Checklist tool: functionality traits, solutions and specific example

Checklist tool is any computer-based instrument which can be used to create and control a list of items arranged in a one-by-one manner. Such a utility can be extremely helpful to anyone who ever needs to manage any kind of projects – from daily shopping lists to business projects of highest complexity. Checklist program is a successor of paper notebooks used for years until computers become popular. Actually there are several essential functionality traits necessary for a tool :

• Inputting checklist items – this kind of a tool works as an electronic journal where you can input elements of your agenda. This could be a plan of your home tasks to complete, goods necessary to buy for celebrating your birthday, ingredients and actions necessary to prepare a cake, or anything else like this. Every item in this to-do list can be described with any number of different attributes, for example when you plan your tasks they may need to be marked with due dates.

• Checking off items – as soon as you complete some item on your list, you should check it off from there, so that you can control on which step you are and what yet remains to be done. Computer-driven notepad is very convenient for this purpose as you can completely remove done items from your list and display there only actual things.
• Operating checklist items – the incontestable advantage of software tools over any paper-based analogues is an extreme easiness of operating with items – you can reform and adjust your checklists (sort, group and filter their items) with just one or two mouse-clicks, while when using paper you will need to re-write all your items from the very beginning. 

Solutions and types of tools:

Today there are lots of different electronic solutions helping you to manage your checklists. For example, almost all possible mobile devices have special inbuilt applications enabling them to act as gadgets that can be taken with you wherever you go. Many purposeful software toolkits support installing additional plugins to extend their basic functionality. The more and more users install widgets to keep them running on their computers and delivering them pop-ups on upcoming events and tasks to do. Besides installable widgets there are a lot of web-based solutions (working on-line via Internet). Simplest example of online tool is free Google’s to-do listing instrument featuring a minimal set of capabilities.

Example of business manager:

VIP Task Manager is a client-server task management program featuring database that can be concurrently accessed by multiple team members. Content of its database can be reviewed via three agile interface modes – actual Task List, project-focused Task Tree and time-related Calendar. This is not a free tool , but a quite powerful business solution intended to be used in project workgroups. In order to examine capabilities of this software you can do a free download right from this web-site.