Electronic Cookbook

[scarlet]

I also posted this on facebook, so sorry if this is a repeat for some of you..

I love cooking and have tons of recipes and cook books. I do not want to take any of them with me as space, as you know, will be limited. I just bought a new laptop, and I want to create an electronic "cookbook" so that I can add all my favorite recipes, etc all in my computer, without having to bring a single cookbook. But, I'm batting zero on finding a good one. I want something simple... basically a nice looking table of contents (don't want it to look like a computer file.. ) I want my recipes to look just like they do on a recipe card, or cookbook.. (again, I don't want it to look like a computer file, or word file). It would be great if there was a way to add a photo of the dish, or a family event where we are sharing the food.. and that would be it.
What I do not want is a program that gives you "1000 recipes included"... I don't want those recipes.. I have thousands of recipes at home. I want my electronic cook book to be all of MY recipes...
Anyone have a program to recommend?

[john61ct]

Just scan or photograph for appearance sake.

So a photo cataloguing package.

Android and iOS support, I'd recommend Google photos, but there are dozens of apps for every platform.

The critical feature is "tagging" so key ingredients, prepDifficulty, cost, mealtime, health whatever categorizations you want to be able to select and group into "albums" by.

So you deviled eggs might be tagged

#eggs #guests #party #cost2 #easy4 #health0

[Auspicious]

Spend a little time with Word. You can tag elements like headings and sort the document, automatically generate a table of contents, and generate an index. It isn't that hard. You can print it or consult it electronically. Even generate a PDF with hot links.

[JPA Cate]

Hi, scarlet,

You may not want to do it like I did: I started the electronic recipe based on the ones people asked for. So mine are by sections, breads, cakes, pies, main dishes, and miscellaneous. If you allot 1/2 hr. per day to transcribing the easiest recipes to make, that are your favorites, you'll get through them pretty quickly, actually. Easy-to-make in a seaway are easy to make at any time, but complicated, multiple ingredients ones, more difficult due to boat motion.

Ann

[Auspicious]

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

Easy-to-make in a seaway are easy to make at any time, but complicated, multiple ingredients ones, more difficult due to boat motion.

Mise en place. *grin*

[Deva]

link electronic cookbook: https://caderno-de-receitas-versao-d...ftonic.com.br/

this electronic cookbook is in portuguese, but can be written in English.

Deva

[nhschneider]

We use My Recipe Book, an app on our iPads. It makes it very easy to download recipes from virtually any web site but you can enter recipes 'manually' as well. It also comes with a backup accessory and even though I've never had to use it, I hate to lose the almost 600 recipes we've collected. You can post notes on recipes and switch measurement systems. It's especially helpful since we spend a significant percentage of our time without broadband access and we can still search though hundreds of recipes.

Fair winds and calm seas.

[CaptTom]

Originally Posted by nhschneider

We use My Recipe Book, an app on our iPads.

There are two with that name on the Google Play store. One from "Encoder Solutions" and the other by " EASoftware." Are either of these the same vendor as the iOS version?

Assuming the recipes are in books, scanning can be a pain. There are "scanner" apps that help. On Android I've been using "CamScanner" by INTSIG, but there are others. One cool feature is it'll automatically find the edges of the page and de-skew to make a rectangular image, even if you shot it at an angle. It'll also save in different formats (like .pdf) and "share" with other apps (like e-mail or messaging.)

[scarlet]

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

Hi, scarlet,

You may not want to do it like I did: I started the electronic recipe based on the ones people asked for. So mine are by sections, breads, cakes, pies, main dishes, and miscellaneous. If you allot 1/2 hr. per day to transcribing the easiest recipes to make, that are your favorites, you'll get through them pretty quickly, actually. Easy-to-make in a seaway are easy to make at any time, but complicated, multiple ingredients ones, more difficult due to boat motion.

Ann

That is exactly my plan. But, I'd like to also raid my mom, and aunt's recipe collection for family recipes... and then add all of mine... I figure a little time each day, and it will get done in good time.

Do you just use word? or do you have a special program you use?

[scarlet]

Originally Posted by nhschneider

We use My Recipe Book, an app on our iPads. It makes it very easy to download recipes from virtually any web site but you can enter recipes 'manually' as well. It also comes with a backup accessory and even though I've never had to use it, I hate to lose the almost 600 recipes we've collected. You can post notes on recipes and switch measurement systems. It's especially helpful since we spend a significant percentage of our time without broadband access and we can still search though hundreds of recipes.

Fair winds and calm seas.

What is a "backup accessory"? like a zip drive or something? I didn't think about losing all of them. I wonder if there is a way to back up to the cloud...

[Auspicious]

Originally Posted by scarlet

What is a "backup accessory"? like a zip drive or something? I didn't think about losing all of them. I wonder if there is a way to back up to the cloud...

Back ups could be as simple as burning your recipe document to a CD and giving copies to friends and relatives as a Christmas present.

[john61ct]

Making your own formatting was I thought the opposite of what the OP wanted

[StuM]

Originally Posted by scarlet

That is exactly my plan. But, I'd like to also raid my mom, and aunt's recipe collection for family recipes... and then add all of mine... I figure a little time each day, and it will get done in good time.

Do you just use word? or do you have a special program you use?

Hi Scarlet, do you have MS Office with MS Access?

[banjoship]

I use OneNote 2016 available free from MS. With it you organise notes and recipes into sections and pages, titled as you wish. Content can be typescript, photographs, PDF files, web clippings, just about anything. See a good recipe in a magazine....you can photograph or scan it in to OneNote. On the web, clip the content you want straight into One Note. Photograph a dish, put it in.

OneNote content can be stored on MS cloud (OneDrive) for free, and synched across laptop, phone and tablet. This is an extremely useful feature.

I have everything on OneNote....recipes, inventory of boat spares and tools, maintenance schedules, shopping lists, inventory of fishing gear, sail dimensions, etc., etc.. See something sensible or interesting on CF....just clip it in, no typing.

I am not a particular fan of MS and their business model, but with OneNote, they have got it right. I have tried other note software over the years, have come back to OneNote.


Lee

[john61ct]

Be aware OneNote 2016 is being EOLed.

OneNote Windows 10 does not yet support tagging, but the feature is planned.

Personally going that sort of route, Evernote would be my choice, not so dependent on one specific platform, has done tagging for over a decade.

But for full offline access from all your sync'd devices, you do need to be a paying "premium user".