Faster ways to add items in TraceNook

You have six things to put in the refill box and don’t want to pick the same location six times. TraceNook has a few shortcuts: photograph the package and let it read the name, lock one box and add items in a row, or just type “2 pens.” All of them are included in Free; the allowance starts at 50 items and grows to 100 with reward tasks.

Pick an everyday item instead of typing it

On the add-item form, open Everyday items and choose a common item. Its name, category and unit are filled in for you. Built-in items come with a product photo, which is added if you have not added your own. Choose the place and check the quantity before saving; selecting a preset does not save an item by itself.

Search the picker by name or alias. For things you use often, tap New under My presets to save a name, category, unit and optional aliases. Long-press a custom preset to edit or delete it. Custom presets do not use item slots and do not sync with the family, but are included in personal and family backups. They do not come with a built-in product photo.

Let the camera read the package

On the add-item form, tap Scan the package, auto-fill the name. Take a photo of the package or pick one from your gallery, then tap the suggested name you want, or tap the lines of text that make up the name. Text recognition runs on your phone and only fills in the form; check the name, quantity and location before you save.

On the same capture screen, Scan expiry date takes a separate close-up of the printed date, usually on the side or bottom of the package. Check the year as well as the day, and type the date in if nothing was detected. The food-date guide covers exact dates versus year-and-month.

Lock one box and add items in a row

Open the box’s detail page and tap the Continuous entry icon at the top. You land in Quick item entry with that box locked as the location, so everything you add goes there until you tap Switch or leave. You can also tap Choose on the location bar at the bottom of the entry screen and pick a box. Each entry shows a draft with the name and count; tap Confirm add and move on to the next item.

Type a short sentence, then review the draft

In the entry box at the bottom, type something like “2 pens.” TraceNook turns it into a draft card with the name, count, unit and the locked location. If no box is locked, put the place in the sentence, as in “add 3 boxes of ibuprofen to Medicine Box A,” or pick one on the card. Fix anything that’s off, then tap Confirm add; nothing is saved until you do.

Reuse a barcode you have already recorded

Open More details on the add-item form to type or scan a barcode. TraceNook doesn’t look products up online. Instead it remembers, on your phone, the name, category and unit you saved with that barcode, and fills them in the next time you scan it. You can also search by barcode later, which helps when two products have similar names. Check the count before saving, since similar packages come in different sizes.

For a whole shelf at once, computer access on the same Wi-Fi gives you a full keyboard, and it’s included in Free too.