Toggl Desktop is now smarter than ever!

We’re happy to announce that Toggl Desktop version 0.9.3 has a new and intriguing feature. It now has the ability to learn.

What do you mean by “learn”?

It works like this:

1. Toggl Desktop memorizes the titles of the windows you use and connects these words in the title with the projects you track.

2. After a short learning period it can give you suggestions on the project to track.

Can you give me an example?

Of course! For example, if you are tracking a task in project A and open a window that you used when tracking a different project, let’s say B, then Toggl Desktop will show you a little popup suggesting you to track project B. You can ignore the popup or agree with the suggestion and Toggl Desktop will automatically start tracking on project B.

How can I try it?

If you noticed, then you see the new autopilot bar at the bottom of Toggl Desktop main window:

It is turned off by default so you have to turn it on by clicking on the black triangle or the text “Autopilot off” itself.

After turning it on, it starts memorizing the titles of the windows you use when working on your project. You will also see study progress while Toggl Desktop is learning.

After some time, when enough information has been gathered, Toggl Desktop can start suggesting which project to track. If you see this “Studying complete” status message, then you know that Toggl Desktop is ready to start helping you.

So, how does Toggl Desktop contribute to my projecttracking?

If Toggl Desktop thinks (based on the information memorized) that you should be tracking a different project from the current project, then a small popup window emerges. It asks if you want to start tracking the project it suggests. If you ignore the window, it will go away automatically after a few seconds but if you click “Yes” then Toggl Desktop will start tracking the project suggested.

As you see in the picture, Toggl Desktop is offering you to start tracking an existing task:

If you have not tracked a task under this project in the current session then Toggl Desktop will suggest you to start a new task:

I don’t want to use this new feature, how can I make it disappear?

Of course, if you are not interested in this feature then simply turn it off if it is on (default is off) and you can hide the autopilot bar from the settings:

Can anybody see the memorized data?

If you are worried about your privacy then don’t be because no information that is collected will be sent to our server or anywhere for that matter. All the data will stay in your computer under your user account.

Try it out and see how it works for you ! :)

P.S. We would very much appreciate any feedback on how our new feature is functioning! Thanks!

P.S.S. Oh, and did I mention that the new version also has many bugfixes?

New Toggl Timer is here!

We released a new version of Toggl today. It features a completely new approach to tracking your time. You can open it by clicking on a link shown in this picture.

What’s new in Toggl 0.14:

• We have split up the administrating pages and the time tracking tool.
• Projects now have messageboards to keep notes and exchange info.
• Clients, workspace properties and team have their own tabs.
• It is easier to add new members to a workspace.
• You can add notes to clients.
• More space for data in the reports.
• Thanks to a lot of optimizing it’s much faster than “old” Toggl.

The differences in Toggl Timer are familiar to those of you who use Toggl Desktop:

• No need to mark your tasks completed anymoreClosing tasks is not necessary anymore, this is taken care of when a new day begins.
• Easier handling of recurring tasksToggl Timer remembers the tasks you worked on during the last seven days and shows you these names as quick links to start tracking time on the task. The task will automatically track time with the current date.

Toggl Timer:

Enjoy and please don’t hesitate to let us know what you think :)

A new look

We just updated Toggl website with a new design and a bit more content. The boys from Exact did a good job with the graphics, so we’re pretty pleased with the outcome.

Give us feedback on your impressions! And – don’t forget to have a nice Christmas.

What we’ve been up to lately

Hi folks!

It’s been quiet here for quite a while, but it doesn’t mean we’ve just been lazing about the whole time. A lot has actually happened during the past few months. For example since the release of Toggl Desktop the number of hours tracked daily has doubled and is constantly growing. This shows very clearly that a desktop version of Toggl was sorely missed and has been received very well. And for that we sincerely thank all of you out there! :)

Having seen the effect Toggl Desktop has had on time tracking we came up with the idea to make the same design and features available in the web version. This is the thing we have been thinking on for some time now and are currently working on.

We’ve got some more new and cool things waiting for you, but we’ll tell you more of those when the time is right ;)

Stay tuned!

PS. Toggl also got a great review by Brian Briggs from Kinetic Wisdom, Inc. Read more from the Mission Expert blog.

Feedback problems

Lately we have had two unfortunate occasions, when the mail server that sends us the feedback from Toggl, failed us. These failures were caused by a glitch in the mailer configuration, but we’ve fixed that and made sure it won’t reproduce. We’ve also added a fail-safe to keep any new comments from getting loston the way. However, this means that some of your comments on Toggl may not have reached us (even if Toggl showed you that it had been sent) :(

So if you sent us a bug report, questions or something else and we haven’t replied in a while, please, send it again. We’re really sorry for this inconvenience. You live and you learn, I guess. We certainly learned our lesson from this :)

Helpful hints #4: Using Toggl Desktop

Today we’ll talk a bit about the basics of using Toggl Desktop.

Log in with your Toggl username and password, set the first day of the week and let’s get started.

To start tracking time you have 2 options:

• Click on the task name below – Toggl continues tracking for this task.
• Click on the project name below – Toggl creates a new task for the project. You can enter the description of the task in the box as usual.

Once the task is running, you can start or stop the timer by clicking on the good old Toggl button

Now, if you want to change task details, you can click on the Edit link in the running task box. This will open up the editing view, where you can change everything about the task (similar to Toggl web).

After editing the task, click on Save.

Enjoy, and please don’t hesitate to give us feedback!

Official Toggl Desktop released!

We’re glad to announce the first release of Toggl Desktop, our little timetracking device for your desktop. It is available for download at Toggl main page.

We have taken our one year experience with Toggl and your very helpful feedback and came up with quite radical changes:

• No need to mark your tasks completed anymore
  Closing tasks is not necessary anymore, Toggl Desktop takes care of it when a new day begins.
• Easier handling of recurring tasks
  Toggl Desktop remembers the tasks you worked on during the last seven days and shows you these names as quick links to start tracking time on the task. The task will automatically track time with the current date.
• Better overview of time spent on a task
  You can see time spent on a task or project during this week by simply hovering your mouse over its name.

Toggl Desktop at work:

Even though Toggl Desktop is still in beta, it is fully functional for tracking time without logging on to the web page.

Current version is usable in Windows only and needs .NET framework 2.0 to be installed. Get your Toggl Desktop now!

Enjoy the new Toggling experience and tell us what you think of it!

Helpful hints #3: Finishing a project

Next in the series we have the ending of a project. Once all work on a project is done, the only thing left to do is archiving it. This way you can clear up your screen for new important things.

Let’s get to it then. For example, let’s close the Application design project for Small client.

To do that, you must first click on the project name. This will open up the Edit project view.

Here click on the Close project button which will pop up a confirmation question.

And you’re done! The project is closed and hidden from view.

Now if you wish to see your closed projects, click on the Show inactive projects link and there you have it.

From the Edit project view you can reopen the project, too, if necessary. And that’s all there is to it :)

Toggl goes Desktop!

Ian Turgeon from rev-in.com has done some remarkable job on Toggl API. Yesterday he published a Toggl Desktop widget for Windows and Mac, developed with Adobe AIR.

Here is the direct link to the installer: Toggler Installer

Please note that it’s an experimental development, and you may run into bugs. Toggl ‘official’ desktop client is in the works and will be published soon.

Helpful hints #2: Completing a task

Completing tasks is the next big questionmark for many Toggl users after manual time entry, so this is what our next tutorial is about.

Marking a task as completed is useful to keep the Tasks for today bar uncluttered. This way you can clear away the tasks you won’t need to track time on anymore this day.

To begin, you have to have at least one task.

Step one is very simple. Just click somewhere on the task to expand the view. You will then see the links for completing or deleting the task or changing its date.

Now click on the Task completed link.

In step two click on the Yes in the confirmation popup if you’re sure. This will mark the the task completed and hide it from the Tasks for today column.

Done! The completed task is now removed from the Tasks for today column and you have a link to the reports section (if the task had today’s date).

We recommend to close the tasks daily and make new ones the next day. This way you can always get aggregated information from the reports.

There are some ideas to make the task-handling more seamless in upcoming releases but more of that later on.