Grindstone 2.2 - Build #5960

Drop us a line in the comments area below to let us know what you think of this release of Grindstone!

This version of Grindstone 2 was released on January 23, 2012, with a hotfix released on January 31, 2012.

Complete Release Notes

New Features and Enhancements

Welcome Back: You can now select from among your Recently Timed Tasks when you are choosing the task you were working on while away.

Changes and Modifications

Task List: There is a new preference available on the Task List tab of the Options dialog that allows you to choose whether completed tasks names should have a strike-through or not. The preference is defaulted on.
Task List: Hiding the Time Pane no longer hides the Time toolbar on the bottom of the window. Clicking on any function that requires selecting a time segment will now show the time pane if it is not visible.
Time Note Reminders: You will no longer be asked to set notes for a time segment created by the Welcome Back window if you already set the notes for it on the Welcome Back window itself.
Welcome Back: If your preference on the Time tab of the Options dialog indicates that you were likely not working when you return from away, Grindstone now assumes you still intend to resume timing what you had been timing when you left.

Bug Fixes and Defect Corrections

Options: A glitch that prevented the preference of whether to expose the Task Force Internal IDs of Custom Fields from being saved has been corrected.
Task List: Grouping by When Due no longer confuses tasks with no due date and those due in the distant future.

Hotfix on January 31, 2012

Normally, we try to avoid releasing updates that do not contain new features and enhancements. However, this defect was critically affecting enough users to warrant, in our view, the immediate release of its fix. We apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused if you're not among those that were waiting for this crucial patch.

Bug Fixes and Defect Corrections

Task Force Sync: When merging data from an established Task Force account, Grindstone was failing to properly reconcile conflicts between Custom Fields from either side with the same name. Grindstone now considers Task Force authoritative in all such circumstances.

A Preview of Coming Attractions

Features Demonstrated Above:

Installation without Administrator Privileges. Note that we perform an installation of Grindstone 3 as a standard Windows 7 user without any privilege elevation whatsoever (no UAC prompt). This not only makes setup and updates less of a headache, but combined with Full Control of the Timing Database, it effectively eliminates the need for Travel Mode.
Support for Multiple Display Languages. According to our usage statistics, over 40% of Grindstone 2 users don't speak English as their first language. It's about time they timed in their native tongue. (By the way, we've got a great Russian translator lined up. Anyone interested in providing translations in other languages should take a look at Cicero.)
Full Control of the Timing Database. With Grindstone 3, you can now choose the location where your timing data is stored. In addition, Grindstone 3 Databases are registered as a file type in Windows so you can double-click them in Explorer to open Grindstone or switch between them. This effectively eliminates the need for Profiles.
Suprerior Filtering Controls. You can click on any column in the Task Pane to choose specific values, or apply a vast array of conditions. This is a big step forward from Search Tasks in Grindstone 2.
Stunning GPU Accelerated Interface. Grindstone 3's semi-translucent windows look amazing without slowing down your computer. We use your computer's video card or graphics processing unit (GPU) to achieve all of the visual effects you see without any noticable hit on the CPU.
Multi-Dimensional Task Grouping. We're keeping the promise we made about Grindstone 3 inheriting Task Force's task grouping mechanism, in a big way. Custom Fields and the new Group By ribbon in the Task Pane make hierarchies on the fly without imposing the rigidity of explicit "sub-tasks."
Simple, Beautiful Reporting. Grindstone 3 will ship with every report Grindstone 2 has, plus some new goodies... and every one of them will look absolutely spectacular.
Full Vector Graphic UI. Bitmaps are so two thousand and late. With vector graphics, every image in the interface is crisp and clear regardless of your Windows DPI setting. They even enable us to give you the same Control + Mouse Scroll Wheel Zooming behavior you enjoy in your web browser.

Please post any questions you might have about Grindstone 3 in the comments area below. ;)