Slimtimer, a web based timer, is sort of what I was hoping Tick would have included when I reviewed earlier this week. Perhaps the two companies will join forces down the road and make a single project management time tracking tool.

First, the best news: you don’t need a super secret handshake private invite, it’s open to the public as of this writing. The registration and signup proces involves entering in your name, email address and password. An email will be sent with a validation code to click, all standard fare. Good, it worked with + in my email where many of these programs tested did not [youremail+slimtimer@abcdomain.com < -- just here for example and to irritate harvesters].

A bookmarklet is available to launch the SlimTimer and as the screenshot above shows, it really is slim. Using Screen Calipers, the screenshot below shows it is a mere 155 pixels wide:

Click here to view an actual size screenshot. The actual screen real estate required for the timer for various resolutions ranges from a high of 19.4% for 800×600 to 12.1% or better for higher resolutions.

(19.4%) 800×600 = 155 px
(15.1%) 1024×768 = 155 px
*(12.1%) 1280×720 (*desktop shown at the top of post)

Starting the timer using Add Task
After launching the SlimTimer it wasn’t very intuitive as to what to do next. Add Task opens a menu with these cryptic grayed out codes:

Task [tag 1, tag2] c(coworker@st.com) r(client@acme.com)

Toggle Help attempts to add a key to the items, but the slim instructions still aren’t very clear:

[tag1, tag2]
Set tags; comma delimited.
c(coworker@email.com)
Set coworkers; comma or space delimited.
r(reporter@email.com)
Set reporters; comma or space delimited.

My assumption was this allowed you to set tags at the same time you assigned a task as well as assigning a coworker and reporter email addresses. Suggestion to developer: add some real world examples as to how these fields might be filled out. Or at least a first time wizard to walk through the process.

Here is how I got running with a task:

STEP 1. Click “Add Task”
STEP 2. Typed in “Testing SlimTimer” and hit enter
STEP 3. A “Testing SlimTimer” checkbox and text appeared just below the Tag/Comment and I clicked on the “Testing SlimTimer” text. The red timer with 0.00 turned green and the counting began.
STEP 4. Added Tag: “test” with comment: “first test of SlimTimer.”
STEP 5. To stop timing I just closed the window.

Reporting options
On the SlimTimer website under the “Manage Tasks” tab I learned more about the mysterious coworker and reporter options which appear to be using email as a permission structure for who can access the information and what can be done with the records of the activity.

Coworkers: “Can make time entries on, mark task completed and run reports.”
Reporters: “Can run reports of time logged on this task.”

You can also view the following projects:

Active - “Created by or shared with me and not completed.”
Mine - “Created by or shared with me and not completed.”
Theirs - “Shared with me and not completed.”
Completed - “Completed by myself or a coworker.”

Support options
There is a Google group for SlimTimer and the first request was something that immediately crossed my mind: offline timing. The author also welcomes direct feedback via email. There doesn’t appear to be an official SlimTimer blog. [Update 7/27/06 12:12pm PST: the author replied below that the official blog is here]

Will I use SlimTimer?
I will try using it for a couple projects and see how it goes, but I would rather have something like ActiveTimer on the Mac where I can set what programs to watch how much time is spent in and automatically insert that data into the task data. Offline time tracking is important for working out of the office so this tool only helps for work done in the office and/or where an internet connection is present. I realize that seems like a lame complaint for web based software, but the reality is not everybody always has internet when they are working on projects. Grade: C+.

Did this post make you go hmm?

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