Astroplanner really is an essential piece of planning software for me for any night or dark sky trip. Clear nights are just too precious too waste.
It can take a while to comes to grips with the interface and setting up your scope/site/horizon. I've saved setups for a few locations in my back yard, and the few dark sky sites I regularly visit.
There's an import and export function - I've imported other people's Excel spreadsheets before without too much mucking about, and the freeware version has the full Messier and NGC catalogues which is pretty damned good. Can easily tell what the moon is doing, when an object will clear the neighbours trees etc
One tip - do yourself a favour and add a couple of extra User defined columns to your observing lists. I make notes about the order I'm going to view/image and other thoughts in here. I routinely maintain 2 observing lists - one for the Messier catalogue, and another for a very much cut-down version of the NGC catalogue I'm still working through (Glen Couzin's "All Sky Messier CAtalogue").
Also happy to try and help if anyone has any specific concerns. Astronomy is so much more enjoyable when you have goals in mind and some way of tracking them. Astroplanner makes it so easy to track what you've observed or imaged and include a quick score as to how great something appeared to you.
Have attached some pics of catalogue and sky views. All the green in the sky views is horizon for that site (my dodgey backyard in this case). It really is worth making sure you understand what the graphics under the main catalogue view are telling you about astronomical twilight, moon, object visibility, transit times, etc. You can choose the time those graphs represent - default is 10pm on chosen night.
very much appreciate all your help. 
