1. Daily Sessions Editor

1.1 Monthly Calendar

Use to navigate to a particular day in order to view the list of sessions logged on that date. Simply click on a cell to select a day or use the arrow keys to move the date back and forth. To select a specific date, click on the month heading to display a list of options (or click the secondary mouse button) and select "Enter Date...".

Main Features
· Total booked time per day at-a-glance, useful for pinpointing missed days or sessions of time.
· Locale aware - month and abbreviated weekday headings are automatically derived from your Regional settings.
· Define your own Week Numbering scheme by setting the First day of week and First week of year. Defaults to the system locale settings.
· Click secondary button on mouse to display menu of options or click the month button between the left and right chevrons.

Week Number Scheme



The First week of the year and the First day of the week affect how weeks are numbered. By default, TimeCore uses the system locale to detemine these settings when creating a new DAT or the first time it opens an existing file created with a version of TimeCore prior to version 2.3. The default week numbering scheme can be over-ridden by changing these settings using the popup menu (see diagram above). Any changes are stored in the DAT file which means any subsequent change to the system locale will not affect the week numbering for that particular DAT.

1.2 Sessions List

This section of the Recorder page lists the Sessions that have been booked on any given day. The list heading shows the date (based on your Regional Settings) and the total hours booked for that day. Each row of the list represents a single Session. The row is split into two levels with the Start Time, End Time, Break, Hours, Rate, Project and Activity shown on the top level with the Session Details displayed along the whole of the bottom level.

As you select a row in the Sessions List the details will be displayed in the Session Editor underneath. Please note that you can resize the columns.

1.3 Session Editor

An Overview
Everything in TimeCore is based around a Session and each day can contain zero or more Sessions depending on your working practices. Here are the main features of a TimeCore Session..

· One or more of the following properties can be set. All properties are optional but at least one must be completed in order to save a Session. -
~ Start Time, End Time, Break, Duration, Project, Activity, Rate, Details

· You can book any number of Sessions per day.
· By default, TimeCore will not allow Sessions to overlap but this setting can be changed from Administration.
· The minimum duration of a Session is one minute and the maximum is 24 hours.
· The duration of a Session is rounded to the nearest minute. For example, it is not possible to book a 30 second Session ~ it would be rounded to 1 minute.
· Sessions can be split across midnight.
· Sessions can be duplicated on- or moved to another date (Transfer).
· Use the TAB, SHIFT-TAB or ENTER keys to move between fields.

2. Administration

2.1 General Settings

The following settings can be modified via the User Preferences -> General Settings page in the Administration view. The default value is shown next to each option.

1. Minimize to System Tray ["No" ]
Set to "Yes" if you would like TimeCore to add an icon to the System Tray rather than the Taskbar on minimize. Left click on the system tray icon to restore or right click to display a pop-up menu of options.

2. Duration Format ["Hours"]
A duration can be displayed as a fraction of an hour ("Hours") or in the more intuitive hours & minutes format ("Hours and Minutes"). For example, if a session of 2 hours and 30 minutes was booked, this could be shown as 2.50 using the "Hours" option or as '02:30' using the "Hours and Minutes" option. Please note that both formats are included in exports.

3. Prevent Session Overlap ["Yes"]
By default, TimeCore will prevent two sessions encroaching on one another. For example if one Session is booked from 09:00 to 11:00 and another Session is then created from 10:00 to 12:00 then the second session's Start time occurs during the first session which TimeCore will block if this option is set to "Yes". If you are a multi-tasking parallel processor then set to "No" to ignore this warning.

4. Compact DAT on close ["Yes"]
As you use TimeCore, the DAT file can become fragmented and use more disk space than is necessary. By setting this option to "Yes" (recommended), TimeCore will compact and defragment the DAT file on exit. The compacted DAT is usually smaller and often runs faster.

5. Back-up Folder [DAT folder]
Use this option to specify where to store the DAT file back-ups. By default, it is set to the current DAT folder but should be changed at the earliest opportunity. For the reasons why please see the Reference topic ~ DAT Backup System .

2.2 DAT Security

TimeCore stores all your data in the folder you specified at startup. Your recorded time is stored in the file TIMECORE.DAT (or DAT for short).

The DAT is as secure as the environment in which you use TimeCore - in most cases this will be sufficient if you use a single, isolated PC which only you have access to. But, if the DAT is located in a shared location (eg. on a network drive) or where a single computer is used by more than one person then you might wish to consider assigning a password to your DAT file otherwise anyone can view your recorded time using a copy of TimeCore.

By default the DAT is not password protected. To assign a password open the Administration page from the Contents menu and select 'Security' under 'DAT Settings'. The page contains the follow fields...

DAT File
Identifies the DAT file to be protected.

Password Protected
Indicates whether the DAT is protected or not. Default is 'No'.

Owner
The owner of the DAT is the Windows user account that originally created the DAT. For convenience, the Owner is not required to enter a password for a protected DAT - for example, if Gary Peters logs into windows as gpeters and creates a new TimeCore folder then the owner of the DAT will be gpeters (ie. the Windows account user ID). If Gary assigns a password to the DAT then the password will only be required if TimeCore is used to access the DAT from any Windows account other than gpeters.

Set a New Password
A new password can be assigned at any time. If the DAT is already protected and you are not the owner then the existing password will be required first. Please note that the password is case-sensitive.

New DAT Owner
The password will always be required if anyone other than the owner tries open a protected DAT file. If you need to change the owner to avoid entering the password each time you can do this here. The new owner will be as shown.