Welcome to DotNetIdeas' blog

January 1, 2013 at 1:22 PMAdministrator

ID-10074594_nokhoog_buchachon

Welcome to DotNetIdeas. We specialize in making mobile applications for Android, iPhone/iPad and Windows platforms. Our products include: Chore Checklist, Packing List, Grocery Helper, My Party Planner, Baking Planner and etc.

Chore ChecklistPacking ListGrocery HelperMy Party PlannerimageTravel Phrase

Chore Checklist, Packing List and Grocery Helper are cloud enabled apps. When you use these apps along with cloud connector/sync provider, you can sync/share lists between users and devices using our cloud services. We also provide FREE online editor for easy list editing.

To start using our cloud service today, sign up from the app or here online. Just a few clicks away, you will be ready to go. You can find our Privacy Policy here.

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You can get our apps at the following places. Please note not all the apps are available on all platforms.

Google PlayAmazon App StoreiTune Store
 

new-iconCheck out DotNetIdeas' Blog for latest update on User Guide, Release Notes, FAQ, Tips and Tricks.

(Image courtesy of nokhoog_buchachon/FreeDigitalPhotos.net)

Posted in: General

Meal Planner User Guide

June 4, 2012 at 9:59 PMAdministrator

Meal Planner is an intuitive meal planning app designed to simplify your kitchen routines and nourish your body and mind. With its thoughtful features, Meal Planner integrates meal planning, inventory tracking, and shopping list generation. It empowers you to effortlessly plan, organize, and optimize your meals like never before.

Please note: this app is not a recipe app. You are responsible to enter your dishes to be used in the meal planning.

Key Features:
  • Integrated Inventory List: Stay grounded with Meal Planner's integrated inventory list. It keeps track of your pantry essentials, ensuring you have a clear view of what's available, so you can make the most of your ingredients without any waste.
  • Visual Indicator of Inventory Level: Meal Planner gracefully illuminates your inventory levels with visual indicators. A simple glance reveals which items need attention, guiding you towards mindful choices and preventing those last-minute pantry surprises.
  • Easy Generation of Shopping List from Inventory List: Planning your grocery shopping has never been easier. Meal Planner enables you to effortlessly generate a comprehensive shopping list based on your inventory. By analyzing the recipes you intend to prepare and cross-referencing them with your current stock, the app identifies the exact ingredients you need to purchase, saving you time and effort.
  • Update Inventory List from Shopping List: Meal Planner simplifies the process of updating your inventory list after a grocery run. With a simple click, the app will update your inventory, ensuring accuracy and minimizing duplication.
  • Easy Meal Planning with Drag-and-Drop: Unlike other meal planning app, this app give you full control of how you want to plan your meals. It lets you enter dishes with key ingredients from your inventory. Then it provides a curated list of recommended dishes based on the inventory. By simply dragging and dropping these dishes onto your desired days, you can create a customized meal plan that perfectly suits your tastes and dietary preferences. Please note: this feature works best on a device with bigger screen, such as a tablet or PC.

Meal Planner invites you to embrace a mindful and nourishing approach to meal planning. Let it be your gentle guide, helping you reduce waste, maximize ingredients, and bring harmony to your kitchen. Download Meal Planner today and embark on a humble journey towards nourishment, one meal at a time.

Notes for the old Grocery Helper app users:

You will need to register a new account in Meal Planner. If you have the original "Grocery Helper - full" installed on your current device, the Ads in this app will be automatically removed after account registration. You can also migrate your lists from the old app to the new app. Please see “Backup and Restore” section below for more detail.

Login/Sign up

To login/Sign up, click “LOGIN/SIGN UP” button the top right of the home screen. You can sign in with Google/Apple or sign up using email/password.

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Once you signed up, the app will create some sample data for you.

The home screen has 3 tabs: Meal Planner, Inventory List and Shopping List. The default tab is “"Inventory List”. However, you can change it in “Account” view.

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Inventory List

 

Add New Item

To add a new item to the inventory List, click on “+” icon on the top right. You can also click on the “+” on the right of the category name to add an item to that category.

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"Name" and "Category" are required fields. You can select a category from the drop down or add a new one by clicking on the “+” icon on the right.

Import Items

To import items from preloaded templates, click on the 3 dots icon on the top right. Then select "Import from templates" from the popup menu. It will open the import view. Select a language, pick the items you want and click on the save icon on the top right corner.

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Edit Items

To edit an existing item, swipe the item name to the left. There are options to edit the item, make the item active/inactive, and delete the item.

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The item detail view allows to enter notes, edit quantities, units, location, stores, expiration date and price history.

Edit Inventory Level

To edit the inventory level, click on the inventory level icon on the right of an item. You can then select the level by press one of the icon. From left to right, the icons represent full, near full, half full, near empty or empty. To select the icon for shopping list, press the shopping cart icon. To close the view, click anywhere outside the popup or click on the “X” icon on the right.

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Mass Change

To make changes on multiple items, click on the 3 dots menu icon and then “Mass Change” from the popup menu. It will display items you are able to edit. You will select the items you want to change, then click on the image icon on the top right to enter the values. You can also delete multiple items here by clicking on the trash bin icon on the top right.

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Shopping List

 

Add New Item

There are several ways to add an item to the shopping list. You can check the “On Shopping List” checkbox in the item detail view. You can also click on the shopping cart icon when edit the inventory level of an item. Or you can click on the “+” icon in the shopping list view. As you start typing in the “Search Inventory” box, matching items from the inventory list will show up. You can then add them to the shopping list. You can also add brand new item by click on “NEW ITEM” on the left.

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Edit Items

To edit an existing item, swipe the item name to the left. There are options to edit the item and delete the item.

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Check Off Items

When check off an item in the shopping list view, you can choose to “Show Price Popup” or not. You can temporarily turn it on by click on the 3 dot menu on the top right and then click on “Show Price Popup” or go to Account view and change the switch there.

The price popup view will allow you to enter price for an item. Once it is entered. a price tag icon will show up on the item. You can see the price history popup when you click on the price tag icon. To edit or delete a price, swipe the price to the left and click on the edit or delete icon.

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Update Inventory List

As you check off items in the shopping list, you can click on the 3 dot icon on the top right and click on “Update Inventory” from the popup menu. It will update the inventory level for that item in the inventory list and remove the item from the shopping list.

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Export List

To email, text or share the shopping list with other people, click on the 3 dot icon on the top right and click on “Export List” from the popup menu. You can then select from the share-enabled apps(i.e. message or email) to share the shopping list.

Meal Planner

By default, the meal planner shows the read-only view. Click on the red floating edit icon at the bottom right of the screen to start planning the meals.

The edit view will display the current week, ingredients in stock and recommended dishes based on the ingredients in stock. You can drag-drop the recommended dishes to the planner. You can also move the dishes between meals and days. It is the best to use the edit view on a tablet or PC so you can easily drag/drop dishes.

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Edit Dishes

You will need to establish a dish list first in order to plan the meals. To edit dishes, click on the menu icon on the top left and choose “Dishes” from the menu.

To add a new dish, click on the “+” icon on the top right of the dish list view. You can enter name and notes; add tags and ingredients; or add the URL of your favorite recipe. To add/edit ingredients, click on the image icon. When click on the image icon, the app will open the recipe in the default web browser.

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Plan Meals

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To plan the meal for current week, you click on the image icon on the right of each meal and then select the dishes from the meal detail view. You can also drag a dish from the recommended dishes panel and drop it on top of a meal. In the meal detail view, you may add new dishes or enter notes.

If a ingredient is not in stock, it will be showed in the “Ingredients Not In Stock” section. Click on image will add those items to the shopping list.

To switch current week you are editing, click the “<” and “>” icon on the top right of the view

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Other Features

 

Edit Metadata

To edit metadata such as the categories, units, location and stores, click on the menu icon on the top left and then select “Metadata” from the menu. Then you can choose the metadata type from the drop down and start editing them. If you delete a metadata, the value will be cleared from all the items associated with that metadata. To change the order of  categories, click on the image icon on the top right. It will enter reorder mode. You can then press the icon on the right and drag them around.

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Share Lists Between Users

To share your list set with another user, click on the menu icon on the top left and click on “Account” to go to the account view. Then click on the “+” icon on the left of “Share List With”. Enter the email address you want to share the list with. An invitation will be sent to that user.

The user should see “Pending Invitations” in his/her account view. Once the user accepts the invitation, the list set name will show up under the “Default List Set” section. The user can then switch between the list sets.

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You can stop list sharing by delete the user from the “Share List With” section.

Backup and Restore(or Migration)

To backup and restore a list, click on the menu on the top left and then select “Backup & Restore” from the menu. It will save the lists to the local storage on your browser or device.

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On an Android device, if you have the previous Grocery Helper app(lite or full) installed, the new app will display the button “Migrate From Grocery Helper” to allow you to migrate your lists from those apps.

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You will need to first use the “Backup and Restore” feature in the old Grocery Helper app to backup your lists to a folder which can be accessed by the new Meal Planner app. It is recommended to save your lists to the “Documents” or “Download” folder. When you click on the “Migrate From Grocery Helper” button, it will open the file picker which should look like the screen shoot below. You can then navigate to the folder containing the backup and select the list file you want to migrate.

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After selecting the file, you will be prompt to check the content and then click on the “Confirm” button to complete the migration.

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Sometimes if you don’t see your list after the migration, you might need to kill and restart the app.

Account View

To edit user preferences, sign out or delete the account, click on the menu on the top left and then select “Account” from the menu. In the preferences section, you can enable dark theme, select default tab, show price popup and etc..

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Please note, if you want to delete your account, you will be prompt to sign out and sign in again to refresh the credential.

Where To Find the Apps

Web Site:

http://mealplanner.dotnetideas.com

Google Play Store:

coming soon

Apple App Store:

coming soon

Contact Us

Please feel free to contact us at support@dotnetideas.com if you have any questions or feedback. Thank you!

Posted in:

Chore Checklist User Guide(Windows Phone 7)

February 1, 2012 at 8:06 PMAdministrator

 

Chore Checklist helps you to manage chores at home or other places.  It records chores' completion date and calculate next due date based on your preference. You can also set reminder for each chore. It comes with a pre-loaded check list which has routines,  such as "Daily Routine", "Weekly Routine", "Monthly Routine" and etc. You may edit them or add new routine/chores.  

Version 2.0 and later is cloud enabled. The cloud can serve as the backup storage. 
More importantly, multiple users can collaborate on a same chore list instance from their phones or laptops/desktops. Users can edit chore lists through web browsers on laptops/desktops, which is much more convenient than editing lists on phone.  
                                    
In Version 2.0 or later, users can manage multiple chore lists on a single phone/device. There are three new views introduced. "By Due Date" and "By Location" are views  aggregating chores from multiple lists. "Lists &amp; Cloud" view is designed to collaborate lists between local devices and Cloud.  
                          

Create/Edit a Chore List

"By Routine" view is designed to create/edit chore lists. Even though, "By Routine" view supports check/uncheck/skip chores, "By Duedate" and "By Location" views are prefered over "By Routine" view to perform these activities. Click the "question mark" buttons at the bottom of  views' pages for detailed instructions. 

Check/Uncheck/Skip Chores

"By Duedate" and "By Location" are views aggregating from multiple lists. You can work on your chores based on their due dates or locations. Click the "question mark" buttons at the bottom of these views' pages for its detailed instruction. 

Cloud and Local Device Collaboration

"Lists &amp; cloud" view allows you to download lists from cloud, upload lists to cloud and merge content between devices and cloud. Click the "question mark" button at the bottom of this view's page for its detailed instruction. 

Share a list with a friend so he/she can collaborate on the list

Click the "cloud" button in the "By Routine" view and log in if necessary. Select the "Share with a friend" option and then enter the email of your friend. (If there is no "Share with a friend" option, click "Sync/Upload with/to Cloud" to upload the list to cloud first.) You friend will receive an email notification with the instruction on how to share the list.

Packing List User Guide(Windows Phone 7)

January 8, 2012 at 8:18 PMAdministrator

Packing List helps you to create and maintain packing lists.  It not only lets user to create a list from scratch but also allows you to generate lists from an existing one.  This application comes with a pre-loaded packing master list. You can simply check the items on the master list and then click on the “Generate List” menu item and you will have a packing list ready in no time. 

Items are grouped in categories. Each item has a quantity, a location and  a luggage attribute. The mass change feature allows you to update lists more easily. 

There are three views, "All Items", "Unchecked Items" and "Lists &amp; Cloud".  Use "All Items" view to edit the contents of lists; "Unchecked Items" view is more convenient for checking items; "Lists &amp; Cloud" view is designed to collaborate lists between local devices and Cloud.  

Expand Menu

Clicking the "..." at right-bottom corner will display the list of Menu options.

Create an New List directly on Mobile Device

To create a new blank list, select the "New List” menu item and enter the name
of the list. 
To generate a list from an existing one, open the existing list, check the items you want and select the "Generate List" menu item. 
If you want to duplicate a list, select the "Check All" menu item to select all the items and then select the "Generate List" menu item. 

Switch to a different list

You can maintain multiple lists with the application. To switch to a different list, tap on the name of the list. The screen with the names of all the lists opens. Tapping one of the lists will with to the list.

Delete/Rename a List

Switch to the list and the select the "Delete list"/"Rename list" menu item.

Add Items to an existing list

Check the items to add. Select the "add items to existing list" menu item and
then select the target list to add.

Create/Edit a List on desktop and download it to your Mobile Device 

Step 1:  On a desktop or tablet, start a web browser and go to https://dotnetideas.com and register with your email address. After logging in to https://dotnetideas.com with your email, select the "packing list editor" on the left menu to start editing an new packing list. After finishing editing, click the "save list" button, enter the name of the list and then click the "OK" button. 

Step 2: On your mobile device, swipe and go to the "Lists & Cloud" view. Log in to Cloud if you have not done so. Locate the list you just created in the "List(s) in Cloud only" category and then click the download button. If there is already a list with the same name on your local device,  the name will appears in the "List(s) in Device & Cloud" category.   

From this point on, you can edit the list either on your device or in a web browser. You can synchroize the changes to the list between your device and the cloud server.

Share a list with a friend so he/she can collaborate on the list

Select the "cloud" button or menu item and log in if necessary. Select the "Share with a friend" option and then enter the email of your friend.  (If there is no "Share with a friend" option, click "Sync/Upload with/to Cloud" to upload the list to cloud first.) You friend will receive an email notification with the instruction on how to share the list.

Posted in: Packing List | User Guide

Welcome to DotNetIdeas' blog

January 1, 2012 at 11:59 PMAdministrator

Welcome to DotNetIdeas' blog!

In this blog, you will find more updated information about our applications. 

Please feel free to contact us with any question and feedback. Thank you.

 

 

Posted in: General

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January 1, 2011 at 2:39 PMAdministrator

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Video Scribbler User Guide

January 2, 2010 at 9:33 AMAdministrator

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