<page xmlns="http://projectmallard.org/1.0/"
      type="topic"
      id="input">
<info>
  <link type="guide" xref="index"/>
  <desc>Tricks to speed up activity entry.</desc>
</info>
<title>Input</title>

<p>
    To start tracking, press the <gui style="button">+</gui> button,
    type in the activity name in the entry,
    and hit the <key>Enter</key> key.
    To specify more detail on the fly, use this syntax: 
    `time_info activity name @category,, some description #tag #other tag with spaces`.
</p>

<steps>
    <item><p>Specify specific times as `13:10-13:45`, and "started 5 minutes ago" as `-5`.</p></item>
    <item><p>Next comes the activity name</p></item>
    <item><p>Place the category after the activity name, and start it with an at sign `@`, e.g. `@garden`</p></item>
    <item><p>If you want to add a description, add a double comma `,,`.</p></item>
    <item><p>The description is just freeform text immediately after the double comma, and runs until the end of the string or until the beginning of tags.</p></item>
    <item><p>Place tags at the end, and start each tag with a hash mark `#`.</p></item>
    <item><p>A double comma `,,` can also be placed to indicate the beginning of tags. Otherwise any `#` in the activity, category or description would be interpreted as a starting a tag.</p></item>
</steps>

<p>
    A few examples:
</p>
<example>
    <code>12:30-12:45 watering flowers</code>
    <p>Forgot to note the important act of watering flowers over lunch.</p>
</example>
<example>
    <code>tomatoes@garden,, digging holes</code>
    <p>
        Need more tomatoes in the garden. Digging holes is purely informational,
        so added it as a description.
    </p>
</example>
<example>
    <code>-7 existentialism,, thinking about the vastness of the universe</code>
    <p>
        Corrected information by informing application that I've been
        doing something else for the last seven minutes.
    </p>
</example>

<note style="info">
    <title>Time input</title>
    <list>
        <item>
            <p>Relative times work both for <var>start</var> and <var>end</var>,
            provided they are preceded by an explicit sign, 
            and <em>separated by a space</em>.</p>
            <p><code>-30 -10</code> means started 30 minutes ago and stopped 10 minutes ago.</p>
            <p><code>-5 +30</code> means started 5 minutes ago and will stop in 30 minutes
            (duration of 35 minutes).</p>
        </item>
        <item>
            <p>Duration can be given instead of <var>end</var>, 
            as 1, 2 or 3 digits without any sign.</p>
            <p><code>-50 30</code> means started 50 minutes ago and lasted 30 minutes
            (so it ended 20 minutes ago).</p>
        </item>
        <item>
            <p>Times can be entered with a colon (<code>hh:mm</code>),
            with a dot (<code>hh.mm</code>) or just the 4 digits (<code>hhmm</code>).</p>
        </item>
        <item>
            <p>Date can be specified in ISO format (YYYY-MM-DD), e.g. `2019-12-24 19:00`. Otherwise, the time belongs to the current hamster day or, in the gui, to the day selected in the timeline.</p>
        </item>
    </list>
</note>

</page>
