Living Cookbook recipes to Mac recipe software?

[Tipatina]

Have been using Living Cookbook software or a really long time and have amassed ALOT of recipes. Have now switched to a Mac. The only reason to install Windows would be to use Living Cookbook. Has anyone found a Mac program that is similar to LC and, most importantly, which allows easy import from Living Cookbook - preferably importing whole categories at one time. Thank you!

[ddurden]

Victory!

Living Cookbook for Windows 2011 to MacGourmet!

1. Export your Living Cookbook recipe set as a Meal Master .mmf file.
2. E-mail it to yourself or copy to a flash drive.
3. Import your .mmf file as a Meal Master file.
4. Go through and check for field mismatch errors--e.g., some of our source/author entries were in the "Directions" field; some of our notes were cut off where we had used enter or tabs in the original file.
5. We did not use photos for our old Living Cookbook, so we can't vouch for the photo transfers from Living Cookbook to MacGourmet.

Until Living Cookbook creates a Mac product (and we're still holding out hopes and keeping the old files) this is far better than the daunting task of typing or cutting and pasting.

[ddurden]

Sorry . . . double-posted.

[MattSnyder]

Thank you so very much for your post! You saved me huge amounts of time trying to figure this out. I was instantaneously able to export and import all my recipes into MacGourmet. The software is incredible and has so many wonderful options. Can't wait to publish my first cookbook from it! Thanks again!

[ccvdg]

I know this is an old post, but I am hoping you have figured it all out and can give me some advice. How did you end up converting your files from Living Cookbook to a mac? Did you use MacGourment, Yum, or both? In your opinion, what is the best way to convert files from Living Cookbook to a mac? I need to do this and have no idea where to start. Any advice would be most appreciated. Thanks!

[eileen forte]

Did you guys ever figure this out? I have two full cookbooks on LC and want to transfer them over. Thanks so much.

[riley646]

I just began using MacGourmet a couple of weeks ago. I don't know if this is a well known piece of knowledge, but I believe it applies & it was soooo helpful importing my collections into my MacGourmet database. I created a list under "my lists" , just labeled it importing recipes … I dragged and dropped the files and it seemed to convert them effortlessly. They where in different formats. when i tried to drag & drop them in the "recipes" folder there was no response. I checked nearly 3/4 of my files & everything imported perfectly, *multiple files at a time, with no problems from the program. I hope this helps.. I LOVE MY MAC GOURMET !

[msaxatilis]

Was anyone able to successfully convert Living Cookbook files to MacGourmet? If so, could you please post how you did it? Thank you very much!

[ddurden]

Victory!

Living Cookbook for Windows 2011 to MacGourmet!

1. Export your Living Cookbook recipe set as a Meal Master .mmf file.
2. E-mail it to yourself or copy to a flash drive.
3. Import your .mmf file as a Meal Master file.
4. Go through and check for field mismatch errors--e.g., some of our source/author entries were in the "Directions" field; some of our notes were cut off where we had used enter or tabs in the original file.
5. We did not use photos for our old Living Cookbook, so we can't vouch for the photo transfers from Living Cookbook to MacGourmet.

Until Living Cookbook creates a Mac product (and we're still holding out hopes and keeping the old files) this is far better than the daunting task of typing or cutting and pasting.

[michelle Hoover]

So what did you figure out? I have Living Cookbook but now want to use Mac. Why didn't you keep using Yum? I looked at it and it seems good. Creates lists. Emails.

[HungryRubia]

I use MacGourmet and I think they have a feature to import from other well known recipe databases. You can even import from websites like Epicurious. MacGourmet isn't free, but they do have a free trial version you can use to see if you like it. I happen to love it.

http://www.advenio.com/macgourmet/ind...

[Tipatina]

I tried MacGourmet and simply could not get it to accept the Living Cook Book recipes that I was importing via Master Cook. Yup, that crazed. Would have thought that either I was doing it wrong or LivingCookbook was weird, but Yum took them without a hitch. Looks like I'm either going to have to buy windows for the Mac or use 2 computers in order to be able to bothuse my old recipes and copy from the web. Maybe someday.....
Anyway, thanks for your input.

[new and troubling questions]

As an aside, if it's of any help at all, I'd check out Gizmodo's review of an article that compares VMWare Fusion and Parallels, two programs that let you run Windows and OS X at the same time on your Mac. If you've got a machine with good processing speeds and plenty of memory, I'd go ahead and use this sort of software, as it would probably be more convenient than running a separate machine just for recipes. Good luck!

http://gizmodo.com/336878/windows-on-...

[Tipatina]

Thanks for the link. That's probably the best way to go. Just wish I had a copy of Windows. Otherwise, I really am spending some big bucks just to spare myself a little trouble.

[HungryRubia]

Oh that's too bad. Good luck finding something that works for you. I think anything electronic beats keeping a huge messy book filled with clippings and print outs....you're welcome!

[Anonimo]

I just keep a folder of Recipes on my Mac. They are mostly saved in PDF (Preview or Adobe Reader, but the latter is overkill.) of RichText format. (TextEdit, for example).
I don't worry about the bells and whistles,of conversions (I can do that with a paper and pencil, or, the Calculator.app) or About Shopping List generation. With Spotlight, I can locate any recipe by name, ingredient or what have you. Spotlight and the Finder are all the recipe software I need.

Years ago, under System 7, I did have MasterCook, but entering quantities was a PITA. Mangia! was attractive, but in the end not worth the bother.

[Tipatina]

Thanks for your advice. I finally got MacGourmet up and running. Amazing support from them, too. So glad I didn't give up.

[hannaone]

Do you use the export feature of LC?
You can export directly to several formats (food data exchange being the best)
which MacGourmet (Master Cook Format) says it can import from.

[Tipatina]

I do use the export feature, but have just tried the 2 Master Cook formats which MacGourmet said it accepted - but not from me. I'll try the food data exchange and see. I can't thank people enough for helping me solve this! I know it can be done.

[Tipatina]

Nope, didn't work. Get an error message saying "Could not open the import file using the suggested format". Have tried every format. Sigh. Last thing to try is exporting using every format Living Cookbook offers and trying to import using every format MacGourmet offers.

[hannaone]

Here are a couple links you can look at to see if something meets your needs.
This one says it imports xml files. master cook, and MacGourmet:
http://www.thelittleappfactory.com/application.php?app=Connoisseur
a page that lists several different programs for the mac:
http://www.pure-mac.com/recipes.html

[Tipatina]

Wait, wait! MacGourmet imports from Yum. This will be tomorrow's challenge.

[ccvdg]

I know this is an old post, but I am hoping you have figured it all out and can give me some advice. How did you end up converting your files from Living Cookbook to a mac? Did you use MacGourment, Yum, or both? In your opinion, what is the best way to convert files from Living Cookbook to a mac? I need to do this and have no idea where to start. Any advice would be most appreciated. Thanks!

[new and troubling questions]

I don't have a software recommendation that's specifically for cataloging recipes; BUT, on my Mac, I use a freeware program called Journler (http://www.journler.com/) for organizing my recipes. It's supposed to work as a journal, but I think it's pretty great as a place to store recipes (with categories, keywords, labels, etc.

)

It also has a function for importing files from other programs, and it MAY be possible (though I've never done it). But it's probably worth a shot, since the program is free, and has an online forum for asking questions. Good luck!

[Tipatina]

Thanks. That's a nice looking program. Right now I'm playing with some freeware called Yum (cute). It was the only one that took my imports.