Version 1.11 (beta) comes with three main features: idle tracking, column sorting and improved memory usage and performance.

Idle tracking

This feature prevents TTP from tracking stuff when you’re away from the computer.  Right now the idle setting is 5 minutes.  After 5 mins of idle time, TTP stops tracking activities until you start using the computer again.  Currently it’s a hardcoded setting but will soon be a configurable setting in the preferences.

Of course, if you know in advance that you’ll be stepping away from the computer, the best thing to do is to toggle the tracking manually via the status menu (on your top status bar, to the left of the clock).

Column sorting

You can now sort the application and document table (the left panel) by clicking the header titles.  Sort by name or time in both ascending or descending order.

Improved memory usage and performance

I’ve changed how the data is stored which results in quicker performance and less memory usage.  The biggest change is that TTP 1.11 (and on) will be using a different data store for storing your data.

This means when you first install 1.11, you will start with a fresh (empty) data.  Future releases will use this file ensuring your data will be portable.  Creating a new file was necessary due to a more efficient data storage format.

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The beauty — and the main benefit — of Time Tracker Pro is automatic always-on time tracking.  This way you never have to worry whether what you’re doing is being tracked or not — it simply is.

Sometimes, however, it may be a good idea to temporarily turn off tracking. Maybe you’re working on leisure tasks that you don’t need tracked, or maybe someone else is using your computer.  For exactly these reasons we’ve implemented an ability to toggle tracking in version 1.9.4

It’s available via the TTP status menu on your status bar:

Like it? Hate it? Let us know what you think.

Enter to win Time Tracker Pro for FREE:

To enter, all you have to do is:

1. Follow @TimeTrackerPro on twitter.
2. Tweet : “Just entered to win a free Time Tracker Pro – Fully Automatic Time Tracking for Freelancers!  Just follow @TimeTrackerPro and retweet. – http://tinyurl.com/cmj5ddq”.

We will direct message the winners every Friday (hence why you need to follow) and give you 24 hours to respond until we get 5 winners. Good luck!

Contest Rules:

1. Anyone found to use multiple accounts to enter will be ineligible.
2. Multiple entries in a single day will not be accepted.

One of the most powerful features of Time Tracker Pro is the ability to quickly filter your historical data.

At the very top center of the UI, there exists a button with two dates in it.  Clicking on this button bring down a popup that let’s you choose a “from” date and a “to” date. 

We’ve provided you with the most commonly used presets used as date ranges:

• Today
• Yesterday
• Last Week
• Last Month

Should the above presets not satisfy your requirements, feel free to create your own range using the “Custom” settings.  Simply choose your own date range, and the whole UI will automatically refresh.

This is very useful when looking at historical data, and answering questions such as: how much time did I spent for a specific client last month? or how much time did I spend working on this document last week?

Time Tracker Pro gives you powerful features to organize your tasks.

You can categorize a whole application (with all its corresponding documents), or just a specific document (from the right-bottom pane) to its proper Activity (in the left-hand pane).

For instance, if you look in the above picture (click on it to enlarge), you can see in the right-bottom pane that several applications have been tracked: Google Chrome, Xcode, Safari, VLC, Evernote, etc.

If you expand each application by clicking the arrow to the left of the name, you’ll see a set of documents that belong to the application. 

Now what you can do is drag each application or a document to the left-hand pane into a proper activity (under Projects).

For instance, if you’re working for a client called “Acme, Inc”, you’ll probably want to define several activities under this project such as “web development”, “documentation”, and maybe even “Skype” to show how much time you’ve spent on Skype calls with the client.

From the right-hand pane, you would then drag “Skype” application into the “Communication” activity under “Acme, Inc”

Your final setup on the left-pane after having spent some time organizing might look like the following:

Project: “Acme, Inc”

Activity 1: “Web development”

Applications/Documents: Xcode, NotePad

Activity 2: “Documentation”

Application/Documents: Microsoft Word, TextMate

Activity 3: “Talking with Client”

Applications: Skype

The beauty of this setup is that you’re free to organize your data anyway you’d like.  And then change it again.

One of the most misunderstood parts of Time Tracker Pro is when exactly does it start and stop tracking.

The short answer is that it does so automatically. 

As soon as you start Time Tracker Pro, it immediately goes to work by actively watching what applications are active at a given time.

So if you’re writing a document in TextMate for 35 mins, then switch over to do some number crunching in Excel for 25 mins, then go a browse the web for 50 mins, you’ll see that Time Tracker Pro has correctly placed such data in the right bottom pane.

Another important point is that not only does it track the applications you’re using but it also tracks the individual documents that you’re reading or writing within those applications.  That’s an important functionality that’s appreciated by freelancers and other knowledge workers.

It’s currently not possible to manually start and stop timers for various tasks (such as offline tasks), but we are looking to implement this in the future versions.

One of our major goals for creating Time Tracker Pro was to start with the most basic and simple User Interface (UI). 

We didn’t want to introduce too many bells and whistles, and believed the simpler the UI was, the quicker our users would understand it, and the more productive they’ll be.

Click on image to enlarge

The UI is divided into 4 main sections:

• At the very top is the flexible date picker and filter.  You can select a specific date range (such as yesterday or last week), or create your own.

  Choosing specific dates will automatically refresh the data right below it.

• The left pain represents an array of Projects and their corresponding Activities.

  These are defined by you anyway you’d like.  So for instance, you can click on the “+” button above it to create either a new Project or Activity.

  A project is a grouping of various activities.  So for instance, if you’re working for a specific client (Acme, Inc), you can name that project “Acme, Inc” and all the activities would fall under the client.

  An activity is a specific task that you’re working on.  For example, an activity can be programming, or writing documentation, or skyping with a customer.  It can be anything else really.

  If you’re doing several activities for a specific client, then it would make sense to group them under the same project (which can be called by client’s name).

• The top right pane is the graphical representation of the top applications that were sorted by their utilization.  The applications that were used the most are appeared to the left, and so on.
• The bottom right pane is a list of Applications and their corresponding Documents (if any).

  For instance, if you’re using a document application such as TextEdit or Photoshop, you can be working on various documents within the application.  That’s why it’s very important to be able to track how much time you’re spending in each individual document.

Time Tracker Pro is a desktop Mac application that automatically tracks the time you spend on various application as well as the actual documents inside the applications.

It’s a unique solution offering much more detailed and automatic tracking over web solutions that require manual input every time you start and stop a particular task.  With Time Tracker Pro, you don’t have to remember all that.

All you need to do is start Time Tracker Pro.  Once it’s started, it remains running in the background meticulously tracking everything you do on your Mac.

To activate the application, simple click on the little clock on the top status bar.

The application will continue to run until you manually close it.

• Part 1: What is Time Tracker Pro
• Part 2: The User Interface
• Part 3: How the tracking works
• Part 4: How to organize your tasks
• Part 5: How to see your history by date range