Time Keeping

[Katherine_Schultz@adobeforums.com]

I'm currently running Illustrator CS on Microsoft Windows XP Professional Service pack 2. What I would like to ask is there anyway to determine how much time that has been spent in a particular document? I understand that I can find the date it was created, but I think it would be interesting to have a almost stop-watch time keeping system for individual documents. As a designer, when I'm full into a project I tend to forget exactly how much time has passed from day to day, never mind trying to remember how much time was spent on document 'x' for client 'd'. Just a thought.

[B. Philippus]

Katherine:

I know that you can choose from several options in the little status bar at the bottom left in Illustrator 10 and older...Alt-click and you can get info like moon phases, shopping days 'til christmas, and number of mouse clicks, but no, not the amount of time spent on a document.

Bert

[Bryant_M@adobeforums.com]

How about saving a job as soon as you start on it, then by saving againg when you want to check how much time you've spent on it you can compare the "created" time with the "modified" time?

i.e. docmunet creadted:5:45 PM, Document modified: 7:45 PM =2hrs

[sven_haarkoetter@adobeforums.com]

Hi Katherine,
a) may be 'version cue' helps you with this. it's part of the cs suite, check your installation for it.

b) bryants tip works fine - once. the next time you open and save the document the "modified time" will change again.

c) do you have ms word? open a document and type all your illustrator docs. mark as links (so a click should open them in illustrator). now write a small macro which logs the time when clicking one of these. add a "stop"-button to log the ending time.

d) buy a big kitchen watch and a small (paper) notebook. write down the project name, the starting and end time. that's how i do it :-)