A tool for creating integrated collections. The tool may include a “basket” control that includes interfaces for receiving and displaying the data objects that are selected by a user to be included in a collection, and a collection creation component then provides a collection with one or more data items corresponding to the objects submitted to the basket control. The basket control may be employed by itself to make collections, or it may be hosted by another software object, such as a “listmaker” control that conveniently contains both the basket control and one or more user interfaces that a user can employ to provide data objects to the basket control. The listmaker control may thus include a viewing graphical user interface for viewing data objects and a navigation toolbar for navigating the viewing graphical user interface. The listmaker control may then be hosted as desired in a variety of software applications.