Living Cookbook Users

[scarbelly]

A while back Shooter Rick and I did a review of the cooking software program Living Cookbook 2011. I know that there are now some other folks who purchased the program and am wondering if there is any interest in doing some recipe exchanges with fellow users.

Let me know your personal email via a PM if you want to join in the fun. We can not do the exchange here on the the forum as the program requires an actual email to export to.

For those of you that have not tried this program yet, it is the best most user friendly program we have found so far and there is a 30 day free trial at www.livingcookbook.com   I would highly recommend this program to anyone who wants a very flexible, robust and easy to use recipe program. They have a very simple capture program that allows you to import recipes very easily from many formats. It allows you to import multiple images into a recipe with a simple click and paste.    I have no association with these folks at all so this is a totally unbiased recommendation.

 

[beer-b-q]

I'm in... I just purchased it.

 

[nwdave]

Same here.

 

[SmokinAl]

I have a question. I have been using Mastercook for years.I like it very much but I like the idea that you can take recipes off the internet with LC. I looked at the LC website to check it out & there was no mention about adding your own ingredients to the database. Can you put ingredients in their database that are not in there already. In other words if I have a recipe that calls for 1 cup of Fiber 1 Honey Clusters and it's not in their database. Can I add it & the nutrition info off the box to the ingredient database?

 

[nwdave]

Yes, this should answer your question.

http://Create an ingredient

1. 
   Select the Ingredient Navigator.
   
   How?
2. 
   Do one of the following:
   • On the Action menu, point to New and click Ingredient.
   • Right-click on the navigator treeview and then, on the popup menu, point to New and click Ingredient.
   • Press CTRL+N.
3. Type the name of the ingredient in the Ingredient name box.
4. Click the action button
   
   next to Ingredient Folder to select a folder for the ingredient (optional).
5. Enter other ingredient properties as necessary.
6. Click Next.
7. Select the measures for the ingredient (optional).
8. Click Next.
9. Enter any cost information for the ingredient (optional).
10. Click Next.
11. Enter any nutrition information for the ingredient (optional).
12. Click Finish.

Note The ingredient will be saved to the database after you click Finish.

 

[scarbelly]

Dave nailed it. I have added several ingredients for some of the recipes I have added and it is pretty quick. I will google the ingredient to make sure I get all the nutrition data before I add it and it is done in under 30 seconds

 

[nwdave]

To answer further program questions I'll pass along how I dug out Smokin' Al's answer. 

On the opening page of the LC program,

> Help

  >Living Cookbook Help F1

    This will open up the Table of Contents.

From that point, search through the TOC.  It's rather extensive.

Smokin' Al:  On the importation of recipes from the internet:  So far I've imported at least 2 dozen recipes from assorted sites into the LC capture screen.  There were a few, very few I might add, that for whatever reason (probably a denial code of some form) wouldn't directly transfer.  HOWEVER, I took those particular recipes and pasted them into a word document (my word processor is Word for Windows), then pasted them from the word doc into the capture screen.  I don't know what magic was performed, but it worked.  Images won't copy across in the first transfer with the text.  They have to be copied over separately, but it's not a big problem.  You can paste the image or multiple images into the recipe without having to be in the edit mode.  Just click on the recipe, anywhere is fine, as long as you're on the page, and it'll go to it's proper location.  The first image will be posted in a box next to the ingredients, the remainder will be posted to the bottom of the recipe.

~Dave

 

[scarbelly]

I have found the easiest way to do an import from the internet is to click the print button on the recipe. This seems to remove most of the additional garbage on the webpage and allows me to get a clean capture. I then go back and click on the image on the webpage and then on the image page in the recipe and paste it.  One little quirk is that you really need to click on the apply button if you make a change in a recipe or it does not always save.

Both Dave and I have had interaction with the LC tech support team for different reasons and have found that he responds within 24 hours and is usually very complete in his answer.

 

[SmokinAl]

OK thanks guys. I have been using MC for so long I hate to change, but I may get LC & slowly start transferring recipes & using the program. It has everything MC has and I really like the capture option. 

 

[nwdave]

OK thanks guys. I have been using MC for so long I hate to change, but I may get LC & slowly start transferring recipes & using the program. It has everything MC has and I really like the capture option. 

You'll really love the import function from MC to LC.  You can transfer LARGE amounts of data at a time.  The sub cookbook in MC that was SMF exclusive had better than 200 recipes.  I just designated that cookbook for transfer, designated the receiving cookbook (TO BE SORTED, was the title I used) and watched it happen.  MC uses a proprietary code for the images and those WILL NOT transfer.  It's all explained in the instructions for exporting and importing.