarded in the Group view.

Version 1.1e (March 25, 1998):
This is only a minor fix. I forgot to set up the round by picker's initial choice to reflect the last choice the user made
before closing TC. Sorry for that!
I also removed the 'round by 0:45' choice, this obviously didn't made sense ...

Version 1.1d (March 20, 1998):
Fixes a bug in the 12 hour representation of times. There had been strange behavior in times between 12 and 1
o'clock.
Now it is also possible to rename the project and comments columns.
Those names and the positions of the sizers for the columns are persistent now.
TC is compressed now. It takes less than 80K when installed on the Newton® device.

Version 1.1c (February 2nd, 1998):
I have encountered a bug in the group view. When grouping the month december, the entries of the following january where considered in that group as well. This is solved with 1.1c.

TC 1.1b ( November 9th,1997)
Solves a scrolling problem in the group view after changing the current processing day.
There is also a little functional extension (inspired by an enhancement request):
When the first character of the project name is '*' the times of this entry are disregarded in the total times of the group view. This way it is possible to record longer non productive times with '* pause', for example.
The total time reported in the group view will then include only the productive ones.

TC 1.1a (October 31, 1997):
It solves some problems with the 12 hour representation of times. It also lets you add now entries on every processing day (prior to 1.1a you only where able to add an entry at the system date and had to move it afterwards).

Version 1.1 (September 23, 1997)
Initial release with this user interface.
Exporting data introduced.

Version 1.0 (February, 1997)
Initial release.

TC 1.5 is the last version for NOS 1.x.

It is very likely that I quit developing other versions of TC (except bug fixes. If you find one, please tell me) due to having no time any more for this task. I feel that the next version should be a total redesign of TC for NOS 2.x, and I definitely do not have time for that.

• It has been reported that version 1.5 may report an error 48809 when started. Sorry, but I am not able to reproduce this problem. But you may try to install and run version 1.4a first. Then uninstall TC 1.4a again and install 1.5a. Some people say this solves that 48809 - problem.
• It has been reported that the Newon sometimes reboots when TC is run under very low heap conditions. Normally this should never occur in the Newton Script environment. Probably that's a problem in the system software
• It has been reported that when using TC on the international version of the MP2000 with german localisation, you are unable to change the start time of an entry.
  Solution: use the MP2000 with the localisation for the US. Or try this. Or contact me so we are able to solve that problem together.

• Question: What does the 'accounted until' - picker do?
  Answer: Nothing! It is simply a memory aid for forgetful people like me to note down the last day of using the information in TC for accounting with the back office.
   
• Question: How do I export data ?
  Answer: All entries in the specified time period will be exported in tab delimited format. This means you have to have something like a terminal emulation program on a computer connected to a serial cable. This goes into your newton. Then, when putting the terminal emulation software in something like a 'get data from serial connection into a file' -  mode you can tap on the export - button in TC and the data goes in tab delimited format to your host computer.
  I choosed this aproach to have an open connectivity. Tab delimited format can be read by virtually anything, and a terminal emulation software with 'recording to a file' - capabilties is available on all systems as far as I know.
  The communication parameters are fixed to 9600 baud, no parity, one stop bit, XON/XOFF software handshake.

Following is a list of your suggestions that are left. It is ordered by priority that comes from the amount of people suggesting that particular item. I may include those suggestions in future releases.

• Printing in the group view, NOS 2.x routing

All the different routing and export functionalities would require a redesign as well, especially when to be done NOS 2.x compliant.
This is demanding for a total redesign of TC, which I do not have the time for any more.

Registration:

TC is a hobby project for me. I find the Newton is to be a great piece of technology and really enjoy programming him in my (rare) spare time. I do plan to maintain TC on a parttime/hobby basis. However, because TC is a hobby I can't promise delivery schedules for new features. As my user base grows with more registered users my motivation tends to increase (obviously).

The price for TC is DM 15 or US$10.

The registration procedure is explained in the file 'register.txt' which comes with the latest package .
You can register Volkers Timecards via Kagi as well.
 

Use this program at your own risk!

Under no circumstances shall I be liable for the consequences of your using this software, whether your inability to use the software, your Newton, or damages you incur.
 

Acknowledgements:

This program originally had been developed with Newt. Newt is a development environment for theApple Newton® running on the Newton® from Steve Weyer.

Thanks to Allan Marcus and Hardy Macia for their great date and time prototypes.

Links:

The ULTIMATE Newton
Newt by Steve Weyer

Volker Deffner, July 2000