8. TimeSnapper

TimeSnapper is unlike any other tool we tested for this review because its mechanism for determining activity is based on screen capture information. That’s right, TimeSnapper literally takes screen shots at user-defined intervals over the course of the day and then uses that screen information to determine how you spent your day.

You can play back your entire work day to see precisely how the day was spent (or to recapture some piece of info you may have lost). For security, TimeSnapper has the option to password protect its screen captures.

Just looking back over a day isn’t terribly productive. What gives TimeSnapper its real strength are its statistics and reports. TimeSnapper manages to provide a lot of details on what applications you spent time on.

You can specify what programs and window titles are productive. These applications are included in a productivity score that is calculated based on how much time you spend in productive applications compared to the entire time you spend in the measurement period.

TimeSnapper can also generate a tag cloud based on productivity terms it snaps from window and application titles. This is a very interesting Web 2.0-like approach for looking at data. As with productivity terms, you can also tailor TimeSnapper with custom tags and terms.

The data can be exported to Excel so you can perform additional analysis or generate a timesheet. The playback functionality, cloud view and productivity measures in TimeSnapper really make this an efficient time tracking tool.

Overall, this is a solid program that worked well during our test period of the 30 day trial version. The full price of TimeSnapper is $39.95.

http://www.timesnapper.com/