If you want to edit an existing countdown, right-click on TimeLeft system tray icon and select in the pop-up menu My Countdowns menu item to bring up the main TimeLeft window. In this window select a countdown you want to customize and press Edit button at the bottom of the window.

This will bring up Countdown Settings window.

Hint: there are two other ways to bring up Countdown Settings window.

1. Right-click on a countdown floating window and select Edit Countdown
2. Or just double-click on a countdown panel.

Countdown Settings window contains two tabs: Countdown and Advanced.

Countdown tab

Countdown tab of Countdown Settings window lets you customize appearance and behavior of the countdown floating window.

Use Enable countdown checkbox to show/hide countdown floating window.

Count till(from) date and time fields are used to define countdown's event date/time. Ex.: If you have your cruise on July 17, 2007 at 1:00 PM, just enter this information into date and time fields and countdown will calculate automatically how long is left from now till the event (cruise).

Countdown title can be defined in the Title field. If you have several countdown timers it will be convenient to have an individual title for each of them (see Add a New Countdown). If you want to hide (or show) countdown title go to Edit layout link and remove (or add) title.

Layout. You can program your countdown to show Minutes and Seconds only or Months and Days. To change countdown layout select a predefined layout set from the Predefined drop-down list or click Edit layout link to customize countdown layout the way you want.

To select countdown Skin or Font select Skin or Font radio buttons. Note: there is no such a setting as Font Size. Font Size is calculated automatically on countdown panel resize.

Change skin randomly on execute - if marked then the countdown's skin is changed randomly every time when reminder is executed. For example, if countdown settings are "Run every 1 hour" then countdown will display some new (randomly selected) skin every 1 hour.

Show border checkbox displays/hides countdown floating window border.

Effect link lets you select the transition effect for figures in the floating countdown window.

By default Stop counting on zero option is OFF and when countdown reaches the event, it starts counting up. If Stop counting on zero is ON then the countdown will be displaying all zeros after the event is reached.

Use Edit layout link to customize countdown layout. For example, you can program your countdown to show Minutes and Seconds only or Months and Days.

Advanced tab

Advanced tab is used to set advanced countdown options such as the date and time it should run at, message window, sound, actions etc.

There are different types of rules:
1) The first type that runs only once at a specified time. Mark once radio button to enable this type of rule and use date and time boxes to specify the date and time it should run at. Using Quick add button lets you select quickly a predefined time period (from 1 minute to any amount of week), the countdown should run in.
2) If you set countdown type to periodical (Minutely, Hourly etc.), it will run periodical alerting you at time intervals you specify.

Remind before field lets you specify how much time in advance of the event you should be reminded for the first time. The countdown will alert you for the second time when the event happens, and if you specify some time period in Repeat after field it will alert you at selected time intervals until you disable this countdown or until it meets Time bounds.

Multiple rules feature allows you to define more than one rule for your countdown. Just mark Multiple rules checkbox and add rules. Multiple rules feature is very good for complex events, like, for example, "Have a cup of tea every 2 hours and at 5:30 PM". In this case one rule would be "run reminder every 2 hours" and the other rule - "run reminder at 5:30 PM".

Countdown Message can be disabled/enabled by using Show Message checkbox. To specify Message Window view use Edit message link.
It is also possible to define different text for Remind Before and Repeat After alerts. In other words, you can substitute your message text for Remind Before and Repeat After alerts. For example: "Run on 1/10/2006 at 4:00:00 PM. Remind before for 1 hour. Repeat after every 1 hour." In this case you can define 3 different messages: at 3 o'clock "There is 1 hour before tea time!"; at 4 o'clock "It is tea time!"; at 5, 6, 7 etc. o'clock "I hope, no one forgot about tea time!".
Note: "Remind Before" and "Repeat after" messages just substitute the main message, so the main message should be on if you want "Remind Before" or "Repeat after" messages to be displayed.

If Copy message text from countdown title checkbox is marked then Message text is updated automatically from the countdown Title field as you type.

Sound section lets you specify a custom sound that will be played when the countdown runs. You can select any sound format supported by your system (most modern system support WAV, MP3 and MIDI formats, but it depends on your version of Windows and software installed).

Actions section lets you specify actions accompanying the countdown launch. You may specify an application that should be run or a document/link to be opened (more actions are also available: turn off monitor, shut down PC etc.).