Shopping with your PalmPilot

.FLYINGHEAD ORGANIZING YOUR LIFE
.TITLE Shopping with your PalmPilot
.AUTHOR Calvin O. Parker
.SUMMARY Have you ever wanted to use your PalmPilot to manage your shopping list? This article helps you shop ’til you drop without letting things fall through the cracks.
When the PalmPilot first came out, there weren’t a lot of applications available for it. Because of this, it was fairly common to see people submit "wish lists" of applications they’d like to see written for the PalmPilot. While these wish lists often contained some outrageous requests, most also included practical PalmPilot solutions, such as databases, spreadsheets, and requests to extend the capabilities of the built-in applications. Inevitably, some of the requests for applications were met with others saying something to the effect of "But wait, you can do that already, and here’s how…"

One of the applications that kept getting mentioned, but didn’t really have a dedicated solution (at the time) was a general purpose shopping list application. I know what you’re thinking, "But wait, you can do that …"

Actually, in this case you can use the built-in applications, but not really in a way that lends itself to the job at hand. In this article, I’ll first take a look at how you might go about using the built-in applications to keep track of shopping list items. Then proceed on to cover some of the applications that can be used to accomplish the task at hand. Finally, I’ll briefly go over two applications that were specifically written to address shopping with your PalmPilot.

.H1 Built in solution
The most obvious of the built-in applications to use for a shopping list is the To Do List. Enter the list of items that you need into a special category called "Shopping List" in the To Do List application, and check them off as you buy them. This solution certainly works, but doing this will require that you enter your list of items before each trip.

If you’re like most folks, the items you buy at the store can be placed into several categories:

.BEGIN_LIST
.BULLET Items you buy regularly, such as milk, eggs, and bread.
.BULLET Items you buy not so regularly, or perhaps only if they are on sale
.BULLET Items you will buy once, and then won’t need to buy again (or not for the foreseeable future).
.END_LIST

.H1 Using the built-in To Do List application
A possible solution would be to simply uncheck all the items in that category after you’re done shopping. This would leave your item list intact, and ready to check off next time you went to the store. For this method, I’d recommend using two different categories: one for items needed (i.e., Shopping List), and one to keep a complete list of possible items that you might need to buy (i.e., Groceries). Building your shopping list would be a simple matter of displaying the categories, and changing the needed item’s category from Groceries to Shopping List. Again, this method (or a variation of it) would work, but depending on how many items we’re talking about, the after-purchase "unchecking" step could be time consuming.

[Editorial note: There’s another way to do this. Don’t bother to define a separate category for your master list (i.e., Groceries) and your one-trip Shopping List and move things back and forth. Instead, set up a Shopping List category as your huge master list. Then, check the Show Completed Items in your To Do Preferences (tap the Show button to get there), so that all ToDo Items will appear. When you’ve entered all your items, check each one off. You will be keeping all the items checked by default.

If you know your supermarket well, you can even organize your items by aisle using the Priority option. Obviously, you have more than five aisles in your supermarket. Just divide the supermarket into 5 sections and prioritize each shopping list item accordingly. –Denise Amrich]

.H1 ReDo
A very good solution to our problem is to use the shareware application, ReDo. For those not familiar with it, ReDo was designed to implement Repeating To Dos. Simply enter in a To Do item you’d like to have added to your To Do List on a regular basis, schedule its insertion dates, and ReDo does the rest.

But wait, repeating To Do events aren’t really a solution to our shopping list dilemma, are they? No, but, what we can use is another feature of ReDo, the "As Needed" Due Date. Instead of inserting on a schedule, this displays a checkbox next to the item in ReDo. Checking this box will insert that item into the defined category of your To Do List!

Here’s how you’d do it… Define a "Shopping List" category in both the To Do List and ReDo applications. Then, in ReDo, go to that category and tap the "New" button. write in "Bread", and then tap the Details button. Next to Due Date, tap where it says "No Due Date" and select As Needed from the pop-up list. You’re done! To avoid having to select As Needed each time, you can place the cursor in an existing item before tapping the New button. This will default to the same properties (in this case, the Due Date) as the item the cursor is in. Continue to add all of your commonly purchased items in this manner.

When you’re ready to build your shopping list, simply go to the Shopping List category in ReDo and check off the items on the list that you need to buy, as shown in Figure A. Once done, go to the Shopping List category of the To Do application, and there it is! If you need to add something, go back to ReDo and check that item (or add it if not there), and it will also be added to your shopping list in the To Do application!

.FIG A Select the items in ReDo you want to show up in your To Do List application.

.H1 ListMaker
Although designed to be more of a generic checklist application, ListMaker easily can be used as a shopping list and even comes pre-defined with a category to used for this purpose, called "Grocery."

To use ListMaker as a shopping list application, you need to do the same thing that we did with ReDo; that is, define your list of commonly purchased items. Go to the Grocery category and tap the Common button. It is here you will define your list of common items tap the "New" button to add each item. After you’ve done that, you’re ready to shop!

In the Common Items window, check the items you want to add to your shopping list. Figure B shows a small Common Items list with a couple of items checked off. Once done, tap the "Update" button. Your list will then be displayed, ready for you to check off as you shop. Once done, select the Purge List option from the List menu to delete the list of checked items (this doesn’t affect your list of common items).

.FIG B Looks like I need to buy bread and cheese.

As you can see, ListMaker’s usage is similar to using ReDo with the built-in To Do List application, except that you’re staying in one application. While these methods certainly can be used, the best way to deal with shopping lists on the PalmPilot is to use an application that was written specifically to do this. Right now, that means using either JShopper or SmartShop.

.H1 JShopper
Using JShopper is easy, and very similar to ReDo and ListMaker. However, in addition to entering just the item names, JShopper allows you to also specify a specific store or stores where the item may be purchased, as shown in Figure C. Start by assigning actual store names, via the Change Store Names option on the Options menu. After you’ve done that, add each item. After adding each item, tap the Details button, and check off the stores where that item can be purchased. The 1-Time checkbox in the Details window will actually remove the item from the database after it has been checked off of the list. Continue to add items until you’ve got a pretty good "base" to work from. Don’t forget to sort the list when you’re done; as you’ll soon see there is a handy feature that requires the list be sorted.

.FIG C Select the stores where you can purchase each item using JShopper’s Item Details window.

Now that you’ve added your commonly purchased items, you’re ready to build your shopping list. With JShopper, you can quickly locate an item by tapping on the locate line (bottom right of the screen) and entering a letter or letters that the desired item begins with. Alternately, you can write just one character without entering it in the locate line, and have the list scroll to the first item that starts with that letter. For this feature to work your list must be sorted, as mentioned above.

Once you’ve located the item you need to buy, put a check mark next to it. Optionally, you can specify a quantity and check the coupon box for that item should you have a coupon for it. Now, when you select the Need toggle box (top right of the screen), only the items you select will be displayed. You can also select the coupon toggle box (the box at the top right denoted by a "C") to just show items you have a coupon for, as shown in Figure D

.FIG D The Need button shows you a list of items that you have coupons for.

Once you are in the store, simply select the store name, and check off the items as you purchase them. As soon as the items is checked it will disappear from the list, leaving only the items left to buy (for that store)! The items are also updated in the "ALL" mode, since you no longer need them.

A couple of notes: Some folks prefer to uncheck items, rather then check them off. JShopper’s preferences allow you to specify what a checked item means for both the All and Need modes. The coupon "mode" actually will show all items you have coupons for, and based on the preferences you have set for the Need mode will show items checked or unchecked. Finally, the quantity and coupon columns can be turned on and off in the Preferences screen.

As you can see, JShopper is both a good shopping list application, and (with the ability to name the stores anything you like) can also be used as a general-purpose checklist application.

.H1 SmartShop
Like JShopper, SmartShop was specifically written to be used as a shopping list application. However, SmartShop has a slightly different approach: instead of being able to specify a store or list of stores where an item can be purchased, SmartShop just has one common list of items, all of which are displayed when building a list for a particular store. Each store has its own separate list and each item at each store can be assigned a current price, allowing you to total your purchases as you go.

Like the others, you’ll spend the bulk of your time getting all your common items entered. As with JShopper, you’ll also want to add a list of stores to the application. To enter stores, you’ll have to select the Shop List option on the Product menu.

Once you have your stores entered, you’re ready to start building your shopping lists. Highlight the store you want to build a list for and select New from the Buy menu. Selecting Resume on the same menu does the same thing as New does, but will preserve any checked items on that stores list once built, whereas New will clear them. This would be used after you initially built your lists for each store each time you want to shop there.

Once in the Buy screen, you can add and delete items you need to purchase at that store. Once you add an item, you can then select that item and tap the Edit button. This brings up a window for that item that allows you to select a desired quantity and to specify the current price for the item. SmartShop also tracks the price you last bought a particular item for at that store, giving you access to whether or not the price has gone up or down.

As you buy your items, SmartShop is keeping track of totals, which you can see by selecting Total from the Buy menu. Unlike JShopper, items checked off will remain on the screen. When you are done shopping, simply select "Exit" from the "Buy" menu to return to the Shop List screen.

.H1 Recommendations
Which of the solutions should you use? Well, that really depends on what type of information you’d like to keep track of, and if you might want to use a particular add-on application for other uses.

Using just the built-in To Do List application can be done, but just the amount of extra work you’ve got to do indicates you’d be better off going with one of the other solutions.

ReDo is an excellent application, and if you can do without any type of coupon, quantity, or pricing information, I’d highly recommend it. In addition to being able to use it for your shopping list needs, it was designed for scheduling repeating To Do events, meaning you’re almost getting two applications in one!

SmartShop has some good features, but in my opinion the overall interface doesn’t lend itself to the way that I shop. If you shopped at more than one grocery store, you’d have to enter in the same items in each store’s list, or perhaps consolidate into one generic "grocery" store. However, SmartShop is good for folks that want to always buy the same items at the same stores, and it’s the only solution if you want to keep track of prices on items and total your purchases with your PalmPilot before getting to the checkout.

JShopper, on the other hand, fits the way I shop. When I need an item, I simply check that item off and at the same time I can quickly select an amount and indicate whether I have a coupon for that item. Or, I can easily check items with coupons as I clip them. The quick locate features lend themselves to keeping a large list of items (you’ll be surprised how quickly this list will grow), as does the automatic removal of a purchased item when checking it off at the store. Missing is SmartShop’s price feature, but I think just checking off each item on my PalmPilot as I shop is enough to ask of myself.

So, if you’re looking for a way to manage your shopping lists with your PalmPilot, I’d say look no further than either ReDo or JShopper. Each application has its own strengths and benefits, and both have the potential to make shopping just a little easier.

.BEGIN_SIDEBAR
.H1 Product availability

ReDo, $10-11.95 based on registration method, written by Rick Heubner, http://www.probe.net/~rhuebner/redo.html

JShopper, $10, written by John Lehett, http://www.land-j.com

SmartShop, $12.99, written by Handyware, http://w3.openlink.com.br/handyware/
.END_SIDEBAR

.BIO
.DISCUSS http://www.component-net.com/webx?13@@.ee6b7f0