If anybody wants to help us test the new version, you can find it here.
http://www.manictime.com...rt/Releases/Version_v3_0

To install, download the exe and run, it will update your current installation.

Please let us know if you find any bugs or if you have any suggestions on how to make it better.

Nice work, I already like the new Add Tag window.

I noticed that the new version needs considerably more vertical space to display the timeline at the same size as v2. Maybe it would be good to reduce some padding, e.g. above and below the timeline. With displays having ratios like 16:10 there's much more horizontal than vertical space available.

It would also be nice if custom themes could be added/modified using some open file format like ini or xml files. With my windows theme there is no difference between hovered and selected items in ManicTime.

About mouse over and selected in Windows theme. We used the same color, we could not find one for mouse over defined in Windows and we wanted to use just those defined on Windows. I'll take another look.

Sure, please post them here.

I'm surprised no one has reported this one until now. We had this one for ages now, probably from before v2 and it really bugs me. We tried to fix it a few times but we were never successful.

We'll give it another shot when we have some spare time...

Agreed. We did exactly that for windows theme. Will be in next update.

On first run of the portable v3 beta I get the attached error.

Also is there a way for me to test v3 using my v2 Pro license? At the moment it tells me my license has expired...

No, I can't get it to work..

I'm not even sure what's the difference but now it won't let me interact with ManicTime while the error is open (the first run I was still presented with the licensing form). Closing the error closes the app.

The problem is with Windows security. Right click on the zip file which you downloaded from our site -> Properties, then click Unblock button. Then extract the files again and it should work.

We will see if we can get around this...

Edited by user Monday, September 1, 2014 1:19:38 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

I agree. As a programmer this is something I deal with. I make a prototype, then am told to make it "modern", so I--currently anyway--make it flat and add white space. Then they complain that it takes up too much space. I can't win.

The optimal amount of white space for aesthetics is not necessarily the optimal amount for productivity.

Also, please don't increase the white space in the bottom part, between tags/usage/apps/docs. This serves no purpose but to make the interface "pretty" and reduce the amount of data displayed and thereby increase the amount of scrolling needed. I'd love to upgrade to v3 for all the awesome new features (multi-away seems super useful), but won't if the new UI takes more space to display less information.

I'm not sure what framework you're using, so I don't know how easy/hard this would be, but maybe add an advanced option that controls whitespace? Not everyone is going to feel the same about the optimal amount

(Maybe this is already there with themes? If so, it would be nice to have a v2 theme: whenever a UI changes, people's habits have to change with it. Look how many people stuck with pre-ribbon office versions. Knowing they can use the old UI would provide comfort to those who were weary about the new UI and prompt them to upgrade for the new features, knowing they could always use the old UI if they wanted.)

I think the logo could be reverted to its v2 size as well: we've already bought the software, we don't need to be reminded of who made it, especially when it takes up so much screen space. I know it's tempting to put an awesome logo wherever we can, but end-users don't give a crap (unless it's animated)

This is coming from someone, by the way, who uses a 30" 2560x1600 monitor at Windows 100% (default) text size

I'll start by saying that this is the first time we had a designer and we mostly used his suggestions. I think it looks good, but I guess looks are always subjective.

Secondly, we will release v3 as it is (I mean without UI changes). Its quite stable and since there are a bunch of changes we don't want to test everything one more time.

Third, we will create v3.1 quickly (in a month or two). In it, we can make vertical margins smaller, or we can add another theme with smaller margins and keep current themes intact. We'd like to hear some more opinions before we decide. If most of you are in favor of smaller margins then we will edit all the current themes.
We could also create a theme editor and you could create your own theme. If anybody is interested in this let us know.

And about the logo. I think it is there mostly to add some color, otherwise it is all blue. The other reason we added it is that the server UI is similar. And the new website design as well (probably will be up this week). We can easily remove it, it is just a design element, to make it look better and to unify all designs.