I’m not a big fan of hosting my personal family recipes on a website. There are a number of pitfalls in putting hundreds of hours into maintaining an online recipe book:
1. Will they be around?
What happens if the website service goes bankrupt? Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but maybe next year.
2. What do you do if the recipes vanish?
Is there a backup? I’ve heard several stories of people entering all their recipes online and they just vanish. *poof*
3. What if they become obnoxious?
It may be free now, but what about three years from now? Five? Ten? What if they suddenly start flooding you with advertisements? If you build up a huge collection of recipes online, it’ll be really hard to just walk away.
4. How likely is it that you’ll share your family recipes with your grand daughter if it’s a bookmark on some web page?
Sitting in front of a computer, even online, is an inherently isolating event. Handing somebody a printed cookbook is inherently social.
Imagine you just died. (I know it’s horrible, but play along.) Are your descendants likely to stumble into your family recipes at website XYZ under the user name GrannyCookMachine537?
5. Are you comfortable with not having control over how your family recipes will be used?
If you carefully read the license agreements to these online recipe websites, you’ll notice that even though you own the recipes, they have publishing rights. They can make their own recipe book using your recipes and not pay you a dime. Melissa A. Trainer writes about this issue here.
6. Who wants to look up a recipe on a computer when your hands are covered in butter and eggs?
I’ll start making the pot roast as soon as my computer boots up. And my internet access starts. And I log on to the website. And I do a search for the recipe I want. And I do the search again because I typed it wrong. And–oh heck, let’s just order a pizza.
As Napoleon Dynamite’s brother said, “Yes, I love technology.” But not so much that I don’t see the value of a good ol’ fashioned printed cookbook. Obviously, as the owner of a cookbook printing software company, I’m pretty biased. But I could’ve just as easily started an online recipe storage website like all the others. I didn’t.
That’s because I believe the best way to manage your family recipes is from your own computer. Off line and in control.
For more about my cookbook printing software, click here.
PS: As a thank you for visiting, why not grab a few free recipe card printables? No signup forms, no obligation.
Can you import recipes from microsoft word?
can this cookbook backup my
recipes that I inter in the book
can this cookbook backup my recipes that I inter in the book
Hi Joe-
Yes, if you mean “do my recipes get saved on my computer.” You can also back up your recipes onto an extra hard drive or cd rom if you want to. Just copy the file located at C:\Program Files\Matilda\MatildaBack.mdb to wherever you want to back up your recipes.
Matilda
I have bookmarked your website because I have taken on the job of writing our family cookbook. I know that currently there is not the option of having just one recipe per page, but one of your answers indicates that this may be an option with the updated version. Can you please contact me when the udate is available for purchase? If not, I understand. Thanks, Kathy
When will the upgraded/updated version of Matilda’s cook book software be available? I am hoping for the “one recipe per page” option.
Thanks.
Hi, Debbie-
One recipe per page will be an option. However, it’s looking like mid-summer at the earliest. The good news is that the upgrade will be less than $15 to download.
Matilda
is there a way to arrange recipes so the entire recipe fits onto one page–meaning it does not end on one page to be continued by turning the page to get the rest of the recipe?
Hi, Carole-
You can decrease the font size to squeeze it all in. Otherwise, there’s just not much we can do to cram more in.
Matilda
I love all the changes that you have made to your software. It was well worth the wait. Good Job! I will linking your site on mine since you now do what I think was missing in cookbook creation. A tool that allows everything to stay on your own computer and the formats that so many people crave. My cd it the perfect compliment for asking for recipes, stories and photo and then having charts to to stay organized. We are not competitors but together give people everything they need to do a great cookbook. I am so excited to recommend your product now!!!
I notice one of the questions was about changing the margins and you said it could be done. My question is, “How?” I don’t see an edit feature or file feature (as in WORD) in this program. I’d appreciate any help you can give me on this.
Hi, Nancy-
Sorry, I should’ve clarified. It depends on your printer, but most printers have the ability to change margin settings.
Hit the Printer icon, then in your printer’s dialog box it probably says something about setting margins.
If your printer doesn’t support custom margins, then you won’t be able to do it though.
Matilda
I have made the book cover and back and want to use the original recipes using the cooks own handwrighting. Will I be able to scan rathar than type my recipes?
Hi Lindy-
Our software requires you to type the recipes in, I’m afraid.
Matilda
Must I chose only 1 design for my recipes or can I use different designs for Cakes, one for Pies, 1 for appetizers, etc.?
Vi-
You can use different templates by just printing out the pages you want using each template. However, the page numbering will probably be off on the bottom of the page.
Matilda
Love the software, However… I am about ready to print my book. I have been “printing” draft copies (usually to a pdf so I can review the book without using paper) but beginning today, the program duplicates each recipe, one after the other. My 62 page book of continuous recipes has turned into a 124 page book. I tried restarting my computer, but it still duplicates all the recipes. What’s up?
Hi Laura-
This was a peculiar bug we’ve long since fixed in the software. We can also fix it for you.
Close the software. Email the file located at C:\Program Files\Matilda\MatildaBack.mdb to support@cookbookpeople.com, and mention this blog post, and copy in there your above post. We’ll get it fixed for you in a business day or so.
Thanks for your patience!
Matilda
can I use with my mac computer?
Hi, Debbie-
I’m afraid it’s not compatible with Mac.
Matilda
Hi i just purchased your software & wanted to enter recipes. I see that if I type in the ingredients etc & hit enter it will go to the next line. If I pick from your listing (ex I click 2 then I click cups then flour its all on the same line. However when I want to list nex ingredients it automatically continous on the same line ie 2cups flour 2 eggs instead of 2 cups flour & under that 2 eggs etc.
How can I still use your shortcut controls but not have it look like a paragraph? chanie
Hi:
I recently purchased your software and was wondering is there a way to back up my recipe book to another drive? Also, once I finish the book, can the entire book be made available online as an Ebook? Reason I ask, my Aunt wants a copy emailed to her as an ebook instead of printed in book form.
thank you,
Linda
Hi Linda-
You can make it into an Ebook. Here’s an explanation of how to organize the PDF sections into one simple PDF file/ebook:
http://forum.cookbookpeople.com/index.php?topic=548.0
You can copy the data file from one file to another. It’s currently located at C:\Program Files\Matilda\MatildaBack.mdb. Just move that file to the same location on a new computer and off you go.
Matilda
Dear Matilda,
Before you so easily denounce the use of an online catalogue, perhaps you should consider a few factors.
1-2. What if a you only make a few copies of your cookbook and they are destroyed or lost (theft, fire, flood, when a family is moving, even falling in a sink full of water)? The best way to preserve the safety of your recipes is to have a copy of the files in several locations, regardless of whether that is on-line or in a book.
3. People who choose to use a service, do so because it’s free. Therefore a few ads are generally considered to be part of a free service and are ignored, blocked, or deleted. (In fact, e-mails now have spam filters and you can label something as spam so that it never even gets to your inbox. Isn’t that neat! Oh, and most computers have programs with an ad blocker automatically built in. Isn’t technology great!) It would be more annoying to pay for a program, find out that it doesn’t work the way you want, have to pay for an updated version, and then have to pay even more to have your work printed and shipped to you.
4. We live in a digital age. The first resource of the young American generation is the internet. iTunes has taken over the music industry. And now the kindle has been invented for reading books. Technology has been embraced for how helpful it can be and it’s not going out of style. And the following statement- “Sitting in front of a computer, even online, is an inherently isolating event. Handing somebody a printed cookbook is inherently social” is entirely based upon context and opinion. Social interaction is not limited to physical contact. In response to your question- “Are your descendants likely to stumble into your family recipes at website XYZ under the user name GrannyCookMachine537?” No, they probably won’t. But, your daughter, who now lives on another continent (because her husband is serving in the military) will post a note on your recipe about how your grandaughter loves your cookies. And, if you go visit her facebook page, you can see pictures of the two of them baking together.
5. Everyone has control over their own property and can adjust privacy settings as they see fit. Including, not putting a few select secret recipes on-line. But most recipes that families use are found in already published books, magazines, and on the internet.
6. Looking up a recipe online will generally take no more time than it does to keep flipping through page after page of a recipe book (because it only lists “main dishes” with a “meat” subcategory) until you finally reach the end of the section and find the one pot roast recipe you were looking for. (And you know what? It calls for scallops and I don’t have any. Who eats those things anyway? Great! Now I have to go to the store and buy some or start looking for a new recipe. Ugh! I’m just going to order a pizza. No, wait! I have ground beef in the freezer. I’m going to go to epicurious.com, type in ground beef. Thirty seconds later you’re on your way to making beef and bean burritos because: 1. The computer is already on because it doesn’t need to be turned off in the first place. 2. You have high speed wireless, because the majority of America does. (And your granddaughter, she probably doesn’t even know what dial-up means.)
That was a bit dramatic I know, but for those cooks who aren’t willing to take two minutes to look up a recipe, they aren’t even going to consider opening a cookbook to find a pot roast recipe.
Being a bit biased is understandable, but your dramatic writing is not.