Recipe Software

The best way to backup your recipes is to include Home Cookin as part of a full hard drive backup. This will protect not only your recipe collection, but all of the other valuable data on your system as well. There are numerous backup applications on the market, including our own Disk Maid.

If you only want to backup Home Cookin, just copy the entire Home Cookin folder (and the files/folders it contains) to a USB flash drive or other removable disk. If you ever need to restore your data, simply copy the folder back to it's original location. The default installation path for each version is listed below:

Version 5.8	C:\Program Files\Home Cookin 5.8\
Version 5.7	C:\Program Files\Home Cookin 5.7\
Version 5.6	C:\Program Files\Home Cookin 5.6\
Version 5.5	To comply with Windows Vista restrictions, version 5.5 stores your personal data in a subfolder of My Documents, while the program and documentation are saved in the Program Files folder. Depending on your Windows version, your My Documents folder may not be located as listed below. You must copy BOTH folders to backup this version. C:\Program Files\Home Cookin 5.5\ C:\Documents and Settings\ [your login name] \My Documents\Home Cookin 5.5\ If you installed Home Cookin to a folder outside the usual Program Files directory, the program and data are saved together in a single folder as with previous versions.
Version 5.4	C:\Program Files\Home Cookin 5.4\
Version 5.0 to 5.3	C:\Home Cookin\
Version 4.9 and earlier	C:\Homecook\

Regardless of which backup method you choose, be sure to backup the entire folder and all the files it contains. You should also keep at least two backup copies. Disk media can fail over time, so you will want another copy if the first backup is unreadable when you need it. You should also keep one of your backups at another location to protect against disasters like fire or theft.

Yes, you can easily move Home Cookin when you buy a new computer. Just copy the Home Cookin folder from your old computer, and save it to the same location on your new computer.

1. Insert a removable disk, like a USB flash drive, in your old computer.
2. Open My Computer, then your C: Drive.
3. Locate the Home Cookin folder by consulting the back up list above.
4. Copy the entire Home Cookin folder to your removable disk, including the files and subfolders it contains.
5. Remove the flash drive from your old computer and insert it in your new computer.
6. Copy the folder back to the same location on your new computer.

Home Cookin does not modify the registry or other system folders, so the new copy should function the same as it did on your old system. However, you will need to create a desktop shortcut icon manually, as this is normally performed during installation. You will also need to select your printer and font again before printing.

If you are not using the most recent version, you should upgrade before proceding. If you want to transfer an older version, see the backup instructions for details of the correct folder locations.

Note: Once you are satisfied everything is working well on your new computer, be sure to uninstall Home Cookin from your old computer. It is a violation of the program license to share your registration with other users!

You may include a picture with any recipe in Home Cookin Recipe Software. This could be a photograph of the prepared meal, a diagram of the assembly method, or a chart showing nutritional information. You can add the picture when you first enter the recipe, or you can edit an existing recipe to add the picture.

Home Cookin supports JPG, GIF, and BMP format images. If your photo is larger than 600x400 pixels, it will be scaled down before it is saved with your recipe. To copy an image from a web page or other application:

1. Right click the recipe photo
2. Select copy from the popup menu
3. Click the Paste Photo button in the Home Cookin recipe editor
4. Click the Save button

Your recipe should now include the photo.

To load an image file, such as JPG from your digital camera, just click the Load Photo button in the Home Cookin recipe editor to locate and select your file. Then save your recipe as usual.

Tips:

• Home Cookin 5.5 and earlier only support BMP format images smaller than 600x400 pixels.
• Home Cookin will resize images when needed, but you may get better results with a dedicated graphics application.
• Home Cookin Recipe Software is limited to one picture per recipe, but you can use a graphics application to join multiple images into one picture. You can then copy and paste this image into Home Cookin as usual.

You can enter the degree symbol by pressing Control/D on your keyboard while editing your recipe.

Alternatively, you can enter this symbol by holding down the Alt key and typing the numbers 0176 on the numeric keypad. Release the Alt key and the degree symbol will be entered at the current cursor position in the recipe editor. Please note, this only works with the numeric keypad, not the standard number keys.

The degree symbol is a standard ASCII character. So your recipes will include the degree symbol properly when you export them from Home Cookin to other applications.

These characters do not exist in all fonts, and are likely to cause problems with the resizing and export functions. In addition, similar characters for 1/3 and 2/3 are not available in most fonts. For this reason, we recommend you type out the full measurement for your recipe ingredients.

However, if you still want to use these characters in your recipes, you may enter them by pressing the following keys while editing:

• Control/1 = 1/4
• Control/2 = 1/2
• Control/3 = 3/4

Many recipes consist of several smaller segments, such as a pie recipe with a crust, filling, and a topping.

The best way to save these recipes is to enter the ingredients in separate sections on the ingredients side, and the directions in separate sections on the directions side. This let's you keep all parts of the recipe together (so you don't loose the "sauce" portion of your favorite recipe), the entire recipe can be resized up or down, and the recipe will import and export properly to other applications.

For example, here's a recipe exported from Home Cookin:

Home Cookin Chapter: Desserts Pecan-Chocolate Chip Pie ======================== Dough: 1/2 Pound Butter 1/2 Pound Cream cheese 2 Teaspoon Vanilla 2 Cup Flour Filling: 1 Cup Pecans 4 Tablespoon Unsalted butter 2 Eggs 1 Cup Dark corn syrup 1/4 Cup Molasses 1/2 Cup Brown sugar 1 Teaspoon Vanilla extract 1/4 Cup Chocolate chips (or more) . Dough: Cream butter, cream cheese and vanilla together in a mixer or processor. Reduce speed to low and add the flour. Mix until just incorporated. Remove the dough, form into three balls and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill one hour before using. Uncooked dough can be frozen up to two months. Freeze uncooked balls of dough or freeze dough in pie tins. Makes three 10-inch pies. Filling: Mix pecans and butter in a small saucepan over medium heat and cook until butter turns a golden color. Remove from heat and set aside. In a mixing bowl combine eggs, corn syrup, molasses, brown sugar and vanilla. Mix until smooth and then mix in the pecans and butter. Pour this filling into the pie crust and sprinkle with the chocolate chips. Place on the middle rack of a preheated 350F oven and bake until the center of the pie is set, about 35 to 40 minutes. Remove from the oven and let the pie cool before serving. Servings: 6 Exported from Home Cookin 5.5 (www.mountain-software.com)

Home Cookin uses the same font Windows uses for it's desktop icons and file listings. Change the font in Windows, and Home Cookin will use that font too.

With Windows XP:

1. Right click the desktop
2. Select Properties
3. Click the Appearance tab
4. Click the Advanced button
5. Click the Item field and select Icon
6. Click the Size field next to the font face
7. Select a larger font size (I use MS Sans Serif, 12 point)
8. Click OK to close the first window
9. Click OK to close the second window

The next time you open Home Cookin, it should use the new font you have selected.

Note: Some areas of Home Cookin use a monospaced font that is hard coded into the software application. These include the recipe editor and view screen, as well as most editing dialogs. This font cannot be changed by the user.

Home Cookin does not support scanners directly, but you can scan in recipes if you have OCR software (Optical Character Recognition) for your scanner.

1. Scan in your recipe
2. Use OCR to convert the image to text
3. Save the text to a file, or copy it to Windows clipboard
4. Import the recipe into Home Cookin using the Manual import method

While this process can work well in certain situations, it is a slow and complicated process. Since most recipes will need to be edited anyway to clean up errors generated during the OCR process, it is often faster and easier to type the recipe in manually.

Home Cookin was designed to replace printed cookbooks with a system that allows easier access to your recipes. However, there are a variety of ways you can create printed cookbooks, from simple to extravagant:

• Print to standard letter size pages and place them in a 3-ring binder for presentation.
  
  
• Print to 3x5 or 4x6 index cards and place them in a decorative photo album for presentation. Many office supply stores also sell clear sheets that will hold four index cards in a traditional binder.
  
  
• Print using the "booklet" print layout, then fold and staple the pages into a small cookbook.
  
  
• Use the Save PDF Cookbook function (version 5.6 and later) to select recipes, and save a PDF file complete with a recipe index. You can send the PDF to friends and family for them to print out, or you can upload the file to a printing service like Lulu.com and have professionally bound cookbooks printed. Coil bound books are best for the kitchen, as they lay flat while you are cooking. But a hardcover book has a more professional look for gift giving.

You might also consider distributing your recipes electronically. The easiest way to do this is to "export" the recipes you want to share to a text file. You can then send the file by email, copy it to a flash drive, or burn it to a CD to share with friends and family. They can print or view the recipes using any text editor or word processor, or they can import the recipes into the recipe software of their choice.

If you use multiple computers, travel frequently, or have summer and winter homes, you may want to install Home Cookin to a USB flash drive. This will let you take the program with you and keep your collection up to date without having to synchronize the information on each computer.

If you are installing Home Cookin for the first time:

1. Insert your USB flash drive in your computer
2. Open the Home Cookin installer
3. Click the Browse button
4. Select your USB flash drive.
5. Proceed with the install and registration as usual.

If you have already installed Home Cookin recipe software on your computer, just copy the Home Cookin folder from your hard drive to the USB flash drive. See the back up section above to determine where your specific version was installed.

Home Cookin can be run directly from the flash drive. It will not make any changes to the system registry or install files on the destination computer, so it is safe to use on a friends computer, a library computer, at an internet cafe, etc. However, you will need to select the printer and font each time you want to print from Home Cookin on a new computer.

Note: Home Cookin recipe software is not compatible with pocket or palm computers. If you need to use your recipes on a PDA device, you can export them to Meal-Master or Mastercook format, then import them into software like the PDA Cookbook.

No. There are a variety of reasons why Home Cookin does not perform nutritional calculations:

• For a recipe program to calculate nutritional values, it must maintain a database of ingredients for which it has information on. If you enter an ingredient that is not listed in the database, the nutritional values for the recipe will be inaccurate. While many recipe applications avoid this by limiting you to the ingredients they have data for, Home Cookin allows you to enter any ingredient you wish.
  
  
• Nutritional values vary wildly from one brand to the next (For example, compare the nutritional labels on any two brands of identical sized canned foods). Unless you specify the exact brand of every ingredient in your recipes, and the nutritional data in the recipe application matches that brand, the values for the recipe will be inaccurate.
  
  
• Home Cookin allows you to enter recipe ingredients in any format. Items like Enough water to cover, Salt and Pepper to taste, 2 to 3 cups water, Flour as needed, A large handful, etc. Even something as simple as one can of tomatoes will work fine in Home Cookin, and you might instinctively know what this means. But, to calculate nutritional information it would be necessary to specify the exact size of that can, and to enter the ingredient in a specified format (i.e. 16 ounce can tomatoes). While it's generally a good idea anyway, Home Cookin gives you that flexibility if you need it.
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No. While this sounds like a good feature, there are numerous reasons why it is not practical.

• Home Cookin has no way of knowing which items you already have on hand, and which you need. For instance, you probably do not want to buy salt every time a recipe asks for salt.
  
  
• Grocery items are often purchased in different quantities than recipes ask for them. For instance, flour is usually used by the cup, but purchased in 5 or 10 pound bags.
  
  
• Many ingredients can be interpreted in multiple ways. For instance, if a recipe asks for 1/2 cup corn, Home Cookin wouldn't know if you needed fresh, frozen, or canned.
  
  
• Most recipes require only two or three ingredients you do not already have on hand. It is much faster to select the items you need than it is to remove items you do not need from an automatic list.
  
  
• Home Cookin allows you to plan for meals that are not in the recipe database, such as referencing a page in a printed cookbook. There is no way to determine what ingredients are needed for meals like this, other than selecting them manually.
  
  
• A large percentage of a typical grocery list consists of items for which there are no recipes. For instance, cold cereals, bread, milk, toilet paper, dish soap, etc.
  
  

However, you can simplify the process of selecting the items you need for a recipe, by selecting that item from the recipe screen. While you are viewing a recipe, place the mouse pointer over the ingredient you want to find, and click on that word. For example, click on the word "flour" on a line that says "1/2 cup flour".

Selecting grocery items manually is much faster than it sounds and gives you the most control. In most cases, you will spend far more time choosing your meals and checking your supplies, than you will selecting the grocery items for those meals.

If you are experiencing problems with Home Cookin, please Email me and I will do my best to assist you. Most problems are usually easy to fix.

If the program doesn't meet your expectations, please send a brief email to support@mountain-software.com mentioning the features you are looking for. I'm always looking for ways to improve Home Cookin, and would appreciate your suggestions.

If you still wish to uninstall Home Cookin, simply use the Add/Remove Programs applet in Windows control panel (Click the Start button, select Settings, then Control Panel, then Add/Remove Programs).

Home Cookin creates a "lock" file when it first opens, so other copies of the program will not corrupt your data. This lock file is normally deleted when you exit Home Cookin, but it may be left open if the program does not shut down properly. In most cases, you can simply restart your computer and the file will be recreated the next time you open Home Cookin.

If you have already restarted and are still receiving the error message, you will need to dig a little deeper. I will describe things on Windows XP, but Vista is similar and I will try to point out the differences that I can remember. Please try these in the order listed:

Check to see if Home Cookin is running in the background by opening Windows task manager:

1. Press "Control/Alt/Delete" on your keyboard
2. Click the "Processes" tab
3. Click the "Image Name" heading to sort by process names
4. Look for the process "homecook.exe"
5. If found, select the "homecook.exe" process
6. Click the "End Process" button
7. Click the "X" in the upper right corner of the window to close task manager

If you found homecook.exe in the task list, it means Home Cookin got stuck in a loop before it could open the user interface. The most likely cause is a corrupted index or settings file. Let's try deleting them (The index will be recreated, but you will need to enter your registration code again):

1. Open "My Computer"
2. Open your C: drive
3. Open the "Program Files" folder ("Programs" on Vista)
4. Open the "Home Cookin 5.8" folder
5. Open the "hc_data" folder
6. Delete the Index34.dat file
7. Delete the Setup50.dat file
8. Close all windows

Now try opening Home Cookin using the desktop icon. If it opens correctly you will need to enter your registration code again and reconfigure your printer settings. Please click the "Clean Up" button on the Help screen to repair any database errors that may exist.

If the above steps did not correct matters, the program files are probably corrupted. I recommend you backup the Home Cookin folder, then reinstall Home Cookin. Do not uninstall the old program unless reinstalling did not fix the problem.

Running older 16-bit applications on Windows XP often results in an error message that includes the phrase "The system file is not suitable...". This is usually caused by missing or damaged Windows system files that are necessary to support 16-bit applications.

Home Cookin 5.0 and later are not affected, since they are 32-bit applications. However, if you are still using version 4.9 or earlier, you may want to try one of these solutions:

1. Download the "Quick Fix" utility from www.softpedia.com

2. Download the XP_FIX.EXE utility from Visual Tour

3. Worldstart discusses the problem at worldstart.com

4. Microsoft discusses the problem in detail in knowledge base Article #324767