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Frequently Asked Questions

ThinkingRock on a USB memory stick?


You can run ThinkingRock on both Win and Mac machines by copying the program folder on a USB key. The java code, jar and data file are the same for all platforms so you can run it on both systems from the same USB key. That is provided both systems have the java VM installed. It is also possible to install java VMs on the USB key if you need to.

Please see this posting for more details.

Why is ThinkingRock free?


We initially developed ThinkingRock for ourselves and are using it. The application is free because we wanted to get a good user base.

If you think that "everything is worth exactly what you pay for", we would like to let you know that the feedback we received from users is:

  • very positive (see forum);
  • many find it the best GTD software they have used;
  • ThinkingRock helped them to be better at following the GTD methodology thanks to the process flow.

The demos and manual give you a good overview on how powerful and GTD minded ThinkingRock is.

And if you want to make it worth more in your mind, there is a donation box. ThinkingRock can be easily compare with the GTD software products on the market within the $25-$50 USD price range.

We will carry on supporting and developping future functionalities for ThinkingRock as long as people are using it. There is no hidden agenda.

How to Subscribe to your TR data in iCal and Sunbird/Moz Cal


Please see this posting from shrevie.

Can I sync my data across multiple computers?


Yes. Save your working document to a shared network drive, such as OS X's .Mac iDisk or an AFP (afp://) or SAMBA (smb://) mounted shared drive. Please see this posting for more details.

What is the usage of inactive actions


An inactive action is an action you include when you are planning a project because you thought of it at the time but you don't need to act on it now. You probably don't want to see it cluttering your action list either.

When you review your projects (especially when the project icon is red indicating that there are no more current actions for that project), you can change the (inactive) action status to make it current.
If the automatic sequencing for that project is set, the application will set it automatically to the Do ASAP status. The automatic sequencing is described in the help under User Preferences, Screens - Projects.

You can also specify a Start Date when entering an inactive action (to be enabled in the Preferences/Options). When the start date is reached, the application will set it automatically to the Do ASAP status.

Overview screen unresponsive, unable to do anything


The first time ThinkingRock is run, you need to create a new data file by using the menu option File New.

ThinkingRock connecting automatically to the internet


ThinkingRock connects to the internet regularly to check if there is a new version available. To change this frequency, go to User Preferences, General, Check for updates. We recommend to set the frequency to every 2 weeks.

It is possible that ThinkingRock hangs or is slow at start up due to firewall or even connection down. Please refer to this posting for more details.

A user has also discovered that on his windows 2000 machine Java itself checks for updates. You'll need to switch it off in Java preferences in control panel.

Add Thoughts hotkey script for Autohotkey (for Windows user only)


Thanks to Taylor Reid (see forum topic), you can download here the script. Enclosed are both the plaintext and compiled versions of the script and a readme.txt to help explain what you have downloaded.

How can I change the font size for Windows, version Gamma 2.0?


Thanks to mishaba (forum user - posting), here is a solution:

  • Use wordpad (or your favorite text editor) to edit the file:
    C:\Program Files\ThinkingRock2\thinkingrock\etc\thinkingrock.conf
  • there's a line there that says:
    default_options="-J blah blah blah".
  • Make it say:
    default_options="--fontsize 12 -J blah blah blah"
    [not really blah, just keep the prior contents]
  • I also happened to like the standard Java look and feel, so my defaults line is:
    default_options="--fontsize 12 -laf javax.swing.plaf.metal.MetalLookAndFeel -J-Xms128m -J-Xmx256m -J-Dnetbeans.logger.console=true -J-ea"

If you feel a bit nervous about changing a configuration file, make a copy of the file before changing it.

How to make ThinkingRock v1.2.3 run on Ubuntu Feisty Fawn


Thanks to gj:

TR 1.2.3 needs Java 1.5 because of that losing-preferences issue, but Feisty Fawn has upgraded to Java 1.6.

So, Feisty Fawn users need to install the package called "sun-java5-jre" from the Synaptic Package Manager.

Next they need to edit the file "thinking-rock.sh" in the "thinking-rock-1.2.3" folder.

Change the line
"java -jar thinking-rock-linux-1.2.3.jar"
to
"/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.5.0-sun-1.5.0.11/bin/java -jar thinking-rock-linux-1.2.3.jar"

Now Thinking Rock will work just as well as it did on Ubuntu 6.10

How to add fonts for PDF reports


Background

ThinkingRock (TR) version 1.2.3 uses Apache FOP (0.93) to generate reports as PDF document files.

PDF viewers normally have just a few inbuilt fonts (Courier, Helvetica and Times Roman). These fonts do not handle all unicode characters and fonts need to be added (embedded) to handle characters for many non-English languages.

Fonts can be added to the FOP process (as shown here). This document explains how to do this for TR reports.

Instructions

Overview

Adding a new font in TR involves obtaining a Type 1 or True-Type Font (TTF) that handles the special characters (language) you want to print. You need a font file that handles Normal, Italic and Bold or seperate font files for these. You then run a Java program (supplied by Apache FOP) on the font files to create Font Metric files. The Font Metric files are then used for the FOP process by referencing them in the FOP configuration file.

What you need to do

Before you begin
First try using the Arial font which has been added to the configuration and is supplied with ThinkingRock. The Arial font covers a larger range of unicode characters than the standard fonts.
Obtain the required Font files
These can be purchased or you may be able to find free ones on the internet. Make sure that you have font files to handle Normal, Bold and Italic.
Create Font Metrics Files from the TTF Files

You can create Font Metrics files from Type 1, True-Type (.ttf) and True-Type collection (.ttc) files. How to create font metrics files is explained here.

Reference the Font Metrics Files in the FOP Configuration File

You need to reference the font metrics files you have created in the FOP configuration file used by ThinkingRock. This file is named fop.xconf and is in the fop folder under the resource folder in the TR program folder.

Copy your font metrics files to the same folder as the FOP configuration file (<TR program folder>/resource/fop/).

Edit the fop.xconf file and add the new font in the same way as the Arial font that we have added. Note that you do not need the last entry for italic+bold.

The following XML shows the entries in the fop.xconf configuration file for the Arial font we have added. You can copy and paste the font elements and edit for your new font. 

<fop version="1.0">
  ...
  <renderers>
    <renderer mime="application/pdf">
      ...
      <fonts>
        ...
        <font metrics-url="arial.xml" kerning="yes" embed-url="arial.ttf">
          <font-triplet name="Arial" style="normal" weight="normal"/>
        </font>
        <font metrics-url="arialb.xml" kerning="yes" embed-url="arialb.ttf">
          <font-triplet name="Arial" style="normal" weight="bold"/>
        </font>
        <font metrics-url="ariali.xml" kerning="yes" embed-url="ariali.ttf">
          <font-triplet name="Arial" style="italic" weight="normal"/>
        </font>
        <font metrics-url="arialbi.xml" kerning="yes" embed-url="arialbi.ttf">
          <font-triplet name="Arial" style="italic" weight="bold"/>
        </font>
        ...        
      </fonts>
      ...
    </renderer>
    ...
  </renderers>
</fop>