# The &kronometer; Handbook

## Introduction

&kronometer; is a simple stopwatch application. It is meant to be simple and pleasant to use, thanks to a use cases driven development.

&kronometer; main features are the following:

- &kronometer; provides a timer that can be started, paused, resumed and reset.

- &kronometer; allows you to record lap times and export them to a file.

- &kronometer; allows you to save a session and restore it later.

- &kronometer; allows you to copy timer numbers from display.

## Usage

### General Usage

&kronometer; main use case is of course the interaction with the timer. You can start/pause/resume the timer by clicking on the proper actions in the toolbar or in the &kronometer; menu.

Even simpler, you can use the keyboard instead of the mouse: you start the timer with the keyboard's Space and you pause the timer with Space too. You might recognize this behavior from many media player applications.

By pressing the Enter key when the timer is running, you freeze that particular time and you create a new lap time. These times are always visible in the table on the left of the application, where you can sort them by clicking the Lap time column's header. You can also add a custom text annotation to each lap, by double-clicking the cells within the Note column.

### Save and restore sessions

When you pause a running stopwatch you create a session: a stopwatch time and zero or more lap times. You can save a session on a file and you can restore it later.

### Save a session

Pause a running stopwatch, then click on the Save As button on the toolbar or in the File menu. Then choose a name for the session's file to be stored on your computer.

### Restore a session

Click the Open button on the toolbar or in the File menu. Then choose an existing session's file to be loaded.

### Update a session

When the session is restored, you can resume the stopwatch and you can record new lap times. If you want to save the updated session, you can simply click the Save button in the toolbar or in the File menu.

### Export lap times

When you record one or more lap times, the export features in the File menu is made available, under the entry Export laps as. Click on it and then choose a name for the exported file. You can export in the Comma Separated Values (CSV) format or in the &XML; one.

### Clipboard support

&kronometer; is able to copy the current stopwatch time to the system clipboard. Use the &Ctrl;C key combination or the Copy entry in the Edit menu.

## Configuration

&kronometer; is customizable in many aspects. You can open the settings dialog clicking on the Configure &kronometer; entry in the Settings menu. The settings dialog is organized in the following categories.

### General settings

In the general settings page you can choose the preferred time format for the stopwatch display and for the lap times. You choose whether to show hours, minutes, seconds or second fractions. &kronometer; supports time granularity up to millisecond, although it requires high CPU usage due to the high refresh rate of the UI.

### Font settings

In the font settings page you can customize the font of the stopwatch display. You can choose different font families, styles and sizes for each timer component (hours, minutes, &etc;).

### Color settings

In the color settings page you can customize the default color of the stopwatch display. You can change the background color and the text color.

### Interface settings

In the interface settings page you can choose whether to disable the laps recording feature. This can be useful if you wish to optimize the window content. You can also choose whether to show the time headers. The time headers are the labels on the upper space of the stopwatch display. They show the name of each timer component (hours, minutes, &etc;).

### Save settings

In the save settings you can choose the indentation size (that is the number of blank spaces) of the XML files created by &kronometer;. The dialog allows you to choose different sizes for the save files and the export files.

You can also set the indent size (number of characters) of the &XML; save files and exported files.

### &kde; Built-in settings

&kronometer; makes use of the standard &kde; configuration tools. You find them in the Settings menu, under the Configure shortcuts and Configure Toolbars entries. They allow you to change the shortcuts of the &kronometer;'s actions, and to change the position of the toolbar and its content.

## Credits and License

&kronometer;

Program copyright © 2014 Elvis Angelaccio elvis.angelaccio@kdemail.net

Documentation copyright © 2014 Elvis Angelaccio elvis.angelaccio@kdemail.net

&underFDL; &underGPL;
&documentation.index;