Recipe Software

You may have thousands of recipes in Home Cookin, but you will only need one or two hundred recipes for the average cookbook. To make the selection easier, it is usually best to create new chapters for your cookbook. Then copy the recipes you want to share into the new chapters. For example, you may create a chapter called "Mom's Favorite Meals", and copy recipes from various other chapters to be printed in that chapter (Mom's Meals may include recipes from Beef, Casseroles, Poultry, etc.).

1. Click the Chapter button on the main index screen of Home Cookin, select Add New Chapter, and type in a name for your new chapter (i.e. Mom's Favorite Meals). Then click OK. Create additional chapters as needed.
2. Browse your collection, or use the Find feature to locate the recipes you want to share.
3. Select a recipe you want to share (hold down the Control key if you want to select multiple recipes at once), then click the Copy button. When the chapter list appears, select one of the chapters you created for your cookbook.
4. Repeat as needed until you are satisfied with your cookbook recipe selections.

1. Click the Save PDF Book button on the main index screen of Home Cookin.
2. Type in a Title, Subtitle, and an Author name for your cookbook (you may leave the subtitle and author fields blank if you wish).
3. Click the button corresponding to the size of book you want to create. Home Cookin supports 6x9, Letter size, and metric A4 book sizes.
4. Click the box next to the recipes you want to include in your cookbook. If you created dedicated cookbook chapters as described in step 1, you can click the box next to the chapter to select all recipes in that chapter. Click the Previous and Next buttons to move quickly from chapter to chapter.
5. Click the Save button when you are finished selecting recipes. Navigate to a folder where you want to save your PDF file, type in a filename (i.e. Cookbook.pdf), and click OK. Then close Home Cookin.

You may want to open the Cookbook.pdf file with the free Adobe Acrobat reader software and make sure everything looks the way you expect it to before proceding. If you wish, you can stop at this point and email the PDF file to friends or family members for them to print out on their end.

There are many printing services who should be able to create a printed cookbook from your PDF cookbook file, but the one I have found most convenient is Lulu.com. You can create a single book, or hundreds, at very reasonable rates. The Lulu website is fairly easy to navigate, but here are a few basic instructions to get you started:

1. Visit www.lulu.com and click the Sign Up link to create an account.
2. Login to your account, click the My Lulu tab, then click the New Project button.
3. Select the Paperback or Hardcover book type.
4. Enter the title of your cookbook, and your author name.
5. Check the "This is a private project" option, then click Save and Continue.
6. Select the book size that matches the size of the PDF Book you saved from Home Cookin.
7. Select your desired binding (Coil bound works well for cookbooks, as it allows the book to lay flat while you are cooking).
8. Select Black and White Printing color, then click the Save and Continue button.
9. Click the Browse button, select the PDF file you saved from Home Cookin, and click the Upload button to send your file to Lulu.
10. When the file is done uploading, click the Make Print Ready File button.
11. When the print ready file is complete, click the Save and Continue button.
12. You can now use Lulu's online designer to create a cover for your cookbook. Click the Make Print Ready Cover button when you are finished, then click Save and Continue.
13. Review your project then click the Save and Finish button.

Your cookbook project is now complete and you can follow the prompts on Lulu.com to order as many cookbooks as you need.