COBASOFT CLOCK

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A single-user license costs only $ 9.95! You can buy online from DIGIBUY and SWREG or per FAX from Cobasoft.
Features Taskbar Icon
clock in tray The Cobasoft Clock makes some of your daily tasks easier and faster: The analog clock looks good in the system taskbar and it is the control center of the clock. The report tracks the usage of your computer. The alarms and timers can be set very quickly. The clock can copy the current date and time into the clipboard. And it can display the current moon phase as another icon. Installation is easy, just start the 'setup' shortcut. See also: AutoStart, Private, Uninstall and Shortcut. The clock icon ClockIcon shows the current time in appealing analog form. The short, thick line shows the hour, the long and thin line shows the minute and the little dot shows the second. The display is exact up to the second. The icon has a tool-tip that shows the current date and time. Clicking on the icon starts various actions:
Right-Click: Main Clock Menu
Right-Click+Shift: QuickMode Alarm
Right-Click+Ctrl: QuickMode Timer
The Clock Menu The Clock Options Menu
Clicking with the right mouse button on the clock icon opens the main menu:
  Options...
  Close!
  Help...
  Edit Alarms...
  Edit Timers...
  Show Report...
  Copy Timestamp!
Choosing "Options" in the main menu opens this popup menu:
  Edit License Information...
  Edit Alarm Marker Settings...
  Edit Timer Marker Settings...
  Edit Color Settings...
  Edit Report Settings...
  Set Hot Key...
  AutoStart
  Private
  No Seconds
  Show Moon
  Uninstall...
Copy Timestamp
This feature copies the current date and time string into the clipboard. The string might look like this: '2000-11-04 13:36:56', its real format depends on the short-date and short-time format settings in the control panel. The string is intended to be pasted into other applications, like word processors or email programs. The quickest way to get the timestamp is: Set a shortcut. Press the shortcut keys, then press 'C'. Now the string is in the clipboard!
Edit License Information
License
By filling out the license information you indicate that you are the owner of this software. You can immediately go online to order Cobasoft Clock. Pressing the 'Order!' button will open a browser and go to the DIGIBUY web site where you can shop immediately for single, multiple and network licenses of Cobasoft Clock. Please read the license carefully before buying or using Cobasoft Clock!

An unlicensed copy of Cobasoft Clock is restricted to 5 alarms, 5 timers and the startup logo cannot be turned off. The clock will show notifications messages on most commands after the 30 day evaluation period has expired!

Using the license key: When you buy Cobasoft Clock you get RegCodes which look like this: "1109001-025000-200005-000000 2LKMNO98*&0+". This code consists of two parts: the serial number and the registration key, separated by a space. You cut-and-paste (or type) the first part into the 'Serial' and the second part into the 'Key' field of the dialog. The 'Owner' and 'Firm' fields must be filled, but their contents are not part of the key computation. You then press OK. When the serial number and key code match, the Cobasoft Clock is unlocked and you can use it without restrictions.
Alarm Settings
Alarm Settings
The alarm settings window consists of a hint window, an area with 9 marker colors and the alarm scale. The hint window is in the top-left edge. It will show the name and color of a marker when you pass with the mouse over the marker. It will show the time when you drag a marker on the scale. The alarm window works in QuickMode when you start it by holding the shift key and clicking with the right mouse button on the clock icon in the taskbar. It will then close automatically when you have set or modified a single alarm. This means that you can set an alarm (or timer) with only 2 mouse click. Every tick on the alarm scale represents 5 Minutes. You can choose one of 9 marker colors by clicking in the marker color area. You can set a large number of alarms (in fact, one for each tick of the scale) and the properties of the alarms are defined by one of the 9 marker types. Each marker type defines the color, text and other properties of one alarm or timer. See Marker Settings for further details. You set an alarm by clicking on the alarm scale or by clicking into the color area and dragging into the scale area. You modify an alarm by dragging it around. You delete an alarm by dragging it outside the scale area. The mouse cursor will change to indicate the action. You can press Ctrl-Del to delete all alarms. Pressing F10 or right-clicking anywhere in the window opens a context menu. There you can close the window, clear all alarms or modify the Marker Settings. In the context menu you can also set the zoom to 100, 150 or 200 percent. This will enlarge the whole window content and make it easier to use. A right-click on the color area of a marker directly opens the settings dialog for that marker! The alarms window is closed by pressing the Enter or Escape key or by clicking on the close box.
Timer Settings
Timer Settings
The timer settings window works more or less like the alarms window. The timers window goes into QuickMode when you start it directly by holding the control key and clicking with the right mouse button on the clock icon in the taskbar. If you have set some timers and keep this window open long enough, you can see the timer pins walk left once every minute until they trigger a notification. You can have one timer for every minute and the timers have their own 9 marker types, as described in: Marker Settings.
The alarm or timer notifications look like this:
Notification Message Notification Message For Repeated Events
The number in the bottom-right edge is a countdown timer. It closes the notification window automatically and stops the sound. It is only used when a timeout has been specified in the
Marker Settings.
Alarm and Timer Marker Settings
Marker Settings Dialog
This dialog is used to edit the alarm or timer marker settings. There a 9 markers for alarms and 9 for timers. (You can set 140 timers and 288 alarms but there are only 9 different marker types for each class available). Both marker types have nearly the same properties, but the 'Repeat daily' feature is only available for alarms. The pressed marker button indicates the currently active marker, you can choose any of the 9 markers. The marker name field contains up to 8 characters, these are shown in the hint area of the alarm or timer settings window and in the alarm or timer notification. The Color... button is used to choose a predefined or self-composed color for the current marker. This color is used to paint the alarm or timer indicator pins and the marker rectangles in the alarm or timer window. By pressing the Run... button you can choose a file that should be started or played when an alarm or timer is triggered. You can also modify the file name directly. WAV, MID or RMI files are played directly and you can choose to loop these files until the alarm or timer notification message is closed. (Some sample WAVs are include with the Clock!) Other types of files can be started, too. You can open a DOCument, EXEcute a program, start a BATch or go to an HTML file in the WWW. A notification timeout (greater then zero) shows a countdown timer in the notification window and closes it automatically. Sounds are stopped, too. Other started programs or documents continue to run.
Color Settings
Color Settings Dialog
This dialog is used to edit the color settings of the clock icon, alarm and timer windows. You can press the Color button to select or compose colors for any of the drawing elements and you can press Reset to reset every single color to its default. And because a disabled alarm window is automatically shown below the color settings dialog, you can view the color changes by pressing Apply.
The Close button will just close the window without applying the changes. (The hint background color is not used anymore because the alarm and timer windows now show the hint in the color of the marker.)
Report
Report
The report keeps track of activities on your computer. You can use it to keep track of the projects you worked on or of what others did with your machine while you were away. The tracking is done automatically by recording the actice window's title and the time and duration during which the window was active. Pauses in user activity are usually indicated by long times during which no other window was activated. A new header is written into the report when a new day starts or when the Cobasoft Clock is started. The Cobasoft Clock writes the report to a file. You can use the Report Settings dialog to activate the report or choose a name for the report file. When you turn on the Private feature, the report can be written without the clock icons being visible. You open the Report file by Choosing 'Show Report' on the main menu. A text editor (usually Notepad) is then started to show the report file. The report is comma-separated so that it can be imported into other programs. The number of lines in the report file can be reduced greatly by turning on the No Seconds feature. The Clock will then check only once per minute for changed active window titles.
Report Settings
Report Settings Dialog
Here you can choose the name of the report file and enable or disable the report. After pressing Choose File... you can select an existing or new file. A new header is written to the report file if the name of the report file was changed.
Set Hot Key
Set Hot Key
In this dialog you can define a keyboard shortcut for the Cobasoft Clock main menu. This shortcut can be used from any application! Make sure that the cursor is in the input field, then press and hold the wanted keyboard keys together. The input field will show a string that represents the keys, like "Ctrl + Alt + M". Then press OK to activate the shortcut. The shortcut cannot be used to start Cobasoft Clock because it is only available while Cobasoft Clock is running. The OK button will only be enabled if a valid combination is typed. Valid key combination have to include the ALT key. You can delete the shortcut key by pressing DEL in the input field.
The hot key allows you to set some options faster by using the keyboard instead of the mouse. For example:
<Ctrl-Alt-M>C copies the timestamp,
<Ctrl-Alt-M>OU toggles the AutoStart option,
<Ctrl-Alt-M>OS toggles the moon phase display option and
<Ctrl-Alt-M>R shows the report.
AutoStart
By checking or unchecking the AutoStart menu item, you can enable or disable the autostart feature. If AutoStart is set, then the Cobasoft Clock will be loaded any time somebody logs on to the computer. Cobasoft Clock uses a registry setting for AutoStart, it does not need entries in any 'Startup' folder of the Windows 'Start' menu.
Private
By checking or unchecking the Private menu item, you can enable or disable the Private feature. When it is enabled then the Cobasoft Clock icon will only be displayed for you! Nobody else who uses the same computer will see the the clock although the report will continue to work!
This only works if the Cobasoft Clock can find the name of the currently logged-on user. Under Windows NT and Windows 2000 this is always the case but under Windows 9x and Windows Me the user name may not be available because the computer starts without requiring any log-in.
No Seconds
To save CPU time or reduce the number of lines in the report you can check the No Seconds menu item. The clock will then disable the seconds display in the icon and refresh the clock icon and the report only once every minute. On a battery-driven machine this will also reduce the amount of disk writes and save some energy.
Show Moon
By checking or unchecking the Show Moon menu item, you can show or hide the moon phase display. The moon phase icon MoonIcon is shown near the usual clock icon and it displays the moon phase of the current day and time. When you move the mouse over the icon and hold it there without pressing a button, the tooltip will appear and show more detailed information about the moon phase.
Registry Settings
Machine Configuration Personal Configuration
The per-machine configuration of Cobasoft Clock is stored in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE area of the Windows Registry. You can view and edit the registry with tools like 'RegEdit.exe'. It is organized like the file system of your computer, with folders and named items in each folder. The Cobasoft Clock per-computer settings are in the folder: "\SOFTWARE\Cobasoft\Clock". The personal configuration of Cobasoft Clock is stored in the HKEY_CURRENT_USER area and the path to the folder with the settings is "\SOFTWARE\Cobasoft\Clock". If there is an entry with the name 'Log' then its string value will be used as filename for the report file. If the value is missing then the default "%TEMP%\csclock.txt" is used. (%TEMP% is a placeholder for the temporary-files directory.)
Uninstall
You can choose the Uninstall item in the Options menu of the clock icon to uninstall the whole Cobasoft Clock program, all its files and all its registry settings. Be careful with that option because you will loose all alarms, all timers and all other settings and you will have to reinstall CsClock before you can use it again. Uninstallation will not invalidate your registration codes. When you later choose the reinstall the Clock, you can use these codes again.


Your comments are very welcome, just send email to the author. We do not mind if you have not yet registered, any feedback is welcome!



Copyright (c) since 1999, Karl-W.Geitz, Cobasoft GmbH