My Items (Tag)

It seems a simple thing. You write down 'bread' on your shopping list and you know what you are looking for. The problem is that, 'what you're looking for' is based on your shopping experiences of which SmartShopIt is not aware of. And what you mean as 'bread' may be different then what your neighbor means as 'bread'. You may mean any type of whole wheat sandwich bread and your neighbor may mean dinner rolls. Even if you were to call your significant other and ask them to stop at the store and buy some bread, they might have to ask, "what kind?"

My Items is where you can tell SmartShopIt, just 'what kind' you are talking about. Your SmartShopIt team has tried to cover all the bases in giving you ways to shop. Our motto is that we need to provide a tool that you can use to shop the way you like to shop. Not the way we want you to shop. There is no right way. (But there sure are lots of wrong ways, which will cost you money and time.)

We have categories, under the Add Items option from your shopping list. Categories are similar to roaming the isles of the grocery store. Then we have Public tags, which is like looking at specific sections in the grocery store. Finally My Items, is a way to define specific products that you want to buy when you enter a tag.

So when you write 'bread' and mean either whole wheat or white sandwich bread, we then know what you mean and can now help you find the best product out of those. Let's see how you create My Items.

First click on Product on the main menu bar. On the pull-down menu that appears select My Items (tag). The following definition window will appear:

Let’s say you want to define a My Item for ‘apples’. Begin typing ‘apples’ in the Search My Tags field. If a Public or My Item tag already exists, it will appear in a pull-down menu. This is to encourage Members to use the same spellings. You will see how other Members benefit from your entries by doing this.

You can finish typing in 'apples' or click on it from the pull down list. Clicking on search will find all your My Items that have the word 'apples' in it. Currently there are none so nothing appears, meaning this is an open My Item tag name. Click on the add icon to the right of the search button. This will add this as a My Item tag and you will get a verification message telling you it was added successfully.

You will see that this tag now appears in the Search Results area as well as in the My Tag List pull down menu. Select 'apples' from either place.

You see that 'apples' has been added as a My Items Tag (MIT) but no products have been associated with this tag. And it is useless until you define some products.

To do so, click on the Add Items icon, to the right of the tag name. Our standard Add Items panel will appear allowing you to select the products you want to apply this tag. We can now search the Categories for fresh apples and select the varieties that you prefer.

Next, click on the add icon at the top of the Item List and these products will be assigned a My Item tag of 'apples'. Now the next time you enter 'apples' and select My Item (versus Public Item), SmartShopIt will now only search for the best price of the products you desire.

You can remove products from the list by clicking on the delete option to the right of each product. You can delete the My Items tag completely by clicking on the delete option on the My Items tag line.

Here are some suggestions for creating My Items tags:

• The more specific the tag name can be the better. 'Bread' is a pretty general tag name. 'Sandwich Bread' is a little more specific. 'Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread” is even more specific. You need to determine which fits the best for the way you like to make your lists. You may have several bread tags to differentiate the different kinds you buy.




• For fresh products (fruits, vegetables and proteins), the basic name usually indicates that it's the fresh version. 'Apples' therefore indicates it's fresh apples. 'Apples {style}' is the format that indicates frozen, canned, bottled, etc. versions. Where [style] is the style of packaging.

If you create a new My Item tag, you will note that a Public Item for that same name is also created. This is so that other Members can make use of this tag name. The products you associated with this tag will also be anonymously associated to the public as well. What one Member selects for their tags will help others from a public perspective.

Also, if you select an existing tag name to use as a My Item, any products you select will be added to the Public Item version. Therefore the Public Items are an aggregate of all the products selected by Members using that tag as a My Tag. In addition, the SmartShopIt team has defined products to several of the commonly used Public Items.

You can toggle whether to use the specific My Items list or the broader Public Items list when you Smart Shop your list. Click on M or P in the Items Options column to choose which to use.