Using GNOME Time Tracker

Working with GNOME Time Tracker

GNOME Time Tracker can be used to keep track of the amount of time you spend on different things you do. You do this by defining several projects and then, as you go through the day, tellingGNOME Time Tracker which project you're working on. It will tell you how much time you spend on each project each day, the total time spent on each project, and the amount of time logged on all projects each day.

Unfortunately,GNOME Time Tracker isn't particularly smart: it won't turn the timer off for you if you take a break for a quick game of solitaire and it turns into several hours of distraction. When you stop work on a project, be sure to turn off the timer by clicking the Timer button or using Stop from the Timer menu. As long as you remember to do this, your work will be recorded effectively. You can, however, alter the times from the Properties dialog if they are incorrect. See for more information.

GNOME Time Tracker can inform you about your project times in several ways. For each project, it maintains a timer for the amount of time you have spent on the project today, and how much time you have spent on it total. In addition,GNOME Time Tracker counts how much time you have spent on all projects in the current day. This last figure is the one displayed in the lower left hand corner of the status bar.

When you first start GNOME Time Tracker, you see the Main window, as shown in .

The main window consists of four areas. There is a menu bar (see ) and a toolbar (see ) at the top of the window, a status bar (see ) at the bottom of the window, and between the toolbar and the status bar, a scrollable project list (see ). When you startGNOME Time Tracker for the first time, this area will show just one project, which is titled "empty".

Tip: You can customize the appearance of the main window in the preferences dialog. See for more information about changing the toolbar, project list, and time display.

Menus

Nearly all menu items in GNOME Time Tracker have a shortcut or accelerator key. Shortcuts appear right after the name of the menu item on the menus.

The menu bar consists of four menus: File, Edit, Timer and Help.

File

This menu contains the following commands:

Ctrl-N New Project New Project brings up the New Project dialog so you can create a new project.

Ctrl-L Reload Configuration File This loads the last saved version of the configuration file, $HOME/.gnome/gtt. This file is saved every time GNOME Time Tracker quits, and it holds information about your preferences and projects. If you choose this menu item, your projects will revert to their status at the time of the last configuration file save.

Ctrl-S Save Configuration File This function saves information about your projects and preferences in the configuration file $HOME/.gnome/gtt. GNOME Time Tracker saves this information automatically every time you quit, and tries to do so even when it crashes. Still, it never hurts to save your project information from time to time.

Ctrl-Q Quit Quits GNOME Time Tracker. Quitting automatically saves project data and updates the logfile.

Edit

This menu contains the following commands: Ctrl-X Cut Removes an item from the project list, saving it in memory if you want to paste it back in somewhere else.

Ctrl-C Copy Duplicates a selected project, copying it to memory.

Ctrl-V Paste Places the project in memory onto the task list. Projects are inserted before the selected item. If no item is selected, they will appear at the bottom of the list.

Clear Daily Counter This function is a quick way to clear the daily counter for the currently selected project. You can use it if you want to time a process more than once. This is useful if you want to track how long a PPP connection to the internet lasts, or for timing compilation and other repeated tasks. This command does not affect the global timer.

Properties... This selection opens the Properties dialog for the currently selected project. Here you can view and edit the name, description, and times for your project. Note that this is the same action as the Props button on the toolbar. See for more information.

Settings

This menu contains only one command: Preferences, which launches the Preferences Dialog. See for more information.

Timer

This menu contains the following commands: Ctrl-A Start Starts the timer on the selected project.

Ctrl-Z Stop Timer Stops the timer.

Ctrl-T Toggle Timer This item toggles the timer on or off.

Help

This menu contains the commands: Manual Shows this manual.

Introduction Displays the introduction to this manual and to GNOME Time Tracker generally.

Working with GTT Displays the section of the manual about working with GNOME Time Tracker.

The Main Window Help with the Main Window.

Dialogs Displays information about the various dialog boxes that GNOME Time Tracker will display.