File Maintenance and Utilities

ListMeister keeps all of your lists in a folder called ‘Files’.  The ‘Files’ folder MUST be in the same folder as the ListMeister application itself.  Each list is stored in a separate folder within the ‘Files’ folder and is made up of two files: a item content file called [listname].itm and an index file called [listname].idx.  The content file contains the actual information in your list, the index file contains the item record indexes that allow ListMeister to sort you lists in different ways.  To backup your lists (highly recommended), backup the entire ‘Files’ folder.

File Maintenance window

ListMeister provides you with a few file maintenance and management functions.  It’s relatively unlikely that you’ll need them but they’re available in case you do.  To activate the File Maintenance window, choose the ‘File Maint...’ option under the OPTIONS menu.  The File Maintenance window provides the following functions:

COUNT
     The Count function simply counts the number of 
           items in the active list.  All items are 
           counted, including those marked done.

CLEAN UP
  The Clean Up functions does two things: 1) 
           rebuilds the indexes for the active list; 2) 
           compacts the list by removing the empty space 
           left behind by deleted list items. You may use 
           the Clean up function if you have a list with a 
           damaged index file. 

EXPORT
    The Export function will export all list items 
           marked done to a tab-delimited ASCII file for 
           import into another program such as FileMaker.  
           The file that ListMeister creates is called 
           ‘ItemsOut’ and will be created in the same 
           folder that houses the ListMeister application.  
           The sequence of the list’s data elements is as 
           follows:
             1)
Item Description/Name (text, 50 characters)
             2)
Category (text, 10 characters)
             3)
Value (text, 20 characters)
             4)
Date (includes ‘/’) 
             5)
Done (‘d’ for done, space for un-done)
             6)
Notes (text, up to 4096 characters)

IMPORT
   The Import function is the converse of Export, 
           it imports a tab-delimited ASCII file into the 
           active list from a file that must be named 
           ‘ItemsIn’ located in the same folder that houses 
           the ListMeister application.  The data element 
           sequence of import is identical to that of 
           export.

DELETE
   The Delete function permanently removes all 
           items marked done from the active list.  Be 
           careful with this one, again: it permanently 
           removes the list items from the active list.  
           After using the Delete function, it’s 
           recommended that you use the Clean Up function 
           to remove the space left by the deleted records.

The active list is displayed in the status box in the lower, left portion of the File Maintenance window.  You may change the active list without leaving the File Maintenance window by clicking the LIST button and following the steps outlined above in the ‘Changing Lists’ chapter.

A purging scenario

If you list becomes choked with items that are marked done:

  1)
Use the Export function to copy the items marked done     
     to an ASCII file.
  2)
Use the Delete function to remove them from the list.
  3)
Use the Clean Up function to recover the space left by 
     the deleted records.

At this point, you have a smaller, faster list and an archive file of the items that were done.  If you ever need to reload the archived items, follow the steps to Import them back into the original list or any list of your choosing.