Ilium Software's ListPro 4.1 for Smartphone

The challenge for traditional Windows Mobile developers when it comes to designing their products for Smartphones is making the user experience worth the sometimes challenging matter of entering and retrieving data all the while maintaining a good interface and high level of functionality. It is a tall order for developers and some have struggled to meet this challenging mix.

Fortunately Ilium Software has not and their latest version of ListPro for Windows Mobile Smartphone is nothing short of brilliant. The new 4.1 version of ListPro has a wide range of features that can be highly customized to meet your needs including highlighting, strike through and a new simplified list creation wizard. The real genius though of ListPro for Smartphone is its near identical functionality to the Windows Mobile Pocket PC and Windows PC versions. Virtually all of the features from the Windows Mobile Pocket PC edition and the Smartphone edition are the same. This common experience makes ListPro and Ilium stand well above other products in this category.

The installation of ListPro is done via ActiveSync to either Main Memory or a Storage Card and will require approximately 560KB of space. If you purchase the Professional Edition of ListPro, the Windows PC version is included which will need just over 5MB of hard disk space on your PC. The application requires Windows Mobile Smartphone 2002, 2003 or 5.0. If you purchase the Professional edition of ListPro, synchronization of your lists is done via the integrated synchronization tool. The Synchronization tool is completely wizard driven and will walk you step-by-step through the process. File Synchronization along with the ability to more readily edit your lists on your Desktop PC make the small up-charge for the Professional edition worth while. When ListPro is started, a directory listing of all of the lists available on your Smartphone is shown. By using your D-Pad and Action button you can scroll the list and select list you want to use.

Figure 1: The Windows PC version of ListPro is included in the Professional Edition

Figure 2: The File Listing of ListPro

From the File Listing, you can also choose to create a new ListPro list by choosing the New soft key. Enter a name for the list and the location where you want to store the list and press the Done soft key. With the new list created, items need to be added to it. This is done from inside the list by pressing the Menu>Items>New Item menu. Adding items is just a matter of indicating the name of the item, any notes and if you desire to have a checkbox with that item. Once completed, press the Done soft key and the item is now on your list.


Figure 3: Adding an item to a list	Figure 4: A completed ListPro List

You will see in Figure 4 that several of the items are highlighted. This is a new to version 4.1 of ListPro and a welcome addition. By using the highlighting, you can quickly organize your list into any visual categories that you choose.

While the list I created for this example is simple, a key feature of ListPro is the high level of customization that can be done within each list. For example, you can add and remove columns on a list such as the number of units I need to purchase of an item on my Grocery List. I can also customize the names of these lists as well to better fit my needs or be more reflective of the content of the list itself.

Figure 5: You can add or remove columns from your ListPro list

Depending on the type of list you have and the content of that list, you may wish to associate alarms with it or password protect it. ListPro allows you to do both, allowing you to associate multiple alarms per list if needed. Further, the list can be password protected to prevent prying eyes from seeing the information in your list, adding a left of security to you while using ListPro on-the-go.


Figure 6: Alarms can be added to ListPro Lists	Figure 7: Password protect your ListPro Lists

The beauty of ListPro is the high level of customization that is available to you as a user. Simply put, there really isn’t a list that you can’t create with it. You can create tasks lists, gift lists, shopping lists and information lists. For example, I created a Formula One World Champions List (you can download it at http://www.iliumsoft.com/download/lists3/Formula_One_Driver_Champions.clf). This list has all of the Formula One World Champions by year, the constructor of their car and the car model itself. It is a list that is specific to a particular interest of mine to be sure, but it shows you the flexibility of this terrific application.

Figure 8: Clinton’s Formula One Champions List

The functionality and flexibility in ListPro 4.1 are outstanding and make this a must-have application for those Windows Mobile Smartphone users who need a good list and information store. Its performance is outstanding and it is backed by the outstanding support of Ilium Software, a company that has always proven to be a pleasant experience when it comes to customer service and technical support.

Ilium has a wide range of already made lists from ListPro users available for free download at http://www.iliumsoft.com/site/lp/lp_lists.php. On this site, you can search based on keyword on the hundreds of lists available. You can also sign up for Ilium’s free RSS feed that will notify you of when new lists are available. The RSS feed is http://www.iliumsoft.com/listexchange.xml.

ListPro 4.1 is available from the Ilium website in various packages. For the Pocket PC standalone version it is $19.95 while the Professional version which included the Windows PC desktop version is $29.95. For those who have ListPro 4.0, the upgrade is free while those will previous versions can upgrade for a discounted price of $16.95.

Clinton Fitch ~ MVP-Mobile Devices

Principle

Clinton Fitch (Dot) Com! (http://www.clintonfitch.com) & HPC:Factor (http://www.hpcfactor.com)