Using Shopper

Shopper is mainly aimed at going to the supermarket or other regular shopping trips. It lets you keep a big list of things you buy more than once.

The first time you use it you make a list before you go out shopping. Then you tick all the things you want to buy. When you're out shopping you mark off things as you put them in the basket.

All the items you want to buy are kept so the next time you go you can just pick the things you need - and of course over time you add more items to the list.

Some terminology

To help organise bigger lists Shopper has "categories". We have categories corresponding to aisles or areas in the supermarket. So our local store has Veg, Fruit, Meat, Fridge, Dairy, Bathroom, Bread+Pastry etc... so the list is in roughly the right order when you walk around.

Shopper works in 3 'modes'

Out Shopping: What's Left

This is the normal mode when you're out. Each time you put an item in your basket it vanishes from the list.

Out Shopping: Full List This

This is similar but lets you see a list of items with a strikethrough. Useful if you accidentally tick something.

Making a List

This mode lets you select items from your master list for your next shopping trip.

Things do change from trip to trip so Shopper has 'notes' - I use them to jot down quantities or reminders. Notes are special because they are usually cleared each trip.

So how do you use it?

Before you go out you tell Shopper that you are "Making a list" by clicking on the icon showing a list and a stylus or by picking "Make List" from the menu. Shopper then presents you with all the items in the first category ready for you to pick the ones you want to buy on this trip.

The first time you use shopper it makes a new list with some "Help" items (you can ignore them - you're reading the proper help!). You can get rid of that list by doing Menu->Save/Load/New->New and just clicking above the dialog to dismiss it. Then you'll have a new empty list.

You should notice a couple of icons that only appear when you are in the "making a list" mode :

is for adding new items to a list. When you click on it you get to enter a new item (and a note if you like).

lets you re-arrange, add and delete categories.

When you add a new item pick an existing category for it (it defauts to the one you're looking at). If you decide that it belongs in a new category just click on the "Edit>>" button and you can add a new category which will be used for the item. Also notice that new items are marked as "wanted" (you don't usually add items unless you want them on your next trip)

Tip: If you're creating a big list see the Import feature

If you want you can make a note against an item - so you could add "4 pints" next to milk; or "Yellow box" next to Margarine (like my wife does when her idiot husband keeps getting the wrong one). To make a note you just stroke/scribble from left to right and back to left (or vice-versa) and then you get an edit box. It does work quite well after you've gotten used to it.

Tip: If you don't want the same things as your last trip you can select Menu->Make List->Clear Wanted to tell Shopper you are starting from scratch.

At last ... Going shopping

When you're out shopping you tell Shopper to show you "What's Left?" by clicking on the icon showing a list and a tick: . It displays "Everything" in one big list and you tick/scratch off things as you put them in your trolley until you are done. When you scratch something it vanishes.

Tip: If you tick or scratch something by mistake you can ask Shopper to show you the full list by clicking on the icon showing a plain list: This lets you see everything you intended to buy with the things that are in the basket crossed out.

Tip: In the preferences you can turn the category headings on or off. I like them so I know if I should be buying biscuits from the cat aisle or the sweets aisle.

When switch back to making a list you often just want to add an item or two to the current list. Sometimes you want to "empty the basket" or "forget all the notes". These tasks can easily be handled from Make List on the menu. If you want to start a new list and clear all the notes then you can pick the tickboxes and then choose your shopping. If you just want to clear the notes then use that button.

Navigation

At the bottom of the screen the arrows let you cycle through all the categories and the pop-up list lets you jump to a specific one.

Saving Things

You shouldn't need to worry about this - Shopper normally saves everything every time you exit and reloads it when you start up again. You can also have multiple shopping lists - just create new ones and use the File save/load menu options as usual.

Fridge
  Milk
   Butter
  Eggs
Veg
    Potatoes
   Tomatoes
Frozen
  Ice-cream
	

Click to install