Existing users, 
 Active Timer - 1.3.2keeps track of time spent in each application |
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Feedback Summary:
| Version 1.3.2: | |||||
| Overall Rating: |   (4.0) |
Features: | (3.0) |
Support: | Not rated (0.0) |
| Ease of Use: | (4.0) |
Quality / Stability: | (3.0) |
Price: | (5.0) |
Key to Types of Feedback:
Reviews 
Troubleshooting 
Usage Tips 
Developer Notes 
Commentary 
Featured Reviews
Active Timer - the best things are free - Version: 1.3.3, 12/14/2008 12:53AM PST
felixjp
I was looking and tried whatever there was on VersionTracker. Robert Chin's approach is by far the best. No learning curve, nothing to remember. You don't need to turn a timer ON or OFF and cannot forget it.
Active Time lists the time you work for each program and even each window (that means file - as the window appears under the file name) in a program. So I can work on different projects (I am a translator) and at the end of the week I just select those window/file names (by command click) in the list of program activities that I was working on for a specific client and the total time for the selected files appears. If set in Preferences Active Timer doesn't count idle time longer than x minutes, doesn't count if the computor goes to sleep etc.
The other timers I tried (commercial, share- or freeware) couldn't come close to what I wanted I timer to do (working in the background for weeks without any input from my side) and didn't give me the exact detailed information I expected in order to get the desired end result: the total time for all computer related activities for a specific project.
Thank you very much Robert - you couldn't have done it better. I wish I could pay for the program, but unfortunately it's free.
Very good app, but needs some improvements - Version: 1.3.2, 1/15/2007 07:06AM PST
mmorales
I like this little application quite a lot. The basic functionality works very well and is very useful for gathering this kind of information. Exporting to .csv is great for saving out those times for later.
However, I see a lot of room for improvement here, if the author is willing to put in a little more work.
For one. I would love to see some sort of exclusion function. For example, it would be nice to be able to say, exclude Finder, or maybe some other applications from being captured. We really don't need to see how long we spent in certain applications. But make it a user set preference on what to include and it'll be great.
Also, why does the app capture itself in the timers? That seems silly. Why would I care how long I spent in the preferences of the application, or in the main window? It just clutters up the view.
Also, it would be great if we could export only apps that we select, rather than the whole shebang. This function may not be necessary if we could exclude apps from being captured (point one above)
Lastly, someone commented on making it a menu item, at least as an option. I think that would be good too, if it's possible to do with this kind of application.
If the developer could do these things, I think I could even convince my company to buy licenses of it, even though it's currently offered for free. We've been looking for something that can do this, and this comes close, but is not quite close enough for us to pay for it yet.
However, I see a lot of room for improvement here, if the author is willing to put in a little more work.
For one. I would love to see some sort of exclusion function. For example, it would be nice to be able to say, exclude Finder, or maybe some other applications from being captured. We really don't need to see how long we spent in certain applications. But make it a user set preference on what to include and it'll be great.
Also, why does the app capture itself in the timers? That seems silly. Why would I care how long I spent in the preferences of the application, or in the main window? It just clutters up the view.
Also, it would be great if we could export only apps that we select, rather than the whole shebang. This function may not be necessary if we could exclude apps from being captured (point one above)
Lastly, someone commented on making it a menu item, at least as an option. I think that would be good too, if it's possible to do with this kind of application.
If the developer could do these things, I think I could even convince my company to buy licenses of it, even though it's currently offered for free. We've been looking for something that can do this, and this comes close, but is not quite close enough for us to pay for it yet.
Very good start, want more... - Version: 1.3, 6/6/2006 08:55PM PST
cbond_dotmac
The program is so good here, it's nearly perfect. Why nearly? Well, if I quit the program without stopping it first and try to relaunch the program, it doesn't restart on me. This had me confused until I did a search of "Active Timer" on my drive (or I tried "activetimer").
I had a developing crash log and so only when I deleted that file and the other(s), such as the one in the preferences folder, the program started working again for me. Even if I figured it out, that means that there is at least one person that probably couldn't on a similar system setup that I have (10.4.6).
I really want to rate this program with a higher favorability, but I cannot given the problems associated with my experience with this program. Sorry. Hopefully, some version is forthcoming. I'm spending many hours plugging away at programs like Photoshop and Corel's Painter, so I need this to monitor my application usage.
Of course, I want this program improved upon so it is less idiot-proof, at least in my case... because, like I said... if I have the problem (and figured it out), there's another person that also had the problem and couldn't... I'm willing to test a future beta release of this program. Thanks so much for what has been done so far.
At the very least, I'm going to have to watch how I quit from this program... Ah, oh well. Those are the breaks, I guess... :( :/
I had a developing crash log and so only when I deleted that file and the other(s), such as the one in the preferences folder, the program started working again for me. Even if I figured it out, that means that there is at least one person that probably couldn't on a similar system setup that I have (10.4.6).
I really want to rate this program with a higher favorability, but I cannot given the problems associated with my experience with this program. Sorry. Hopefully, some version is forthcoming. I'm spending many hours plugging away at programs like Photoshop and Corel's Painter, so I need this to monitor my application usage.
Of course, I want this program improved upon so it is less idiot-proof, at least in my case... because, like I said... if I have the problem (and figured it out), there's another person that also had the problem and couldn't... I'm willing to test a future beta release of this program. Thanks so much for what has been done so far.
At the very least, I'm going to have to watch how I quit from this program... Ah, oh well. Those are the breaks, I guess... :( :/
Most Recent Replies: View All 1 Replies
- Very good start, want more...
