Tips

PacklistPRO has a lot of small features that make trip planning faster. This is the general tips & shortcuts reference — the ones travelers find most useful, sorted by area of the site.

Looking for help with one specific page? Most pages have their own short 📖 Tutorial — tap the 📖 button in the top-right corner of any page, or open the Tutorials index from the Help menu.

New here? About covers what the site does. Help covers what to do when something goes wrong.

Recommended for You

• 🆓 PacklistPRO is free. Create an account for unlimited trips and saved packlists.
• 👀 You're viewing a read-only demo trip — click around to try it, then sign in to build and save your own.
• 🧭 New here? About explains the site; the Walkthroughs give a guided tour.

Getting Started

• Try before signing up. Visit Home as an anonymous user and you'll see a fully populated demo trip. Click around — the demo is read-only, but everything else works.
• Install it like an app. On phone or desktop, use your browser's “Install” or “Add to Home Screen” option. PacklistPRO is a Progressive Web App (PWA), so installed copies launch full-screen and work offline.
• One free account, unlimited trips. Create a free account — no payment, no ads, no upsells. You can make as many trips as you want.
• Pick your detail level. See the Modes & detail levels section below. You can switch any time with the Detail Level selector on your Packlist or Tasklist.

Trips

• Duplicate, don't restart. On All Trips, duplicate a similar past trip rather than building a new packlist from scratch — items, tasks, and tags carry over. Dates and descriptions reset so you can fill them in fresh. You choose whether to clear the item and task statuses too — keep them to make a backup, clear them to start the packing fresh.
• Use BACKUP and TEMPLATE in trip names. Trip names containing BACKUP or TEMPLATE sort to the bottom of your trip list automatically, so your current trips stay on top.
• Trip Dashboard is your home base. Trip Dashboard shows packing progress, upcoming tasks, and recent notes for the selected trip on one page.
• Your last trip is remembered. The trip you last viewed is restored automatically the next time you login — even after you log out and back in.

Packlist

• Mark items “Always bring.” From the Configure Items page, tick Always bring for items you take on every trip. They'll be added automatically when you duplicate a trip or quick-start a new one.
• The checkbox color is the priority. A bright yellow checkbox means high importance, so you can't miss it in a long list; gray means low priority / optional; and the usual blue is everything in between. The item and task names themselves all stay the same color.
• Tag-based suggestions. Add a trip tag like Beach or International and the relevant items appear automatically — sunblock, passport, adapters, and so on.
• The ⋮ menu has the hidden options. Each item row has a kebab menu with quantity steppers, alternate quantities (bringing / packed / buy / requested), and a remove-from-trip option.
• Quick-add at the bottom of each group. Type a new item name in the quick-add box at the bottom of any group to add a custom item directly to your trip.
• Email yourself the list. The print view of your packlist can be emailed to yourself or a co-traveler — useful if you're packing in a different room from your laptop.

Tasklist

• Schedule by timing, not by date. Tasks are organized by weeks before, day before, day-of, when you arrive, and when you return — so the same template works for every trip.
• Mark tasks “Always do.” Like packlist items, you can flag tasks you do for every trip (refill prescriptions, hold mail, set out-of-office) so they auto-add when you start a new trip.
• Strike-through shows what's done. Completed tasks stay visible with a line through them so you can see progress without losing the full list.
• Sort and group different ways. Group by timing or importance, sort A–Z or by importance — your preference is remembered per device.

Notes

• Attach a date to a note. Use the date field for itinerary items like “Tuesday: 6pm dinner at Joe's, confirmation 4837.” Dated notes show a badge so they're easy to find.
• Share notes with co-travelers. Mark a note as Shared so anyone who has the trip's share link can see it — useful for joint packing lists or shared confirmations.
• Don't lose work. If you've edited a note and navigate away without saving, your browser warns you so you can save first.
• Print or email a full notes packet. The print view of your notes bundles them in one document, perfect for printing or sending to yourself before a flight.

Can Trips Be Shared?

Yes — any number of trips, and you have granular control. Once two or more trips are linked, you can request items or tasks from the group. Anyone in the group can create Notes, Expenses, or Itinerary items that are private or shared. You can also share read-only access to your packlist or tasklist if you'd like.

The process works like this:

1. Go to Edit Trip → Trip Link, then send the Trip Link Code to your buddies by email, SMS, or however you want.
2. Your buddy receives the email and clicks the Review & Accept button, which takes them to the site (they login if necessary).
3. On the Home page, under Trip Invitations, they click Accept, then select their own trip they want to link it to — or let the site auto-create a trip for them.

A few variations:

• Already have an account? They don't even need to click the email — they can just go to the site and accept from Home.
• No account yet? They receive a welcome email instead. Once they join using that same email address, they can Review & Accept just like above.
• Have the code? If they were given the Trip Link Code, they can simply type or paste it into the Join a Trip box to join. Lots of options.
• Track who's in. The inviter can view the status of everyone they invited on Edit Trip → Trip Link — it shows who was invited and whether they accepted or declined.

Modes & Detail Levels

• High-Level — the bare-minimum checklist. Best for weekend trips and travelers who want one page and no clutter.
• Standard — the everyday default. Quantities, descriptions, and common items by category.
• Ludicrous — every option exposed: weight, volume, alternates, products, brands. For multi-week expeditions and gear nerds.
• Switch any time with the Detail Level selector on your Packlist, Tasklist, or Quicklist. Each user picks their own — one setting for you, another for your partner.

Customization

• Dark mode. Toggle dark/light in Preferences. The site remembers your choice across devices.
• Font size. Small / medium / large is a one-click change in Preferences. Especially useful on small phones or for older eyes.

Mobile & Offline

• Works offline. Once a page loads, you can keep using it without a connection — checking off items in the airport, reviewing notes in a basement hotel, or planning on a plane. A red banner appears when you go offline so you know your changes will be queued.
• Install to home screen. Use your browser's “Install” or “Add to Home Screen” option. The installed app launches full-screen without browser chrome.
• Push & email reminders (opt-in). Turn on reminders in Notifications to get push and/or email nudges as your trip approaches — timed to each item's weeks before, day before, and day-of window.
• Designed for thumbs. Every tap target is at least 44×44 pixels. Long dropdowns stay within the viewport on small screens.

Power-User Shortcuts

• Back-to-top button. A small ↑ button appears in the bottom-right once you scroll down. One tap and you're back at the page header.
• Clearable search. The X button inside search boxes clears the input in one tap — faster than backspacing.
• Every page has a Tutorial. Tap the 📖 button in the top-right corner of any page for a quick guided tour of what that page does — or open the Tutorials index from the Help menu.
• Sessions last a year. You stay logged in across browser restarts and idle periods — no need to login every visit. If your session ever does expire, the site offers to re-authenticate without losing your work.
• Quicklist for browsing. Quicklist lets you browse the full catalog of items by tag without attaching them to a specific trip — useful for research or building a personal master list.

Account & Security

• Forgot password? Use the Forgot Username or Password page. We send a recovery link or temporary password to the email or phone on file.
• We never sell or share your data. See Security & Privacy for the full breakdown of what we store and why.
• Track your support submissions. Contact Us Log shows the status of every bug report or feature request you've sent us.

Walkthroughs

A guided tour of PacklistPRO. The Simple Mode tour is ready now — Standard and Ludicrous are coming soon.