MendoClick™
It's about Time


Timers, Alarms, Stopwatches, Schedulers

Free trial from the manufacturer:
See Below

Shareware Review

by Margaret Blauvelt
March 10, 2002


All software below has trial versions available at the manufacturers' websites.

Product Manufacturer Price (on Review Date)* Operating System
Timer Acute Software
www.acutesoftware.com.au		 $22.00 Win 9x, ME, NT, 2000
Joggler v5.8 Key2k
www.key2k.com		 $14.00 Win 9x, ME, NT v4, SE, 2000
ClockWise v3.20c RJ Software
www.rjsoftware.com		 $24.95 (1st copy) Win 9x, ME, NT, 2000, XP
12Ghosts vXP/06
(Program Bundle)		 12Ghosts
www.12ghosts.com		 $12.99 to $34.99 (see below) Win 9x, SE, ME, NT v4, 2000, XP
STS Alarm Clock v3.1.3 SofTex Solutions
www.softexsolutions.com		 $10.00 Win9x, NT, 2000

*Prices may change without notice. MendoClick has no control over price changes.

This review covers shareware with one or more of five basic time functions:

  1. Alarm reminder set to a particular clock time (e.g., 3:00 p.m.)
  2. Start up a program or utility at a set time and (in some cases) terminate it as well
  3. Countdown timers ("egg timers")
  4. Stopwatches
  5. Synchronize your computer's clock to official government time

Some programs lack the last function, and they differ in which they do best. What to buy depends on what you need the most. A comparison chart is below. It is a good idea to print it so that you can highlight the features most important to you.

Two other inexpensive programs may be worth your consideration, but they are not reviewed here because they lack countdown timers and stopwatches. If you need a calendar and integrated diary to track your time, look at Easy Time by rawos (www.rawos.com). It allows links and embedded objects within the diary to help you jump straight from your work list to your work. AlarmWiz by Acro Vista Software (www.acrovista.com) features superior program scheduling that allows you to create scripts for doing just about anything with your computer according to a schedule. Both of these programs can also synchronize your computer to an atomic clock.

Acute Software's Timer is best at tracking billable time. It is the only program that can record stopwatch times to a log file and has a "favorites" list of named stopwatches so that you can quickly jump from project to project. Another nice touch is the default incremental naming strategy - Timer1, Timer2, etc. - or you can name them yourself, like in all the other programs. (There are more elaborate programs that do invoicing as well as billable time tracking, but they will also cost more and are beyond our scope here.)

Joggler is the friendliest timer, both in its straightforward organization and in the choices it gives you about how to respond to an alarm. If the "acknowledge" box is not checked, the alarm popup window will disappear on its own after about four seconds without interrupting your typing or requiring any action. If instead the "acknowledge" option is set, the alarm window will include a button to acknowledge and close the window, a button to turn off the auditory alarm but leave the window in place until you no longer need it, or a slider control to set "snooze" for up to ten minutes.

Neither program works well as a scheduler because they lack a calendar. Although you can set a reminder or initiate a program according to clock time and you can repeat it, the maximum interval is 99 hours, 99 minutes and 99 seconds, so you cannot schedule anything once a week or once a month.

ClockWise and 12Ghosts provide the best scheduling features but have only one stopwatch. ClockWise's two countdown timers are limited, but you can always schedule a reminder for a set time instead, and then you can also have it repeat automatically. 12Ghosts actually has two countdown timers, a slide bar for up to 60 minutes in the "ShowTime" utility and a countdown option that is integrated with regular event scheduling in "Timer" in a remarkably sensible and efficient way. The latter countdown timer can be set to repeat and be logged in the same way as any scheduled event, and multiple timers can run at once.

ClockWise is the only program that tracks your Internet connection time, both in its timer log file and as a separate running total by the month. The software has several other noteworthy features. You can specify certain times of the day that a repeating event is not to run, set an option to show a popup warning 60 seconds before a program is to execute along with the choice to abort it, and review events and reminders scheduled during a time when ClockWise was not running along with the choice to start missed programs immediately.

12Ghosts is not a single program, but a set of utility programs that you can buy singly or in bundles. Besides the very good programs discussed in this article, the bundles include a variety of handy utilities. Unless you just want one utility ($12.99 each), they are much cheaper by the bundle.

The program "ShowTime" has the stopwatch, a countdown timer, and a very customizable display clock. "Timer" is designed for scheduling programs and reminders. It includes the ability to start and stop other timers, making it extremely flexible. "Synchronize" sets your computer to the atomic clock. "ShutDown" allows you to schedule a time to shut down, reboot, logoff, and related functions, and includes a very nice option for running the "Backup" utility automatically just before shutting down. You can purchase any of these alone, but for less than twice the cost you can buy them all, along with a host of other utilities, as part of the "12Ghosts" or "HiSpirits" bundles. "ShowTime" is also included in the smaller "7Dwarfs" bundle.

STS Alarm Clock handles scheduling in a more basic way and its stopwatch and countdown timer have the fewest features of all, but it is also the least expensive program. Rather than a full calendar, it tracks the seven days of the week, with boxes to check for each day you want to run something at the scheduled time. Another unique feature is customizable skins to change the program's appearance.

Feature Acute Software's
Timer		 Joggler ClockWise 12Ghosts STS Alarm
Clock
No. of timers 321 Multiple2 2 Unlimited 1
No. of stopwatches 321 Multiple2 1 1 1
Set by calendar date N N Y Y Y
Can log stopwatches Y N N N N
Can log scheduled events Y N Y Y N
Repeat event at intervals Less than 5 days Less than 5 days Any interval Any interval3 Daily only4
Quickly suspend/reactivate events N N/A Y Y Y
Exclude weekends on repeated event N N Y Y Y4
Exclude holidays on repeated event N N N Y N
Options control alarm intrusiveness Limited5 Flexible Limited5 Flexible N
Track Internet connection time N N Y N N
Synchronize to atomic clock N N Y Y6 N
Shut down the computer N N Y Y7 N
Screen saver that shows time N N Y N N
Show phases of moon N N Y Y N
Show sunrise and sunset N N Y N N
Show times around the world N N Y Y N
Display Julian date (also Gregorian) N N Y N N

Footnotes:

  1. 1 Total for all timer types together.
  2. 2 Effectively get multiple timers by running multiple copies of the program at once. The drawback is that it takes a little longer to start up the program than it does to set a timer in any other program. Joggler offers some compensation, however, in that you can save timer settings files. Instead of opening Joggler directly, open up the timer settings file so that Windows automatically launches Joggler to read it. Then the settings will already be loaded when it starts. You can also have several timers running minimized just to keep the program loaded. Set them to any long duration. When you want a timer, open it up, change the settings (or load a settings file), and restart it - a very quick procedure in Joggler.
  3. 3 Interval can be minutes, hours or days but not months. You cannot schedule it to repeat every first of the month, for example; you would have to schedule each month separately.
  4. 4 This repeats like an alarm clock: every 24 hours. However, you can check which days of the week to repeat, so you could have an alarm go off at 6 a.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday only, for example.
  5. 5 Although you can make the alarm less intrusive by choosing not to have the popup window, which you would have to take action to close, relying solely on the audible alarm is risky. If your speakers are off or another program is controlling the sound card at the time of the alarm, you will never hear it.
  6. 6 Must have 12Ghosts "Synchronize" program (included in "12Ghosts" and "HiSpirits" bundles).
  7. 7 Must have 12Ghosts "ShutDown" utility (included in "12Ghosts" and "HiSpirits" bundles).

Personally, I found ClockWise and Joggler to be the most straightforward, but the others come quite close. I began looking for countdown timers and a stopwatch, but, much as I like Joggler and nice though it would be to log stopwatches with Acute Software, I appreciate the scheduling features in ClockWise and 12Ghosts. The extra utilities bundled with 12Ghosts are attractive, but so is having all the time functions in one place in ClockWise.

None of these programs has everything. Nonetheless, what they have is quite impressive. Perhaps the missing features will show up in later versions. Meanwhile, download the free trials. If you elect to search on your own, the preceding chart can help you with your checklist. Let me know if you find the perfect timer!

Microsoft, Windows, Outlook, PowerPoint, FrontPage, and Microsoft Office are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Revised: July 04, 2005