Mastercook current activity: working on online functions (2,594 views)
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Post by Catbatty on May 26, 2017 21:17:01 GMT -5
Thought some of you might want to know what Mastercook is working on (and it's not yet a MAC version). But why? Here's some info explaining that, for now, their focus is on part of the Mastercook program--the new online features (some free to all, even non-Mastercook program purchasers) that many of you might not be aware of. The public demand for those things seems to be outweighing all others. Here's what Pam E posted to MC group today: Pam Erickson pam@mastercook.com To: MastercookDiscussion@yahoogroups.com May 26 at 4:43 PM Thank you, Rita, for the kudos. Right now we are focused on building out the functionality of MasterCook.com. Many people use many different devices at the same time. Many no longer use Windows or a Mac computer. For example, we have culinary schools that use MasterCook with Chromebooks instead. Nutritional analysis is a big feature that is becoming more of a necessity with the FDA regulations on providing nutritional analysis of recipes. Therefore, culinary schools use MasterCook and teach their students how to use it to perform a nutritional analysis of their recipes. The instructors have online cookbooks that they share with their students too. We have restaurants that use MasterCook.com in their kitchens for their recipes. We have hospital cafeterias that use it as well. They all need to access their recipes on multiple devices at once. We constantly get feedback into MasterCook Support from people who request more features be added to MasterCook.com because they don’t have Windows computers. So that’s where we are right now. We are getting ready to release a nutritional analysis feature at MasterCook.com, which has become a top request. You will be able to edit the nutrients too. So many customers that don’t have a Windows computer are wishing they had much of the same basic functionality in MasterCook for Windows. So, if you just want basic features and not worry about extensive functionality, MasterCook.com will suffice. We will continue to add more functionality to it. We are also expanding the recipe storage from 50,000 recipes to 100,000 recipes. We are also working on an update to MasterCook 15 that addresses many of the syncing issues that users have reported lately. Pam PS: from Catbatty - I'm not sure what the issues are with syncing abilities currently. I used the feature lots (for very basic things) before programmers made some changes to the online account and I think it messed up some syncing...so I stopped using. When it works, it's very cool. It allows you to upload your MC stuff to the online account (and thereby, take it shopping, etc.) or other cool things like grabbing recipes from websites and instantly download them into the Mastercook program along with their photo. It's complicated. Syncs to all your devices, etc. Uploads or downloads to free or low-cost (cheap) storage account at Mastercook.com -- put your whole cookbooks there (thousands of organized recipes, meal plans, and shopping lists)...and access from anywhere. (I have never had smart phone...so haven't been able to go shopping with it yet.)  |
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Post by PattiA on May 27, 2017 11:29:23 GMT -5
Other Mastercook news in my inbox this morning regarding online subscription pricing changes. I have an MC online subscription, but I've been lazy about learning it and migrating over to it. I need to make some time to get up to speed on it. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: MasterCook <support@mastercook.com> Date: Fri, May 26, 2017 at 8:13 PM Subject: New features & price adjustment coming soon To: Patti Anastasia We’re adjusting pricing on July 1st . MasterCook is adjusting our pricing to more accurately reflect the value users get from the applications and to continue bringing you more great features in the future! As a current customer, we wanted to keep you informed about all the changes to the application. Current MasterCook subscribers will be automatically upgraded to enjoy the new online app features. Now is a great time to extend or renew your current subscription. For the next month only, you can still get a mastercook.com subscription at the current low price of: $9.99 for 1 year $17.99 for 2 years $24.99 for 3 years Renew NowPlus, we’re including free storage for up to 100,000 recipes. This means more cookbooks, shopping lists, and more recipe ideas for you to import from your favorite food websites than ever. Have any questions or concerns? Just reply to this email and we’ll get back to you quickly. After July 1st, the new price will be $29.99 per year with the following new improvements: • All-new nutrition analysis tool that will let you see calories, vitamins, minerals, and other information using updated USDA-based nutritional standards • Upgraded recipe clipper for easier data import from more websites • Enhanced data merge between your accounts online and MasterCook Mobile App If you have any questions or concerns, just reply to this email. We’ll get back to you as quickly as we can! Sincerest thanks, MasterCook Team |
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Post by Catbatty on May 27, 2017 13:59:57 GMT -5
Thanks Patti. I didn't get that letter (yet).
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Post by beth on May 28, 2017 11:49:11 GMT -5
I got that letter, but I have not been using the online version. To be honest, I didn't know MasterCook was still out there. They seemd to fade away, but it looks like they have become a commercial product more than a home product. I just have the older versions and started having problems years ago with them so pretty much quit using. This is making me wonder if I can still access the recipes I saved before that. Even if I reactivated, I suspect they are gone because I couldn't even get them in the prior versions. I used it for everything for a long time and through several editions, but my experience with that makes me leary of relying on any specialized program for storing my recipes.
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Post by Catbatty on May 28, 2017 17:27:38 GMT -5
Beth,
Lack of info about how to use the program or what it can do sometimes leads people to think that they've lost their saved recipes, etc. So, it might be that you gave up using it because you came to a stumbling block and didn't go past that point. (I've done that MANY MANY TOO MANY TIMES on various software. I presently have The Bat! - which is supposed to be a great email program...but I can't make it work and I've given up. It sits on my computer mostly unused...more than a year has gone by. Same for many others I've bought.)
I've used MC since 1996 and none of the versons--mc3, mc4, mc5, mc6, (I've forgotten if there was a 7 or 8) mc9, mc11 were damaged goods--I used all of them a bunch. EXCEPT, there was one time when somebody got hold of it and was selling it online (download only) and it was buggy. It wasn't sold through legitimate company. That was several years ago and I bet you got that one...just bet!!
It is my belief, and I could be very wrong--best to check with PamE at Mastercook.com (can write to support...that's Pam) and ask for help -- that if you have some saved MC cookbooks on your computer or on a disk or in some backup somewhere, that you can easily get them into any newer version of MC.
It's also my belief that it's almost impossible to lose saved recipes in Mastercook. UNLESS you specifically tell the program to remove them. It's best to always backup your cookbooks and the photo book that accompanies them.
I think we can get you back and up and going. What is your computer (operating system, e.g., Win 10, Win 7, etc) and can you find any old Mastercook extensions for cookbooks in any of your devices, places?
I love anything to do with Mastercook. All these years of using it for recipe and cookbook collecting, but I've almost never used the Shopping List, the Nutrition Analysis, the Meal Planning parts of it, so I'm not much help with those. But the online part, the putting recipes into MC, moving books around, etc...sharing books...all the normal stuff I'm very experienced with.
It would be wonderful if we could unbury your recipes!!!!
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Post by Catbatty on May 29, 2017 16:54:33 GMT -5
OMG I screwed up. I typed wrong!! I said, in error, that the previous versions of MC were damaged goods. LOL OH NO! I said that wrong. I meant were NOT damaged... I meant, I've used and worked in various ways on all versions and NONE would do bad stuff. (Except there was a bad one that some entity put up for download, several years back, and that one thing didn't work completely right. It was not Mastercook that put that download up for sale. AND, I don't think it did damaged to anything, just had flaws that made a coupla features not work.)
What I was trying to say is: to my knowledge, there is not a version that I know of that could have destroyed or lost your recipes and that they are probably somewhere and we need to know the versions you have, Beth, or at least, what extensions for MC books you might have saved somewhere.
I should also add that it is important to backup your cookbooks because there is a chance that the computer could go belly up and lose everything on it, plus when working in MC, if you highlight recipe names and tell it to DELETE them, it sure will.
Gosh my hands type things all on their own without me knowing a thing about it. haha
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Post by beth on May 30, 2017 7:01:52 GMT -5
I had several verssions of MC -- may have even started before you adn my last version is, I think, 11. I didn't so all the ones in between. I ran into a wall getting recipes or cookbooks from an old version into the new one like it was supposed to, and I soon quit using it. I'm on WIndows 10 and haven't used MC since (probably) Windows 7? I can't get to it right now, but will need to see if I can access it.
Does this term licensing mean that you will not get updates and access to online features or do you lose acess to your recipes too if you do not renew? Do you have the ability to have your recipes stored on your computer -- sounds like this is all going online/into the cloud. Big Difference.
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Post by Catbatty on May 30, 2017 13:40:21 GMT -5
In order to use MasterCook on your Win10 (I mean only the program itself, the one you buy and install on your computer), you would have to upgrade to MC15. As I mentioned, Microsoft has made changes to Windows and now, our older versions of MC do not function on Win10 (as of last December's Windows update). Once you get that installed, if you have cookbooks from older versions of Mastercook, there are several options as to how to load them into MC. (I always do that manually. I don't use the method you probably tried using, the tool that is part of MC, that can bring your cookbooks automatically into the program. OR you might have just not known about how to import books, which is really easy but isn't obvious right off the bat and I've seen that cause folks to get confused...like: where did my cookbooks go? When all that was really needed was for them to hit Refresh. That's one example of something that can make you think it's not importing your cookbooks and they must be corrupt (when, in fact, they are not). Easy little thing to overlook. The ONLINE account is something different. You don't need the MC program installed on your computer. MAC users, for instance, can use the online account. IF you happen to have the MC program installed on your computer, yes, you can download your online stuff to your computer. I have limited knowledge of all the online stuff and the various device uses. I use the basics of it. The online account comes WITH the purchase of MC15, but only for the first year. (That is what it was...and I don't know if there are changes in the planning.) So, let's say that you use the online features...for that first year...and then, you decide that you really don't need the online part of it and you don't pay for the next year of it. You would still have access to that account, free, but the limitation of the free account is that it only holds 25 recipes, instead of the 100,000 recipes (presently limit is 50,000 but that is soon to go up, per memo). SO, before you let your account expire, you would simply tell it to sync your saved recipes to your computer's cookbooks. SO, if you want to get going with MC again, I suggest either you use Win10 and buy MC15... OR get out your old computer, if you still have it, and work MC on it using your older MC. However, if you do use your older MC, I'm not sure what all that would mean regarding using it in combination with the online account (BUT YOU DON'T NEED THE ONLINE $ ACCOUNT in order to happily use your older MC). Old MC's don't know about the new stuff and aren't setup to maybe work with it. I'd have to look into that. (Example: I have Win10 and MC15 on my new laptop and that's where I do most stuff MOSTLY with Mastercook program on my computer and some limited use of the online features. But I also have an old laptop (Win7) and on it I have MC14.) Pam has all kinds of stuff already written up and I can get you links to those if you need, for all details, btw. PERSONALLY, what I would do is just install MC15 on Win10 and go from there. Easy. (BTW: I am not a seller, make no money or anything else from speaking in favor of buying MC, have no interest in the company...I'm just a satisfied, longtime user.) OTHER THING IS: if you don't want to get MC15 or do anything at all with Mastercook older versions...in other words, if you just want to get those recipes you saved back into text, I can help you. Just find your earlier-made recipes (in MC's 'cookbooks' -- search for extensions .mc2, .mcx (the latter being the photo file) and send them to ME via email or DropBox and I can convert them to text and send them back to you.  |
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cafelatte
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Post by cafelatte on May 31, 2017 7:18:53 GMT -5
Beth,
I have upgraded my MC over the years and currently use MC15 due to the need for it for Windows 10, I have successfully transferred files over from old PCs/laptops to the new one, but I think a recipe here or there gets lost. I have the online subscription, but once that expires, I don't think I will renew. I find that I'm not using it on my iPad or iPhone. I do like how easy it is to copy recipes into MC with the toolbar add on, but some sites don't format correctly or allow easy transfer into MC anyway, so you still have to use import assist in those cases. The recipes copied using import assist are not part of the online account either. It's not perfect, but it's still the way I save recipes. If you install MC15 on you old computer, it should ask if you want to transfer old files into the new version.
As for old versions of MC, they work fine as long as you don't update to Windows 10.
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Post by beth on Jun 1, 2017 15:56:15 GMT -5
I am not sure I have anything that isn't windows 10 now. Maybe my dad's old computer? And the install did ask me about importing the old files -- they just didn't get imported. I can't remember now if the name appeared but nothing wwas there or if nothing showed up in the new program files. I just remember I had to go searching for anything and gave up. Tried to get help back then and got instructions on what to do -- that I had already done, but it didn't work.
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Post by Catbatty on Jun 2, 2017 19:10:04 GMT -5
So, you do have Mastercook 15 installed, Beth?
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Post by Catbatty on Jun 4, 2017 16:54:53 GMT -5
woops, my mistake Beth:
I'm thinking that you don't have MC15 and that the closest version you have is MC11. And if I understand, you don't have a any Windows computer that is older than Win10.
And MC11 won't function on Win10. (Again, no thanks to Microsoft for messing that up.) So that is where things stand to date.
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Post by Catbatty on Jun 5, 2017 1:11:24 GMT -5
Lost (or never to be seen again Mastercook cookbooks)...this should help clear it up. They should be there on your computer...just hidden from view. It's a long story, but Windows...back in the day, came out with a built-in security thing that HID some of our Mastercook cookbooks in a 'Virtual Store'. The only way to view them was to enable: "show hidden files." I am guessing that is where 'lost' cookbooks reside and you simply have to set your Windows Explorer to Show Hidden Files and then search for your files...you should see them...the ones you thought you lost, afterwards. Mastercook has since been built to get around the problem (of this Windows security invention that came to us with Windows Vista...and that drove everybody crazy OR they learned a manual way to turn it off and that was a security risk...but I did it and life was good.) PamE tells me that the newest MC can now operate just fine on older Window computers, going all the way back to Vista. I can't vouch for that, so double check with Pam or Support if you need to run new MC15 on an older computer, but I know that it works great on Windows 10.) SO, those of you with older cookbooks that were created on older versions of Windows and Mastercook -- in order to find any Mastercook books on your computer, you probably need to see hidden files...and here is how. It's super easy. (You probably thought the cookbooks were gone only because you couldn't see them and Windows searches didn't couldn't 'see' them either. But in reality, Windows probably had moved them to here: C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\VirtualStore ) To fix this so that your computer and searches can find them always, even if they are in hidden folders, simply check two boxes in your View menu (in Windows Explorer). Here is a photo and some text that shows how easy it is to change your computer to always show any hidden folders. (And hopefully, you will then be able to use your computer to Search for .mc2's and .mcx's so you will know exactly where they reside and you can move them or copy them outta there and into Mastercook.) One step at a time, let's first enable viewing of hidden files. Here are instructions for users of Window 8 or Windows 10: support.mastercook.com/hc/en-us/articles/216887326-Showing-Hidden-Files-in-Windows-8-10Catbatty |
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Post by Catbatty on Jun 5, 2017 1:41:03 GMT -5
PamE sends us this...for when we need to move our cookbooks into Mastercook 15. There are two ways to add cookbooks to MasterCook 15.1. You can use the Manage Collections window in version 15 just like all previous versions as explained here: support.mastercook.com/hc/en-us/articles/216889146-Adding-Cookbook-Files-to-MasterCook2. Or using [Mastercook's built-in] Merge [feature] in version 15 -- copies the files for you. See this video demonstration: www.mastercook.com/gettingstarted "Many people are not comfortable using Windows, so Merge was added to do it for them, but either option adds the cookbooks to the program." |
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Post by Catbatty on Jun 5, 2017 15:45:11 GMT -5
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mountaineerlegion
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Post by mountaineerlegion on Nov 28, 2018 12:07:20 GMT -5
Hey folks,
Brand new to the board and MC 15. Hopefully I'm posting in the appropriate place. Here is my problem...
I'm trying to import multiple recipes from a text file. When I use the "Import Assistant" function with this text structure...
@@@@@ Title
Ingredients
Directions
@@@@@ Title
Ingredients
Directions
The assistant imports the first recipe as I want (with each paragraph of directions on separate lines at the bottom). However, I can not get the assistant to import the second recipe automatically.
When I use the "File Import" function with the same text structure shown above, the function loads both recipes automatically but I can not get it to separate each paragraph in to separate lines at the bottom.
It seems that MC 15 parses the text differently depending on the function used. I know I can cut and paste the paragraphs into separate lines at the bottom but I would prefer to minimize the number of steps to import recipes.
I've read the help files online and am stumped. Hopefully I'm not being dense.
Can anyone help? Thanks in advance.
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Post by Catbatty on Nov 28, 2018 16:30:11 GMT -5
Mountaineer, WELCOME to the group! So happy to have you join us. It's been years and years since I've used the @@@@@ method to import recipes into Mastercook, so if you intend to use that method I'm thinking Pam is the person to help you and she can be reached at the Mastercook website. (She IS the support person there.) www.mastercook.com/Additionally, there is an MC Discussion group--over 6,000 members--(a user made it...nice place to get answers from other users) and Pam often volunteers to answer questions there--as do other members of that forum (mailing list/web site). mastercook.groups.io/g/mainBTW: We have started a recipe exchange group, MC format only, so far it's very slow but if you care to join us: mastercook.groups.io/g/RecipesOk, so...here are some thoughts from me: IMPORT ASSISTANT... (File/Import Assistant) is built into your computer installed of Mastercook. (Meaning: comes with the program; is not part of any ONLINE feature that can be purchased separately.) Import Assistant is a quick and easy way to get ONE recipe into Mastercook directly. It is not for groups of recipes. It works only on one recipe. So, you need to learn the cool tricks it offers...more than meets the eye. I use it all the time. The function you want is the Import function. That's something different. And: I see you've tried that. I don't recall much of anything about the @@@@@ method. Sorry. Pam will help. Thank goodness we have Pam! (Over the years, I have used...and even helped to make...a few import programs for use with getting large groups of recipes imported perfectly into Mastercook...even ones that added meta data and photos. We have come a long, long way. I now use one of those programs--RecipeClips by John Shotsky--for groups of recipes...and like I said, Import Assistant for quickie slaps of recipes directly into Mastercook...AND for recipes and their accompanying photos that are found online at most any website, I use a purchased subscription to the Mastercook ONLINE account...it offers a special online import tool that lets us grab recipes and download (or leave online in an online 'cookbook') AND the main photo of the dish...(as well as other pertinent data). (The online purchased features are heavily used by smart phone owners and various entities--they make take-with-you shopping lists, etc. I would love that ability to shop, view my recipes and shopping lists...but I don't have a Smart Phone...SO, I use only some of it's features. Mostly I pay a small monthly fee just for that online recipe grab feature. I love it...it's addictive. The Mastercook owner found out that owning and maintaining that online feature, with all that storage that is offered, is HUGELY expensive. WAY WAY WAY. Over-the-top expensive. So he has quit the free accounts there and has to charge a bit more money to subscribers than was expected. So that's the low-down on that.) Where was I? OK so...I'm buried in a work deadline today but I am thrilled to help you anytime you need whatever I can offer. I love and have loved Mastercook et al for decades! I will drop you a note privately via email, ok? I'm so happy to meet you. Please feel at home and comfortable! You are among friends. |
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