This screen permits you to establish the types of time series measures that you wish to track.

 

You can track any type of activity that can be measured with numbers (up to 6 decimal places) over time.

 

On this screen you identify the measure by giving it a name, (for example, ‘Weight’) and entering that name in the ‘Activity to Measure’ data field. In the next field you enter what you are measuring, in this case it is likely ‘Pounds’ or ‘Kilograms’. Then you enter the number of decimals that is pertinent to that measure, in this case, perhaps ‘0’ if you are measuring by pounds or ‘1’ if you are measuring by kilograms.

 

The description field can contain an unlimited amount of data, permitting you to describe what, why, how and when you are measuring, the purpose and use of the data, instructions for entering data values on the ‘Measurements’ screen or anything else that you may deem important about the measure.

 

The second data line contains 5 data fields. These should carry the captions (names) of the measures you wish to capture. Each measurement category can have up to 5 series of numbers attached to, or associated with it. You decide what they are and what you want to call or label them on this screen. These captions appear as the data field headers on the ‘Measurement’ screen and report, so you have to be careful that the phrasing you use fits and appears in a useful manner when displayed. These captions can use up to two lines. You force a new line by using the ‘Enter’ key.

 

In most cases, you measure things to compare yourself to some standard, or goal. In the case of your weight, most governments and many activity agencies, such as the ‘Heart and Stroke Foundation’ issue guidelines that are age and stature dependent, usually within a range. Such guidelines normally include upper and lower limits and a recommended target, so in this case, an upper limit for your particular stature may be established at 180 pounds, a lower limit may be 160 and a recommended target may be 170. If you accept these as reasonable limits, you would enter the terms ‘My Weight’, ‘Upper Limit’, ‘Lower Limit’ and ‘Recommended Target’, or some similar terminology in the first four fields of the second line. The fifth in the series permits you to also enter your own personal target, if it differs from the recommended target, so you might enter ‘My Personal Goal’ here if you wish.

 

What you label and call each is entirely up to you, so you can customize the labels to suit yourself. Note however, that space for these labels on the screen and in reports is limited, so you may have to experiment to find wording that will fit the space available.

 

Note that the decimals field will apply equally to all 5 measures.

 

When you have completed any changes, click the 'Close' button to return to the 'Measurement Activities' screen.

 

 

If you wish to add a new activity, click the 'Add New' button at the top of the screen to add a new blank record to the end of the list.

 

 

If you wish to delete an activity, select the activity you wish to delete and then click the 'Delete' button at the top of the screen. Note that if there is time series data associated with the activity, all of that data will be deleted also. The data you delete is not recoverable so you must ensure you want to make the deletion.

 

 

If you wish to create a new activity that is similar to one that has already been created, you can copy it and then make changes to it. You do this by selecting the activity you wish to copy, selecting the user (yourself), and then clicking the 'Copy' button. The new record will contain all of the data that the original record contained except that the name of the activity will have an 'X' in front of it to make it a unique name, since every activity must have a unique name. You then can change it to whatever you need.

 

Note that you can copy an activity record to another user by selecting a user other than yourself from the list before clicking the 'Copy' button. Note also that the time series data for the activity is not copied, only the activity category description.

 

 

With the exception of the decimal places field, you can use an edit box to assist with changes to the other data fields. The edit box allows you to see multiple lines of data and to see how many more characters are available for entry into a data field. You open an edit box by double clicking in the field you want to edit.

 

 

While you can measure five different value series for the one activity, keep in mind that when displaying the numbers on a graph, the greater the variation in the sizes of the numbers, the less informative the graph will be. In other words, if one series measures between 1 and 10, and a second series measures between 100,000 and 200,000, the graph may not be very meaningful.

 

You can in fact use this feature to track different measures within the same category, however. For example, a gross score, a net score, the number of putts taken, the number of fairways hit and the amount of winnings or losses in dollars for a round of golf could be captured and recorded for each game and the chart would be insightful because in this case the variation in the numbers is not significant.

 

If the numbers for related series are of significant variance, you could capture the values in different categories.

 

Again, you must use your imagination and configure this screen so that it is meaningful and provides you with the ability to capture the information you need on the actual measurements screen.

 

 

Note that there must always be at least one measurement category record at all times. When a new user is established, a default measurement category record is established for that user.

 

When you are establishing your first category, simply change the caption values in the default category record to captions that you require for the new measurement category you are establishing.