PhunTime User'sGuide V2.3

: 17. April 2001

PhunTime is a work time recording program for the Psion Series 3c/3mx. The program has been designed to run on a Psion Series 3c/3mx although it should run on a Series 3a as well. There is a separate Siena version available. It is functionally equivalent to the Series 3c/mx version but has been adapted to fit on the smaller screen size of the Siena.

PhunTime is now available in different languages. Currently English and German are supported. Others may follow if need comes up.

Version 2.3F English - April 2001
Series 3c/3mx and Siena
Copyright © PhunSoft 1997, 2001 - Peter Hunkeler
Last modified April 15, 2001

Content

1.1 Introduction
1.2 Copyright notice
1.3 Acknowledgments
1.4 Disclaimer
1.5 Author's Address
1.6 Installation
1.7 Version 2.3F Release News
1.8 Version 2.2F Release News
1.9 Version 2.1F Release News

2.1 General Description
2.2 When Start and End Times lie on Different Days
2.3 !? 23:59 = 24:00 ?!
2.4 Updating Records and Data File Peculiarity
2.5 Project Record Description
2.6 Tracking Record Description

3.1 Tracking Mode
3.2 Tracking Mode Functions and Hot Keys

4.1 List Mode
4.2 List Mode Functions and Hot Keys

5.0 Mode Independent Functions
5.1 Psion-O: Open another PhunTime file set
5.2 Psion-N: Create a new PhunTime file set
5.3 Shift-TAB: Swap between current and previous file set
5.4 Psion-S: Display Summary by Projects
5.5 Psion-P: Print Summary by Projects to a File
5.6 Psion-Shift-P: Export Tracking Data Records to a File
5.6.1 Formatted Listing of Tracking Records
5.6.2 Delimited Fields List of Tracking Records
5.6.3 DIF Format List of Tracking Records
5.7 Psion-M: Merge Tracking Records into the Current Tracking File
5.8 Psion-Shift-M: Merge Project Records into the Current Project File
5.9 Psion-Shift-T: Tidy up the Tracking Data File
5.10 Psion-Q: Change PhunTime Behaviour (Settings)
5.11 Psion-Shift-R: Enable/Disable Automatic Re-Ordering after Updates
5.12 Psion-Shift-V: Show PhunTime's Version/Build Information
5.13 Psion-Shift-C: Enable/Disable Automatic Detail Field Copying
5.14 Psion-X: Exit PhunTime

6.1 Sort Function
6.2 Sort doesn't seem to complete

7.1 The Conversion Program PhunTCnv.OPO

8.1 Known Restrictions

9.1 Release History

1.2 Copyright notice

PhunTime is FreeWare+

FreeWare+ is almost like FreeWare: You may freely use and further distribute this program provided that you keep all files of the package together and unmodified.

So why is it called FreeWare+, then? This is because I would like to invite you to send me a nice postcard of your place of residence should you like the program and decide to keep on using it. See below for snail mail address.

I will try to inform you about important updates if you provide me with an eMail address of yourself.

1.3 Acknowledgments

I would like to express my special thanks to:

Clive D.W. Feather for his wonderful Psionics files. Without the detailed information on the Series 3x operating system this program wouldn't have been possible the way it works.
John Boyce, author of JBSort, for his help regarding the database file sorting.

1.4 Disclaimer

This software is provided without warranty of any kind. The author shall not be held liable for any loss or damage of any kind due to the use of this program.

1.5 Author's Address

Snail mail

PhunSoft

Peter Hunkeler

Moosbachstrasse 60a

CH-8910 Affoltern am Albis / ZH

Switzerland

eMail Diese E-Mail-Adresse ist vor Spambots geschützt! Zur Anzeige muss JavaScript eingeschaltet sein.
Home page phunsoft.ch/psion

1.6 Installation

The PhunTime package consists of the following files:

The main program file . . . . . . PhunTime.Opa
The subroutine file . . . . . . . PhunTime.Lib
The online help file . . . . . . . PhunTime.Hlp
The sort subroutine. . . . . . . . PhunTime.Srt
The User's Guide (HTML format) . . PhunTime Users Guide.Htm
The file set conversion program. . PhunTCnv.Opo

To install PhunTime simply copy the files PhunTime.Opa, PhunTime.Lib, PhunTime.Srt and PhunTime.Hlp to the \APP directory on any drive but be sure to keep them all one the same drive, then install PhunTime.Opa on the system screen.

You only need to copy PhunTCnv.Opo to an \OPO directory if you need to convert file sets from version 1.x to version 2.x. See 7.1 for details.

You can omit the help file PhunTime.Hlp if you were short on memory.

1.7 Version 2.3F Release News

PhunTime Version 2.3F is a minor update. It is basically the result of the work done for a Siena version. Some of the changes can proof useful for Series 3c/mx users as well. They are described here and are also summarized under "9.1 Release History".

A Siena version is available. It is functionally equivalent to the Series 3c/mx version but the text of messages and dialog boxes has been adapted for the smaller screen size of the Siena models.
In List-Mode Ctrl-Right-Arrow and Ctrl-Left-Arrow can be used to scroll the display of the project or detail column right or left, resp..
The "Sum by Project" report can now also summarize by month instead of by a number of days. The option last used will automatically be saved in the INI-file.
There is a new INI-file version to hold the above "Sum by Project" setting.
The "Detail" field will be copied to new tracking records by default. This can still be changed through the settings menu. Merely the default has been changed.

1.8 Version 2.2F Release News

PhunTime version 2.2F is a major update and contains some significant enhancements and changes. They are described here and are also summarized under "9.1 Release History".

You can now choose whether the Project field or the Detail field is shown in the "List Mode" window. Use either the "Special" menu or Psion-L in List Mode to toggle the field shown. The current setting is automatically saved in the .INI file. The V-key always shows the currently "invisible" field in the lower left corner, i.e. the Detail field when the Project field is shown in the list and vice versa.
The "Sum by Project" report can be run against the Project field, as it always was, or it can be run against the Detail field or even both fields combined. The Project and Detail fields are joined with " > " when the content of both fields are taken to create the report. The seletion is automatically saved in the .INI file.
The "Sum by Project" report lines may be sorted before they get displayed or printed. The seletion is automatically saved in the .INI file. Previously only the first 30 projects were taken into account when building the report. This limit has been extended to include the up to 60 different projects.
The Project record's Description field has been renamed to Detail field. The content of a Project record's Detail field may automatically be copied to the Tracking record's Detail field whenever tracking is started on a new record. This option is disabled by default and may be activated from the "Special" menu. The current setting is automatically saved in the .INI file.
This option together with the new option to sum on the Detail field gives you the possibility to have a handy text in the Project view but to have a more complex project string (up to 64 characters in Detail field) in the tracking data.
There is an additional format to which tracking data can be exported: The DIF format. This format can directly be opened by Spreadsheet on the Psion. Spreadsheet will always convert the file to Psion's Spreadsheet format. The DIF format does not allow to save cell formatting information in the file. Therefore, you need to assign the correct cell format after you have opened the file in Spreadsheet. The first row contains column headings. All other lines contain the tracking data for the selected records, one row per record. The first column contains the tracking record's date. The second column is the start time, the third the end time. Fourth is the duration and fifth and sixth are the Project and Detail fields.
The "Print Tracking Records" menu item as been renamed to "Export Tracking Records" since it is more appropriate. There is still the option to get a formatted list (which was the original printed report) but there are two other formats that are more like export functions: The delimited fields format and the new DIF format.
PhunTime did not recognize some Psion-Key combinations if you happened to have CAPS on. This is now handled correctly.
I got into some OPL translation size limitations to which the only solution was to split the code into two modules. Beginning with version 2.2F, PhunTime consists of the following modules: PhunTime.OPA, PhunTime.LIB, PhunTime.SRT and, optionally, PhunTime.HLP.
PhunTime 2.1F erroneously had a 60 character size limitation for the tracking record Detail field. Both the Project record's and the Tracking record's Detail fields are now 64 character fields. This change did not change the tracking data file format but only some dialog fields. Consquently, I did not create a new PhunTime file version. There's a drawback, however: If you happen to enter more than 60 characters into the Detail field of any Tracking record(s) in PhunTime 2.2F, you will no longer be able to edit this record(s) with PhunTime 2.1F. But honestly, why on earth would you want to do this :-)

1.9 Version 2.1F Release News

PhunTime version 2.1F ist a major update and contains some significant enhancements and changes. They are described here and are also summarized under "9.1 Release History".

The tracking data and project files now contain a special identification record that allows PhunTime to check for correct files when opening a file set. A conversion Program (PhunTCnv.OPO) has been provided separately to convert file sets between PhunTime version 1.x and version 2.1 file sets. See 7.1 on how to use PhunTCnv.Opo.
The tracking data file has an additional field called "Detail Field". You may enter some additional text in this field to further describe your detailed activity while working on a project. The field will not be used by PhunTime to produce the "Summary by Project" report, i.e. this report will show one summary line per project found in the period no matter what the detail fields may contain. The field will, however, optionally be shown in the "Print Tracking Records" report. See also "List mode's" V-key function.
PhunTime now shows date and time in either the format you set on your Series 3c/a using the Time Application or you may set it explicitly. The same applies to the Start-of-Week setting. PhunTime will check for any format changes whenever it is brought to foreground if you have chosen to inherit the settings from the Series 3c/a. The display will then be adjusted immediately.
NOTE: The format that PhunTime uses to show the date and time may be different from the format used in the various dialogs if you set the date/time format explicitly (i.e. not using "Auto"). This is due to the fact that the dialogs' date/time format always follow the Time Application settings.
The tracking data records may be printed in an "unformatted" way which allows them to be imported into other applications, like spreadsheets, word processors, etc.
The Tidy function now allows only records matching specific projects to be tidied.
You can now search for records matching a search argument in either the project field, the detail field or in both fields.

2.1 General Description

PhunTime is a program to track, i.e. record, the time spent working on different projects. The base idea of this program was to support working on multiple projects even during one single day while providing an easy way to track the time being spent on each of the projects.

There are two operating modes: "Tracking Mode" and "List Mode". The first being used to start and stop tracking; the latter to view and edit any tracking data record in the file set.

Use the DIAMOND key to switch mode.

The program gets the current date and time whenever you start or stop working on a project or switch to work on a different project. You can, therefore, start and stop the program at any time without affecting its records.

Two separate files will be used to save the data: A project file and a tracking data file. The first holds one record for every project you have defined. The second file will be used to record your "start working" and "stop working" times in so called tracking records.

Both files will have the same file name but a different extension and will be located in the \OPD directory on the internal drive by default:

The project file . . . . . . M:\OPD\anyname.PTP
The tracking record file . . M:\OPD\anyname.PTT

You can have any number of different project/tracking file sets, limited only by the amount of disk storage you have.

Note: You are strongly discouraged to save the files on any non-RAM drive like Flash-SSDs because, by the nature of the Series 3's database system, data cannot be updated in place but has to be appended at the end of the data file. Your Flash-SSD would fill up very fast.

Projects can be added, edited and deleted in "Tracking Mode" while tracking records can be added, edited and deleted in the "List Mode". In addition, tracking records can be copied to a clipboard and inserted (pasted) from the clipboard in both modes. See below for a detailed description on both modes.

Any tracking record can either be "active" or it can be "closed". A tracking record is considered "active" when its "End Time" is 0:00. When the end time is anything else than 0:00 it is considered "closed".

Note that it does not normally make sense to have more than one "active" record in one single file set.

Every file set can be in the state of "currently tracking" or "not currently tracking". A file set is considered "currently tracking" if and only if the most current record, i.e. the VERY LAST record in the tracking file is an "active" record. This is checked whenever a record is appended or when a file set is opened.

2.2 When Start and End Times lie on Different Days

A single tracking record only ever holds data for one single day. PhunTime will write one record per day if work was started on a given day but ended the next day or later. You don't have to take care of this. The initial record will end at 23:59 the first day (see below for a comment on the special time 23:59). Any number of full day records (i.e. 0:00 - 23:59) will be written as needed. Finally, the ending day will be recorded as having begun at 0:00 and ended at the actual end time.

2.3 !? 23:59 = 24:00 ?!

The program considers any STOP time of 23:59 to actually mean 24:00. This is due to the fact that OPL`s time dialog does not allow 24:00 to be entered. For example, a record holding a start time of 14:30 and an end time of 23:59 will be reporting a duration of 9:30, whereas the duration would be 9:28 if the end time was 23:58!

2.4 Updating Records and Data File Peculiarity

Psion's data file system doesn't allow data records to be updated in place. Instead, any write operation will always append the record at the end of the file. The old data of a record will only be marked "deleted" in case of an update operation and the new data is written at the end of the file. Thus, there will be "dead" space in a file which will not be recovered until the file will be closed. (See also your Psion Series 3c User's Guide.)

Note: Recovering dead space will only be done if the file resides on a RAM-type device! This is a Psion not a PhunTime restriction.

Recovering dead space may somewhat delay the closing of a file if the file had many record because many the records will have to be moved.

PhunTime therefore needs to take special action to keep the tracking records in chronological order: Whenever you update a tracking record PhunTime needs to "re-write" every record with an earlier date/time than that of the updated record. So, the tracking file may grow quite fast when you update many records and/or the updated records are more at the beginning than at the end of the file.

How to avoid space problems? Here are some hints:

Never save file sets on Non-RAM type devices like Flash-SSDs (except archived data which probably will not be changed again. See Tidy function).
Use "Disable Re-Order" if you intend to do multiple updates in a row. Disabling re-ordering will not only save a significant amount of disk space but will also greatly enhance processing speed. The drawback is that the records will become out of chronological order. You will have to get them sorted again using the Sort function or by letting PhunTime call Sort when you enable the re-ordering again.
Using sort or closing and re-opening a file set will recover "dead" space (as long as the file set is on a RAM device).

2.5 Project Record Description

The project records have a "Project", a "Detail" and an "Order string" field.

The "Project" field contains a short project description (up to 20 characters) and will be shown in the "Project Window". It will be copied to the tracking data record whenever tracking is started. Thus, changing the project records has no effect on already closed or active tracking records.

The "Detail" field may contain a more detailed description of the project (up to 64 characters). It can automatically be copied to the tracking data record whenever tracking is started. The field will not be copied by default but this function may be activated from the "Special" menu. The current setting will automatically be saved in the .INI file. (Up to PhunTime 2.1F this field was called "Description".) Automatically copying this field will not guarantee that they will match all the time since you may edit them at any time.

The project records are held in alphanumeric order by the "Order string". The file is sorted whenever there were changes to it and the program is closed, when a new file set is opened and when you explicitly request it with Psion-S.

2.6 Tracking Record Description

Tracking records have a "Start Date & Time", an "End Date & Time", a "Project" and a "Detail" field.

The "Date/Time" fields are used to hold the time spent working on ONE project on ONE day. Thus, the date part will ever be the same for one single record. The records are kept in ascending order by the "Start" and the "End" fields.

The "Project" field will get its initial value from the selected project when tracking was started. It may, however, be changed at any time to any value as needed. No relation is kept to the project records.

The "Detail" field can optionally contain some text that allows you to describe in detail the work being done for this project. It may also be automatically copied from the Project record (see above) when tracking is started. The field may be used to create the "Summary by Project" report. It can be shown in "list mode" using Psion-L or the V-key. It may also be included when exporting tracking records using the "Export Tracking Data Record" menu.

3.1 Tracking Mode

This is the start up mode. The upper part of the screen shows the "Project Window", the lower part the so called "Current Window".

The "Project Window" shows all or part of the defined projects. Use the CURSOR keys to move the highlighted bar and select a project. See below for more details on cursor key behavior.

The "Current Window" shows the last closed tracking record (if any) on the upper line. If the VERY LAST record in the file is an "active" record it will be shown on the lower line and the program is in the state of "currently tracking".

The SPACE key will do one of two things:

If the program is NOT "currently tracking", i.e. the last record is NOT active, the program will start tracking the selected project.
If the program is "currently tracking" it will stop tracking and "close" the active record with at the current time.
If the currently highlighted project is NOT the same as the one the just closed record was tracking, the program will also immediately start tracking on the new project. (See "S "-key function if you want to stop, only.)

The "S"-key will unconditionally stop tracking, i.e. there will be no test to see if the project being tracked and the highlighted project match. If you were not tracking this has no effect.

The digit keys 5 and 0 work similar to the SPACE key in that they will either start or stop tracking. The time recorded will be 5 or 10 minutes, resp., before (if starting) or after (if stopping) the current time.

The ENTER key will let you edit the very last record in the tracking file. This may be an "active" or a "closed" record. Use "List Mode" to edit any other tracking record. If you enter an "End Time" other than 0:00 you will save a "closed" record. Otherwise you will save an "active" record.

3.2 Tracking Mode Functions and Hot Keys

UP, DOWN: Move the highlighted bar entry wise.
LEFT, RIGHT: Move the highlighted bar column wise. Move to first or last entry if already on first or last column.
SPACE: Start or Stop tracking. See above for details.
S: The "S" key will unconditionally stop tracking. See the SPACE key behavior to see the difference.
ENTER: Start the edit dialog for the very last record in the tracking data file. Use List Mode to edit any other tracking record.
5: Start/Stop tracking with a delta of 5 minutes. See above for details.
0: Start/Stop tracking with a delta of 10 minutes. See above for details.
Psion-ENTER: Add a new tracking record. Starts the edit dialog to create a NEW tracking data record for the highlighted project. This is almost the same as Psion-A in "List Mode". The initial start time/date will be the current time and date. The end time will be 0:00, i.e. an "active" record will be written unless you change the end time.
DELETE: Deletes the LAST tracking record. The record will be copied to the clipboard. Use the "Insert" function (Psion-I) to undo the delete operation by pasting it back.
Psion-C: Copy the very last tracking record to the clipboard.
Psion-I: Insert data from the clipboard. You can edit the record before it will be written. If you were tracking AND the new record starts AFTER the active record, insert will also close the active record with an "End Time" equal to the new record's start time.

Functions to work with project file entries:

Psion-A: Add a new project.
Psion-D: Delete currently selected project. There is NO clipboard for project records.
Psion-E: Edit currently selected project.
V: Show the currently selected project's description field in the lower left corner.
Psion-Shift-S: Sort the project file. This will be done in a separate task called PhunTSrt using module PhunTime.Srt. See "Sort Function" for more on the sort process.

See "Mode Independent Functions" for more functions. Most functions can also be called from the menu.

4.1 List Mode

The List Mode shows all the tracking data records from the current file set. Use the CURSOR keys to move the highlighted bar.

Hit ENTER to edit the currently selected record. The record will be updated and placed back so that the chronological order is maintained. This may require many records to be "re-ordered", i.e. updated without actually changing them. See "Updating Records and Data File Peculiarity" for more details on this.

The upper right corner shows the record number of the first record displayed and the total number of records in the tracking file.

The detail field of the currently highlighted record may be shown in the lower left corner using the V-key.

The GoTo function (Psion-G) can be used to jump to a specific date in the list. The first entry on that date will be highlighted. If there is no entry for that date, it will be the first entry after the given date that will be highlighted.

The Search function (Psion-F) can be used to jump to entries that have a certain text either in the Project field, in the Detail field or in any one of them. The search will always be a case-independent wildcard search, i.e. the search string will be found anywhere in the selected field(s).

The search direction can be upwards or downwards from the currently highlighted entry or it can start at the first entry or at the last entry going downwards or upwards, resp.

Use the Repeat Search function (Psion-W) to search for the next/previous entry using the last search arguments.

4.2 List Mode Functions and Hot Keys

LEFT, RIGHT

Position the highlighted bar to the first or the last line of the display without scrolling.

UP, DOWN

Move the highlighted bar one entry up or down. Will scroll when on the first or last line, resp.

POS1 (Psion-LEFT), END (Psion-RIGHT)

Position to the first or last record of the tracking data file.

PGUP (Psion-UP), PGDN (Psion-DOWN)

Will scroll depending on where the highlighted bar is on the display:

Scroll the display one page up or down if the highlighted bar was on the first or last display line, resp.
If the bar is on any other line, the display will scroll so that the highlighted record will be displayed on the last or first display line, resp.

Crtl-LEFT, Ctrl-RIGHT

Scroll the display of the project or detail column left or right. Arrows on the column title show if there is possibly more data to the left and/or right.

Psion-A: Add a new tracking data record. Starts the edit dialog to create a NEW tracking data record. All data will initially be taken from the highlighted record. You should then make changes to it, otherwise a duplicate record will be written.
Psion-C: Copy the selected tracking data record to the clipboard.
DELETE or Psion-D: Delete currently selected tracking data record. The record will be copied to the clipboard. Use the "Insert" function (Psion-I) to undo the delete operation by pasting it back.
ENTER or Psion-E: Edit currently selected tracking data record.
Psion-F: Search for tracking records that contain a specified text in either the project field, the detail field or in both of them.
Psion-W: Repeat the last search function.
Psion-G: Go to a specific date.
Psion-I: Insert data from the clipboard. The record may be edited before it will be written. If you were tracking AND the new record starts AFTER the active record, insert will also close the active record with an end time equal to the new record's start time.
Psion-L: Toggle the display between tracking record's Project field and Detail field to be shown in the right column. The current setting will automatically be save in the .INI file.
V: Show the currently highlighted tracking record's project or detail field in the lower left corner. The field shown depends on the Psion-L setting, i.e. the detail field is shown when the project field is shown in the list and vics versa.
Psion-Shift-S: Sort the tracking data file. This will be done in a separate task called PhunTSrt using module PhunTime.Srt. See "Sort Function" for more on the sort process.

See "Mode Independent Functions" for more functions. Most functions can also be called from the menu.

5.0 Mode Independent Functions

Mode Independent Functions use the same key combinations and work the same way in both modes. The can also be called from the menu.

5.1 Psion-O: Open another PhunTime file set

To open another PhunTime file set select the corresponding tracking data file, i.e. the PTT-file. The dialog will initially show PTT-files on the internal drive's \OPD directory. You may switch to any other directory in the usual way but be sure to select a PhunTime PTT-file.

PhunTime will try to check, with the help of an identification record, whether the files really are PhunTime files and whether file and program versions are compatible. Unpredictable results may occur if you cheat and try to open non-database files.

A file set may only be opened if both the tracking data and the project files are found in the same directory.

There will be no project file for an "archived" file set, i.e. one created with the "Tidy" function. Open will then ask you if it should create a new, empty project file when you first open the "archived" file set.

5.2 Psion-N: Create a new PhunTime file set

Will create a new file set, i.e. a tracking data and a project file. Both files will be empty, but you may reuse data from another file set by merging either the tracking data or the project records from an existing set (see Merge functions).

It is NOT recommended to create file sets on Non-RAM type devices. See "Updating Records and Data File Peculiarity" above.

5.3 Shift-TAB: Swap between current and previous file set

PhunTime will remember the currently open file set's name whenever you open another file set using the open function. Shift-Tab lets you switch easily between the last two file sets.

You will be prompted for a file set if you have not yet opened another file set since starting PhunTime.

5.4 Psion-S: Display Summary by Projects

Psion-S will bring up an initial dialog to ask whether to sum up by a number of days or by whole months:

Sum up by a number of days: A dialog will be displayed where you enter the date period to be reported on. The initial start date will be set to the first day of the week before the current week. The "first day of the week" can be set in the settings dialog. It is set to inherit it from the Time application's setting by default. The end date will be set so that the period covers a certain number of days; 7 days by default but this may be set, too.
Sum up by whole months: A dialog will be displayed to select the month and year. The initial month will be the month preceeding the current month.

You then select whether to group the records by Project field, by Detail field or even by both fields combined. The combined string will be built by joining the Project and Detail fields with the string " > ". Finally, you select whether the summary lines will be displayed as-is or sorted alphabetically.

ENTER will show the hours and minutes spent on each project during the period. Up to 60 different projects may summarized. If there were more than 60 projects in the period you will get a message and PhunTime will report on the first 60 projects. Choose a smaller period to cover all projects.

The PLUS "+" and MINUS "-" keys will change the Start/End dates by the number of days shown or by one month, resp.. The number of days is always equal to the period length as defined in the settings dialog.

If there are more projects than fit into the dialog box, you will see the UP and DOWN buttons appear.

The last line will show a grand total over all projects summarized for the current period.

Note: PhunTime will start from the beginning of the file to search for the first record in the period. It will then include all records up to the first record with a start date after the end of the period. Any out-of-sequence records will therefore NOT be included in the summary. Use "Sort" first should you have such out-of-sequence records.

The current selection of the period (number of days or whole months), the field(s) to sum on and whether to sort the report lines or not will automatically be saved in the .INI file.

5.5 Psion-P: Print Summary by Projects to a File

This works exactly the same as Psion-S except that the report will be written to a file instead of shown on the screen.

There is currently no option to directly print to a printer.

You will be prompted for a file to hold the report. You will need to decide whether to replace the file or append to it should the chosen file already exist.

You can specify a "Left Margin" for the printed report. The "Page Length" will only be used when printing tracking records.

5.6 Psion-Shift-P: Export Tracking Data Records to a File

You can export tracking records to a file. The records can be written either as formatted list, as delimited field records or as a DIF format file.

5.6.1 Formatted Listing of Tracking Records

The list will hold the data from the records, the duration per record and the total duration for the day.

You have the option to either have the detail fields printed or not printed in the report.

Optionally, the list will also contain the total duration per week. What day to consider the first day of a week can be set in the settings dialog (see Psion-Q). The default is as set by the Time application.

A grand total will be printed at the end of the report.

The initial dates shown in the dialog are the first day of the current month and the current date.

You can select whether all records in the specified period should be printed or only those which match a given project. If printing only part of the records, you'll have to decide whether the project field must exactly match your selection ("Exact match") or if it only has to start with the given string ("Start with").

There is currently no option to directly print to a printer.

You will be prompted for a file to hold the report. You will need to decide whether to replace the file or append to it should the chosen file already exist.

The first record on every page will be a title. This record contains an ASCII Form Feed character (x'0C') in its first position.

You can specify a "Left Margin" for the printed report and the "Page Length" in the Settings dialog (see Psion-Q).

5.6.2 Delimited Fields List of Tracking Records

The file will hold the data from the selected tracking records separated by a character that you choose during the initial dialog. The default character is a TAB character (x'09'). There will be neither a title nor any summary lines in the file; only the data of the selected records will be included. The first field will hold the record's date, second and third are the start and end time, fourth is the duration and fifth and sixth are the project and detail fields. This type of export file is intended to be used in other applications like spreadsheets or word processors.

The initial dates shown in the dialog are the first day of the current month and the current date.

You can select whether all records in the specified period should be exported or only those which match a given project. If exporting only part of the records, you'll have to decide whether the project field must exactly match your selection ("Exact match") or if it only has to start with the given string ("Start with").

You will be prompted for a file to hold the records. You will need to decide whether to replace the file or append to it should the chosen file already exist.

5.6.3 DIF Format List of Tracking Records

The file will hold the data from the selected tracking records in the DIF format. This format can directly be opened by Spreadsheet on the Psion. Spreadsheet will always convert the file to Psion's Spreadsheet format. The DIF format does not allow to save cell formatting information in the file. Therefore, you need to assign the correct cell format after you have opened the file in Spreadsheet. The first row contains column headings. All other lines contain the tracking data for the selected records, one row per record. The first column contains the tracking record's date. The second column is the start time, the third the end time. Fourth is the duration and fifth and sixth are the Project and Detail fields.

The initial dates shown in the dialog are the first day of the current month and the current date.

You will be prompted for a file to hold the records. You will need to decide whether to replace the file or append to it should the chosen file already exist.

5.7 Psion-M: Merge Tracking Records into the Current Tracking File

If you want to report on projects but you have recorded the work time in different file sets, you need to combine the tracking records into one file to get a complete report. This function will do what you need. It is called "merging" because the tracking data records will be copied first and the tracking file will be automatically sorted then.

There is no option to copy only part of the records nor does PhunTime check for duplicate records.

5.8 Psion-Shift-M: Merge Project Records into the Current Project File

If you want to use the project records of a file set in the current file set, too, you may copy them. This is called "merging" because the project records will be copied first and the project file will be automatically sorted then.

There is no option to copy only part of the records nor does PhunTime check for duplicate records.

5.9 Psion-Shift-T: Tidy up the Tracking Data File

Processing may become slower as tracking data files grow. It is best to keep the tracking file small, i.e. a few hundred records at most.

Using the "Tidy" function you have three options how to treat the tracking records in the selected period:

Delete tracking data records.
Copy tracking data records to another tracking file.
A combination of both, i.e. copy the records to another file and then delete them from the current file.

You can select whether all records in the specified period should be treated or only those which match a given project. If tidying only part of the records, you'll have to decide whether the project field must exactly match your selection ("Exact match") or if it only has to start with the given string ("Start with").

You can append the copied records to an already existing tracking data file or you can create a new file for them. Note that the "archive" file will NOT be sorted automatically, so records will be out of order if you append to an existing file. Open the "archive" file and use "Sort" to bring them back in order before using any report function on the archived data.

5.10 Psion-Q: Change PhunTime Behaviour (Settings)

Some behaviour of PhunTime can be changed. The settings will be saved in a configuration file called PhunTime.Ini. The file will be saved in the \OPD directory on the internal drive, only.

You can set:

Procedure caching On or Off. "On" speeds up processing but needs more memory. "Off" may be better should you be short of memory.
The amount of memory to be used for caching, if caching is "On".
The page length used when printing tracking records.
The left margin used when printing summary reports and tracking records.
The language in which the day and month names are shown. Choices are your Series 3's language or PhunTime's built-in language.
The date and time format to be used by PhunTime. You may choose to inherit the settings from the Time application by selecting "Auto" or you may set them explicitly.
NOTE: If "Auto" is set, PhunTime will check for changes whenever it is brought to foreground and update its display if necessary.
The default period to Show/Print summaries. This influences the initial Start/End dates shown in the Show/Print summary dialog.
The weekday to be considered the first day of a week. This will be used to calculate the initial start date in the Show/Print summary dialog and will determine when to write the "Weeks total" line in the "Print Tracking Records" report.
You may choose to inherit the settings from the Time application by selecting "Auto" or you may set them explicitly.
NOTE: If "Auto" is set, PhunTime will check for changes whenever it is brought to foreground and update this value if necessary.

The configuration file is version dependent, i.e. a future version of PhunTime may store additional data in it. PhunTime will recognize a version conflict and will fall back to the default values. This will overwrite the previous PhunTime.Ini file. There is no migration, so you'll have to set your personal settings again.

5.11 Psion-Shift-R: Enable/Disable Automatic Re-Ordering after Updates

PhunTime may need to "move" tracking records after you have edited a tracking record. See "Updating Records and Data File Peculiarity" for drawbacks.

Disable the "Re-Ordering" and PhunTime will no longer keep records in chronological order. This speeds up processing and saves disk memory. It is useful if you need to make multiple updates in sequence.

Enable the "Re-Ordering" again when you have finished the mass update. PhunTime will ask you whether it should sort the records now.

This setting will NOT be saved in the configuration file and will be set to "enabled" whenever a new file set is opened/created.

5.12 Psion-Shift-V: Show PhunTime's Version/Build Information

A small pop-up window shows PhunTime's version, language and the date and time it was built.

5.13 Psion-Shift-C: Enable/Disable Automatic Detail Field Copying

Every Project record has a Detail field that may contain a detailed project description. Every Tracking record also contains a Detail field that may hold any more detailed description for this record.

"Copy Detail" is enabled by default and will automatically copy the Project record's Detail field to new Tracking record's Detail field. You may, however, edit this field at any time so there's no guarantee that they will always match. You may choose to disable this option.

You can disable/enable this function at any time. The current setting will automatically be saved in the .INI file.

5.14 Psion-X: Exit PhunTime

The current file set is closed and PhunTime exits.

6.1 Sort Function

The sort function will sort a project or a tracking data file. This process will need large tables and therefore needs additional memory.

It is a Psion restriction that one single program cannot use more than 64kB of memory. PhunTime will start a new process called PhunTSrt to have sufficient space available to sort the file.

PhunTime will close the file, call PhunTSrt and re-open the sorted file again when sort has finished. As a side effect, this will recover "dead" space from deleted and updated records.

The Sort routine may handle up to 2500 records although this probably is more a theoretical than a practical limit.

6.2 Sort doesn't seem to complete

Although care has been take to catch all cases where the sort process cannot be successfully run there is always the chance than an unexpected situation on your machine might let the sort process hang (probably displaying an alert message). PhunTime would then wait forever for its sort process to end.

PhunTime will start the sort routine "PhunTime.Srt" which in turn will rename its running task to "PhunTSrt" when it has successfully been started. Until that time the sort task will appear a "SYS$PRGO" and thus appear under the "RunOPL" icon on the system screen. It will show your open PhunTime file set name.

To resolve the deadlock situation, you'll have to cancel the sort task using the system screen Psion-Shift-X (is this the same on all of the Series 3c's language versions?) to kill the application. Make sure you kill the sort process (showing up under RunOPL) not PhunTime itself.

Killing the sort process might leave temporary files in the same directory as your PhunTime file set. The name being the same but the extension being $nn (nn=11...99).

7.1 The Conversion Program PhunTCnv.OPO

As described above, PhunTime has a new detail field in the tracking data file and both files contain an identification record. This made the files incompatible to version 1 files.

You may use the conversion program PhunTCnv.OPO if you'd like to continue to use your current file set(s) with PhunTime version 2.1F.

Start PhunTCnv.Opo from the RunOPL icon on your system screen. This program is not expected to be used heavily and therefore is not written as an installable OPA file with an own icon. And is does not contain as extensive error checking as PhunTime itself does.

You need to convert both files of any file set separately. The program only converts one file at a time. While it tries to guess on version 1.x files, it can not identify those files for sure. You'll be ask for confirmation. Starting from version 2.1, the files can always be identified with the help of the identification record.

PhunTCnv.Opo will not convert a file in place but will create a new file in the desired target version. All records are then converted and copied from the source to the target file. You need therefore to select a new non-existing file name and you will need enough space on the target drive.

The source file will be left unmodified in any case. Converting from version 1.x to version 2.1 does copy all data. Converting from version 2.1 to version 1.x will DROP ALL detail fields as this field does not exist in version 1.x tracking files.

8.1 Known Restrictions

Currently, the program will handle entries between

January 1st, 1970 and December 31st, 2037

The internal time value (a long integer) will become negative after December 31, 2037. This is not yet handled correctly!
Reports can only be printed to a file. No direct printing to a printer is supported yet.

9.1 Release History

V2.3F - April 15, 2001

New Siena version available.
New "List Mode" functions Ctrl-Right-Arrow and Ctrl-Left-Arrow to scroll the project-/detail-column.
The "Sum by Project" reports may now summarize by month.

V2.2F - July 29, 1999

New "List Mode" function Psion-L to toggle between Project and Detail fields to be shown. List mode V-key shows the currently "invisible" field in the lower left corner.
The "Sum by Project" reports may now summarize on Projects, Details or both.
The "Sum by Project" summary lines may be sorted for display and up to 60 different projects may be shown.
The project's Detail field (previously called Description field) may automatically be copied to new tracking records.
Tracking records may be exported to DIF format files, which can be directly opened by Psion's Spreadsheet.
The "Print Tracking Records" menu has been renamed to "Exporting Tracking records".
Psion-Key combinations are now handled correctly even if CAPS is on.
PhunTime.OPA has been split into two modules: PhunTime.OPA and PhunTime.LIB.

V2.1F - October 4, 1998

First release of the German version. Functionally identical to the English Version 2.1F.
Corrections to the English and German User's Guides have been made. Both now available in HTML format.

V2.1F - September 24, 1998

Added Record Type 4 to recognize PhunTime files and their version. A conversion program was added to the package to convert PhunTime files between versions (currently 1.x & 2.1)
Added a new field "Details" that may optionally contain some details for any single tracking record. This field may be shown with the V-key function in the list mode. It may also be printed on the tracking data report.
Date/time format and language may be set explicitly or may be inherited from Series 3c/a's Time application settings.
Corrected an error in the "Print tracking records" report. The first start time after a day break showed the minutes value of the latest day or week duration field instead of the start time's. However, the duration has always been calculated and displayed correctly!
The Tidy function allows records to be tidied to be selected by project, similar to the print tracking record function.
Tracking records may be printed in a delimited field format. This file may be imported into spreadsheets or word processors.
Corrected a small error in GoTo function: Second line was highlighted instead of first when search date was before or at first record in file.
New function with keys 5 and 0 to start/stop with a delta of 5 or 10 minutes, resp.
New function to search tracking records for matching text in project and/or detail fields.
Corrected a minor error in project window scrolling: Right arrow did not always scroll past 3rd column.

V1.3F February 18, 1998

New tracking mode function "V" to show project's description.
Not released to the public.

V1.2F February 7, 1998

The "Print Tracking Records" function now allows reports to be printed for selected projects only.
The report will optionally show a summary line per week.
PhunTime needs to make sure there is enough free system memory to start the sort process PhunTSrt. Otherwise there is the chance that PhunTime thinks PhunTSrt is running but PhunTSrt is not but is instead displaying an "out of memory" message. PhunTime would then wait until the USER had confirmed that message which can only be seen when switching MANUALLY to PhunTSrt (found under the RunOPL icon).

V1.1F February 2, 1998

This is the first release to the public.

V1.0F November 1997

First final release; for personal usage only.

--- This is the end of the User's Guide ---