On starting JObserve you will see the Edit Lists Page:
NOTE: while working on an observe file JObserve saves your working environment every so often automatically, when any one of the lists contains scans. When it does so, the files it creates are called JOrecover.<ext>, and are written into the directory from where JObserve was started. These are text files containing the details of the scans in each list that can be restored at a later date if needed. Since these files will be overwritten if JObserve is ever started up again in the same directory, it is good practice to save your working environment periodically under a user-specified name as well. To save your working environment, select File --> Save working environment and enter the root of the file name to be saved (the extensions will be added automatically).