December 05, 2008

K4 Tips: Secret Logging Trick

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"It took me 20 minutes to check that file out!"

"That file takes forever to check in."

"What's the average check in/out time in K4?"

Did you ever wonder how long it's really taking to check out files from K4? Besides making a note of the time on the clock and then patiently watching the status, there's no way to know, unless you know this trick!

The following is a neat trick for tracking the time that it takes for documents to be checked in and out of K4 in InDesign and InCopy without having to resort to a stopwatch and intently watching a file's progress.

To create a log file that tracks check-in and check-out times in InDesign or InCopy first start up the application, then:

On Macintosh hold down Command + Option + Shift and select  K4Layout/K4Edit > Log in

On Windows hold down Ctrl + Alt + Shift and select  K4Layout/K4Edit > Log in

Notice that when you hold down the key combination above that the K4Layout/K4Edit menu changes so that it has no dividers and is in Alphabetical order.

After you select login while still holding the keys you will be presented with a message giving you the path to the log file. The log file is written to the folder that the K4 plug-ins reside in.

Now whenever a file is checked in or out of K4, information will be captured in this log file. The file can be opened with any text-editing program.

It tells you the date and time (YYMMDD, HHMMSS), the task, and the duration of the task in seconds. In the example above we can see that on December 5th 2008 I checked out a file at 10:56:37, it took 5.4 seconds to check out. Then at 10:56:48 I checked it right back in which took 1.6 seconds.

Upon logging out or quitting the application this logging function stops. If you start the log next time you log-in, it will overwrite the existing file. Therefore, it would be prudent to rename the file or move it out of the K4 Plug-ins folder if you want to save the information.

Now that you know this nifty little secret, there's no need to exaggerate how long it's taking you to get things in and out of K4.  

Posted at 12:29 pm by Robert Underwood

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