Using SimpleTimer

Typical use

SimpleTimer is intended to be used as a reminder for daily chores or other duties that have to be accomplished during the day. It doesn't aim to replace cron in any way.

Setting up a reminder is very easy and quick:

  1. create a new timer from File menu -> New Timer,
  2. set up the reminder text,
  3. set up "After" how much time you want the reminder,
  4. click start!

If you have to do something at a specific time (of a specific day), choose the "At date" option. Fill in the full date using the shown format: Year-Month-Day Hour:Minute:Second. Please note that Hours must be specified in the 24-hour format (0-23), and Years in the 4 digits format. The time-zone is the one used by your system.

Once a timer is started, it will count until the time interval has elapsed, and then will perform the selected actions (open box, open web page, play sound).

Save your usual duties (and URLs)

Each timer has "Save" buttons next to the reminder and URL fields: with them you can save the content of the text fields into the user preferences. Then, the next time you create a timer the newly inserted item will be available in the "Usual duties" (or "Usual URLs") drop-down list. You may eventually disable this feature using the Preferences window: selecting "ONLY save inside individual timer" will prevent the Save buttons to update SimpleTimer user defaults, so whatever you add on one timer will not be available on future timers. Also note that every addition is never immediately available to already created timers, only to new ones.

Repetitions

If you have repeating events to track, you may do so by selecting the "Repeat" checkbox. Insert the additional number of times the event is repeating beyond the 1st time; e.g., "repeat event 1 more time", means the event is executed and then repeated another time: in total the reminder will appear 2 times (i.e. "one more" than what you would have with the Repeat checkbox unchecked).

Saving, loading, auto-starting a timer

Each timer can be saved on the hard disk for future use. A double-click on the Finder will automatically open the timer in SimpleTimer. Also, if you save your timer with a checked "Auto-start" checkbox, the next time you open it the timer will automatically start running.

So, for example, you may leave your laundry reminder on the desktop and simply double-click it to automatically start the reminder.

Closing a timer

If you try to close an active timer-window, you will be warned that the timer is still running. To reduce screen clutter, you may close the timer-window but keep the timer running in the background; or you can remove the timer from memory. If you'd like to automatically remove the timer without being warned about the status of the timer, enable the related checkbox in the Preferences.

Handling many timers

If you have many timers, you can see a summary view from the Window menu -> Summary of Open Timers. A countdown is shown for each timer and updated every second. For an easily available summarized view, you may also access the dock by Control-clicking on the SimpleTimer icon. Please note that the summary of the dock is not dynamic, but the timers are still counting correctly, as you can see in the summary view and in each individual timer window!

An indefinite number of timers can be created and started. They will "count" in the background with low CPU load, and almost no CPU load if you close all the windows.

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