Paul Wakeford

Timedex was first developed in 2002 and went on to a test marketing phase in 2003. Whilst the handheld software was far ahead of anything at that time, it lacked a reliable and ready to use analysis tool.

Since that time it has been used by a number of people and companies. Its biggest features included in study editing and the ability to immediately recover from a system crash during the study

Although we won't be supporting this free version of the software there are tutorials and FAQs to help you install and continue to use the software indefinitely.

Analysis

The New Analysis now provides decent analysis tools for much of the product range. The one exception is that Activity Sampling (RAS if you like) exports the "sifted" data to comma separated value files. In this format you can do your analysis, as most always did, in Excel or similar.

Otherwise the product provides a measure of statistical analysis and good views of your data and, provided you keep within the 350 breakpoint observations for time study. For analysis of activity sampling there is no restriction.

Important!

REGISTRATION

Registration - you need these numbers:

• Timedex - 0509 1215 1519 2732 4325
• Activity Sampling - 0509 1215 1607 2111 1088

When you install, put these numbers in at the login screen - steps are...

• Drop the virtual keyboad
• Tap the Question Mark icon
• See the Licence Details button - tap it
• The screen may vary depending on your machine; there by be some hypertext to tap to get you to the entry screen. Enter the numbers, four to a field. Check they go in cleanly - it is slightly harder than doing it on on a normal PC/Laptop
• Press Register - you are none. Press OK to back back out to the login screen.

Mobile Hardware Needs

Supplies of Pocket PCs are plentiful, and they are very low cost (see right).

The handheld systems run on any PPC Windows 2002/2003 and Windows Mobile 5. They haven't as yet (to our knowledge) been used on Mobile 6 but there should be no reason why they would not run. I would appreciate any feedback on this.

Pocket PCs of these specifications are readily available on the Internet from sites such as Ebay but remember that this is not a normal retail channel and you could end up getting second hand equipment with poor battery life or unreliable screens - however, a machine for as little as £30 may get you started. Commercial sources such as Total PDA and HP have new and refurbished equipment from around £100 to £350 mail to see what they have in stock at the moment

The commercial outlets will generally provide decent customer service, advice and accessories