Home Cookin is an easy to use recipe database and meal management system. The recipe database uses a free-form format for the greatest flexibility and ease of entry. And, with support for over 4 billion recipes, you'll run out of disk space before reaching the program limits. To help keep storage space to a minimum, Home Cookin includes internal file compression for the recipe data files.

The internal text editor is easy to use and makes recipe entry a simple task. You can enter recipes manually, or cut and paste text between Home Cookin and other Windows applications. To further assist you in building your recipe collection, Home Cookin can import recipes from a variety of formats including Meal-Master, Computer Chef, and Mastercook II. A special manual-import feature is also built-in for importing recipes which do not adhere to standard formats. To aid importing, Home Cookin supports long filenames when used with Windows 95. And, you can import and export to the Windows clipboard for easy recipe exchange with other applications.

Once recipes are in Home Cookin, they are easily organized the way you like and easily edited if needed. An enhanced spell checker is built-in to ensure that recipes come out looking the way you want them to, and recipes may be resized to any serving size. Recipes are easy to locate and view, or you may use the search system to quickly locate a desired recipe. Once located, it is easy to print, export to a file, or copy to the clipboard for easy exchange with other applications. And, to ensure compatibility with other applications, Home Cookin can export directly to the popular Meal-Master format.

In addition to the recipe database, Home Cookin features a flexible grocery list manager that makes it easy to plan your shopping trips. Items are easy to locate and select. And, the printed list is organized by store and location for a fast trip through the store once you arrive. Maintaining the list as store prices change is easy, and you can flag those items you have coupons for. You can even define a default grocery list for items which you purchase frequently.

The built-in calendar makes meal planning a snap. You can place any number of meals on a single day, and plan as far ahead as you wish. Personal notes may also be added to the calendar to mark special events, or to indicate meals not stored in Home Cookins recipe database.

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For your convenience, you may purchase Home Cookin by mail, on the internet, or by phone:

1. Send a check or money order for $28.00 (US Funds Only) to:

               Mountain Software
               6911 NE Livingston Road
               Camas, WA  98607

3. Call RegSoft at (888) 734-4880, and ask for product #6217 (Home Cookin)
(USA Orders Only. Mountain Software cannot be reached at this number!)

The trial version of Home Cookin is fully operational and identical to the registered version with the following exceptions:

    - Limit of 100 recipes
    - Recipes from old Home Cookin versions cannot be merged automatically

    - Support for over 4 billion recipes
    - Automatically merge your recipes from older versions of Home Cookin
    - FREE unlimited support by email
    - FREE maintenance updates by downloading the latest trial versions

Home Cookin should run on any 80486 or Pentium with Windows 3.1 or Windows 95/98. For best performance you should have a minimum of 8 Meg of RAM, and standard SVGA resolution (640x480x256 colors). If you decide to use photos with your recipes, a true color graphics mode will provide much better results. You should also allow plenty of free hard drive space for the recipes and data files this program creates (The actual requirements depend on how many recipes you have, how many groceries, etc.).

Whether you are installing the demo or registered version, the installation procedure is the same. Using File Manager in Win3.1 or Explorer in Win95/98, create a folder labeled HOMECOOK in any path you wish. This can be as simple as adding the folder to your root directory (C:\HOMECOOK). Next, copy all the files from the demo archive, or from the master disk to the new directory. If you need help with these operations, please refer to Windows documentation. The program is now ready to run by double-clicking on the HOMECOOK.EXE program file.

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Home Cookin is a "self-contained" application. It makes no alterations to the system configuration files or the Windows 95 registry, and places no DLL or INI files in any directory other than its own.

Therefore, if Home Cookin does not meet your needs, you may remove Home Cookin completely and easily by deleting the HOMECOOK directory and its contents.

Finally, even if you do not enjoy Home Cookin, I would appreciate hearing from you to know what you disliked about the program. I try hard to make Home Cookin the easiest, most user friendly application available. And, user feedback is the best way for me to accomplish this.

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Home Cookin organizes recipes in the same way a traditional cookbook does, by separating recipes into a series of chapters. However, unlike a traditional cookbook, you may define as few, or as many, chapters as you wish, and organize the recipes in any manner you prefer.

Although the primary function of Home Cookin is to store and manage your recipe collection, you will most likely have other information you want to store as well. These may include nutritional information, cooking tips, etc. So, for maximum flexibility, Home Cookin supports two different record types.

The Recipe record is the standard record type for storing recipes. It contains fields for ingredients, directions, and servings, and provides for special functions such as resizing and exporting to other applications. This is the record type you will want to use most often.

For the times you need to store non-recipe information, a special Information record type is provided. This record type allows more flexibility for generic text information, but does not provide the special functionality required by recipes. Although you can enter recipes in the Information record type, you would not be able to resize or export the recipe properly.

Home Cookin consists of a series of screens for managing and viewing recipes, preparing your grocery lists, planning meals, etc. The first screen you will see when running Home Cookin is the index menu.

At the top of each screen there are tabs that allow you to select the screen you want. You select a tab by clicking on the desired tab, or by pressing the first letter of the tab name on your keyboard.

See the Help System for more information.

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Online help is available from most points in the program by pressing function key F1, by clicking the program icon in the title bar and selecting the Help option, or by Right clicking the title bar in Windows 95/98 and selecting the Help option.

Home Cookin uses HTML documentation which requires a valid web browser to be installed on your system. Home Cookin will attempt to locate your default browser automatically if you are using Windows 95/98. If a web browser cannot be located automatically, or if you want to use a different web broswer, hold down the "Control" key while pressing function key F1.

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Most options in Home Cookin are selected at the point in the program where they are used. The Setup Menu allows you to configure the remaining items, determine the program version, enter your registration code, etc.

Click the Interface button to configure the graphical user interface.

Click the Dictionary button to configure the spell check dictionary.

Click the Register button to enter or review your registration code.

Click the Order Form button to enter your name, address, etc. for ordering Home Cookin by mail.

Click the Upgrade button if you want to upgrade an older version of Home Cookin installed in a different directory on your hard drive.

Click the Web Page button to visit the Home Cookin web page.

(See Getting Started for more information.)
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The main index is the core of Home Cookin and most operations can be accomplished from here.

Selecting Chapters Adding Chapters Editing Chapters Deleting Chapters Finding Recipes Selecting Meals

Viewing Recipes Adding Recipes Editing Recipes Marking Recipes Deleting Recipes

Printing Recipes Moving Recipes Copying Recipes Importing Recipes Exporting Recipes

(See Getting Started for more information.)
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The Recipe Menu is where you actually view the recipes in your collection. You can access the Recipe Menu from the Index Menu or from the Meals Menu.

You can move to the previous recipe by clicking the Left Arrow button, or by pressing the Left Cursor key on your keyboard. Move to the next recipe by clicking the Right Arrow button, or by pressing the Left Cursor key on your keyboard.

If a recipe is too long to fit on the screen, you can use the Up/Down cursor keys to scroll through the recipe (Home, PageUp, Page Down, and End also work). You can also scroll with the mouse by clicking the Left and Right mouse keys while over the recipe text.

Editing Recipes Finding Text Resizing Recipes

Deleting Recipes Exporting Recipes Selecting Meals

(See Getting Started for more information.)
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The Grocery Menu allows you to maintain a list of common grocery items which you can select for easy preparation of a grocery list. A running total makes it easy to keep track of your shopping bill, and you can flag any items you have coupons for. The final printed list is arranged by location and store to make your shopping trip faster and easier.

Usually, you will move back and forth between the Recipe Menu where you determine what grocery items you need, and the Grocery Menu where you select those items.

Starting A New List
Finding Items
Selecting Items
Printing the Grocery List
Adding Items
Editing Items

(See Getting Started for more information.)
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The Meals Menu allows you to attach recipes to any calendar date. In addition, you can enter personal notes on any date for birthdays, holidays, or other occasions. A single date can include any number of events, and you can place the same event on multiple days as necessary.

To change the calendar display to the previous month, click the Left Arrow button beneath the calendar, or press the Left keyboard cursor key. To change to the next month, click the Right Arrow button, or press the Right keyboard cursor key. You can return to the current month and day by clicking the Today button.

Once you have added a recipe or note to the calendar, you can move it to a different date by clicking and dragging the event from the meal list to the desired date on the calendar. To copy an event to another date, drag the event to the new date using the Right mouse key.

To view a recipe or note, click twice on the desired event. Note that viewing a note also allows you to edit that note.

To Delete a recipe or note, press the Delete key or Right click the desired event. Delete all recipes and notes by clicking the Clear button.

(See Getting Started for more information.)
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When you are ready to quit Home Cookin, click the Quit tab at the top of the window or press the Q key. Click OK if you really want to quit. All data is saved prior to clicking the Quit tab, including recipes, grocery lists, and meals.

NOTE: While you can also exit Home Cookin using any of Windows standard closing features (Alt/F4, Title bar "X" button in Win95/98, etc.), you run the risk of losing data by not using the Quit tab. Home Cookin is designed to save all changes as soon as possible, but if you are editing a recipe, note, etc. your changes may be lost.

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Once you have planned your meals, click the Print button in the Meals Menu. A print configuration dialog will appear.

Click the Printer option to select your printer and set printer specific options, using the printers own configuration dialogs.

Click the Left Margin option to select the distance the list prints from the left edge of the page. Because most printers cannot print to the very edge of a page, you will probably need to set this to .25 inch or so to avoid having the list cut off.

Click the Top Margin option to select the distance the list prints from the top edge of the page. As with the left margin, you will probably need to set this to .25 inch or so.

Click the Font option to select the font you wish to use for your grocery lists.

Click the Font Size option to select how big the text should be when you print. Most of the time, you will want to leave this around 11 point text or so, but some fonts may print too large or small at that setting.

Once you have your printer options selected, click OK to print your meal list and save your printer settings.

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If you would like to start a new grocery list, go to the Grocery Menu and click the New button. Click OK if you are ready to start the new list.

Any items which you have entered default quantities for will be added to the list automatically.

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You will most likely end up with several hundred grocery items in your grocery database. While you can scroll through these one by one to find the items you are seeking, this would be very time consuming. Instead, you can go to the Grocery Menu and click the Find button.

Normally you will want to search for a grocery item and should leave the search mode set to Search Items. However, you may want to Search Stores to find all the items at a specific store, or Search Locations to find all the items in a specific location. The latter two can be useful for maintaining your grocery list.

Once you have selected a search mode, enter part or all of the text you are looking for. Then click OK and a list of matching items will appear.

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When you locate the item you want to select for your grocery list, simply left click on the desired item. A quantity count will appear next to that item. Click the same item again if you need to increase the quantity of that item.

To decrease the quantity of a selected item, RIGHT click the quantity display next to the desired item.

You may also highlight an item using the Up/Down keyboard cursor keys, and then increase the quantity using the Right cursor key, or decrease the quantity with the Left cursor key.

If you have a coupon for an item, you can click the "Cpn" area to the right of the item, or highlight the item with the Up/Down cursor keys and press the C key to mark that item. Click that item again to clear the coupon flag.

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Once you have selected the grocery items you need to purchase, click the Print button in the Grocery Menu. A print configuration dialog will appear.

Click the Printer option to select your printer and set printer specific options, using the printers own configuration dialogs.

Click the Left Margin option to select the distance the list prints from the left edge of the page. Because most printers cannot print to the very edge of a page, you will probably need to set this to .25 inch or so to avoid having the list cut off.

Click the Top Margin option to select the distance the list prints from the top edge of the page. As with the left margin, you will probably need to set this to .25 inch or so.

Click the Font option to select the font you wish to use for your grocery lists.

Click the Font Size option to select how big the text should be when you print. Most of the time, you will want to leave this around 11 point text or so, but some fonts may print too large or small at that setting.

Once you have your printer options selected, click OK to print your grocery list and save your printer settings.

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To add a grocery item not already in the grocery list, go to the Grocery Menu and click the Add button. Then enter the information for the new item.

Item Name - The description of the item you are adding.

Store Name - The name of the store where you normally buy this item. Unless you can only buy this item from a specific store (i.e. Liquor Store), you should leave this field blank. Otherwise, you many need to duplicate the same item for each store you shop from.

Item Location - This is where you will find the item in the store when you shop. Normally you will want to use generic locations such as Produce, and Dairy. While you can enter specific locations (i.e. "Aisle 1"), you will have to modify your list if you shop at a store with a different layout, or if the store reorganizes.

Item Cost - This is the price of the item you are adding. Enter only the item price. DO NOT enter a dollar sign or other symbol. Normally you should round prices up to the next quarter or half dollar as a buffer against price changes or differences among stores. While you can enter very specific prices, this will require a great deal of maintenance to your grocery data.

Default Quantity - This is the quantity of this item you want added when you start a new grocery list. For most grocery items this field should be left blank. But, for items your purchase frequently, such as Bread or Milk, you may want to have the item selected automatically each time you start a new list.

When you have finished entering your grocery item, click OK to save your new item.

NOTE: Adding a new item to the list DOES NOT select that item for your grocery list.

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To edit an item in the grocery list, go to the Grocery Menu and RIGHT click the item you want to edit. You can also highlight the desired item using the Up/Down cursor keys, and then click the Edit button or press the RETURN key.

Then edit the grocery item as detailed in Adding Items.

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Users of older versions of Home Cookin will most likely have a substantial collection of recipes and grocery data that will need to be transferred to the current version. To ease the transition from older versions, Home Cookin includes a feature to automatically update your old program version and convert your recipes and grocery data to the new format.

To perform an upgrade, click the Upgrade button in the Setup Menu. Home Cookin will scan your drives to locate older program versions. If any are found, you will be asked to select the version you want to upgrade. Unless you keep multiple versions on your drives, you will only have one option to select. Click OK to update your old program files.

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If you wish to change the appearance of the user interface, go to the Setup Menu and click the Interface button.

At the top of the interface configuration menu are eight preset buttons, that allow you to select from a variety of predefined configurations. You may use these settings as-is, or use them as a starting point for your own settings.

Below the preset buttons is a list of the various segments of the user interface, and the settings of each segment. To change any segment of the interface, click once on the desired segment in the list or use the Up/Down cursor keys to highlight the desired segment. Then click and drag the color slider below the list or use the Left/Right cursor keys to modify the settings for the selected segment. NOTE: The background segment includes several "texture" color settings that are not available with the other segments of the interface.

When you are satisfied with the user interface settings, click the OK button to save the settings. Click the Cancel button to revert to the previous interface settings.

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If you want to edit the phrases used by the spell check functions, go to the Setup Menu and click the Dictionary button.

The list of dictionary phrases will appear, with the phrases Home Cookin searches for on the left and the phrases it replaces them with on the right. If no replacement phrase is found, the "watch for" phrase is considered to be the correct spelling of that phrase. You can use the onscreen slider or keyboard cursor keys to locate a desired phrase, or click the Find button and enter the first few letters of the phrase you are seeking.

To add a new phrase to the dictionary, click the Add button, and enter a phrase to search for and the replacement phrase if it is found. Leave the replacement phrase blank if you simply want to define a properly spelled word or phrase. Then click the Add button to save the new phrase.

To edit a phrase, click twice on the desired phrase in the list or highlight a phrase using the Up/Down cursor keys and press the RETURN key. Modify the phrases as desired, and click the Save button to save the changes. Click the Delete button if you want to delete the phrase.

Click the Exit button when you are finished editing the spell check dictionary and wish to return to the Setup Menu.

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To select a new chapter, go to the Index Menu and click the chapter title display or press the TAB key. A chapter list will pop up allowing you to select your desired chapter.

In addition to the list of chapters, the popup list also contains several special selections at the end of the list:

All Available Recipes - Shows all the recipes in your collection from all chapters.

Search Results - Shows the recipes that match the results of the last Find operation.

Recipes Selected For Meals - Shows the recipes selected in the Meals Menu.

Recipes With Duplicate Titles - Shows the recipes with duplicate titles, regardless of what chapter they are in. This can make it easier to eliminate duplicate recipes in your collection.

While in the Index Menu, you can also move to the previous chapter by pressing the Left cursor key, or to the next chapter by pressing the Right cursor key.

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To add a new chapter, go to the Index Menu and click the Chapter button. Then select the Add New Chapter option from the popup menu. Enter a title for your new chapter, and click OK.

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To edit an existing chapter, go to the Index Menu and select the chapter you want to edit. Then click the Chapter button, and select the Edit current chapter option from the popup menu. Make the desired changes to the title, and click OK.

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To delete an existing chapter, go to the Index Menu and select the chapter you want to delete. Then click the Chapter button, and select the Delete current chapter option from the popup menu. You will be asked to verify the delete operation. Click OK if you want to delete the chapter.

NOTE: When you delete a chapter, any recipes in that chapter will also be deleted!

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Recipes are viewed in the Recipe Menu. You can access the recipe menu from the Index Menu or the Meals Menu.

Index Menu - Click twice on the desired recipe, or use the Up/Down cursor keys to highlight the desired recipe and press the RETURN key. Note that the RETURN key allows you to toggle between the Index Menu and the Recipe Menu.

Meals Menu - Click twice on the desired recipe, or highlight the desired recipe and press the RETURN key.

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To add a new recipe, go to the Index Menu and select the chapter you want to add your recipe to. Then click the Add button and enter a title for your new recipe. Click on the Recipe or the Information button depending on the type of record you want to add (See Getting Started for an explantion of record types).

The appropriate Text Editor will appear where you can type in your recipe.

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Recipes can be edited from the Index Menu or the Recipe Menu.

Index Menu - Click once on the desired recipe, then click the Edit button. Or, RIGHT click the desired recipe and select the Edit option from the popup menu.

Recipe Menu - Click the Edit button to edit the recipe you are currently viewing.

Once the Text Editor appears, make the changes you desire and click the Save button to save your changes.

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The text editor is used when you manually Add a Recipe or Edit a Recipe.

There are two different text editors, depending on the type of record you are editing. The Recipe editor devides the screen into two halves, the left side for ingredients and the right side for directions. You may switch between the ingredients and directions, by clicking on the left or right half of the screen. The Information editor is nearly identical, except there is only one text field to edit, and there are no functions related to serving sizes. Functionally, both editors operate the same way, and support many commands common to Windows applications:

Cursor Movements:

Next Word............... Control/Right Cursor
Previous Word........... Control/Left Cursor
Beginning of Line....... Home
End of Line............. End
Start of recipe......... Control/Home
End of recipe........... Control/End
Page Up................. Page Up, or Control/Up Cursor
Page Down............... Page Down, or Control/Down Cursor

Mark Block.............. Shift/Cursor Keys, or mark with mouse
Delete Block............ Mark block, then Delete key or RIGHT click mouse
Copy to Clipboard....... Mark block, then Control/C or RIGHT click mouse
Cut to Clipboard........ Mark block, then Control/X or RIGHT click mouse
Paste from Clipboard.... Control/V, or RIGHT click text

Convert to upper case... Mark block, then Control/U
Convert to lower case... Mark block, then Control/L
Center text on line..... Control/Space
Strip carriage returns.. Control/Return

To change the name of the recipe, click the title display at the top of the editor, and edit the title as you wish. RETURN key.

To check the spelling of the recipe, click the Spell Check button. If an unknown or incorrectly spelled word is found, a dialog box will appear allowing you to add the new word to the dictionary, or to skip the word as is. If the Spell Check option is selected at the top of the editor, the recipe will be checked automatically when you save the recipe.

If you wish to add a photo to your recipe, or modify a photo already attached, click the Edit Photo button at the bottom of the screen.

When editing recipes, you can change the number of servings by clicking the Serves xx button, and entering a new serving amount. Note that this changes the serving size only, and does not resize the recipe ingredients. To permanently resize the recipe, click the Resize button, and enter the new serving size.

When you are finished entering your recipe, click on the Save button. Or, click the Cancel button to abort any changes you have made.

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Recipe or informational photos may be attached to any recipe by Editing the Recipe.

Photo images must be in Windows BMP bitmap format, and be 640x480 in size or smaller. If you are not running in a true color graphics mode, your images should be reduced to 200 colors or less. Because photo images greatly increase the storage space needed, you should keep your images as small, and with as few colors as possible.

To add a photo to a recipe, click the Edit Photo button in the Recipe Editor. Then click the Import button and locate your graphic image.

To export an image back to a BMP file, click the Edit Photo button in the recipe editor. Click the Export button and enter a filename for the new file.

To remove an image from a recipe, click the Edit Photo button in the recipe editor and click the Clear button.

Click the Save button in the Recipe Editor to store any changes to the attached photo.

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Most operations such as Printing, Exporting, Deleting, Moving, and Copying, can be performed on multiple recipes as easily as a single recipe.

To mark a recipe, go to the Index Menu and click in the space just to the left of the recipe title you want to mark. Click the same space again to unmark the recipe. Click and drag across multiple recipes to mark a series of recipes.

You may also highlight a recipe using the Up/Down cursor keys, and then press the Space bar to mark that recipe. Press the space bar again to unmark the recipe.

To mark a series of recipes with the keyboard, hold down the Control key while you press the Up/Down cursor keys. To unmark a series of recipes with the keyboard, hold down the Shift key while you press the Up/Down cursor keys.

Press Control/A to mark/unmark all recipes displayed in the main index.

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Recipes can be deleted from the Index Menu or the Recipe Menu.

Index Menu - Mark the recipes you want to delete, and click the Delete button. Or, use the cursor keys to highlight a single recipe and press the Delete key on the keyboard. You can also RIGHT click the recipe(s) you want to delete and select the Delete option from the popup menu.

Recipe Menu - Click the Delete button, or press the Delete key on your keyboard, to delete the recipe you are currently viewing.

You will be asked to verify the delete operation. Click OK if you want to delete the recipe(s).

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Recipes can be printed from the Index Menu or the Recipe Menu.

Index Menu - Mark the recipes you want to print, and click the Print button. You can also RIGHT click the recipe(s) you want to print and select the Print option from the popup menu.

Recipe Menu - Click the Print button to print the recipe you are currently viewing.

Once you select the print operation, a print dialog will appear for you to configure your printer options.

The Printer configuration option allows you to select your printer, paper bins, and printer specific settings using your printers configuration dialog.

The Format option allows you to select the type of layout you want for your recipes. Your printer will be set to Portrait or Landscape mode depending on the format you choose.

The Left Margin option allows you to set the distance the first card prints from the left edge of the paper. Since most printers cannot print to the exact edge of the paper you will probably need to set this to 1/4 inch or greater to avoid cutting off the left edge of the card.

The Top Margin option allows you to set the distance the first card prints from the top edge of the paper. Like the Left Margin, you will probably need to set this to 1/4 inch or greater to avoid cutting off the top edge of the card. If you are using pre-scored recipe cards, you can adjust the Left and Top margins so that recipes will fit properly on the cards you are using.

The Font option allows you to select the font you want to use for printing your recipe(s). Only scalable fonts available on the printer you selected will be shown.

The Font Size option allows you to select the size of font you want to use for printing. The Automatic setting will compute the largest font that will allow a full line of text to fit across the card. NOTE: The automatic setting does not mean your recipe will necessarily fit on a single recipe card!

The Draw Card Outlines option lets you select whether to draw the outline of the recipe cards. If you are using pre-scored recipe cards, you will probably want to leave this unchecked. But, if you are printing on blank card stock, the card outlines can act as a guide for cutting out the cards.

Once you have your options set, click the OK button to print your recipe(s). All printer settings will be retained until you change them, so you will only need to set them once unless you want to use a different print format.

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To move one or more recipes, go to the Index Menu and select the chapter you are moving your recipes from.

Then mark the recipes you want to move and click the Move button. You may also RIGHT click the recipe(s), and select the Move option from the popup menu.

A list of chapters will popup allowing you to select the chapter you want to move the recipes to.

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To copy one or more recipes to another chapter, go to the Index Menu and select the chapter you are copying your recipes from.

Then mark the recipes you want to copy and click the Copy button. You may also RIGHT click the recipe(s), and select the Copy option from the popup menu.

A list of chapters will popup allowing you to select the chapter you want to copy the recipes to.

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To search for recipes, go to the Index Menu and click the Find button. Enter the text string you want to search for and check the fields you want to have searched. If you want to restrict your search to a single chapter, select it from the Chapter display. Next, select the desired search option and click the OK button.

New Search - This option will create a new list by searching all recipes and adding those that match to the list.

Add Matches To List - This option will add to a previous search list by searching all recipes and adding those that match to the list.

Reduce List To Matches - This option will reduce the search list by searching only those recipes found in a previous search. Any recipes not matching the search string will be removed from the list.

Remove Matches From List - This option performs the opposite function of the previous option and keeps only those recipes that DO NOT have the search string in them.

Find Duplicate Titles - This option will create a new list by searching all recipes and adding those that have duplicate titles.

Searches are NOT case sensitive. Search times can be reduced by unchecking any fields not needed. Title only searches are the fastest. Multiple search operations can be performed in sequence allowing very complex searches.

Sample 1 - Find recipes containing "butter" but not "peanut butter"
1. Search for "butter" using the Start New List search option.
2. Search for "peanut butter" using the Remove Matching Recipes search option

Sample 2 - Find recipes containing "peas" and "carrots"
1. Search for "peas" using the Start New List search option.
2. Search for "carrots" using the Add Matching Recipes search option.

Sample 3 - Find recipes with "sugar" in the ingredients, but not the title
1. Search for "sugar" using the Start New List search option.
2. Uncheck the Ingredients and Directions fields, and search for "sugar" using the Remove Matching Recipes search option.

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Manually typing recipes can be a tedious task, even if you are a good typist. Because of this, Home Cookin can import recipes from a variety of different recipe formats. This makes it easier to save recipes you obtain from the internet, BBS's, or even from scanned text that you've used OCR on.

To import recipes, go to the Index Menu and click the Import button. When the file selector appears, locate the text file you want to import and click OK. If you have saved a recipe to Window's clipboard from another application, you can click the Clipboard button instead of locating a text file.

Once you have selected a recipe for importing (or selected the clipboard), Home Cookin will attempt to determine what format the recipes are stored in. A popup list will appear so that you may verify the import format, and change the format if needed. The supported formats include:

Information Text - Use this format to import generic text information such as cooking tips, nutritional information, or household hints. The record will be given the filename as a title, and only the first 1000 lines of text will be loaded if the file is large.

Undefined Recipe - This format allows you to import improperly formatted recipes, or generic text that does not adhere to any defined format. When this format is selected, you will use the Manual Importing menu to define each section of the recipe.

Home Cookin - This is a proprietary recipe format developed for Home Cookin. It is the ONLY recipe format currently available that will allow you to exchange photo's with other users. It also minimizes the amount of reformatting that can take place with other recipe formats. If you exchange recipes with other users of Home Cookin, you should use this format.

Meal-Master - This format was developed for the DOS program "Meal-Master" and is still quite popular today. Many of the recipes you will find on the internet or BBS's will be in this format. Home Cookin supports versions 5.0 through the current 8.x.

Computer Chef - This was once a popular format in the days of DOS recipe programs, but you aren't likely to see this one much today. However, many older CD-ROM collections have recipes in this format.

Mastercook - This is a newer format developed for the program "Mastercook" on the Macintosh and Windows. It is gaining in popularity and you will probably encounter this format often.

After you verify the import format, you can select whether to "Honor The Category Descriptions". If this option is selected, recipes will be placed into a chapter based on the first category in the recipe. If the chapter does not exist, it will be created automatically. If this option is selected and no category description is available, the recipe will be placed in a chapter titled "* No Chapter Defined". If you do not select this option, all recipes will go into the currently selected chapter, regardless of what category descriptions may be in the recipe. You can also select whether to have Home Cookin spell-check the recipes when importing. Note that this can really slow down a large import session. If you cancel the spell check, all remaining recipes will be imported without the spell check. Once you verify the import format and select your options, Home Cookin will begin importing the recipes from the file (or clipboard) you selected.

NOTE: Recipe importing is not an exact process. There are many items that can cause the import functions to work improperly, or not at all. These include inadvertant editing to the original text files, reformatting by BBS or network software, file corruption, etc. Home Cookin has been designed to accomodate many of the problems you are likely to encounter, but you may need to edit the recipe after importing.

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When you are Importing Recipes and select the Undefined Recipe format, you will need to mark the various recipe segments manually.

When the manual import menu appears, you can scroll through the text by using the Up/Down keyboard cursor keys, or by clicking the Left and Right mouse keys while over the text display.

To mark the recipe title, locate the line of text containing the title. Then hold down the Control key while you left click the desired line. This will highlight the line you selected. Once the title line is highlighted, click the Title button at the bottom of the screen to select that line as the title.

Marking the servings (yield) is optional, and will default to four servings if you do not select a new servings line. Select the line of text containing the serving size as you did with the title, and then click the Yield button at the bottom of the screen. If you want to enter a yield manually, mark a blank line before clicking the Yield button.

To mark the ingredients, locate the first line of the ingredients, hold down the Control key, and left click that line. Now locate the line where the ingredients end, hold down the Control key, and RIGHT click that line. Once all of the ingredient lines are highlighted, click the Ingredients button to select those lines of text as the ingredients.

Mark the directions lines as you did with the ingredients lines, and then click the Directions button to select those lines as the directions.

When you have selected the Title, Ingredients, and Directions for the recipe, click the Save button to add import that recipe into Home Cookin. The selected fields will be reset, and you can continue marking other recipes that may be in the text file.

If you want to change to another text file, click the New File button, and continue marking the recipes as needed. Click the Quit button when you are finished marking recipes.

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To make it easier to exchange recipes with other users, Home Cookin allows you to export recipes from your collection. You can export recipes from the Index Menu or the Recipe Menu.

Index Menu - Mark the recipes you want to export and click the Export button. Or, Right click the recipe(s) you want to export and select the Export option from the popup menu.

Recipe Menu - Click the Export button.

A popup menu will allow you to select the desired export format. If you are going to exchange recipes with another Home Cookin user, you should use the Home Cookin format to avoid reformatting problems. Otherwise, you should use the Meal-Master format for greatest compatibility with other recipe programs.

After you select the export format the file selector will appear. You can click the Clipboard button to export the selected recipes to Window's clipboard (for exchange with other applications on your system). Or, locate the path you want to export the recipes to and enter a filename. Click OK to export to that file.

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Home Cookin allows you to attach any recipe in your collection to the Meal Menu calendar. You can place a meal on the calendar from the Index Menu, the Recipe Menu, or in the Meals Menu itself.

Index Menu - Click and "drag" the desired recipe title to the Meals tab. You can also highlight the desired recipe with the Up/Down cursor keys or by clicking once on the desired recipe, and then click the Add Meal button.

Recipe Menu - Click and "drag" the recipe title to the Meals tab. Or, click the Add Meal button.

Meals Menu - Highlight the recipe you want to add in the Index menu, or view it in the Recipe Menu. Then go to the Meals Menu, click twice on the date you want to add the meal to, and click the Recipe button.

NOTE: Meals added from the Index or Recipe menu will be placed on the current date in the Meals Menu calendar. You will need to go to the Meals Menu later and move the meals to the date(s) you want them on.

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In addition to recipes, the Meals Menu allows you to add personal notes to the meal list as well. You can use notes to plan meals not in Home Cookin's database, meals you will be eating out, birthdays, holidays, or other special occasions.

To add a note, go to the Meals Menu and click twice on the date you want to place a note on. Then enter your desired note and click the Note button or press the Return key.

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To find text in a specific recipe, locate the recipe and go to the Recipe Menu. Then click the Find button and enter the text you want to search for. All text that matches your search will be highlighted.

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If you want to temporarily resize a recipe, go to the Recipe Menu and click the Resize button. Then enter a new serving size and click OK.

You can print or export the recipe in it's resized form, but the recipe itself is not actually modified. If you want to permanently resize a recipe, you will need to Edit the recipe.

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Home Cookin is Copyright 1996-1999 by Anthony Watson, all rights reserved. Any unauthorized duplication of the program(s) or documentation is a violation of federal copyright laws!

This product has been tested extensively and to the best of my knowledge will not cause problems of any kind. However, neither Mountain Software nor the author (Anthony Watson), will be held responsible for any damage occurring to your system or other software. I also make no guarantee as to compatibility with other software or hardware configurations.

Home Cookin was written by Anthony Watson using GFA BASIC for Windows. All documentation was written with Pen Pal, a shareware text editor from Mountain Software.

I would like to thank all of the dedicated users who purchased earlier versions of Home Cookin, as well as those who purchased "The Recipe Box" on the Atari ST, Amiga, and Macintosh. I appreciate your comments, suggestions, and complaints.

I also owe a great deal of appreciation to my beta testers; those who helped test earlier programs on the Atari ST, and Don Schmidt for his assistance with the Windows version.

I would like to thank my wife Peggy for being my lover, my best friend, and the mother of my child. Without your support I would not be able to write this software, and I appreciate you being there to boost me up when things aren't going well. Thank you for believing in me!

And to anyone reading this, I hope you enjoy this program and that it will be beneficial to you. I pray that you and your family are healthy, happy, and that you'll come to know Jesus Christ as your personal friend and Savior. Take care, God bless, and thank you for your support!

It is only by God's grace that I have the ability and the opportunity to write software such as this. I hope that in some small way that this work will somehow glorify his name!

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A. Most buttons have keyboard equivalents (underlined letter on button), and the main tabs can also be activated by pressing the first letter of the tab name.

B. When adding or editing grocery items, remember that prices fluctuate often, stores reorganize frequently, and most stores use different layouts. Because of this, prices should be rounded up, locations should be generic, and store names left blank unless an item is only available from one store. Following these tips will reduce maintenance of your grocery database.

C. Home Cookin uses electronic documentation instead of a printed manual. By eliminating the manual, I am able to update the documentation more frequently, reduce packaging and shipping costs, and reduce environmental impact from wasted paper, ink, etc.

D. Home Cookin was designed primarily as a recipe database. However, some users have found it useful for a variety of alternative tasks such as poetry/song collections, home inventories, or a flexible personal information manager (PIM). Any task requiring a compilation of many small text files could be well served by Home Cookin.

E. The oldest ancestor of Home Cookin was created on an 8-bit Atari 600XL in 1990 under the name "The Atari Cookbook". START Magazine published the full source code in the January 1991 issue (AKA The Antic Cookbook). In 1991 I rewrote the program on the Atari ST computer line and renamed it "The Recipe Box". In 1993 I ported "The Recipe Box" to the Commodore Amiga and Apple Macintosh Computers. Home Cookin was finally ported to Windows on the PC in 1996.

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Version 3.4   - Fixed line termination in Home Cookin exports
Mar 19, 1999  - Improved font selection speed in print dialogs
              - Added full category support to import routines

Beta 3.4d     - Improved speed of file move and copy routines
Mar 12, 1999  - Modified recipe editors for improved title editing.
              - Improved long filename support
              - Improved scroll bar response to user input
              - Improved import procedures
              - New Home Cookin export format
              - Added chapter to meal-master categories with exporting
              - Added the ability to honor category descriptions with importing
              - Moved spell check options to import dialog and edit menu's
              - Default import/export paths are now the last used paths
              - Redesigned the Setup menu
              - Fixed bug in spell-check routines
              - Updated Help documentation

Beta 3.4c     - Removed recipe compression (following questionaire)
Feb 25, 1999  - New program update procedures
              - Redesigned the Setup menu

Beta 3.4b     - Recipe compression added to new file system
Feb 11, 1999

Beta 3.4a     - New file system for improved reliability and error recovery
Feb 05, 1999  - Enhanced Find system for improved search capabilities

Version 3.3   - Fixed memory allocation errors in Recipe view menu
Jan 10, 1999  - Import routines now handle illegal characters better
              - Rewrote text editor routines
              - Improved clipboard routines
              - New Move and Copy routines
              - Improved file maintenance update procedures
              - Improved Mastercook importing for wider compatibility
              - Added error detection and correction routines

Version 3.2   - Improved speed of recipe sorting routines
Nov 12, 1998  - Eliminated need for sorting when adding a single recipe
              - Added chapter titles to "special" list modes
              - Improved mouse cursor blocking in text editors
              - Enhanced dragging operations in Index and Meals menus.
              - Help system improved for Netscape compatibility
              - Bugs fixed in spell check routines

Version 3.1   - Fixed text cut off in recipe menu with large system fonts
Oct 19, 1998  - Fixed crashing problem when Merging Old Recipes
              - Field selections are now saved in Find function
              - Merge Old Recipes transfers empty chapters (ver 2.2 and later)
              - Fixed bugs in recipe move and copy routines
              - Added verification dialog to New Meal functions

Version 3.0   - New registration routines
Oct 09, 1998  - Added camera symbol for recipes with photos
              - Fixed bug in text editor copy routines
              - Fixed bugs in recipe move and copy routines
              - Fixed bugs in clipboard routines
              - Changed order form version reporting for Windows 95/98

Beta 3.j      - Added meal "dragging" to Index and Recipe screens
Sep 24, 1998  - Improved recipe marking routines
              - Fixed bug in file selector
              - Fixed bug in slider routines
              - Fixed bugs in Add Recipe routines
              - Changed to new HTML browser based help system
              - Finished documentation

Beta 3.i      - Added new splash screen
Aug 21, 1998  - Added option to disable splash screen in setup menu
              - Moved Quit menu information to setup menu
              - Replaced Quit menu with popup dialog
              - Fixed crashing problem when spell checking with no dictionary

Beta 3.h      - Rewrote spell check routines
Aug 14, 1998  - Fixed bugs in import routines
              - Added new import status displays
              - Redesigned setup menu
              - Updated spell check dictionary editor

Beta 3.g      - Switched to new full time LZSS compression
Aug  7, 1998  - Added left/right cursor key functions for changing chapters
              - Updated Setup Screen

Beta 3.f      - New print routines for recipes, groceries, and help menu
Jul 24, 1998

Beta 3.e      - Rewrote meal (Calendar) menu
Jun 12, 1998  - Minor improvements to interface configuration menu
              - Enhanced how-to on getting help in Quit menu
              - Implemented New Meal buttons in Index and Recipe menu

Beta 3.d      - Redesigned interface configuration menu
May 27, 1998

Beta 3.c      - Reorganized main index menu for clearer operation
May 15, 1998  - Redesigned grocery menu

Beta 3.b      - Redesigned file selector
Apr 22, 1998  - Improved long filename support for Windows 95
              - Added clipboard support to importing and exporting

Beta 3.a      - Start of new major rewrite
Apr 16, 1998

Version 2.8   - Fixed floating point variables in resize routines
Jan 14, 1998  - Fixed floating point variables in grocery menu
              - Fixed floating point variables in print routines
              - Fixed floating point variables in bitmap display routines

Version 2.7   - Fixed inability to export or print resized recipes in view menu
Jan 09, 1998  - Added distributor and registration status to Quit menu
              - Added keyboard Cut/Paste/Copy to editable alert dialogs
              - Enlarged file selector to allow longer filenames
              - Added ability to reorganize recipes in batch menu
              - Fixed "jump-to-top" problem when moving/copying recipes
              - Fixed problem of True-Color photos not displaying properly
              - Fixed crashing problem with extended characters in filenames
              - Fixed bugs in compression routines
              - Added new interface configuration menu
              - Added Shift/Tab toggling between Ingredients and Directions

Version 2.6   - Improved font routines for faster drawing
Dec 05, 1997  - Faster scrolling routines for recipe viewer and help menu
              - New photo routines for faster rendering
              - Eliminated redundant file loading for faster response

Version 2.5   - Fixed crashing problems with Windows 3.x
Nov 12, 1997

Version 2.4   - Relocated interface bitmaps to RECIPES folder
Nov 03, 1997  - Improved handling of interface bitmap paths

Version 2.3   - New multi-level search engine
Nov 01, 1997  - New pop-up dialogs
              - New tabbed user interface
              - New Setup Menu
              - Updated Calendar Menu
              - Updated program documentation

Version 2.2   - Modified data file formats of recipes, calendar, batch, find
Aug 31, 1997  - Added support for BMP graphics
              - Improved recipe access speed
              - Optimized compression routines for speed
              - Added RIGHT click dragging for copying recipes

Version 2.1   - Fixed problem with entering extended characters from keyboard.
Jul 20, 1997

Version 2.0   - Added yield and new file to manual import menu
Jun 23, 1997  - Fixed several minor bugs throughout program
              - Added chapter scrolling when dragging recipe to new chapter
              - Official release date of version 2.0.

Beta 2.0d     - Compiled spell checker dictionary
Jun 10, 1997  - Fixed bugs in import routines
              - Added right-click clipboard dialogs to text editors.

Beta 2.0c     - Added spell checker
May 29, 1997  - Added statistics function to setup menu
              - Added file compression option to setup menu
              - Added automatic spell check options to setup menu

Beta 2.0b     - More improvements to user interface
May 21, 1997  - Simplified color adjustment menu

Beta 2.0a     - Improved keyboard processing
May 16, 1997  - Improved text editor routines
              - Added mouse cursor and blocking to text editor routines
              - Improved pushbutton operations
              - Enhanced user controls and keyboard equivalents
              - Switched to new font and updated user interface
              - Added Exclusion field to Find menu search function
              - Added long filename support (Windows 95 only)
              - Added new file selector

Version 1.4   - Fixed crashing problem when loading empty batch list
Feb 6, 1997   - Improved recipe/chapter dragging past window edge
              - Added speed regulation to most areas for faster machines
              - Improved registration routines
              - Modified internal font to allow european style characters
              - Added Help option to the windows system menu

Version 1.3   - FIND menu no longer crashes when encountering empty chapters
Jul 29, 1996  - Added users E-mail address to registration dialog

Version 1.2   - Added color adjustments to setup menu
Jun 10, 1996  - Fixed minor alignment problems in alert box
              - Increased demo capacity to 100 recipes (3 chapters/20 recipes)
              - Improved explanation of registration benefits

Version 1.1   - Store Names now can appear on right hand side of grocery list
May 19, 1996  - Smaller title font to prevent cut-off on page edges
              - Moved user support information to Function Key F8
              - F2 block marking in editor now works again.

Version 1.0   - First Official Release of Home Cookin for Windows!
Apr 2, 1996