Frank Niessink írta: > > Hi Istvan, > > Welcome! > > 2008/6/23 [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > > Hello! > > > > My name is Istvan Zoltan Toth, I'm a programmer from Hungary. > > I use TaskCoach and there are a few features I really would like to use, > > but they are not included yet. > > The reason I subscribed to this list is that I've actually developed a > > feature I use on daily basis but it would be nice to have it integrated. > > That's good to hear. > > > In a nutshell. I work on different projects and I switch between > > projects and tasks frequently (let's say I switch once in every 30 mins). > > At the end of every day I have to make a detailed report of activities. > > I've written a simple Python script which reads the TaskCoach file, > > summarizes efforts by categories and creates CSV files, one for each > > category and one which contains summaries. > > Then it sends those files to the accounting by e-mail and they do the > > rest (billing). > > > > If it is possilbe I would like to see it integrated like a plug-in, when > > I select the menu item it runs all the reports. > > So, it would be great to know your opinion, and if you're positive, I > > would need some pointers where to start. > > I'm curious, is there any particular reason why you need to group > effort per category? What do the categories represent? Do you have one > category for each client/customer?
My categories represents clients and/or projects. With some customers I have a strict billing system, I bill for the exact time I spend at them (on strict I mean I count the minutes). I have tasks as short as five minutes and as long as a few weeks, usually with a lot of interruptions. When I create a new task I select the customer as category so I can use that information in reports. Actually I've introduced TaskCoach in my company (im co-owner, so it was not so hard :) ) because we always had a problem with correct logging of our work. We've tried paper and several softwares but softwares were too complicated, paper has to be processed etc. We use the information for two purposes: to make bills and reports to our customers and to get more information about our work to make it more effective. It is a very valuable information to see what we done in the last week, how long did it take. > In general, I'm hesitant to include code for very specific purposes > because one of the goals for Task Coach is that it should be a > 'friendly' (read: user friendly) task manager. You'r absolutely right. The reason I like TaskCoach is that it is simple to use. This is why I was thinking about a plugin, so the user does not have to face it if he or she does not need it. An interesting approach is what Supermemo uses. It is a learning-aid software and when you start it you see only a few menus and buttons. There is one menu item where you can choose which view do you want to see. In basic view your interface is very simple and intuitive. In advanced view it is pretty complicated. Reporting is always a difficult matter as people wants different information. I was thinking about something like IBM Query software on AS/400 which has a simple and easy to use user interface for making queries from an SQL database. The user may select the fields he wants to be included in the report, may specify sorting and grouping, and not more than five summary functions like min, max, summary, average. > > Another idea of mine is that it would be nice to have a few configurable > > hot-keys which starts effort counting on a given task. This would be > > very handy but it is far not as important as the reports. (And I haven't > > even started to check how to implement it.) > > This sounds like a good idea. Maybe the user could assign Shift-F1, > Shift-F2, etc. to a limited number of 'favorite' tasks? Exactly. > Cheers, Frank Bye, Istvan
