Instant Action
When the action takes place all at once, for example,
I saw a woman,
She came to dinner, the picto for
Once
(

)
may be added. The explanation of this picto
(

)
can be seen in the section
30. Once, Twice, etc.
We put the sign

only when we want to stress that the action was not continuous.
Continuous Action
Sometimes it is interesting to indicate that the action was happening in a continuous way,
that it was not instant. In this case we can make the dot somehow longer
(

)
so as to show a certain continuity of action.