Workspaces and folios

This topic covers the workspaces you keep in Grindstone: making a new folio, opening and closing one, exporting and importing folios, moving them to another device, saving a copy and removing one you no longer need.

Workspaces and folios

A workspace holds everything you track: people, work items, time and the views you see them through. See How Grindstone thinks.

In the beta, every workspace is a folio, a workspace just for you. Each folio is kept as a file on this device. Folios are free.

Your Workspaces

When no workspace is open, Grindstone shows Your Workspaces, a list of the workspaces on this device. The ones you used most recently come first, and each says when you last used it on this device, or Not used on this device yet.

• To open a workspace, select it and choose Open, or double-click it.
• New makes a new workspace. See Creating a folio below.
• Manage has Export and Remove for the selected workspace, and Import for bringing in a folio file.
• Open Grindstone Settings opens Settings. See Settings.

The first time you open Grindstone, you have no workspaces yet, so this screen offers Create Your First Folio and Import a Folio File instead. See Getting started.

Creating a folio

1. Choose New, then Folio.
2. In Create a New Folio, type a Name and choose OK.

The name can’t contain characters that file names can’t (Grindstone says Cannot use special file system characters), and it can’t match a workspace you already have (Already in use).

Grindstone opens the new folio and asks you to set it up. See Getting started.

Opening and closing

While a workspace is open, its name is in the bar at the top of the window. To close it, open the main menu and choose Close followed by the workspace’s name. Grindstone closes it and shows Your Workspaces again.

Closing a workspace doesn’t stop timing. When you open it again, Grindstone asks about the time it was closed, unless you’ve turned that off. See When you step away.

If you’ve set Grindstone to start when you log in, it opens the workspace you used last instead of showing the list. See Settings.

Exporting a folio

Exporting writes a copy of a folio to a file you choose, for a backup or to take it somewhere else.

1. Close the folio, if it’s open.
2. In Your Workspaces, select the folio.
3. Open Manage and choose Export.
4. Choose where to save the file. Grindstone suggests the folio’s name, with the extension .gs5folio.

Grindstone tells you when the folio was exported. The folio itself stays in your list, unchanged.

Importing a folio

Importing adds a folio from a file to your workspaces.

1. In Your Workspaces, open Manage and choose Import. If you have no workspaces yet, choose Import a Folio File instead.
2. Pick the file. Folio files end in .gs5folio.
3. In Import a Folio, Grindstone suggests the file’s name. Change it if you like, then choose OK.

The imported folio appears in the list, selected and ready to open. The file you imported from is left as it was.

If Grindstone can’t use the file, it says Unable to Import Folio and why, and adds nothing to your workspaces. A folio made by a newer version of Grindstone can’t be imported.

You can also pick a Grindstone 4 database here. See Coming from Grindstone 4.

Moving a folio to another device

1. On the device the folio is on now, export it.
2. Copy the file to the other device, however you usually move files.
3. On the other device, import it.

The folio on the first device stays there. If you keep working in both, they don’t stay in step: each is its own copy from then on.

Save a Copy as Folio

While a workspace is open, you can save a copy of it as a new folio without leaving it.

1. Open the main menu and choose Save a Copy as Folio.
2. Grindstone suggests the workspace’s name followed by “Copy”. Change it if you like, and choose OK.

The copy is added to Your Workspaces. The workspace you have open is unchanged, and you stay in it. If the workspace holds other people who are timing, their timing is stopped in the copy where their time slice last ended.

Removing a workspace

Removing a folio deletes it, with all of its data, from this device.

1. Close the folio, if it’s open.
2. In Your Workspaces, select it.
3. Open Manage and choose Remove.
4. Grindstone asks you to confirm. This can’t be undone.

If you might want the folio later, export it first.

Cloud and Server connections

Cloud Connection and Server Connection appear under New, and are marked Coming Soon the first time you open Grindstone, but you can’t choose them yet. Grindstone Cloud and Grindstone Server are coming.