Work Time Studio Screenshots: Studio Bar

The Studio Bar is a very unique and useful feature in Work Time Studio. At its core, the Studio Bar is actually an application bar, but much more. You may have run across other application bars in the past, but you have not witnessed anything like the Studio Bar. The Studio Bar is actually Work Time Studio displayed in a special manner, in which is very small in height, and stretches across the width of your monitor, and docks to either the top or bottom of your monitor. When the Studio Bar is docked, you can have it set to an Auto Hide mode in which case it retracts off of the monitor and remains completely out of site, until you move your mouse to the edge of the monitor where it's docked, which causes it to come back into view.

This whole idea behind the Studio Bar is to save your desktop space for other programs, but still have Work Time Studio available while it takes up very little, or even no space at all. While a small percentage of software applications have a feature like this, none of them have the useful capabilities as the Studio Bar. When you place Work Time Studio into Studio Bar mode, the most important information within Work Time Studio related to the current WorkItem is displayed on the Studio Bar, keeping you well informed about the current status of your current WorkItem. Also, all of the primary and secondary panes within Work Time Studio are available to view with a single click of the mouse.

The Studio Bar is displayed below. A brief description of the different segments of the Studio Bar then follows.

Clocked State Indicator

The clocked state indicator displays the clocked state for the current WorkItem. There are five possible clocked states that a WorkItem can have.

• Clock Off
• Clock On
• Clock Locked On
• Clock Paused
• Clock Idle

Only one WorkItem can have a clocked state other than 'Clock Off at one time. The clocked state indicator changes when ever the state of the current WorkItem changes, whether the state changes by a user action, or if it changes automatically as when the WorkItem goes into an idle state.

Current Interval Time

The current interval time segment displays the amount of time in which the current WorkItem has been in its current clocked state. When the clocked state changes between any of the clocked states listed above, except between 'Clock On' and 'Clock Locked On', the current interval time is set to zero, and starts incrementing again. When there are no WorkItem's being clocked, the current interval time still increments to show you the elapsed time in which no WorkItem has been clocked, but doesn't show the seconds precision in this case. For all other clocked states, the seconds precision is shown by default. The seconds precision can be turned off for this segment, and also the following two segments, if desired, for all clocked states.

Total WorkItem Time

The total WorkItem time segment displays the total elapsed actual time for the current WorkItem. This time is incremented in real time when the clocked state is either 'Clock On' or 'Clock Locked On'. In any other clocked state this time is not incremented.

Collective WorkItem Time

The accumulated WorkItem time segment displays the collective actual time for the current WorkItem. This is the total actual time that has elapsed for the current WorkItem plus the WorkItem's descendants.

Current WorkItem Progress Bar

The current WorkItem progress bar segment displays a progress bar for the current WorkItem. The progress bar displays the progress of a WorkItem and its descendants based on the following simplified formula, (accumulated actual time / accumulated estimated time). Although the actual calculation takes into consideration many factors, this is the basic formula which is used to calculate the progress of a WorkItem. The progress bar can only accurately display the current progress when you have entered an estimated time for the WorkItem, so you're always encouraged to enter an estimated time for any WorkItems where appropriate.

Clocked State Buttons

The clocked state button segment provides a way for you to control the clocked state of the current WorkItem. There are four clocked state button positions in this segment, and their behavior and icon changes depending on the current clocked state. These four button positions are discussed below.

• Button Position 1
  • This position always contains the Start Clock button.
• Button Position 2
  • This position contains the Start and Lock Clock button, when the clock is not currently locked on, and the Unlock Clock button when the clock is currently locked.
• Button Position 3
  • This position contains the Pause Clock button when the clock is on, and the Resume Clock button when the clock is paused.
• Button Position 4
  • This position always contains the Stop Clock button.

Current WorkItem

The current WorkItem segment displays the current WorkItem, which is the WorkItem which has a clocked state (other than Clock Off), or, if there is no clocked WorkItem, the current WorkItem will be the WorkItem which is selected in the Activity Tree. If there is no clocked WorkItem, and no WorkItem selected in the Activity Tree, then there is no current WorkItem, and this segment will be blank.

Primary Pane Buttons

The primary pane buttons segment provides buttons to toggle the visible state of the primary panes when the Studio Bar is active. This segment, and the following segments, only appear when Work Time Studio is in Studio Bar mode. There are three buttons in this segment, which represent the three primary panes, as follows.

• Activity Tree Pane
• Activity Calendar Pane
• Report View Pane

When you click on a button in this segment, the corresponding pane appears on the desktop (if it isn't already displayed). The button is then highlighted to signify that the corresponding pane is visible. When a pane exists on the desktop in this manner, the pane is said to be a floated pane. Clicking a button in this segment when the corresponding pane is displayed, closes the corresponding pane. Another way to close a floated pane is to double click on the floated panes title bar, or click the close button on the floated pane.

When you open a primary pane using these buttons, the pane is positioned in the same place that it was last floated. These buttons are very handy, as they give you very quick access to the primary panes in Work Time Studio while in Studio Bar mode. After you become familiar with these buttons, there is really no need to take Work Time Studio out of Studio Bar mode. Advanced users are known to keep Work Time Studio in Studio Bar mode over 99% of the time the application is running.

Secondary & Sub Pane Buttons

This segment provides buttons to toggle the visible state of the secondary panes when the Studio Bar is active. This segment, and the following segments, only appear when Work Time Studio is in Studio Bar mode. There are four buttons in this segment. The first three buttons represent the three secondary panes. The last button represents the WorkItem Notes pane, which is a sub pane of the Activity Tree pane.

• Quick Tree Pane
• Prioritizer Pane
• Interval History Pane
• WorkItem Notes Pane

When you click on a button in this segment, the corresponding pane appears on the desktop (if it isn't already displayed). The button is then highlighted to signify that the corresponding pane is visible. When a pane exists on the desktop in this manner, the pane is said to be a floated pane. Clicking a button in this segment when the corresponding pane is displayed, closes the corresponding pane. Another way to close a floated pane is to double click on the floated panes title bar, or click the close button on the floated pane.

When you open a secondary pane using these buttons, the pane is positioned in the same place that it was last floated. These buttons are very handy, as they give you very quick access to the secondary panes, and the WorkItem Notes pane while in Studio Bar mode.

Auto Hide Button

The Auto Hide Button allows you to place the Studio Bar in auto-hide mode. This button is only available in Studio Bar mode. It allows you to toggle back and forth in and out of auto-hide mode. When in auto-hide mode, the studio bar retracts off of your desktop entirely, until you move your mouse cursor side of the screen where the Studio Bar is docked. Then, the Studio Bar will slide back into view, until you move your mouse away, or toggle the Studio Bar back out of auto-hide mode.

Auto-hide mode is handy if you want to keep the maximum amount of desktop space available for your other programs. In this mode, the Studio Bar doesn't take up any space on your desktop at all, but is still available in a split second by moving your mouse to the side of the screen where it's docked.