How to...
Use Your Shopping List - At a Glance

Before your first shopping trip, use these pages to compose your list:

• Add Many Needs

  You can use the Add Many Needs ^< page to add many needs at once -- like a bundle of groceries -- to your lists. Access this page from the main menu or from the "Add many needs" button on the shopping list page.

  
  
• Add a Need

  Once you've added needs "in bulk", you can add needs one-at-a-time with the Quick Need Adder ^< or Advanced Need Adder ^< page. Access this page from the "Add a need" button on the shopping list page.

2. Print/Use List

• Shopping List

  Use the Shopping List ^< page to view your needs and shop to cover them. You can access all other pages and commands from this "central" page.

3. Remove Needs From List

Once you've completed a shopping trip, you'll remove some (or all) of the items from your list. You may do this right after the trip, or right before your next trip, or sometime in between.

The topic How to Update Your Shopping List After Shopping explains how to update each need on your shopping list after a shopping trip, depending on what happened with the need. Here are the actions you can use:

You can access these pages from the main menu:

• Load Receipts (Optional, advanced)

  Use the Load Receipts page to get advanced capability from your smart shopping lists: shopping lists that know when you're running out of something, buying advice, seller performance reports, cost-per-day curves, and things like that.

  Using this page, you record the assets that you purchased. This is how you "manage your assets". You'll need a full membership to record supply-type assets (those measured in oz, floz, etc.) See How To... Decide Which Assets to Manage.

  
  
• Add an Asset (Optional, advanced)

  The Load Receipts page (above) lets you load several purchases from a single store. The Add an Asset ^< page does the same thing, but provides a quicker way to load just one asset. Also, popping this up from the "Actions" button or "Quick Updates" column is simpler (see below).

You can access these commands from the button next to each need on the shopping list. For more information on each action, see the Need Actions Menu.

• Add an Asset

  This does the same action as "Add an Asset" above, but it's easier to use since the need you're covering will already be pre-selected.

  
  
• Postpone (or de-activate) Need

  You can postpone a need when:

  1. You bought an asset to cover the need, but you don't want to bother to add the asset (above). This postpones the need until you need to re-cover it.
     
     OR
     
     
  2. You decide not to cover the need right now, but you do want to cover it later.
     
     OR
     
     
  3. You want to de-activate the need. That is, you think you'll need to cover it later, but you don't know when. This keeps it in your database but off your shopping list.
  
  
• Hide Need

  You can temporarily hide a need if you just don't want to deal with it today (or you don't want it to show on a printout) and you'll deal with it the next time you sign in. For example, if you can't decide whether to delete or postpone a need, and you're not ready to cover it right now, just hide it. This removes it from your shopping list for this session only.

  P.S. If you hide several needs, try not to let your session end until you're done. (Your session will end if you leave MakeLifeEasy idle for about twenty minutes.) If you do, all your hidden needs will be unhidden, and you'll have to hide them again. There - we've warned you!

  
  
• Delete Need

  You can delete the need (and any assets covering it) completely from the database. Usually you would do this when you've added a need by mistake, or you've changed your mind about it. In any case, you'll never want to cover it (again) in the future.

Update Columns - An Even Faster Way

You can also access the above "Actions" button commands by pressing the "Update this list" button on the Shopping List page. This displays the "Actions" button commands in "Update Columns" next to each need. This way, you can more rapidly update the status of multiple needs at once. For more information on each action, see the Need Actions Menu. For more information the "Update Columns" columns, see "Update Columns" in the Shopping List page.

Now all covered or unwanted needs are removed from your list.

4. Add More Items to List

Do this between trips, to prepare for your next shopping trip.

• Add Many Needs (same as above)
  
• Add a Need (same as above)
  
• Automatic Add

  When MakeLifeEasy sees that one of you needs will be uncovered soon, it will automatically show up on your needs list. MakeLifeEasy sends you an email to notify you. You can turn off these notifications on your Options page.

  
  
• Search Needs

  You can use the Search Needs ^< page to locate any need in your database. Specifically, you can use the Search Needs ^< page to either:

  1. Un-postpone a postponed need.
     
     
  2. Re-activate an inactive need

  See Retrieving Postponed or De-Activated Needs.

  In general, you can click on any need name in the list to display the Need Properties page and perform a variety of actions on the need.

Re-organize Your List

From time to time you'll want to re-organize the items on your lists. Here are some of the actions you can use.

• Browse Needs

  The Browse Needs ^< provides another way to locate and manage your needs. You can use this page to browse through the "tree" of folders and needs, just like browsing through the "tree" of folders (directories) and files on your computer.

  
  
• Need Properties

  To display the Need Properties page, you must find a need in a list (like the shopping list) Then, to display the page, either click on the need name, The Need Properties page lets you view and update all the properties of a need (name, location, description, location, user, start date, notes, etc.). Whenever you see a need name hyperlink in a list (such as on the Shopping List, Search Needs, or Browse Needs pages), clicking on that link will display the Need Properties page. Clicking on "Show details..." on the Need Actions menu next to the need name will also display this page.

You can access these commands from the button next to each need on the shopping list. For more information on each action, see the Need Actions Menu.

• Rename Need

  You can change the name of a need, making it more specific or less specific, for example.

  
  
• Move Need

  You can move a need to a different folder (e.g. to a different shopping list or subfolder).

  
  
• Combine Need

  You can combine the assets of two needs into one need.

  
  
• Split Need

  You can split the assets of one need across more than one need.

Other Pages and Commands You May Find Useful

• Set Basic Data

  The basic data pages let you to manage your lists of basic data. There is one basic data list in this mini-application: sellers.

  
  
• Options

  The Options page lets you configure the application with your preferences. NOTE: The only sections that apply for this mini-application are "Membership" and "Emails".

  
  
• Switch to Full Mode

  This Shopping List Mini-Application is a "light" version of the complete MakeLifeEasy application. It contains only shopping list functions. You can switch to the full application using this menu command. Read more at The MakeLifeEasy Mini-Applications.

Additional Topics

SCIENTIFIC SHOPPING!

If you like to use shopping lists, congratulations! That's smart. You may also like our approach to scientific shopping. Check out these articles:

• About MakeLifeEasy
  
  
• The MakeLifeEasy Vision -- Why do this?
  
  
• The Ten Reasons To Record A Purchase
  
  
• How to Manage... Groceries
  
  
• How to Manage... Health and Beauty Items
  
  
• (other articles in the Resources section)