Shopping List Viewer
The Shopping List Viewer is the heart of the Shopping Helper's
features. This allows you to compare and track a set of products from a
set of stores. You can access the viewer by these methods:
- from the Shopping Helper status bar icon, right-click and select
the 'Open Shopping List Viewer' menu item;
- from the Sidebar, right-clicking on any
of the items in the Shopping Lists area gives a 'View Shopping List'
menu choice; or
- from the Sidebar, you can double click
on the shopping list to launch the Shopping List Viewer.
The price grid shows all the prices for the given set of products and set
of stores defined for the shopping list being viewed. Use the tabs to
select other shopping lists and use the 'Find More Stores' button to add
and remove stores form this list using
the Store Selector.
Initial Store Population
The first time you view a shopping list in the Shopping List Viewer, it
will automatically create a set of stores for this shopping list. It uses
information about how the products were added to the list as well as
looking at your lists of Favorite
Stores to help build the initial list stores. After this initial
automatic creation, you can manage the list using
the Store Selector.
There are a few events that can lead to stores being automatically added
to a shopping list:
- adding products to the session; and
- products becoming available at a favorite store.
Stores will never be automatically removed from the shopping list.
The Price Grid
The first column on the left shows each product in the shopping list as
well as some summary information from the grid prices, such as the number
of stores selling the product and the minimum price. For products that
are also sold by stores not included in the grid, it will also show
summary information from across all stores. The summary at the top of
this column shows the minimum total cost to purchase all the products in
the shopping list, at least for those that are available from at least
one of the stores. The numbers in parentheses show how many of the
products are available and the total number in the list.
The first row across the top shows the current set of stores defined for
this shopping list. There is also summary information indicating the
number of products in the list this store currently sells, as well as the
total cost for all those products.
Within the grid, the prices are shown, where the lowest price for each
product is highlighted. Also highlighted are prices for products
currently not in stock at that store. In this case, the price
reflects the last known price for that product at that store.
Links
Here is the list of items in the Shopping List Viewer which are links:
- prices link to the product detail page for that product at that
store's web site;
- product images and titles lead to that products bookmarked pages;
and
- store logos or names lead to the stores' home pages.
Merging Products
The "merge products" Icon
As products are added to Shopping Lists, it may result in the same
product appearing more than once. This can result from adding the same
product from two different stores. In the Shopping List Viewer, to get
the maximum use of the price comparison grid, the similar products
should be merged into a single, aggregate product. The Shopping Helper
Product Merger can be accessed by right-clicking on a product title in
the List Viewer. You select the checkboxes of the products to merge
into a single product, and then click the Merge button.
The Product Merger can also be used when the products are not exactly the
same. This is useful when a collection of products needs to be
purchased, and there is a choice of products for each item. For example,
supposed a shopping list was created for buying furniture for a new
living room and a sofa, end-tables and a lamp were needed. A few choices
of sofas could be added to the list, as well as choices for end-tables
and choices for lamps. After adding the products, by merging all the
sofas, then merging the end-tables and separately merging the lamps, you
would have a 3 product shopping list and could use the List Viewer's grid
to see what the minimum price would be and the total price for each store
in the list to assemble the living room furniture..
Additional Features
- You can right-click the product title to 'see all stores for this
product', which will launch
the Store Selector showing
only those stores that sell that particular product.
- You can right-click the product title to remove it from the
shopping list.
- You can right-click the product title to launch
the Price History Viewer for that
product.
- You can right-click the store logo/name to remove it from the
shopping list.
Refreshing Data
If the Shopping List Viewer remains open, and new products or stores are
added, or if the prices are refreshed, the window will not always reflect
these changes. The 'Refresh' button at the bottom of the window will
force a refresh to get the most recent data for the shopping list.