|
MasterCook 4 FAQs
1. COOKBOOKS: Working with the PC BookshelfQ: Do you have multiple copies of a cookbook on the bookshelf, or a deleted cookbook still appears on the bookshelf? A: With MasterCook not running, use Windows Explorer or My Computer to go to the cookbook folder/subdirectory of your MasterCook program. (Mine is in C:\Sierra\Mcook4\Cookbook.) Click on the folder Ro-Cache, and delete any files contained in it. Q: Do you want to change the order your cookbooks appear on the bookshelf? A: Your cookbooks will appear on the bookshelf in the order that they were added to the program. Close MC and use Windows Explorer or My Computer to move all your cookbook files out of the cookbook folder into a temporary folder. Then drag and drop them back into the cookbook folder one at a time. They will appear in that order when you next open MC. Q: Do you have a cookbook that appears on the bookshelf, but disappears when you close it? A: Close down MasterCook and use Windows Explorer or My Computer to look at the files in your cookbook folder. Do you have any files withOUT the file extension *.mcf or *.mrf associated with that cookbook name? The *.mcf (recipe file) and *.mrf (picture file -- if present) are the only ones you *need* to have in your cookbook folder. The other files you may see in there (*.mlk, *.lop, etc.) have to do with layouts and views of the cookbook. Move all of the cookbook files associated with that cookbook out of the Cookbook folder to another folder, and then move only the *.mcf and *.mrf files back to the Cookbooks folder. [ Top of Page ] 2. ERROR MESSAGES: Integer Divide by 0You may encounter "integer divide by 0" or other errors when installing MC 4 on any new machine, including Win 2000 machines if you allow it to take the system test, because the installer does not recognize the newer computer chips. To fix it: 1. Remove the MasterCook CD from the drive. Then, when the installer asks to test your system, tell it NO, ignore any warning message or test results, and choose to install it anyway. [ Top of Page ] 3. ERROR MESSAGES: Missing *.LOP fileAfter you restore a cookbook to MC 4, you may get an error message that a *.LOP file is missing. A *.LOP file is a layout file that you may have created yourself. You can prevent your cookbook from looking for this file by deleting all the files associated with the cookbook except for the *.mcf file and the *.mrf (picture file). Close MC and use Windows Explorer or My Computer to find and delete these files. For example: if you have a cookbook called Mary, there are multiple files associated with it. The actual cookbook is the Mary.mcf file, and the Mary.mrf, if you have pictures. These are the only files you will need to keep in order to keep your recipes intact. You can delete the Mary.mks, Mary.mlk, and Mary.rpt files, because these just hold information about the layouts and views of the cookbook. These files are located in the Sierra\MCook4\Cookbook directory on your hard drive. Note: The name of the Sierra subfolder will be different from "MCook4" if you have a different title of MasterCook. For example, if you have the All Around the World with Sheila Lukins title, the folder to look for will be Sierra\SLUKINS\Cookbook. After deleting those files, look in the folder Cookbooks\RO-CACHE and delete any files that may be in there. This is where MC keeps track of the location of MC files and will be regenerated for you. [ Top of Page ] 4. INSTALLATION: Back Up Your MasterCook 4 FilesWhat do we mean by back up? Copy your files from your hard drive to another location. If you can, it is better to copy them to a floppy disk or other media you can remove from your computer. By backing up to removable media like floppies, your cookbooks will survive even a hard drive crash. If you would rather not do this, you can move them to another folder on your hard drive, preferably a folder you have created for just this purpose. WHAT FILES TO BACK UP: Back up your cookbook files: the *.mcf files (the recipes) and the *.mrf files (the pictures). Your cookbook files are in the Cookbook folder/subdirectory of your MC 4 program. (Mine are in C:\Sierra\Mcook4\Cookbook.) You only need to back up those two kinds of files for the cookbooks containing your personally-added recipes. IF you are uninstalling/reinstalling because of a problem with a particular personal cookbook, you should back it up, too, but do not overwrite any backups of that cookbook you made previously, just in case the problem was with the cookbook itself, and not the program. If your cookbook files as a whole are too large to fit on one diskette, you can copy the files for one or two cookbooks on one diskette, then go to the next set. Still too big? Consider breaking up a very large cookbook by making a new cookbook containing some of the categories of the large one. Continue until you have all your categories covered. Your user.ing in C:\Sierra\Mcook4 (if you added ingredients). Your mstrcook.ing in C:\Sierra\MCook4 (if you added prices to your ingredients). Your Mstrcook.ini file in C:\Sierra\Mcook4 (contains your category template and preparation database). NOTE ABOUT OTHER FILES: There are other kinds of files in your Cookbook folder that have the same name as your cookbook. For example if you have a cookbook called Apples, there will be a Apples.mcf (the recipes), Apples.mrf (the pictures), and there may be other files with extensions like *.rpt, *.lop, *.mks, *.mlk. Only the *.mcf and *.mrf files are critical to reinstalling your cookbooks. The other files have to do with layouts and views of the cookbook. It can sometimes cause errors upon reinstallation when you try to restore these files to your program. If you experience such an error, use Windows Explorer to move all of the cookbook files out of the Cookbook folder to another folder, and then move only the *.mcf and *.mrf files back to the Cookbooks folder. NOTE ABOUT BACKUPS ON CD-R OR CD-RW: If you are trying to restore cookbooks and files you have backed up on a CD-R or CD-RW, the files and cookbooks will probably have the read-only attribute. This means that you will not be able to edit or otherwise alter them, even when you copy them back to your program, unless you change their file attributes. Just so you don't lose track of which files are involved when you want to restore them to your program, use Windows Explorer to copy them to an empty folder on your hard drive. Highlight all the file names, choose Properties from the File Menu, and un-check the Read-only box. (You can select many files at once and then change their properties at the same time.) Then you can move them to the proper place in your MasterCook folder. For additional information on backing up to CD's, see Backing up Cookbooks on CD [ Top of Page ] 5. INSTALLATION: Patching MasterCook 4A. Check Your Installation VersionFirst, check to see what MasterCook version you have installed. The version number printed on your box, CD, or manual may not be totally accurate. Check the version number by looking in Help>About MasterCook from the main menu in MasterCook itself. This will determine which of the patches you will need, so don't leave this step out. The patch downloads are free. The latest version for the PC is 4.07. Patches are for the PC version only. B. Back Up Your FilesAlways back up your files before applying a patch. See Back Up Your MasterCook 4 Files above. C. Download the PatchFind the patches on this web site: http://mastercook.cdkitchen.com/ Click on the appropriate links listed below to download the file to your computer. Always download to a file on your computer. Do not try to execute the file in the download process. Tell your browser where on your computer to put the downloaded file. (Choose a folder you can easily locate again.) D. Apply the Patch as NecessaryAfter the file is downloaded, please install the patch just like you install any other software program. Please follow the basic guidelines outlined here: 3. Installation Guidelines by disabling the background programs in MSCONFIG. You do not want any other programs running in the background while applying the patch. Now use Windows Explorer or My Computer to go to the folder where you downloaded the patch file and double-click on the file name. The patch will install automatically. Restart your computer to update your settings and so the programs you ended task on will reactivate. The patch file may be deleted after installation if you like, but you may leave it in place or transfer it to a zip disk, super disk, CD-R or similar media to keep in case you need to reinstall MasterCook at a later time. [ Top of Page ] 6. INSTALLATION: Uninstalling and Reinstalling MasterCook 4A. Back Up Your FilesSee above: 4. INSTALLATION: Back Up Your MasterCook 4 Files. B. UninstallUninstall using the uninstall icon from Start>Programs>Sierra>Setup & Uninstall. (See the note below if you have other MC versions installed on your computer.) After this, use Start>Find>Find Files or Folders to locate the file Sierra.ini and DELETE that file. Empty your Recycle Bin to remove it from your computer. If this file is left on your computer from a prior installation, you will not have a clean reinstall, and the program will not work correctly. Also use Windows Explorer to make sure that the Mcook 4 folder is gone from C:\Sierra. If not, delete that folder and empty your Recycle Bin again. C. ReinstallTo reinstall, first restart your computer. This will clear your resources. Follow the basic guidelines over on this web page: Software Installation Guidelines for Windows Users. D. Apply the Patch as NecessaryCheck the version number of your installation by going to Help>About MasterCook on the main MasterCook menu. The latest version for the PC is 4.07. The latest version for the Mac is 4.06. If you need to patch your program, see the FAQ above: 4. INSTALLATION: Patching MasterCook 4. (Don't forget to close those extra programs when you apply the patch!) After you apply any necessary patches, restart your computer. You can open MasterCook to check the version number again, if you want to make sure the patch "took." E. Copy Your Files OverExit MasterCook for these steps. Cookbook Files: Using Windows Explorer, you can copy the backup copies of your cookbook files from their backup location to the Cookbook folder/subdirectory of your MasterCook. (Mine are in C:\Sierra\Mcook4\Cookbook.) They will appear on your bookshelf in the order that they are added to the program, so if you wanted to change that order, you can do it now. The only files you will need to copy over are the *.mcf files (the recipes) and the *.mrf files (if you added pictures to your cookbook). (See note below about other cookbook files.) Replace any other files you backed up, such as the user.ing or Mstrcook.ing, to C:\Sierra\MCook4. Do not put them in a subfolder. If you have backed up your files on a CD-R or CD-RW, those files will have the read-only attribute. This means that you will not be able to edit or otherwise alter them, even when you copy them back to your program, unless you change their file attributes. Just so you don't lose track of which files are involved when you want to restore them to your program, use Windows Explorer to copy them to an empty folder on your hard drive. Highlight all the file names, choose Properties from the File Menu, and un-check the Read-only box. (You can select many files at once and then change their properties at the same time.) Then you can move them to their proper place in the program files. IMPORTANT NOTE: If you have MC 4 on your computer when you install later versions of MasterCook, you can still remove v.4, if you like, without affecting the other installation(s). To do this, use the MC 4 "Setup & Uninstall" shortcut in your Start>Programs menu. If you have created a subfolder in the Sierra Start>Programs menu for version 4 shortcuts, make sure that the Setup & Uninstall shortcut is in the main Sierra shortcut subfolder. (Your shortcut "path" should be Start>Programs>Sierra>Setup & Uninstall). If your Setup & Uninstall shortcut is in an MC 4 or other folder or subfolder, move it: right click the Start button, and choose Explore from the menu. A Windows Explorer window will open, showing you the Windows\Start Menu\Programs structure. Click on the + next to Programs (in the left pane) to expand it, and scroll down to Sierra. Arrange your view of the files and folders so that you can see the Setup & Install shortcut in the right pane and the Sierra folder in the left pane. Drag the Setup & Install shortcut on top of the Sierra folder and drop it there. Any MC 4 shortcuts in other shortcut subfolders will need to be removed manually after the uninstall has taken place and you have rebooted. If the MC 4 uninstall shortcut is not in the main Sierra folder, the uninstall will remove the entire Sierra shortcut folder and you will lose the shortcuts only to all your other MC installations, except for the desktop. The MC 4 uninstall will only remove its own program files. Your other MC programs themselves will not be affected, and you can create new shortcuts from the exe files if you need to, but you can avoid this extra step if you follow the procedure outlined above. NOTE ABOUT OTHER FILES: There are other kinds of files in your Cookbook folder that have the same name as your cookbook and that you may have copied when you did a backup of files. For example, if you have a cookbook called Apples, there will be a Apples.mcf (the recipes), Apples.mrf (the pictures), and there may be other files with extensions like *.rpt, *.lop, *.mks, *.mlk. Only the *.mcf and *.mrf files are critical to reinstalling your cookbooks. The other files have to do with layouts and views of the cookbook. It can sometimes cause errors upon reinstallation when you try to restore these files to your program. If you experience such an error, use Windows Explorer to move all of the cookbook files out of the Cookbook folder to another folder, and then move only the *.mcf and *.mrf files back to the Cookbooks folder. [ Top of Page ] 7. MAC: Categories Scrambled in Book ViewBig thanks for the solution go to Ellen, one of kitpath's friends using MC 4.06 on a Mac. Here was the situation for one Mac user: -- Recipes appear in their correct categories when in edit view. -- Recipes show up in the wrong categories when in book view. CONCLUSION: It is possible to make editing changes in a cookbook while using book view on a Mac. But, because the program wasn't really designed to do that, oddities can crop up. It is a problem of the *display* of the book view only. The actual recipe files (seen through the list/edit view) are all still correct. SOLUTIONS: -- Make the bulk of your editing changes while in list/edit view only. Reserve the book view for viewing and reading the book, as you would a paper cookbook. -- If things do display oddly while in book view mode, force a re-sort of the cookbook. Issue a command K (edit the categories under the "file menu"), then delete, rename, or add a category. You will be asked if you want to resort the book. Click on yes. -- Another way to resolve the problem would be to delete the cookbook "looks" file. It will be recreated when you open the cookbook in book view. [ Top of Page ] 8. PRINTING: Change Printing Font in Page LayoutQ: I'm printing recipes and I want to change the font. I go into page setup and then click on properties, but the "font" option is dim. I'm using MC 4. A: The properties menu does not have a way to change the font globally -- for the whole design. There is no "base font" feature. We have to change the font one field box at a time. Select a field, like title. A border (mine's blue) will appear around it. Now select properties, and select font. By the way: I don't know of a way to select more than one field block (object) at a time in the layout. Control and shift keys don't help us here. If the font choice is still dim, find out how many fonts are loaded for the printer. If it's more than 100 fonts, use Windows' font manager to reduce that to less than 100. After that, shut down Windows and restart. Then try again with MC. [ Top of Page ] 9. PRINTING: Cookbook sorted by Category and Other TipsSORTED BY CATEGORY: START RECIPES ONE AFTER ANOTHER OR ON NEXT PAGE: ADDING A 'PAGE BREAK': OTHER TIPS: While printing double-sided, you will get a message about reinserting the paper to print the reverse side. Wait until after printing for the first side has completed before reinserting the paper and pressing OK. [ Top of Page ] 10. PRINTING: Folded BookletThese instructions originally came from the Sierra Tech Support BB and were shared in another post some time ago. If you have a printer that automatically prints on both sides of the paper, you could turn this setting off if it causes problems. TIP: Choose the design you want to start with first, then choose File>Save Design AS and save it under a unique name. That way, if you need to start over, your original design will still be available and you can recognize your own design to use again. TIP: Use Print preview before printing out your entire cookbook to see if you want to make any changes. You may even want to print out a short version of your cookbook with only a few recipes in it to see if you like the result and to check that you are feeding the paper back into the printer so the second side prints properly. * * * * * HOW TO PRINT FOLDED BOOKLETS IN MASTERCOOK V. 4 1a Design: choose a design. [Save Design as a unique name.] 1b Show: Page number should be selected, otherwise you might get confused as to the order of the pages when they print out. [Make other choices here, such as whether to include Serving Ideas, etc.] 1c Paper: Choose Folded Booklet, or, if you don't have this paper template, choose Custom and set up your paper as follows: Page Size: Height: 11; Width: 8.5 Margins: Top: 1; Bottom: 0.75; Right: 1; Left: 1 Content Areas: Columns: 2; Rows: 1; Spacing: 2; Spacing: 0 1d Layout: Choose Folded Booklet; Start Recipes, one after another; Columns, 2 2. Click change. 2a. exit from the Page Setup dialog. If you click on Print Recipe this will only print the recipe that you have the cookbook open to and you will lose all your print settings that you just selected. 2b. If a dialog comes up to save the settings Folded Booklet paper, this means you probably altered the custom paper settings when you didn't need to because you already had the Folded Paper paper definition. If this happens, click Cancel, go back to the Paper settings and make sure that Folded Booklet paper is selected. It will ask to save the changes to Folded Booklet before changing paper type; click NO, then click Change. 3. Select View as Category List [if that is how you want your cookbook sorted]. 4. Select the recipes you want to print in a booklet. 5. Select File, Print Selected Recipe(s) or Print Cookbook. 5a. The Report Setup dialog will come up. 5b. Click Setup 5c. Change paper orientation from Portrait to Landscape and click OK. 5d. Select Report Destination, either Printer or Preview and click OK. You will also want to be running the most current version of MasterCook. [This would be 4.06 for the Mac, 4.07 for the PC. You can check your version by going to the top menu and choosing Help>About MasterCook.] * * * * * The post went on to say: "After the pages print on the first side, you'll be given a message about reinserting them in order to print the backside. This message usually comes up BEFORE the first side is finished, so just wait until the printer stops before reinserting pages and clicking OK." [ Top of Page ] 11. PRINTING: Half-Sheet CookbookI want to print a cookbook in MC 4.07 using a layout similar to that used in many community cookbooks: double-sided printing on half-sized (5 1/2 by 8 1/2 inch) paper. Printing is a nice balance between the program and the printer. Here is one variation that seems to work OK for me -- some margin tweaking needed, if you wanted to leave extra room for binding. I am using a Lexmark Z51 printer. I chose to use a custom paper definition both in MC and the printer because the printer's built-in paper definitions and the software's "halfsheet" did not want to match up immediately. PAGE SETUP: Design -- I chose Simple Custom Paper Definition: Then save your designs and your paper definition. File>Save Paper (I saved as MyHalfSheet), and File> Save Design (again, I saved as MyHalfSheet, so I would remember they go together). Then press Change. Go back and check the settings. Make sure that the new design name and the new paper name are the ones checked off -- and check that all the settings are indeed what you wanted. If not, adjust as necessary and press Change again, answering yes if asked to save the changes to your design and/or paper. PRINT COOKBOOK: If you want your cookbook to print sorted by category, choose View> As Book and View> by Category. Then go to File> Print Cookbook. Press Setup, then Options. This takes you to your printer properties screen. My printer has a tab that allows me to define a custom paper. I set it up for paper height 8.5 and paper width 5.5, and made sure that paper was selected. I chose to print Portrait in the printer properties screens -- I'm sure you can do that, too. OK your way out of printer properties and back to the MC Print Setup screen. The Orientation and paper size shown should match the changes you made in printer properties. If not, change them and press OK. Print to Preview first, and press the icon to zoom to whole page. You'll be able to tell from the amount of printing on it whether your custom paper definition "took". (If you look at the zoom to page width view, the words may look jammed together, but they do not print that way.) Make sure your printer is loaded with half sheets of paper (5 1/2 x 8 1/2) arranged to go in narrow side first, and press the print icon on the preview screen. The first run will give you the odd numbered pages and a message will appear that that you need to flip the paper to print the second side. (The message appears immediately -- let the first side finish printing first.) For my printer, I picked up the stack of paper just as it came out of the printer and replaced it in the feeder with the leading edge (the edge that came out of the printer first) going in first. Then I pressed OK on the message and the second side printed. [ Top of Page ] 12. PRINTING: Mac OSX TroublesPROBLEM: I recently updated the software on my imac to Mac OS X Tiger. When I tried to print a recipe from Sheila Lukins Mastercook 4.06 there was a blank space where the ingredients should have been. Is there anything I can do to fix this or is the program incompatable with the new software? [ Top of Page ] 13. RECIPE EDITOR: How to Edit Ingredient Prep ListQ: I have some ingredient preparation notations I would like to edit. How do I do this? A: That information (things like "thawed," "peel, seed, chop") are kept in the file mstrcook.ini in the same directory your program occupies. (Mine is in C:\Sierra\Mcook4; yours could be in C:\Sierra\Slukins -- it depends on which title you have.) Open Notepad or other plain text editor (you want to be careful not to use formatted or rich text for this). Browse to the mstrcook.ini file and open it. The preparation notations are in the section called: [Common Preparation Methods] Make your changes, correcting spelling or whatever, following the same format as the existing entries. Each notation should be in alpha-numeric order. Make sure that the file ends with one empty (totally blank) line. Save your amended file. (Remember, it needs to be in plain text.) [ Top of Page ] 14. RECIPE EDITOR: Inserting Recipe PicturesHave you had problems inserting recipe pictures in MC 4? You may have received error messages, including General Protection Fault/Illegal Operation errors, or the program just won't do anything. The first thing to check is the size of the image you are trying to add. The pictures should be no larger than 285 x 200 pixels, and saved at a resolution of 26 dpi or 72 dpi, but no finer. (You can scan it at a higher resolution -- we are just talking about the saved image you want to insert.) Another thing to keep in mind is the number of colors used. MC 4 was written at a time when 256 colors was state-of-the-art, so save your images within these guidelines. [ Top of Page ] 15. RECIPES: Getting MC to Number Duplicate RecipesQ: Is there a way to automatically append a letter or number to duplicate recipes when moving them to another book rather than changing them individually? A: If the goal is to get mc to rename the recipes with the same title by giving them a sequence number, then choose the import method to do that. DRAG/DROP WON'T: When we move recipes from one cookbook to another, and it encounters a recipe by the same name, MC presents three choices how to handle these. One of the choices is to rename duplicate recipes. It's a hands on process. We have to rename each one. FILE IMPORT WILL: When we import recipes from a file, MC automatically appends numbers to duplicate recipe titles. So... if we want MC to number the duplicate recipes without asking us, don't use the drag/drop method. Instead export the recipes to a file then import them to the target book. [ Top of Page ] |