Docs / Notes, time and automations
Notes, time and automations
A name is the first thing DeskSay attaches to a desktop. Three more can follow: a note you keep there, a record of the time you spend there, and a set of automations that run when you arrive or leave. Each one belongs to a single desktop, the same way a name does.
Notes
Every desktop can have one note. The note belongs to that desktop and appears when you are on it. Move to another desktop and you see that desktop's note instead. Nothing is shared between them, so the note on Writing stays on Writing and does not follow you to Email.
Open it from the menu bar with Note for This Desktop. The rest of that menu is described on the menu bar page.
A note is rich text, and it takes checklists, so a note can be a few lines of context at the top and a list of things to tick underneath. Two keys do the work:
Docking is for a note you want to keep near you without it sitting over your work. A docked note moves to the edge of the screen and stays out of the way until you want it again.
You should seeThe note that belongs to the desktop you are on, and nothing from any other desktop.
Notes sit alongside the desktop's name, icon and colour, which are covered in naming a desktop.
Time tracking
DeskSay can record how long you spend on each desktop, and how long each app is in front while you are there. That gives you two views of the same day: where your time went by desktop, and what you were actually using.
Idle time is kept separate from the totals, so a desktop you left open over lunch does not collect an hour you did not work. Count as idle after sets the threshold, in minutes. Below it you count as working, above it the time is recorded as idle.
Figures are grouped by Day or by Week, and there is an option to include app details in the grouping rather than showing desktop totals alone. Save writes the result out as a CSV, which you can open in a spreadsheet or hand to whatever you bill with.
Sessions
Time per desktop is passive: it accumulates whether or not you asked for it. A session is the deliberate version. Give a piece of work a name, then use Start, Pause and Stop to time it. Use this when you want a figure for one job rather than for a desktop.
Everything DeskSay records is stored locally, in a file called tracking.sqlite on your Mac.
All of it lives in Settings, Time Tracking. The other panels are listed on the settings page.
Automations
Automations are in beta. Running them needs a licence. Setting them up does not, so you can build an automation, save it and see how it is put together before you subscribe. See licence and pricing.
An automation belongs to a desktop, and it is the desktop that decides when it runs. There are three triggers:
On Enter and On Exit are for the setting up and putting away that you would otherwise do by hand every time. On Click is for something you want on demand, at a moment you choose.
The actions
How they run
The actions run in order, from the top of the list down. Each action gets 30 seconds to finish; one that takes longer is given up on so it cannot hold up the rest. If anything fails, the failures are collected and reported together in one message at the end, rather than one interruption per action.
An action that targets another app makes macOS ask for permission the first time. DeskSay does not ask up front: the request appears the first time an automation targets a particular app, and only for that app.
If it does not workCheck that the automation is attached to the desktop you think it is, and that the trigger matches what you are doing: an On Click automation does nothing when you arrive. Then check your licence, because running automations needs one.