Version 3 macro use

Posted by Steve Carter , Sat, Feb 08, 2003, 15:00:53   Forum
The macro capabilities of version 3 have provided something I've wanted for a while: A way to use Datebook for time reporting. Perhaps others will find my methodology useful.

I want to use Datebook for tracking time spent on tasks and projects. I realize there are other Palm applications out there, but there are reasons to stick with Palm Datebook.

I've created a custom West slide on p something like the following:

practice guitar‹command›aMUSIC

So I tap on a timeslot in Datebook and slide p. Fitaly enters "practice guitar", then sends a command-a, which opens a note, and enters MUSIC. I hit done and now I have a categorized task entry.

The guitar example is trivial, but it demonstrates the point.

I wrote a little Delphi application that calls DIMEX to export Datebook to a comma-separated-values (CSV) file, and imports that file into MySql. I then use Crystal reports to report on time spent. I can report on MUSIC, in which case I get all music activity, and a subtotal for practicing, or I can report on practicing.

One advantage of this approach is that I can use Custom Slides to store keyword identifiers for projects, tasks, and subtasks. For example, I might have something like SUBMIT NEW_FEATURE, and SUBMIT BUG_FIX. I can automatically enter these categories with a custom slide. Then I can report on the SUBMIT project, with subtotals for time spent on new features (hopefully a lot) and bug fixes (hopefully none). In the past, I kept forgetting what the keywords were for different projects and tasks. It will still take some effort to remember what slides apply to what tasks, but I don't track that many at once, so it should work.

I'm looking forward to finding new values for this approach, and I hope it is useful, or thought-provoking, for other Fitaly users.

Steve
Related link: http://www.frogstoryrecords.com

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