ListPro: the Power of a Desktop List Manager on a Smartphone

Ilium Software's latest version of ListPro for Windows Mobile Smartphone is nothing short of brilliant. Not only does ListPro 4.1 have a wide range of features, it's highly customized to meet your needs. Features include the ability to highlight items in the list, strike through completed items, and create lists easily with a new simplified list creation wizard. But the real strength of ListPro for Smartphone is that it has nearly the same functionality as the Pocket PC and Windows PC versions of the program. The real benefit of this is for Windows Mobile Pocket PC and Smartphone owners. There will be a very small learning curve when going from one platform to another, making the experience of using ListPro quicker and easier.

Consider the Professional Edition of ListPro

Installation is straightforward and requires approximately 560KB of space. The program works with all versions of the Windows Mobile Smartphone, including WM5.0. If you purchase the Professional Edition of ListPro, you get the Windows PC version of the program as well. It needs just over 5MB of hard disk space on your PC. The Professional Edition includes a synchronization tool that allows you to sync lists between your Smartphone and PC. This tool is completely wizard driven and will walk you, step-by-step, through the process. File Synchronization coupled with the fact that it's easier to create and edit lists on the PC version of ListPro make the additional $10 you spend on the Professional Edition worthwhile.

Using ListPro

When you start ListPro on your Smartphone, a directory of all available lists is displayed (Fig. 1).Use the Smartphone's D-pad to scroll down the list and select the one you want to use with the action button.

Fig. 1: ListPro's file list.

You can also create a new list from this page, by pressing on the New soft key in the lower left corner of the screen. Enter a name for the new list, the location where you want to store the list, and the press the Done soft key. To add an item to the new list press Menu>Items>New Item and key in the name of the item. You can also add notes to the item (Fig.2) and include a check box. Once completed, press the Done soft key again and the item is now on your list (Fig. 3).

Fig. 2: Adding a note

Fig. 3: A completed list.

You will see in Fig. 3 that several of the items are highlighted. This is a new to version 4.1 and a welcome addition. You can use this feature to highlight related items and quickly organize your list.

A key feature of ListPro is the high level of customization that can be done within each list. For example, you can add extra columns to a list to include additional information. This feature allowed me to add a column to my grocery list that indicated the number of units I needed to purchase for each item in the list. You can also customize the names of these lists to better reflect the content of the list.

ListPro 4.1 also allows you to associate alarms with items in a list (Fig. 4) and password protect it (Fig. 5). Password protection is particularly important if you want to prevent prying eyes from seeing the information in your lists.

Fig. 4: Alarms can be added.

Fig. 5: Password protection.

Create any list you want!