I just signed up to Toggl and can see a few more things of interest now:

• Activities (the type of thing you are doing - translating/reviewing/project management/invoicing etc.) - some will be user defined but I guess we could automatically create some based on Studio activities
• Projects - need to match a Studio project?
• Clients - could be linked to the Client field in Studio
• Teams - not sure how you would see this being used?
• Workspaces - not sure how you would see this being used?
• Tags - this could be useful for the filename for example, or even the names of who worked on a file based on userid?  What else might this be used for?

It does look like an interesting application and I definitely think the reporting needs to be done in Toggl so we just need to look at how users would make use of this in practice via Studio.

Hi Paul,

Thank you for your consideration.

For me, the biggest draw of the idea of having a Toggl plugin was automatic clock starting/stopping.
If it is not going to do that, then I don't think I need a plugin (Sorry, Karen Tkaczyk):
when I translate, I have my Internet browser open anyways for research, and, in Chrome, another tab of Toggl does not get in the way (especially if I "Pin tab").

My feedback to your starting point:

1. New ribbon group for Toggl

Yes, but I would add Toggl buttons to my ribbon that I've customized.
And would it be able to show the running clock? If not, I think I would just use the web or desktop Toggl.

2. Icon that takes you to a setup location for your activities in Toggl

Yes, a link to that page in Toggl.com

3. Icon that lets you start the clock for a specific activity

OK.

I am used to using the start buttons which are to the right of my most recent activities in Toggl.com, so I can continue what I was doing before instead of selecting parameters each time.
I create a new Toggl Project for each new translation project, so I would have to manually change the "specific activity" in settings each time I start a new project.

There may be other people who would track all their SDL time in a Toggl Project called "Translation" or something, and I think your idea would work the best for those people.

4. Icon that stops the clock

Yes.

5. Some sort of reporting link - maybe as simple as an icon that takes you to Toggl for the reports?

Yes. Toggl has a robust reporting system, so I wouldn't require anything additional within SDL, or require looking at Toggl.com in a smaller frame within SDL products.

6. All recording should also tag the following (if there is somewhere in Toggl to store this information):
- the project name
- the file name

Toggl has Projects, Descriptions, and Tags for each time record. (Clients are set when setting up Projects, so not for each record.)

My system for using Toggl:
Toggl Projects = project name. This is not necessarily the file name in SDL (since that is sometimes set by the client).
Toggl Descriptions = irregular. In a project with multiple files, I may use the file name.
Toggl Tags = I don't use it. (Toggl's official Android app automatically adds the "moblie" tag from records started on it, unless this option is turned off.)

Unknown said:

For me, the biggest draw of the idea of having a Toggl plugin was automatic clock starting/stopping.
If it is not going to do that, then I don't think I need a plugin (Sorry, Karen Tkaczyk):

Hi Sachi M so for this how would you like it to work?  Qualitivity has a sort of cleverness built into it so the clock automatically stops if you take too long translating on a segment for example.  So if you took a break and left your translation open the clock would stop.  How would you like an automated start/stop to work and what would the triggers be?  I don't think it can be as simple as start when you open a file and stop when you close it... unless we did that and you have to responsible for stopping/starting between for any reason?

That could probably be done, and we could do this for activities we know about.  So this would only be translating/reviewing/signoff.  I suppose it could also be done for project preparation... maybe... but I don't know who relevant this would really be and I also don't know what would be possible given the multitude of ways in which people can start work these days.

Always interesting how a simple idea can get complicated once you start to discuss it!

Regards

Paul

I agree that most things are user-defined, as to which level people want to assign to a Trados Project.

Here is how I personally use all the different things in Toggl:

• Activities (I'm guessing this means the Time Entry that is being tracked): each one can be given a Description (type in anything), a Project (select or create) and Tags (select or create). I usually just add a Project.
• Projects: Yes, for me, this is the Studio project.
• Clients: Could be linked to the Client field in Studio if the plugin is also going to be able to create Toggl Projects.
• Teams: This is for groups of people who use Toggl to work on projects together, so, as a single freelancer, I've never used it.
• Workspaces: I have two workspaces: Billable (which is where I put translation projects) and Unbillable one (for logging bookkeeping etc.). Each Project must be assigned to a Workspace when it is created, so if the plugin is going to be able to create Toggl Projects, it would need to read the Workspaces created by the user and be able to select one. Like Clients, no need to worry about this if the plugin is just creating Activities.
• Tags: I haven't thought of any information I would find useful here.

Workspaces is pretty cool, since the report data for one is completely separated from the others. So I would think that most people using Studio would want all their Studio Activities in the same Workspace.

Hi Paul,

I wasn't thinking so deeply about the triggers when I saw this thread and it made me think 'hey, it might be cool to have a plugin.'
(I was thinking at the time only of actual work when a file is Open for Translation, not prep work etc.)
But thinking about the details makes me think more and more that I wouldn't need a plugin.
Both Trados Studio and Toggl are indispensable for my work, but I think they are working fine in parallel.

A cool feature of Toggl Desktop is an idle detector (which there is an option to turn off) and the options available:

I use the "discard time and continue" option a lot.
It comes on when the computer itself is idle, so it doesn't catch me being distracted while on the computer, but that is enough accuracy for me.
("SDL community Toggl" is my Description for the Activity)

By the way, I used Qualitivity for a few months. Thank you for all your work on that.
It was overkill of data for me, since all I wanted was my average of words per minute so I could estimate the number of hours new projects would take, as well as see what my hourly wage turned out to be for each project. Toggl doesn't calculate those things, either, but at least my data is in the same system as my unbillable hours that I log for tax return reasons (what % of rent etc. I can write off).

Hi Paul,

I wasn't thinking so deeply about the triggers when I saw this thread and it made me think 'hey, it might be cool to have a plugin.'
(I was thinking at the time only of actual work when a file is Open for Translation, not prep work etc.)
But thinking about the details makes me think more and more that I wouldn't need a plugin.
Both Trados Studio and Toggl are indispensable for my work, but I think they are working fine in parallel.

A cool feature of Toggl Desktop is an idle detector (which there is an option to turn off) and the options available:

I use the "discard time and continue" option a lot.
It comes on when the computer itself is idle, so it doesn't catch me being distracted while on the computer, but that is enough accuracy for me.
("SDL community Toggl" is my Description for the Activity)

By the way, I used Qualitivity for a few months. Thank you for all your work on that.
It was overkill of data for me, since all I wanted was my average of words per minute so I could estimate the number of hours new projects would take, as well as see what my hourly wage turned out to be for each project. Toggl doesn't calculate those things, either, but at least my data is in the same system as my unbillable hours that I log for tax return reasons (what % of rent etc. I can write off).