Need software recommendation
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I need to record time spent on a specific project. I'm not working continuously on the project, but put in an hour here, five minutes there etc, and it's becoming quite tedious writing down all the time spent and adding it together. So I'm looking for a simple stopwatch application. Plenty of those around, with nice GUIs, floating on top windows (which I don't want in this case, but I can see why some people would think it's nice) etc, but all I've find is missing the feature I want the most: I want to be able to start and stop it by clicking its icon in the system tray so that I don't have to spend additional time locating the GUI window to start and stop it. Anybody has any suggestions? And to anticipate the obvious reply: Yes, I COULD roll my own in a matter of hours, but why would I want to spend even a couple of hours reinventing something that already exists? Apart from that, I know myself too well: If I made my own application, I would spend hours and hours improving, polishing, tweaking, etc. Time that could be well spend doing the real task instead....
Anything that is unrelated to elephants is irrelephant
Anonymous
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The problem with quotes on the internet is that you can never tell if they're genuine
Winston Churchill, 1944
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Never argue with a fool. Onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.
Mark Twain -
I need to record time spent on a specific project. I'm not working continuously on the project, but put in an hour here, five minutes there etc, and it's becoming quite tedious writing down all the time spent and adding it together. So I'm looking for a simple stopwatch application. Plenty of those around, with nice GUIs, floating on top windows (which I don't want in this case, but I can see why some people would think it's nice) etc, but all I've find is missing the feature I want the most: I want to be able to start and stop it by clicking its icon in the system tray so that I don't have to spend additional time locating the GUI window to start and stop it. Anybody has any suggestions? And to anticipate the obvious reply: Yes, I COULD roll my own in a matter of hours, but why would I want to spend even a couple of hours reinventing something that already exists? Apart from that, I know myself too well: If I made my own application, I would spend hours and hours improving, polishing, tweaking, etc. Time that could be well spend doing the real task instead....
Anything that is unrelated to elephants is irrelephant
Anonymous
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The problem with quotes on the internet is that you can never tell if they're genuine
Winston Churchill, 1944
-----
Never argue with a fool. Onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.
Mark TwainJohnny J. wrote:
but all I've find is missing the feature I want the most: ... why would I want to spend even a couple of hours reinventing something that already exists?
If it existed... wouldn't you have found it already? Additionally... cool idea for a pet project for someone with spare time. :)
M.D.V. ;) If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about? Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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Johnny J. wrote:
but all I've find is missing the feature I want the most: ... why would I want to spend even a couple of hours reinventing something that already exists?
If it existed... wouldn't you have found it already? Additionally... cool idea for a pet project for someone with spare time. :)
M.D.V. ;) If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about? Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
Nelek wrote:
If it existed... wouldn't you have found it already?
Dunno - Maybe my Goggle Fu is not strong enough?!?!? :confused:
Nelek wrote:
Additionally... cool idea for a pet project for someone with spare time.
Yes, but spare time is hard to come by... ;)
Anything that is unrelated to elephants is irrelephant
Anonymous
-----
The problem with quotes on the internet is that you can never tell if they're genuine
Winston Churchill, 1944
-----
Never argue with a fool. Onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.
Mark Twain -
I need to record time spent on a specific project. I'm not working continuously on the project, but put in an hour here, five minutes there etc, and it's becoming quite tedious writing down all the time spent and adding it together. So I'm looking for a simple stopwatch application. Plenty of those around, with nice GUIs, floating on top windows (which I don't want in this case, but I can see why some people would think it's nice) etc, but all I've find is missing the feature I want the most: I want to be able to start and stop it by clicking its icon in the system tray so that I don't have to spend additional time locating the GUI window to start and stop it. Anybody has any suggestions? And to anticipate the obvious reply: Yes, I COULD roll my own in a matter of hours, but why would I want to spend even a couple of hours reinventing something that already exists? Apart from that, I know myself too well: If I made my own application, I would spend hours and hours improving, polishing, tweaking, etc. Time that could be well spend doing the real task instead....
Anything that is unrelated to elephants is irrelephant
Anonymous
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The problem with quotes on the internet is that you can never tell if they're genuine
Winston Churchill, 1944
-----
Never argue with a fool. Onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.
Mark TwainI did exactly this in 1995. A little system tray app that you clicked to start, clicked to stop (the icon changed when running). Hover over it and it would show not only the total time but the £ earned! (I called it DoshClck - when written filenames were only 8 characters...). I later updated it in VB5 with a few added features, a right-click menu to adjust hourly rate. Later (with laptops!) a bit of a morale booster during boring meetings; a subtle mouseover would show how much dosh I'd earned just sitting there bored. I still have the code but it's dependent on VB5 runtimes... The Win95 version, complete with installer for VB5 runtime, is available at https://codeproject.derektp.co.uk/doshclock95.zip[^]
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I need to record time spent on a specific project. I'm not working continuously on the project, but put in an hour here, five minutes there etc, and it's becoming quite tedious writing down all the time spent and adding it together. So I'm looking for a simple stopwatch application. Plenty of those around, with nice GUIs, floating on top windows (which I don't want in this case, but I can see why some people would think it's nice) etc, but all I've find is missing the feature I want the most: I want to be able to start and stop it by clicking its icon in the system tray so that I don't have to spend additional time locating the GUI window to start and stop it. Anybody has any suggestions? And to anticipate the obvious reply: Yes, I COULD roll my own in a matter of hours, but why would I want to spend even a couple of hours reinventing something that already exists? Apart from that, I know myself too well: If I made my own application, I would spend hours and hours improving, polishing, tweaking, etc. Time that could be well spend doing the real task instead....
Anything that is unrelated to elephants is irrelephant
Anonymous
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The problem with quotes on the internet is that you can never tell if they're genuine
Winston Churchill, 1944
-----
Never argue with a fool. Onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.
Mark TwainJohnny J. wrote:
Yes, I COULD roll my own in a matter of hours, but why would I want to spend even a couple of hours reinventing something that already exists?
- because it will help develop your programming skills 2) because a 3rd. party app with the features you want may require purchase, and, if your app has other users, possibk=le licensing issues.
Johnny J. wrote:
Apart from that, I know myself too well: If I made my own application, I would spend hours and hours improving, polishing, tweaking, etc. Time that could be well spend doing the real task instead....
Whether self-knowledge implies the ability to consciously change behavior, rather than just predict it ... is an interesting question,
«One day it will have to be officially admitted that what we have christened reality is an even greater illusion than the world of dreams.» Salvador Dali
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Johnny J. wrote:
Yes, I COULD roll my own in a matter of hours, but why would I want to spend even a couple of hours reinventing something that already exists?
- because it will help develop your programming skills 2) because a 3rd. party app with the features you want may require purchase, and, if your app has other users, possibk=le licensing issues.
Johnny J. wrote:
Apart from that, I know myself too well: If I made my own application, I would spend hours and hours improving, polishing, tweaking, etc. Time that could be well spend doing the real task instead....
Whether self-knowledge implies the ability to consciously change behavior, rather than just predict it ... is an interesting question,
«One day it will have to be officially admitted that what we have christened reality is an even greater illusion than the world of dreams.» Salvador Dali
BillWoodruff wrote:
because it will help develop your programming skills
I've been programming for some 40 odd years, so trust me Bill, there's nothing in this that could remotely develop my programming skills... :laugh: I just want a quick and (if necessary) dirty solution. :doh:
Anything that is unrelated to elephants is irrelephant
Anonymous
-----
The problem with quotes on the internet is that you can never tell if they're genuine
Winston Churchill, 1944
-----
Never argue with a fool. Onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.
Mark Twain -
BillWoodruff wrote:
because it will help develop your programming skills
I've been programming for some 40 odd years, so trust me Bill, there's nothing in this that could remotely develop my programming skills... :laugh: I just want a quick and (if necessary) dirty solution. :doh:
Anything that is unrelated to elephants is irrelephant
Anonymous
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The problem with quotes on the internet is that you can never tell if they're genuine
Winston Churchill, 1944
-----
Never argue with a fool. Onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.
Mark TwainJohnny J. wrote:
I just want a quick and (if necessary) dirty solution.
Pen and the wrapper paper from your lunch?
"The only place where Success comes before Work is in the dictionary." Vidal Sassoon, 1928 - 2012
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Johnny J. wrote:
I just want a quick and (if necessary) dirty solution.
Pen and the wrapper paper from your lunch?
"The only place where Success comes before Work is in the dictionary." Vidal Sassoon, 1928 - 2012
:laugh:
Anything that is unrelated to elephants is irrelephant
Anonymous
-----
The problem with quotes on the internet is that you can never tell if they're genuine
Winston Churchill, 1944
-----
Never argue with a fool. Onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.
Mark Twain -
Johnny J. wrote:
I just want a quick and (if necessary) dirty solution.
Pen and the wrapper paper from your lunch?
"The only place where Success comes before Work is in the dictionary." Vidal Sassoon, 1928 - 2012
Kornfeld Eliyahu Peter wrote:
Pen and the wrapper paper from your yesterday's lunch?
How will he record the morning hours? :)
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows. -- 6079 Smith W.
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I need to record time spent on a specific project. I'm not working continuously on the project, but put in an hour here, five minutes there etc, and it's becoming quite tedious writing down all the time spent and adding it together. So I'm looking for a simple stopwatch application. Plenty of those around, with nice GUIs, floating on top windows (which I don't want in this case, but I can see why some people would think it's nice) etc, but all I've find is missing the feature I want the most: I want to be able to start and stop it by clicking its icon in the system tray so that I don't have to spend additional time locating the GUI window to start and stop it. Anybody has any suggestions? And to anticipate the obvious reply: Yes, I COULD roll my own in a matter of hours, but why would I want to spend even a couple of hours reinventing something that already exists? Apart from that, I know myself too well: If I made my own application, I would spend hours and hours improving, polishing, tweaking, etc. Time that could be well spend doing the real task instead....
Anything that is unrelated to elephants is irrelephant
Anonymous
-----
The problem with quotes on the internet is that you can never tell if they're genuine
Winston Churchill, 1944
-----
Never argue with a fool. Onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.
Mark TwainJohnny J. wrote:
I want to be able to start and stop it by clicking its icon in the system tray
I am going to guess that not many of these apps exist for good reason. I, personally, would forget to click the stop button all the time. just track your time in a spread sheet and call it a day. google sheets if you don't already have Excel and want to go free and in the cloud. I have been tracking my billable time for clients and projects in a spreadsheet for years, not including my employers project software (TFS, DevOps, etc.) but that is not related directly to billable timesheets. good luck.
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Nelek wrote:
If it existed... wouldn't you have found it already?
Dunno - Maybe my Goggle Fu is not strong enough?!?!? :confused:
Nelek wrote:
Additionally... cool idea for a pet project for someone with spare time.
Yes, but spare time is hard to come by... ;)
Anything that is unrelated to elephants is irrelephant
Anonymous
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The problem with quotes on the internet is that you can never tell if they're genuine
Winston Churchill, 1944
-----
Never argue with a fool. Onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.
Mark TwainJohnny J. wrote:
Yes, but spare time is hard to come by...
. . . and so he claims in his CP Post . . . (In this place, only a few people, like Chris, aren't in recreation mode - which is a good thing for the rest of us).
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
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Kornfeld Eliyahu Peter wrote:
Pen and the wrapper paper from your yesterday's lunch?
How will he record the morning hours? :)
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows. -- 6079 Smith W.
Daniel Pfeffer wrote:
How will he record the morning hours?
There's a roll of note-paper in the bathroom.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
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BillWoodruff wrote:
because it will help develop your programming skills
I've been programming for some 40 odd years, so trust me Bill, there's nothing in this that could remotely develop my programming skills... :laugh: I just want a quick and (if necessary) dirty solution. :doh:
Anything that is unrelated to elephants is irrelephant
Anonymous
-----
The problem with quotes on the internet is that you can never tell if they're genuine
Winston Churchill, 1944
-----
Never argue with a fool. Onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.
Mark TwainJohnny J. wrote:
programming for some 40 odd years, so trust me
... no :) I've been programming about 40 years, I can create a C# main-windowless Win SystemTrayApp with toggling custom start-stop notify-icons, and, menu choices on right-click, in under 30 minutes ... adding a Timer, and serialization of on-off time data ... maybe another fifteen minutes.
«One day it will have to be officially admitted that what we have christened reality is an even greater illusion than the world of dreams.» Salvador Dali
-
I need to record time spent on a specific project. I'm not working continuously on the project, but put in an hour here, five minutes there etc, and it's becoming quite tedious writing down all the time spent and adding it together. So I'm looking for a simple stopwatch application. Plenty of those around, with nice GUIs, floating on top windows (which I don't want in this case, but I can see why some people would think it's nice) etc, but all I've find is missing the feature I want the most: I want to be able to start and stop it by clicking its icon in the system tray so that I don't have to spend additional time locating the GUI window to start and stop it. Anybody has any suggestions? And to anticipate the obvious reply: Yes, I COULD roll my own in a matter of hours, but why would I want to spend even a couple of hours reinventing something that already exists? Apart from that, I know myself too well: If I made my own application, I would spend hours and hours improving, polishing, tweaking, etc. Time that could be well spend doing the real task instead....
Anything that is unrelated to elephants is irrelephant
Anonymous
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The problem with quotes on the internet is that you can never tell if they're genuine
Winston Churchill, 1944
-----
Never argue with a fool. Onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.
Mark TwainMaybe one of these: best-time-tracking-software[^]
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Johnny J. wrote:
programming for some 40 odd years, so trust me
... no :) I've been programming about 40 years, I can create a C# main-windowless Win SystemTrayApp with toggling custom start-stop notify-icons, and, menu choices on right-click, in under 30 minutes ... adding a Timer, and serialization of on-off time data ... maybe another fifteen minutes.
«One day it will have to be officially admitted that what we have christened reality is an even greater illusion than the world of dreams.» Salvador Dali
Please do it. And put a link to the download. Should be free, of course. I could really use something like this. And I am sure many others could too. You'd earn the respect and eternal gratitude of all of us. I use KeePass and feel the same way about the developer that created it. If I ever met him I would thank him personally. I have been programming for 44 years and I'm still learning somethin new almost every day. I don't think I could do an app like this. though. :|
Yeah! You right!
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Please do it. And put a link to the download. Should be free, of course. I could really use something like this. And I am sure many others could too. You'd earn the respect and eternal gratitude of all of us. I use KeePass and feel the same way about the developer that created it. If I ever met him I would thank him personally. I have been programming for 44 years and I'm still learning somethin new almost every day. I don't think I could do an app like this. though. :|
Yeah! You right!
Slow Eddie wrote:
I don't think I could do an app like this. though.
I bet you underestimate yourself, but, unless you try, you will never know. A SystemTrayApp is not rocket-science. I think it's better if I spend my limited screen-time (visual impairment) helping other CP members at the beginning of their years of programming, as well as my on-going self-education :)
«One day it will have to be officially admitted that what we have christened reality is an even greater illusion than the world of dreams.» Salvador Dali
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Johnny J. wrote:
but all I've find is missing the feature I want the most: ... why would I want to spend even a couple of hours reinventing something that already exists?
If it existed... wouldn't you have found it already? Additionally... cool idea for a pet project for someone with spare time. :)
M.D.V. ;) If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about? Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
Can this thread[^] help ?
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Johnny J. wrote:
programming for some 40 odd years, so trust me
... no :) I've been programming about 40 years, I can create a C# main-windowless Win SystemTrayApp with toggling custom start-stop notify-icons, and, menu choices on right-click, in under 30 minutes ... adding a Timer, and serialization of on-off time data ... maybe another fifteen minutes.
«One day it will have to be officially admitted that what we have christened reality is an even greater illusion than the world of dreams.» Salvador Dali
Sure you can, but if you want to make a program that's actually worth using, and looks reasonably nice, it's more work than that, and you know it. FYI: I have now completed the application, and it has taken me some 5 hours to get everything the way I wanted it, including making icons etc. I could have told you EXACTLY how long it had taken, had I had an application I could start and stop in the system tray to record time spent on a certain project. But I didn't have that! :doh: So there is 5 hours gone I could have spent on something else. And even if what you say is true (which it isn't), it would still have been 45 minutes spent unnecesarily had I been able to find such an application. Furthermore, it's 5 hours I'm not going to get paid for, despite the fact that the program is going to be used for work management.
Anything that is unrelated to elephants is irrelephant
Anonymous
-----
The problem with quotes on the internet is that you can never tell if they're genuine
Winston Churchill, 1944
-----
Never argue with a fool. Onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.
Mark Twain -
Johnny J. wrote:
I want to be able to start and stop it by clicking its icon in the system tray
I am going to guess that not many of these apps exist for good reason. I, personally, would forget to click the stop button all the time. just track your time in a spread sheet and call it a day. google sheets if you don't already have Excel and want to go free and in the cloud. I have been tracking my billable time for clients and projects in a spreadsheet for years, not including my employers project software (TFS, DevOps, etc.) but that is not related directly to billable timesheets. good luck.
Slacker007 wrote:
I, personally, would forget to click the stop button all the time.
Well, not everybody are the same. You can't judge the rest of the world on the basis on how you do.
Slacker007 wrote:
just track your time in a spread sheet and call it a day.
Didn't I just mention in the OP that that is how I'm doing today, and it's not working for me?
Anything that is unrelated to elephants is irrelephant
Anonymous
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The problem with quotes on the internet is that you can never tell if they're genuine
Winston Churchill, 1944
-----
Never argue with a fool. Onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.
Mark Twain -
Slacker007 wrote:
I, personally, would forget to click the stop button all the time.
Well, not everybody are the same. You can't judge the rest of the world on the basis on how you do.
Slacker007 wrote:
just track your time in a spread sheet and call it a day.
Didn't I just mention in the OP that that is how I'm doing today, and it's not working for me?
Anything that is unrelated to elephants is irrelephant
Anonymous
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The problem with quotes on the internet is that you can never tell if they're genuine
Winston Churchill, 1944
-----
Never argue with a fool. Onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.
Mark Twainbest of luck in your quest.
