The application helps you to track your work activity. It stores the activity in local file Microsoft Access Database in its folder by default.
The program relies on Microsoft Access Database Engine 2016 Redistributable so you need to download and install it before using the application. Please refer the page: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=54920
When you launch the program in first time, it creates new DataBase file in its folder. The file has format Microsoft Access Database so you can open it with Microsoft Access and make some manual changes or you can create some queries or whatever you need and it will be kept in the file and won't be removed by the Idler. You can moved the file in place you need and specify new path in settings.
Note represents a single activity. It contains follow properties:
- Category
- Effort
- Description
List of note categories can be managed in Settings window.
You can add new note by controls located at the bottom of the main window. Once you finish to fill all fields just hit Enter or press button + and the note will be added to a selected date. To select another day you have a few options:
- click on calendar icon and select desired date from appeared popup
- type desired date manually in date input and press enter or change focus
- press buttons
<and>to decrement/increment selected day by one
When you decrement/increment days using corresponding buttons you probably want to skip weekends since they are not supposed to store work notes. You can enable skipping weekends feature in Settings and they will be skipped then. Note, in this case you are still able to get a weekend as selected date via another options. And if any weekend has at least one note, it won't be skipped in this case.
When you added notes you want, don't forget to press button Save Changes (Ctrl+S) to save all notes to DataBase file. All unsaved notes are marked by the following icons:
pen icon- category, effort or description was changedopposing arrows icon- only order was changednew document icon- note was created
To refresh list notes for selected date you can press button Refresh, note that if you confirm to refresh list with unsaved changes they will be discharged.
To remove note, click on red cross button which appears when mouse cursor is over a note.
To change note's order, you can drag it by draggable area at the left of the note and drop it in desired place withing the note list.
Status bar contains information labels and elements to manage application's settings:
Total Effort counter- shows total effort for all notes for selected date including value from area to add new noteSpelling Errors counter- shows amount of spelling errors across all notes for selected dateLock icon- blurs/unblurs notes for selected dateBell icon- enables/disables reminder notifications
All input elements related to description have enabled spellcheck feature but its behavior depends on the element's purpose: description input always show spelling errors in area to add new note, but inputs in list of notes show spelling errors only when they are in focus. To identify right description where spelling errors are found, underscored ab letters icon appears at the right of the description.
Language which is used to perform spellcheck is current input language on your PC, and when you change it, the application automatically refreshes results of checking for new input language.
This feature helps you to not forget to fill your work progress. Reminder represents Windows Toast notification which is shown up in right bottom corner in accordance with interval specified in settings. You can enable/disable reminders easily right on main window by bell-button in status bar.
Note, that adding new note resets timer and it starts from beginning
This feature offers you an ability to automatically blur notes to prevent their exposing. If function is enabled and interval more then 00:00:00 then all notes will be blurred automatically once the interval is reached. To un-blur the notes, you need to click on Lock button in status bar, after that the notes will be blur automatically again if no new note is added. Each adding new note makes related timer starts from beginning. To blur notes manually before interval is reached, you need to click on the Lock button again.
You can use blur functionality with disabled feature Auto Blur, just use Lock button to blur/un-blur your notes on demand.
You can easily export any range of notes to Microsoft Excel format. It can be done via top menu File -> Export..., you will need only specify date range and path to file to save. It will create table with columns: Id, Category, Effort, Description and Date.
If you need some specific structure of result Excel file, you can specify Excel Template in settings and then enable check box Use Template before pressing button Export. You can specify follow placeholders in the template which will be replaced with corresponding data: {{notes.Id}}, {{notes.Category}}, {{notes.Effort}}, {{notes.Description}} and {{notes.Date}}. Please see full template specification and examples here
To check that you filled your work progress fully, you can enable work days highlighting in the calendar which appears at date picker on the main window. Following color schema is used:
red- partially filled day (total effort is between0and specifiedWork Load)green- day fully filled (total effort is equal or greater then specifiedWork Load)yellow- overtime is detected (only when settingHighlight Overtimeis enabled and total effort is greater then specifiedWork Load)
Work Load can be set in application settings. If it equals to 0 then the feature will be disabled, alternatively you can disable it explicitly by unchecking a corresponding check box Is Enabled.