PalmPilot Timesheet User Documentation

Palmpilot Timesheet User Documentation

This documentation covers all of the details of using Timesheet and the related Timesheet2CSV utility. However I've tried to design Timesheet so the user interface is intuitive. I recommend you just dive in and start using it! Come back here later for details.

The Main Window

Timesheet's main window resembles the Datebook, with the familiar day/week control at the top of the screen. This control allows you to move back and forth between days and weeks, as do the page-up and page-down buttons. Tap the Go To button to jump to a specific date.

Entries that have their Client name underlined have been marked as chargeable to the client (see the Timesheet Entries section below).

The entry durations are shown in bold hours followed by minutes. By default there are two totals at the bottom of the window.

The total number of hours and minutes in the current day is displayed just above the New button.
The total number of chargeable hours and minutes in the current day is displayed just above the Go to button.

The main window displays a single day that can contain up to 125 Timesheet entries. Tap the New button to create a new entry for the current day. Tap on an existing entry to edit that entry. Once you have added more than 9 entries in a single day, use the on-screen scroll buttons to move back and forth through the entries.

If an entry is being timed (see Timing Entries) the [Timer Button] stop-watch button will appear on the Main Window. Tapping this button will return you to the entry being timed.

The [Day / Week Buttons] buttons swap between the main window and the weekly summary. See the Weekly Summary section for details.

Main Window Menu

The Timesheet menu has several useful commands as follows:

[Timesheet Main Menu] Go to > Earliest Day goes to the earliest day in your Timesheet database that has entries.
Go to > Latest Day goes to the latest day in your Timesheet database that has entries.

Erase > Current Day deletes all of the entries from the current day. You will be prompted to make sure you want to delete the day's entries.
Erase > Prior To... deletes all of the entries prior to a specified date. This option is intended to be used when you reach the end of a month and complete a timesheet for your company. You can then recover memory by deleting all the entries prior to the 1st of the new month.

[Timesheet Main Menu] Options > Preferences brings up the Timesheet Preferences screen, which allows you to turn certain features on/off. See the Preferences section for details.

The Weekly Summary

Timesheet can also display a weekly summary. The summary shows totals for each combination of Client, Project and Task that occur in the week. The totals are ordered alphabetically by Client, Project and Task.

The total durations are shown in bold hours followed by minutes. The total number of hours and minutes for the current week is displayed just above the Go To button. The total number of chargeable hours and minutes in the current week is also displayed to the right of the Go to button.

Tap the Go to button to go to a specific week. You can also use the week control (or the page-up, page-down buttons) to swap between weeks.

Weekly Summary Menu

The Timesheet weekly summary menu has several useful commands as follows:

[Timesheet Week Menu] Go to > Earliest Week goes to the earliest week in your Timesheet database that has entries.
Go to > Latest Week goes to the latest week in your Timesheet database that has entries.

Erase > Current Week deletes all of the entries from the current week. You will be prompted to make sure you want to delete the week's entries.

Timesheet Entries

Each entry is assigned to three categories: Client, Project and Task. The Client category describes which of your clients the entry applies to. The Project category describes which specific client project the entry applies to (if any). The Task category describes what task you completed at the client site.

Each category is fully editable (up to 100 names per category), so you can add your own categories, delete default categories etc.

You can enter a comment of up to 255 characters for each entry and save an entry duration of up to 15 hours and 55 minutes (in 5 minute intervals).

You can use the pop-up list buttons to select the hours and minutes. There is also a Chargeable check box which marks entries as chargeable to the client. Entries marked as chargeable will have their Client name underlined in the daily display.

Timing Entries

The

stop-watch button on the Entry form starts and stops the entry timer. This timer can be used to time new or existing entries.

Tap the stop-watch button to start timing. The button will flash periodically, indicating you're timing the current entry. Tap the stop-watch button again to stop timing. The elapsed time will be rounded down to five minute intervals and added to the entry's duration. If less than five minutes has passed, the entry duration will not change.

Once the timer has started you can tap OK to save the entry and continue to use Timesheet and other Palm pilot applications with the timer still running.

When an entry is being timed the [Timer Button] stop-watch button will appear on the Main Window. Tapping this button will return you to the entry being timed.

NOTE: If you start timing a new entry, make sure you tap OK to save the entry and the timer before switching to another application.

Finding Entries

Timesheet works with the Palmpilot [Palm Find]

Find button.

The text you find will be compared against every entry's Client, Project, Task categories and the entry comment. Every entry that matches will be listed on the Find screen with the date of the entry and the start of the entry comment.

Tap on a found entry to start Timesheet and take you to that entry.

Preferences

There are several Timesheet user preferences that you can set using this screen.

Display preferences control the way dates and entries are displayed.

Date Format (Short/Long) controls how dates are displayed on the Main screen and Entry Details screen. The date formats used depend on the date settings for your PalmPilot.
Underline chargeable clients (Check box) allows to turn on/off the chargeable client underlining feature.
Show chargeable totals (Check box) allows you to turn on/off the chargeable totals on the main and weekly windows.

Entries preferences control the way entries are created and timed.

Auto categories (Check box) turns on/off the 'Auto Categories' feature. Checking this preference means every time you create a new entry, the Client, Project and Task for the new entry will automatically be set to the same Client, Project and Task as the last new entry that you created.
Auto duration (Check box) turns on/off the 'Auto Duration' feature. Checking this preference means every time you create a new entry, the Hour and Minute duration for the new entry will automatically be set to the same Hour and Minute duration as the last new entry that you created.
Chargeable default (Check box) allows you to control if new entries are automatically made chargeable or not.
Keep Timing on OK (Check box) means a timed entry will automatically keep timing when you tap OK on the Entry Details window. Normally Timesheet will ask if you want to keep timing the entry.

Timesheet2CSV Export Utility

Every time you Hotsync your Palmpilot, a backup of the Timesheet database will be created on your PC/Mac. I've thrown together a little utility to convert this backed up Timesheet database into a CSV file, which spreadsheets like Excel and Lotus can read. This utility is called 'Timesheet2CSV.exe' and is included in the zipped distribution file.

Timesheet2CSV is a command line utility which means it has to be run in a Windows DOS window. You cannot just double click it. I've had a number of Windows users ask me how to run this utility, so here's detailed step-by-step instructions:

Find the TimesheetDB.PDB file created by Hotsync manager last time you hotsynced your Pilot. Use the Windows Explorer 'Find...' command. Alternately, look for a directory called 'Backup' under your Palm Desktop installation (typically under 'C:/palm' or 'C:/pilot'). This will contain TimesheetDB.PDB.
Copy the Timesheet2CSV.exe utility into the same directory as TimesheetDB.PDB. Alternately, copy the TimesheetDB.PDB file into the same directory as Timesheet2CSV.exe!
Start a Windows DOS window by using the MS-DOS command prompt on the Windows Start menu.
In the DOS window, change directory (using 'CD directory') to the directory that now contains the TimesheetDB.PDB file and the Timesheet2CSV.exe utility.
Enter the DOS command:
Timesheet2CSV TimesheetDB.PDB TimesheetDB.CSV
This will run Timesheet2CSV on your TimesheetDB.PDB file.
Timesheet2CSV will create a file called TimesheetDB.CSV in the same directory. This is the CSV (comma separated values) version of your Timesheet database.
Go back to Windows Explorer and double click on the new TimesheetDB.CSV file to open it!

In the future I hope to release a nicer version of this utility that does run as a normal Windows GUI app.

For Mac and Linux/Unix users I've included the Timesheet2CSV source code (see Timesheet2CSV.c in your zip file). I don't have access to a Macintosh so I can't release a Mac binary sorry! Linux users should be able to just compile the supplied source.

The source makes some assumptions about machine byte order which are documented. If you do want to compile it on a Mac you'll have to make some minor modifications. The reason for these assumptions is because the PalmPilot has a Motorola CPU which uses a different byte order from the Intel family, but of course the saved PalmPilot databases are all Motorola byte ordered. This means I've had to do a little diddling around to read the PDB file on an x86 PC.

The Timesheet2CSV utility is distributed under the same License and Warranty as the PalmPilot Timesheet application.

author: stuart nicholson