Frequently asked questions
This article is translated to
Greek by Dimitris Galatas from More Sky.
This article is translated to
Ukrainian language as a courtesy of StudyCrumb writing service.
How to run Rachota
Rachota is distributed as so called Java Archive (jar file). To launch it you
need to have Java Runtime Environment (JRE) installed. If you are not sure whether
you have JRE installed or not, type java -version
on the command line and press Enter. If your system does not recognize the
java command,
download and install JRE 1.6 or higher. Once installed, Rachota can be run by
the following command:
java -jar rachota_23.jar
How to set location of diary files
In order to do that use the -userdir switch.
For example if you want your diary files stored in directory
D:\rachota\diaries, run Rachota this way:
java -jar rachota_23.jar -userdir=D:\rachota\diaries
How to run Rachota in my language
Rachota tries to detect your country and language automatically. However, if your locale is
not set correctly, use standard Java options to select the desired localization, for example:
java -Duser.language=en -Duser.country=US -jar rachota_23.jar
Note: Rachota is currently translated into 12 languages. The following table helps you find the correct language/country codes.
| Localization | Language code | Country code |
| Czech | cs | CZ |
| Dutch | nl | NL |
| English | en | US |
| French | fr | FR |
| German | de | DE |
| Hungarian | hu | HU |
| Italian | it | IT |
| Japanese | ja | JP |
| Portugese | pt | BR |
| Romanian | ro | RO |
| Russian | ru | RU |
| Spanish | es | MX (Mexico), ES (Spain) |
Furthermore, if you want to use national characters in descriptions of your tasks,
you might want to change the default encoding.
How to change default configuration
It is possible to tweak some of the default system settings. You can use <userdir>\settings.cfg file to change default values of some options. Please note that this is possible only when Rachota is not running otherwise your modifications will be overwritten on Rachota exit. The following table lists all useful properties:
| Description | Option | Example |
| Diary saving interval | savingPeriod |
By default, diary and settings files are saved every 30 seconds. If you want to have your files
saved every minute, use this statement: |
| Text encoding | systemEncoding |
Default text encoding is determined by your operating system. However, if you for example need
KOI8-R encoding, use this statement: |
| Text font | fontName fontSize |
It is possible to force Rachota to use a special font. For example, if you prefer
12 points Microsoft Sans Serif font, use this statement: fontSize = 12 |
| Automatic start | automaticStart |
When launched Rachota starts to measure idle time automatically and records its start
time. If you want to turn this feature off, use this statement: |
| Time in title | showTime |
By default, title contains both task and total times. It is possible to display only one
of them or none. Valid values are both,
task, total
or none. If you are interested only in active task time,
use this statement: |
| Minimization on start | minimizeOnStart |
You can force Rachota to minimize to system tray after startup.
If you don't need to see Rachota main window on start, use this statement: |
| Rachota icon in system tray | enable.systemtray |
By default, Rachota creates an icon in system tray which indicates its state by color,
provides basic controls via popup menu and also allows minimization and hiding of the
Rachota window from task bar as well as opening it back.
If you want to disable this system tray support, use this statement: |
| Recording start&stop time on idle | recordStartStopTimeOnIdle |
By default, Rachota does not update Started at: or
Finished at: times when idle task is measured.
If you want to update this data even in the idle state, use this statement: |
How to highlight private tasks
How come I cannot get private tasks highlighted in the history chart? This happens when the
Count private tasks setting is turned off. Go to
System | Settings menu and check this option.
How to manually edit measured time
You can transfer time between tasks if you forgot to switch them or you can set time for a task if you forgot to
launch Rachota completely when you worked. To achieve the former, select the source task and use
Task | Move time menu item. Select destination task, setup desired number of
hours/minutes/seconds and push OK button.
To achieve the latter, select the task with wrong time and invoke Task | Correct duration
menu item. Set new hours and minutes and push OK button.
Is it true that Rachota is "calling home"?
Yes, by default Rachota connects to its Analytics server on the first day of a week and sends it Rachota instance's unique ID and weekly usage data. Sharing your data is required if you want to obtain the same average data from other Rachota users. However, if you don't like this feature, you can simply turn it off in the System settings dialog. Just uncheck Report weekly activity option.
OK, so what is actually being shared?
Rachota transfers unique identification string and weekly usage data which in particular is:
* total working time from the previous week
* total idle time from the previous week
* total time spent on private tasks from the previous week
* total number of diaries
* 6 efficiency factors [1] from the previous week
[1] categorization, effectivity, granularity, prioritization, repetition and statusing
All the three numbers are in milliseconds. In return the server returns the same data calculated
from all records received from other Rachota users. The ID string contains:
* version of Rachota
* build number of Rachota
* operating system name
* operating system architecture
* operating system version
* Java version
* country
* user name
* installation directory of Rachota
Finally, what does Rachota mean?
Rachota is a Czech word and basically means manual work or labour. It has a slight negative connotation though. It stands for something you will have to do after the weekend but you do not look forward to.
