The basics
ListPro uses a hierarchical format similar in form and function to the familiar Windows Explorer. Therefore, the first thing you'll need to wrap your brain around is the concept of lists and files. A file, in ListPro lingo, is the name for a group of lists. Though ListPro is not a relational database, it allows you to manage related lists using files. You can also use folders to further organize the lists in your file, although you can keep lists in the files without the use of folders. Got it? I didn't at first. Figures B and C, examples of how I used ListPro to create a file for all my carnivorous plant-related lists, should make things clearer. Figure B shows that the file itself, with the checkbox icon, is called Carnivorous Plants. Note that there are two folders within that file: Care and Plants.

FIGURE B


The file, with the checkbox icon, is called Carnivorous Plants. Roll over picture for a larger image.

Figure C shows that inside the Plants folder is a list of plant names.

FIGURE C


Inside the Plants folder are the Carnivorous Plants lists. Roll over picture for a larger image.

It's very easy to use the hierarchical structure once you grasp the basic concept and realize that a file is merely a group of lists. You can easily and quickly create folders and move lists in and out of these folders.

One more thing before we talk about the actual lists, and that's the difference between checkboxes and flags. Both checkboxes and flags function like radio buttons, allowing you to check and uncheck them with a simple tap of the stylus.

Checkboxes are used to check off items in a list. For example, you can create a nifty grocery list, or lists of steps in a task, that can be checked off as completed. For my Carnivorous Plant list, I use checkboxes to note the plants I own.

Flags are another story altogether. On the surface, they work just like checkboxes, but they serve a filtering function that allows them to be used to create specialized, reusable, Two-Step shopping lists.

Shopping lists (or why you'll never forget the half and half again)
Let's look at the Two-Step shopping list function. I created a simple shopping list in a matter of minutes. Yeah, it was just that easy and twice as satisfying. Here's how it works. First, I created a file called "Shopping" and a list called "Items". Figure D shows what my hierarchical view looks like.

FIGURE D


Here's a look at the shopping list hierarchical view. Roll over picture for a larger image.

After that, I selected three columns for my list: Checkbox, Flag, and Item. If you look at Figure E, you can see that all three of these columns are part of the default set of columns for each new list. I simply checked the columns I wanted to include. The unchecked columns, while still available to me, will not show up in my list unless I go back and select them. With ListPro, changing your mind is never a problem. You can add, delete, move, or resize a column at any time.

FIGURE E


Here's the List Properties dialog box, where I selected the columns for my shopping list. Roll over picture for a larger image.

Once I had my columns, I wrote in the list of items I normally buy, shown in Figure F.