Return to product page →

This manual provides a functional description of all OnTimers' features, and where possible, examples. If you're having problems, please try our OnTimers Frequently Answered Questions page.

Contents

Menus

File Menu

• New Timer - Creates a new timer window. The user may create as many timer windows as available memory will allow. The default settings are those that were saved when the "Use as Default" menu item was selected. (See below.)
• Close Timer - Closes the top-most timer window. If the timer is running, it is stopped. If the timer is playing a sound, the sound will not halt until OnTimers is quit.

Edit Menu

• Undo - Undo typing into a timer's field.
• Cut, Copy, and Paste - Provide standard MacOS clipboard functionality.

Timer Menu

• Name Timer - Assign a name to the top-most timer. After selecting this menu item, a dialog box will appear into which a new name for the timer can be entered.
• Duplicate Timer - Create a new timer that is identical to the top-most timer. The only difference is the name of the timer will contain "Copy" followed by the number of times the timer has been duplicated.
  
  
• Save Timer to Catalog - Take the current timer and save it to the "Catalog" menu. After selecting this menu item, a dialog box will appear into which a new saved name for the timer can be entered. All timer settings are saved so they will be exactly recreated when selected from the "Catalog" menu.
  
  
• Use as Default - Use the current timer settings as the default for all newly created timers.
  
  
• Test Timer Completions - For the top-most timer, perform a simulated run the completion settings. This is a convenient way to see if completions work as expected without actually having to start the timer.
  
  
• Start All Timers - Start all currently open timers.
  
  
• Pause All Timers - Pause all currently open timers.
  
  
• Stop All Timers - Stop all currently open timers.
  
  
• Reset All Timers - Stop and Reset all currently open timers.
  
  

Catalog Menu

• Remove Timer Sub-Menu - All timers saved to the catalog may be removed from the catalog by selecting their name from this menu item.
  
  
• Rename Timer Sub-Menu - All timers saved to the catalog may be renamed within the catalog by selecting its name from this menu item. Once selected, a dialog box will appear into which the new saved name for the timer can be entered.
  
  
• All remaining menu items - All remaining menu items, when selected, create a new timer, exactly recreating the settings of the timer it was saved from.
  
  

The Timer Window

Timer Function Buttons - This section describes the four buttons found along the top of the timer window.

• Start Button - Starts the timer.
  
  
• Stop Button - Stops the timer.
  
  
• Reset Button - Resets the timer to the time or duration it was set to the last time the timer was started.
  
  
• Pause Button - Pauses the timer. Timers that are paused can be restarted with the "Start" button.
  
  

Timer Type - This section describes the timer type, which can be changed with the "Set As" pop-up menu.

• Set As Timer - Set the timer with durations of days, hours, minutes, seconds, relative to the time when the "Start" button is pushed. There are four styles of Timers described below.
  
  
• Set As Alarm Clock - Set the ultimate time when the timer should end. Settings are in hours, minutes, seconds, and am/pm. Military time is not expected. Alarms of this type may not be repeated. There is only one style of alarms. Alarms always count to their set time, and continue. This allows for repeated completion sounds.
  
  

Tab Panels - The contents of the four tab panels are intimately described in the sections below.

Timer Styles Tab

These settings are available only for timers, not for alarm clocks.

• Count Up - Timers of this style count up to the entered duration, and stop. This option is only available with timers that are not set as alarm clocks.
  
  
• Count Down - Timers of this style count down to the entered duration, and stop. This option is only available with timers that are not set as alarm clocks.
  
  
• Count Down to Zero, then Count Up - Timers of this style count down to zero from the entered duration, complete, and then count up indefinitely. This option is only available with timers that are not set as alarm clocks.
  
  
• Count Up Indefinitely - Timers of this style count up to the entered time, complete, and then continue counting up indefinitely. This option is only available with timers that are not set as alarm clocks.
  
  

Timer Warnings Tab

• Warn checkbox - Check this box to be warned before a timer completes. Warnings can be set to occur any number of seconds, minutes, hours, or days before a timer completes.
  
  
• Warn with popup menu - Select whether the audible warning will be the spoken remaining time, or a selected sound.
  
  
• Repeating every - Specify how often after the first warning, the should warnings repeat. Repeated warnings can be set to occur any number of seconds, minutes, hours, or days before a timer completes.
  
  

Timer Completions Tab

These settings specify actions that take place when a timer completes.

• None - Check this box if a timer should not take any action upon completion. This option is a simple way to disable all completions without having to uncheck each individual completion item.
  
  
• Play sound - Select any sound to play when the timer completes. Sounds listed are those installed in the system file. Using the "Sound" (Or "Monitors and Sound") control panel, new sounds may be added to the system.
  
  
• Repeat sound every - Select how often, after completion, the played sound should be repeated. This option is only available for timers of style "Count up indefinitely" and "Count down, then count up", as well as alarms.
  
  
• Speak text - Check this box and enter text to its right to be spoken when a timer completes. Voice and Quality options are taken from settings within the "Speech" control panel. If you have problems, please refer to the OnTimers&#8482 FAQ.
  
  
• Open timer - Check this box to open the selected timer from the catalog when a timer completes.
  
  
• Start timer - Check this box to open and start the selected timer from the catalog when a timer completes. (Careful, you may cause an infinite loop, which may eventually consume all of OnTimers memory allocation, producing undesirable results.) It is a good idea to use this option in conjunction with the "Stop and close timer" completion option.
  
  
• Launch... - Once checked, a file dialog will be presented from which the user may select an application to launch when the timer completes. Any application may be launched, including compiled AppleScripts.
  
  
• Open... - Once checked, a file dialog will be presented from which the user may select a document to open when the timer completes. Any document that can be opened from the Finder can be opened with this option.
  
  
• Flash icon in menubar - Check this option for OnTimers small icon to be flashed in the menubar, as per standard MacOS notification procedures. Flashing will stop when OnTimers receives your undivided attention, or a mouse click, whichever comes first.
  
  
• Show dialog... - If checked, a dialog box containing an innocuous string like "Timer finished" will be presented on screen.
  
  
• Stop and close timer... - If checked, the timer that completes will be stopped and closed. It is recommended that you use this option in conjunction with the "Start Timer" option to relinquish resources used by the stopped timer.
  
  
• Awaken computer from sleep - Check this box to awaken your computer from sleep 30 seconds before the first warning or completion is to occur. If you have problems, please refer to the OnTimers&#8482 FAQ.
  
  
• Want more - Want more items? Let us know!
  
  

Timer Notes Tab

The timer notes tab can contain up to 32,000 characters of text. This text is saved with timers that are saved to the Catalog menu.

Installed Timer Files

To run, OnTimers requires only its application program. To utilize OnTimers speech and awakening capabilities, the Speech Manager and Power Manager must be installed on your computer, respectively. On some platforms this is was an option during MacOS installation.

Timers saved to the catalog are contained within the file "OnTimers Catalog", contained within the same folder as the OnTimers application itself.

Requirements

OnTimers will run on any Macintosh running MacOS 8.1 or better and 32MB or more of RAM. OnTimers requires less than 2MB of RAM to run.