Hi,

On 3/24/11 12:47 PM, Le Wang wrote:
(...)
 > Is it possible to inline count-down timers in a cooking step?  For
 > example "2. simmer sauce for 40 minutes on low heat.
 > <start_timer_button>", so there is a button at the end of the line
 > that starts a count-down timer.
 >
 > Many timers from different steps can be started simultaneously, and
 > each timer should be able to be paused and restarted.  And there
 > should be an easy way to get an overview of of all ongoing timers from
 > the current document.
 >
 > Is it possible to hack this together using existing org > 
functionality?

I don't think Org has built-in support for concurrent countdown 
timers. But you can fake this pretty well with org-timer, properties, 
column view, a dynamic block, and some lisp table formulas.

A ready-to-run example is attached, hopefully self-explanatory, 
probably buggy, and WITH ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. This is a learning 
exercise for me.

Instead of using a start timer button (for which you could use an 
`elisp:' link, like the one I've put in to make it easy to stop the 
timer), you can write a hook to start countdowns when the TODO state 
changes. That rather hackish function is the only code here that's not 
out of the box.

Yours,
Christian