KosmicQuitter Help

About KosmicQuitter

KosmicQuitter is a simple motivational application designed to help manage and journal problem habits such as smoking, alcohol and substance use. An overview of the application's functionality is provided on the web at the KosmicQuitter home page.

KosmicQuitter provides the following basic functionality:

  1. Detailed consumption and expense tracking by year, month, week and day.
  2. A positive image viewer (aka the Good Stuff).
  3. A flexible and customisable unit based approach to consumption.
  4. A simple scoring mechanism.

Main Window Layout

The main KosmicQuitter window contains the toolbar and two distinct panes.

window layout

To change the title for either panel click the title text and type.

The Bad Stuff

The left pane lists all entries, one per line. The entry columns are:

Star
An entry worthy of a star.
Wk, Day, Date
The entry week number, weekday and date.
!
Category and entry text preview.
Units, Unit Name
The number and name of the units consumed.
Score
The score awarded for this entry.
Spent
The amount spent on this entry.
Saved
The amount saved by this entry.

The lower panel displays an editable view of the entry text along with totals for the Score, Spent and Saved columns

For help adding entries see here.

The Good Stuff

The right panel displays all good stuff images. When added all images are automatically resized from their original dimensions and saved within the KosmicQuitter document file.

Images may be reordered by dragging and sized using the slider beneath the panel.

For help adding images see here.

Outline View

To display your entries as an outline select the second View button segment in the tool bar or menu item View - as Outline (command-1).

window outline view

The upper outline view sorts the entries into years, months, days and weeks. Totals are available at each level for number of entries, number of units, score and expenditure.

The lower outline view sorts the selected level according to category and unit type.

Adding Entries

To add a new entry either:

Add entry
Click the Add Entry toolbar button.
Add entry
Or, click the + button in the entry pane title.

Alternatively select menu item Edit-Entry-Add... (command-return). The New Entry sheet will be displayed.

New entry window

The entry sheet allows you to input and edit all the information associated with a single entry.

Score

The score is a value between 0 and 100 that represents how well you think you have done. The score is subdivided into three ranges Good, Okay and Not so good represented by the colours green, yellow and red.

Entry Text

Some text to associate with the entry. Can be left empty.

Both text and images can be inserted. Click the Fonts and Colours toolbar items to show the font and colour panels.

Date

The date and time to associate with the entry. For a new entry this will default to the current date and time. To enter a date relative to an existing entry use the Date drop down menu. The first set of available options select a single date. These options are:

The remaining options may be used to select a range of dates, each of which will contain the same entry. This is useful for catching up with missed entries. The available options are:

Number of Entries to Add

Normally you may wish to only add one entry. If, however, you want to add multiple copies of an entry simply enter the required number of entries. This useful if you have missed several, or lots, of entries and want to quickly get back up to date.

Use the After entry added popup menu to decide how to increment the date after each entry is added.

After Entry Added

From the drop down menu select what should happen when you click the Add button to add an entry:

Select Tab

New entry window

From the popup menu select the Unit type to be associated with this entry. Multiple unit types are supported and you can create your own as required. If you have not previously set up your units or wish to add or change them click the Settings... button. For help on setting up units see here.

For each entry you can specify a normal level of consumption and an actual level. If you consume less that normal then your auto score will increase and you will save money. KosmicQuitter will retain the last normal consumption level for each unit type and utilise it as the default for new entries.

Edit Tab

New entry window

To change the unit type information for a single entry select the Edit tab. This is useful if the desired unit is similar to an existing unit type or you wish to change an individual property. For example, you may have paid more for an item than normal and need to modify the purchase cost for just that one entry.

OK or Add

Click the OK or Add button to actually add the entry or entries to the KosmicQuitter document.

Editing Entries

Edit entry image

To edit an existing entry either:

The Edit Entry sheet will be displayed. This sheet is similar in function to the New Entry sheet.

Use the navigation control at at the bottom of the edit sheet to move between entries without having to return to the main entry list.

Adding Good Things

To add an image or images to the Good Thing panel simply drag them from the finder and drop them into the panel. Or to select the image to add:

Add good stuff
Click the Add Good toolbar button
Add good stuff
Or, click the + button in the good stuff pane title.

Alternatively select menu item Edit-Good Thing-Add.... The New Good Thing sheet will be displayed.

New good thing sheet

Adding Images

To add an image simply drag and drop from the finder. Alternatively, if you want to select images from the finder click the Select... button.

Images are automatically resized so that they can be efficiently saved into the KosmicQuitter document. Use the Preferences window to set the maximum image size to be saved.

Image Title

The image title to be displayed. Defaults to dropped image file name.

Image Subtitle

The image sub title to be displayed. Defaults to dropped image creation date.

Use the Preferences window to control whether the image title and subtitle are displayed in the Good Stuff image panel.

Editing Good Things

Edit good thing image

To edit an existing good thing either:

The Edit Good Thing sheet will be displayed. This sheet is identical in function to the New Good Thing sheet.

Adding Units

To define or edit the units for the current document click the Settings button on the toolbar (see here for more help on settings).

You can also define new units while creating or editing an entry by clicking the Settings.. button (see here for more detail).

Settings - units

The table view lists all the units available within the current document. To define a new unit click the Add Unit button. To remove the selected unit click the - button.

KosmicQuitter comes with a number of predefined unit types. In addition, the user can define units that are available to all documents, not just the current document. To access these unit definitions click the More... button to display the Unit Editor panel.

Each unit has the following properties:

Unit name
The name of the unit (eg: cigarette, bottle).
Unit plural name
The pluralised form of the unit name (eg: cigarettes, bottles).
Unit category
A category used to group similar unit types (eg: tobacco, alcohol).
Number of units purchased together
The number of units purchased at a time (eg: 20 cigarettes, 1 bottle).
Overall purchase cost
The cost of the units (eg: cost of 20 cigarettes, cost of 1 bottle).
One unit costs
The calculated cost of one unit.

To save the selected unit so that it becomes available in all KosmicQuitter documents click the Save Unit button.

The Unit Editor

To define or edit units that are available to all documents:

The Unit Editor window will be displayed.

Unit Editor

The available tabs are:

Default
Lists default units supplied by the application.
User
Lists units defined and saved by the user.

The default units cannot be modified. To create an editable user copy click the gear button and select Copy to User Units.

Click the + and - buttons to add and remove user units. Double click to edit a unit property.

Document Settings

Settings image

To define the settings to be applied to the current document either:

The following settings tabs are available.

General

General document settings. The available options are:

Units

The Units tab is described here.

Preferences

Preferences image

To display the application preferences window select menu item KosmicQuitter-Preferences. The available tabs are:

General

The available options are:

On start up
  • Define if open most recent document at startup.
  • Define if create new document on startup.
New documents
  • Define if show settings panel when create new document.
Quitting

  • Define if quit application when close last document.

Text

The available options are:

Default titles for new documents
  • Define the Bad Stuff title for new documents.
  • Define the Good Stuff title for new documents.

Units

The available options are:

Default units for new documents
  • Define unit name for new documents.
  • Define unit plural name for new documents.
  • Define unit category for new documents.
Unit costs
  • Define the number of units purchased together.
  • Define overall purchase cost of units.

Images

The available options are:

Good stuff image text
  • Define whether to show image titles.
  • Define whether to show image subtitles.
Good stuff image size
  • Define maximum image pixel width.
  • Define maximum image pixel height.

Licence

Licence registration. Once a licence has been purchased and registered all application trial restrictions will be removed.

Licence information
  • First name
  • Last name
  • Email address
  • Licence key

Enter the above details as they appear in your KosmicQuitter licence email and then click the Register button.

Searching

Searchfield image

Enter the text to be searched for into the search field. KosmicQuitter will display all the entries that contain the search term. The Spent, Saved and Score total displays will be updated accordingly.

You may also search for entries by date. For example:

By default KosmicQuitter searches all entry fields (date, unit name, text, etc) for matches. If you want to restrict your search to a particular entry field then click the search button to the left of the search field. The available search field options are:

Use * to match multiple characters in wildcard searches.

Support and Feedback

Support image

To display the feedback window select menu item KosmicQuitter-Support and Feedback.... The available tabs are:

Support

Ask a general support question. You must include your email address.

Feature Request

Request that a certain feature be added to the application. You may optionally include your email address.

Bug Report

Report a problem with the application. Please provide as much detail as you can. You may optionally include your email address.

Click the Send button to post your request to us via http.

Document updated: 19th October 2009