If you just want to know what’s new in this version, skip to the end of this document. We also strongly recommend that you read the WARNING text before using List-It (and if you need help, you can give us a call, our number is at the end of the document).
What does one do with List-It? Well, create lists, of course! These lists can consist of anything you wish. Some people use them as lists of things to purchase, others prefer to use them as a To Do replacement. List-It can also be very useful in a business situation where people need to exchange organised data quickly (whether in an office, or on great distances). This can be accomplished by using the Beam and Mail commands. So feel free to put in whatever you like!
HOW IT WORKS - REGISTERING
If you decide to keep List-It and pay the $10 fee, we will mail you your very own user ID for the application. To enter it, just open List-It as you usually would, and write it in the area reserved for that purpose at the bottom of the “Registration Screen”. Then tap on the Register button, this will automatically save your code and you won’t have to see the screen anymore when starting up List-It. If you don’t have a user ID yet, simply tap on the Not Yet button to use List-It as you normally would.
HOW IT WORKS - LIST OF LISTS
When you open List-It, the first thing you see is an empty list. This is where you’ll see the names of the list you’ll create (ex.: Grocery, To Do, whatever). To see a particular list, tap on that lists’s line. If you’re starting from scratch, just tap on the NEW button.
HOW IT WORKS - LIST EDITOR
This is where you actually enter your list. The first field you see is the Title field. This is where you’ll enter the name that you’ll see when you first open List-It, or when you tap on the bellybutton (that’s the button between the two arrows, at the bottom of your Newton).
There are three types of lists that you can choose from (to learn how to select a type of list, see the OPTIONS section below). What ever type you decide to use, there are two things that are always part of your lists: a check box (to mark off items that are done/purchased) and an Item field in which holds the name of whatever you want to buy or remember.
The first list type is the one that also gives you a Quantity field and a Price field. This is particularly useful for shopping lists. When both fields are filled, they are multiplied and the result is added to the total at the bottom of the screen.
The second list type, instead of the Price and Quantity fields, has a “Comments” field in which you can enter anything in particular that you’d like to remember for a given line.
The last list type only has the two basic items (a check box and an item field).
If a list is longer than the 10 lines we see on the screen, just tap on one of the arrows at the bottom of the screen to either scroll up or down.
What about the button that looks like a scale, you ask?. Well, when you click on it, it opens a window that helps you compare the price of two items. How do you use it? Simple. Let’s say there are two sales: 100 grams of flour for $2 and 150 grams of flour for $2.50. You want to know which one will save you the more money. Just fill in the fields (put 100 and 150 in the two quantity fields, and 2 and 2.50 in the price fields). Then, put in a quantity you want to compare your prices to, say 100g. So enter 100 in the last field. The calculated results will appear at the far right of the window. You’ll then know which one will cost you less for 100g.
But that’s not all! If you tap on the “Add Item #x” button, the item you decided to buy will be added at the end of your current list.
OPTIONS BUTTON
When you tap on the OPTIONS button, you are offered a series of options. The first one lets you edit your preferences. Here’s a list of which parameters affect what:
List Type (or “Create Lists with”): The first option lets you decide which type of list you’d like to create (ie: a list with the Price and Quantity fields, a list with the Comments field or a simple item list). To select a list type, just tap on the radio button of your choice. The next list you create will (with the NEW button) will use your selection.
Ask for type when creating a new list: If this check box is on, every time you click on the New button, a list will pop-up asking you what kind of list you wish to create (practical for those who use all the types of lists a lot)
Price Options: this is useful for international users that might want a more flexible way of displaying prices. If Show Currency is checked, the price will be shown with your country’s currency (as selected in the Prefs section). If Show Decimals is checked, your price will also include two decimals (or no decimals it the option is unchecked).
Total Options: lets you select what lines are used when your total is calculated. You have the choice between: a total of all the items you entered, a total of all the items that are currently unchecked or finally, a total of all the checked items.
Calculate Taxes: Some people use List-it for their shopping and they want to know how much it’s going to cost them (including taxes!). That’s why we put in this option. When this check box is on, taxes are automatically calculated based on the two tax rates you entered (in the two spaces reserved to that use, next to the check box). BUT BE WARNED: the second tax is calculated on top of the first one. This is to say that if you have a first rate of 7%, and a second rate of 8%, the total calculated tax rate will be of 15,56%. If your taxes are not added one to the other, just precalculate them your self and put the total rate in the first field. (ie: Your rates are 7% and 8%, simply enter 15% in one of the fields).
List of Lists: You have three choices as far as the list of lists (also known as Overview list) is concerned. You can either see the name of your lists and the date they were created (with the Creation Date radio button), or see the lists’s names and how many items have yet to be checked off (with the Undone Items radio button). To check off a list’s line, simply tap in the check box at the left of your list, when you’re in the List Editor. This also relates to the last list type which shows you the unchecked items themselves (along with the list’s title). For this last type, you can enter the list editor by taping on a line with a list’s title or on a list’s item.
Convert Old Lists: In case you don’t know, List-It’s ancestor was called Shopper. Because of various sociopolitical and economical reasons (just kidding), we changed the name. At the same time, we changed the way lists are stored in your Newton. Well, if you were a Shopper user that would like to keep the items you had entered, tap on this button to automatically convert your lists. We recommend that, after checking to make sure that everything is all right with your converted lists, you delete your old lists and take Shopper off of your Newton.
Remove All Lists: This option deletes the lists you have created with List-It. It also takes out the Options you have selected. Only choose this option if you plan on removing List-It permanently right afterward. YOU MUST USE THIS OPTION IF YOU PLAN ON ERASING LIST-IT FROM YOUR DEVICE. DO NOT TRY TO REMOVE YOUR DATA WITH OTHER PROGRAMS. THIS COMMAND WAS SPECIALLY CREATED FOR THIS PURPOSE AND IS THE SAFEST WAY TO HANDLE THINGS.
Remember Last Position: this option lets you come back where you were when you last left List-It (whether it’s in the List of Lists or in one of the lists you created).
OTHER OPTIONS
The Option button also brings up a list of things that you can do to your current list. Please note that anything you do with this button can be undone with the UNDO button.
Sort by Item Ascending/Descending: Sorts your list alphabetically (in ascending or descending order) based on what you entered in your Item column.
Move Checked to Top/Bottom: This lets you sort the items in your list by using the check box as a reference. If you select Top, all unchecked items will appear first in your list. If you select Bottom, the check checked lines will be first. We know, these names suck rocks, so if you find better ones, just e-mail them us and we’ll gladly consider them!
Check/Uncheck all items: automatically adds or remove the check from the check boxes of all the lines in your list.
Erase checked items: If your lists contains many checked items and you want to get rid of them, this is the option for you! They’ll literally disappear!
Compress Blank Lines: The name says it all. All the empty lines in your list will be eliminated.
FIND / ALL
When in List-It, you can use the Find button at the bottom of you screen to look for an item in one of your lists. Also, if you do a Find from within another application and tap on the ALL button, List-It will be included in the searches (ie: you can look for a specific item from within the Names application. If something is found, List-It will automatically be opened).
DUPLICATE / DELETE
You can duplicate and delete a list (when you’re in the list’s editor). The practical side of the duplicate command is that you can set up a basic list you use every so often but with some minor modifications. Instead of reentering it every time, you can make a copy of a “master list” and play with that without affecting the original.
Also, in both cases (duplicate and delete), both commands can be undone with the “Undo” button at the bottom of your screen. There is a known bug with undeleting a list. If you tap on Undo after doing a delete, your list will reappear, but your Newton will start beeping and may freeze. We know of no reason for this as of now and are looking for a fix.
PRINT / FAX
List-It gives you the option of printing and faxing any one of your lists. Just make sure you’re in the List’s editor before you choose either of these commands. If you’re not in the editor, who knows what might come out! Also, you must have the List-It application residing in memory in order to use this command. If you simply put the printout in the Out Box and remove List-It, you will get an error while trying to print. This doesn’t really follow standard guide lines, but it’s the only option for now. Hopefully, this will be fixed in the future.
Also, there is a new option that lets you decide whether or not you want to print the comments that might accompany a line (you enter comments by double-tapping on the up/down arrows, above the check box).
BEAM
If you need to transfer a list to someone else, this is the command to use! The entire list will be transferred and the receiver will be able to modify it as he/she would any normal list.
MAIL
This command can be used to send a textual representation of a list to someone via electronic mail. But it’s also possible to send the actual list it self, as if you were beaming it.
MOVE FROM/TO CARD
Just in case you didn’t know, when you create a new list, it can either be stored in Internal RAM or on a RAM card (if you have one). How do you know where a list is going to be created? You decide, by putting a check in the “Store new items on card” button. But how do you remember if your lists have been created a while ago? You don’t have to! Now, when editing a list that is stored on a RAM card, a small triangle will appear at the right of your list’s title.
You can move your lists FROM the RAM card into Internal memory (or vice versa) with the “Move From/To card” option in the Routing menu. If you move a list from a card into Internal RAM, the triangle will disappear to indicate where the list is stored.
BACKING UP
This feature has been very much in demand for quite a while. Well, List-It finally supports the backing up to your computer with the Connection Kit(tm). Simply do a backup to your computer like you usually would. Once it’s finished, there is a new choice in the window which shows you the applications you have access to, you’ll see List-It. If you double-click on it, a list of your lists will appear in a window. Double clicking on a particular line will show the list itself. You can then modify the data you see, or create new lists. It is also possible to import/export lists you might have created with other applications.
Unfortunately, there are limitations that we could not overcome. Because of List-It’s way of organising lists, we were limited in the way we could present you your lists. The first limit you’ll notice is that you can not see lists with more than 20 lines (AND WE DON’T RECOMMEND MODIFYING A LIST WITH MORE THAN 20 ITEMS, SINCE YOU WOULD MOST PROBABLY LOOSE YOUR DATA). If you decide to create a template for importing/exporting, you’ll notice it also has a limit of 20 items. And each line you decide to import must have it’s items listed individually (ie: if you want to import three items with three prices, you’ll have to select ITEM1, PRICE1, ITEM2, PRICE2, ITEM3, PRICE3).
We understand that these problems limit the usefulness of the backup, but we felt that the benefits outweigh the limits. We hope to fix the problem (and the way our data is organised) in time for the next version of List-It.
OTHER GOODIES
Many people have asked us for the possibility to go from list to list without having to use the belly button every time. That’s why we put in a special feature that lets you immediately choose the list you want to go to from within another list. Just tap on the title at the top of your screen, and tap of the name of your choice.
Also, you might have noticed the two tiny Up/Down arrows on top of all the check boxes (in the list editor). These indicate an area where you can press down with your pen to move a list’s line up or down. The line you’re moving will either be inserted before of after the highlighted item (depending on which way you’re moving).
But that’s not all! Now, if you double tap on those same arrows, a dialog will appear that will let you enter extra information concerning a particular line! This comment will follow your line wherever you move it. Please note that we are cheating a bit on this one: the comment you enter will actually be stored in the “Comment” field, the same one which is visible in a “Comment” type list. This means that you should be careful about modifying a comment on such a list, because it could modify what you had already entered. Other than that, it’s perfectly safe. A new feature lets you see which lines have comments and which don’t: if the up/down arrows are hollow, then you don’t have a comment. If they are filled, then you can double-tap on them to see the line’s comment.
Thanks to popular demand, List-It now supports the Intelligent Assistant. Using it is simple (see your device’s owner’s manual for the basics). Here are the kind of phrases that List-It will recognise:
List 3 Bananas in Shopping at $5 (the dollar sign is optional)
List Bananas in Shopping
List Bananas at $5
etc.
You get the picture... Once you tap on the Assist button, there’s a bit of processing that goes on and you’re then presented with a window which lets you modify what you want to list and offers you a choice of lists to pick from (if need be). Once you feel everything is all right, tap on the List button and the item will automatically be added to the list of your choice.
Also, take note that you can now use lists you created with multiple items instead of just one. Just select the whole list and tap on Assist. BUT, this function currently only accepts one price and one quantity for the whole list. This means that if you have 5 items and two prices, the last price in the list will be applied to all the items. This limitation will be fixed in future versions, but must remain so for now. Your lists can be about 10 items long (or a bit longer, depending on what you selected). Also, List-It strips away dashes and bullets, so you can use those while building your lists if you want. But the Assistant is limited in the total number of items it can accept (15 is the max). If use use bullets, for example, and put a space between a bullet and an item, the bullet will count as one item. If you have one bullet per item, that cuts the number of items you can add by half. Anyway, try it out, it’s not as complex as it sounds, and the Assistant lets you know if it can’t handle your selection.
REVISIONS - OR WHAT’S NEW WITH U
This is where you can see the evolution of List-It. I’ll also include some notes about List-It’s ancestor, Shopper, for the users that want to know what happened between versions. By the way, if all goes well, the next List-It will be version 3.0! It should be out sometimes this summer (we have big plans for it)!
List-It 2.6.1 and 2.6.2: More last minute changes
- Various bug fixing
List-It 2.6: Last minute changes
- Scroll bug in list of lists has been somewhat fixed
- NCK now really accepts 20 items
- Assistant now handles multiple items
- Button was added to Assistant dialog to let you add items and then enter List-It
- Various other little bugs were fixed
List-It 2.5: Short lived but true
- Tax rates now take up to two decimals
- Various bugs were fixed
- In some areas, speed is up to 30% better
- Up/Down arrows change their appearance, depending on if a line has a comment
attached to it.
- New option to print comments
- Connection Kit(tm) is now supported
- Problem with smaller screens was fixed
- Support for the Assist button
List-It 2.4: Here we are again!
- Added Beaming and Mailing to the routing slip
- New option let’s user add an extended comment to every line
- List-it should now properly resize for different sized screens (well, we hope so)
- Many many routines were reprogrammed for greater efficiency
- Other button eliminated. Commands can now be found in the Options button
- Many other little visual things that most people will probably never notice...
List-It 2.3: It was never meant to be...
- Never released farther than the beta bath... See List-It 2.4.
List-It 2.2: Just passing by
- Extras drawer closes when opening List-It
- Bug fixed in the Options dialog (tax related)
- Bug fixed when deleting a last list
List-It 2.1: All this and much more!
- New option to handle tax calculations
- Sort command for various fields
- Check/uncheck all items command
- Remove checked items command
- Compress blank lines command
- Option to have a choice of list type when tapping on New button
- Options to calculate your total the way you want it calculated
- Number formatting problem somewhat fixed. Let us know what you think.
- Comparison dialog lets you add to your list any of the two items you compared
- Soup now automatically updated (ie: you won’t loose everything if you have to reset).
- Word “Title” removed from printed list.
- Hopefully, speed improvements! We’ve put in a lot of time rewriting a good part of
the application and many parts seem a lot faster than before. But unfortunately, it
does not always appear faster to all users.
List-It 2.0: More powerful than ever
- New options for price formatting
- New overview list type showing all unchecked items.
- New list type (with only a check box and an item field).
- New area (on top of each check box, in the editor) lets you reorder the lines in a list.
- Little triangle at the right of a list’s title indicates if a list is stored in Internal
RAM (ie: no triangle) or a on RAM card (a triangle).
- New command in the Routing menu lets user move list from Internal RAM to RAM
card (and vice versa).
- Options are now permanently stored in System soup.
- The “Price Comparison” dialog was redesigned to make it a bit simpler to use.
- Better memory management / tighter code.
- Addition of a registration system for user who pay the shareware fee.
- Bug fix (user got an error message when deleting the only list he/she had).
- Other small details which you might just never notice. Oh well, such is life.
List-It 1.2: Whuzzat?
- Never made it into the real world. Evolved into List-It 2.0
List-It 1.1: So soon?
- New option lets user return to the list they were looking at the last time they used List-It.
- Various little display adjustments were made.
- Inclusion of a “Warning - Read Me” file to let users know about potential problems.
List-It 1.0: I can’t believe they changed it!
- List of lists lets you see how many undone items you have for each list.
- You now have access to two types of lists, one with price and quantity and the other one
with comments.
- Scale button works with both types of lists
- Printing and Faxing (says it all).
- Fix Shopper bug that caused last item on screen not to be checked off properly while
scrolling up or down (from within the list editor).
- Taping on the List-It title pops-up a list of lists to quickly go from one list to the another.
- Lists with blank items at the end are automatically compressed.
- Documentation was partly rewritten.
- Better coding of routines so that the application is more compact and runs faster.
- “Convert Old Lists” option for Shopper users.
Shopper 1.2: The joys of Shopper 1.2
- You now get a “swoosh” sound when scrolling up or down from within a list.
- There’s a new Options button that lets you delete you lists (ie: wipe out the soup, for
you technical people) before you remove Shopper.
Shopper 1.1: The wonders of Shopper 1.1
- Much improved soup management (fixes PCMCIA card problem)
- When removing PCMCIA card, Newton no longer asks you to put it back in.
- Find All bug has been fixed.
- Display has been slightly changed (looks nicer).
- New “scale” button to help you compare prices
Shopper 1.0: A NEWton BEGINNING
- <This space still left blank intentionally>
THE FUTURE
Of course, we already have some ideas for future versions... But your ideas are also very much welcome. We love to hear from people that use our applications (whether the comments are positive or negative). So send in your ideas if you have any! They’ll be greatly appreciated.
WHILE WE’RE AT IT
This application is shareware. We’ve put a lot of time in designing this, and plan to put more time in it still. You may use it for free for 15 days, but if you plan on using it after that period (either for personal use, or for business), you must register the application and send $10 to the following address:
Macapa Software
440 Upper Edison #7
St-Lambert
Quebec, CANADA
J4R 2V5
Please include your name, address, phone number and an E-Mail address where we can reach you. If you have an E-Mail address, you will receive your user ID number the day we get your check. If you don’t have one, you will receive the user ID by regular mail. Also, please note that it is now possible to pay via CompuServe by typing GO SWREG.
If you’ve already paid registration fees for Shopper or List-It 1.0, you are then automatically registered for List-It 2.0. If you haven't received your user ID when you read this, write to us (E-Mail if preferable) or call us and we will give you one immediately. Also, if you haven’t done so yet, please let us know what your E-Mail address is (see above paragraph for reason).
