Questions about recipes

My recipe does not show quantities in the recipe tab, only in the ingredient tab. Also, where do I input preparation instructions?

The quantities are empty because you have input the ingredients in the Ingredients tab, and not in the Recipe tab. It is important that you type the ingredients on the Recipe tab first. Changes to quantities in the Recipe tab are automatically mirrored in the Ingredients tab, but changes to the Ingredients tab are not transfered back to the Recipe tab. This allows for example to specify a different unit or quantity for the shopping list. Also, when you input ingredients in the Recipe tab, they are automatically linked with the shopping list when you switch over to the Ingredients tab - you don't have to do it manually. The preparation information are inputted in the text field at the bottom of the recipe tab.
For more information, watch the slide show "Creating a new recipe" and consult the Recipe Editor section of the User's Manual Online.

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I have problems importing recipes from the clipboard...

To import recipes from the clipboard, follow the instructions below. See also the "Troubleshooting" section.

In your browser or other software from which you want to import, select the text of the recipe(s) by clicking at the beginning of the recipe and dragging to the end. The text of the recipe(s) must be highlighted. Go to the Edit menu and select "Copy".
Open Shop'NCook and select the Recipes tab. Open the cookbook into which you want to import the recipe(s). It must be an unlocked cookbook. Select "Import from Clipboard" from the File menu.
A new window opens with the text of the recipe. Edit the text of the recipe if necessary (see the section on importing text recipes below). Check the file type is correct. If it is a text recipe, ".txt" must be selected in the file type pull-down menu. If it is a pre-formatted recipe, the correct file type must be selected, for example ".mm" for recipes in MealMaster format and ".mxp" for recipes in MasterCook format.
Click then on Import.
The title of the recipe(s) are displayed on a new window. Edit the additional category if needed, then click "Save". The recipe(s) will be imported into the current cookbook.

Troubleshooting:

I cannot select "Import From Clipboard" in the File menu:
If you don't see "Import From Clipboard" in the file menu, make sure you are in the Recipes panel of Shop'NCook (the Recipes tab at the top of Shop'NCook window must be highlighted) and that you are not editing a recipe. If "Import from clipboard" is disabled, make sure that the current cookbook is not locked. Recipes cannot be added to a locked cookbook. If the cookbook is locked, you must either unlock it first, or select or create another cookbook before importing the recipe(s).
When I select "Import from clipboard", the text of the recipe is not displayed in the window:
Make sure that the recipe was correctly copied to the clipboard. For example, open a text editor and try to paste the recipe to check it is in the clipboard. Also, Shop'NCook can only import text recipes. If the recipe is in the form of a picture, it cannot be imported.
After clicking "Import" in the import editor, the recipe manager window opens but no recipes are listed:
You must check in the import editor that the correct file type is selected in the toolbar (for example .txt for text recipes). See http://www.shopncook.com/doc/en/recipe-collections.html for more information about the different import formats.

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I have problems importing a text recipe.

To import successfully your text recipes, you should observe the following rules:

The title is on a line by itself.
Each ingredient is on a line by itself. The ingredients are written preferably in the following order: quantity, ingredient name, preparation instruction (for example: 1 cup flour, sifted). The comment can be separated from the ingredient name by a comma or a hyphen, or by parenthesis.
If you want to import several recipes, separate them with a line of 5 or more hyphens (-----).

Example of a text recipe correctly formatted for import:

For an example of importing a recipe, watch the slide show "Import recipes from the clipboard". See also the section on importing a recipe in the user's manual online.
If your recipes are not imported to your satisfaction after following these instructions, send them to us by e-mail to help us improve the parsing engine.

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How do I move a recipe from Import into its proper category such as Side Dishes?

When you import recipes, you have at the top of the Import Manager window a field "Additional category" with "Import" in it. This is a category that is added to all the recipes you are importing. That allows you to locate easily the recipes you have imported, to check for example if they were correctly imported. If you don't want to add this category to the imported recipes, you can just clear the field, or type another category name. Also, in front of each recipe, you can type the list of categories (separated by "|") to which you would like to add it. For example, you could type in the category field next to a pasta recipe "Pasta|Main dishes|Italian" to list the recipe in all three categories Pasta, Main dishes, and Italian.

To change the category of recipes you have already imported, you can select the category Import, then choose "Rename the category" in the Tools menu. Input then either "Side Dishes" to move all the recipes of the category Import to the category "Side Dishes", or clear the category name to simply remove the Import category. Alternatively, you can edit the recipes one by one, open the category editor and select the desired categories.

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How do I delete a category?

The categories are automatically removed from the list when there are no recipes containing this category. Therefore, to delete a category, you need to remove the category from every recipe belonging to it. You can do it in the following way:

Select the name of the category you want to remove in the category pull-down menu of the Recipes panel.
The recipes belonging to this category are listed on the left. In the Tools menu, select "Rename Category".
Click OK in the dialog that opens, leaving the name of the category empty.
Wait that the category name is removed from all the recipes. It will disappear from the list of category.

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I cannot send recipes by e-mail through my .Mac email account.

The following settings should allow you to send your recipes:

SMPT: smtp.mac.com
Server Port: 25
SSL box: unchecked
Authentication: checked
User name: the part of your email address before the @ (so if your email address is user@mac.com, only enter "user")
Password: your password

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Questions about recipes

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