Scanning recipes into Mastercook

[sherri]

Hi everyone,
So many of you have been most helpful with figuring out how to navigate Mastercook, so I thought I would ask another question.

Do any of you scan your paper copy recipes directly into Mastercook? If the answer is yes, what is the easiest way to do this? I haven't attempted to scan anything yet, but I would appreciate any tips before I get started.
TIA,
Sherri

[PamN]

sherri,

I assume you have a MasterCook program version 5 or greater? If so, I suggest you download PamE's Tips cookbook. You add it to your MC program and use it just like any other cookbook. It's filled with tips, hints, and how-tos on using MC. It contains 3 interesting discussions of the process of scanning recipes. Very good, but too long to quote here. Here's a link to her download page:

http://mc6help.tripod.com/download.htm

[sherri]

Hi Pam,
Thanks for the link. I actually have version 8.0...this link is for 5 and 6 (does that matter). I still have so much to learn about this program!

[PamN]

It's for all versions, 5 and up. :)

[Judy K.]

I have Windows XP and Microsoft Office 2002 or so. I use the scanning software that is in Microsoft Office tools to scan recipes and then "send to Word". This converts the scanned document to text that you can edit. After you have the recipes in text format, there are several ways to import them. You can copy/paste into Import Assistant, or use a software (free) called mctagit to process groups of recipes and insert the tags that are necessary to import directly to MC. This software is available for download at MCTagit (http://www.mctagit.com/).

The site that PamN gave you is a great one. Explore it for lots of other technical information.

[cinnabun]

Scanning into word? How? What do I have to have chosen in word in order to do this?

[Judy K.]

The program is Microsoft Office Document Imaging, part of Microsoft Office Tools. This is basically "OCR" software (optical character recognition). After turning on the scanner and scanning the document using Microsoft Office Document Imaging, you get a "picture" of the document. One of the options under the "file" menu is "send text to word". When you choose this option, it converts your scanned image to a text document in Microsoft Word. You can edit this document in any way you want. You can scan as many recipes as you want, as long as you choose the option to continue scanning instead of saving the file. When you are finished, just save your Word document as a *.txt file. You can then copy/paste this document into Import Assistant and import all those recipes into MC. There are other ways of doing this, too. I use this procedure when I want to import several recipes from a magazine.

Try this, then ask more questions.

[sherri]

Thanks to everyone for the replies...I will have to try scanning this weekend.

[sherri]

Just coming back to this thread. I finally figured out how to scan my recipes. Thank you so much Judy, you instructions were so helpful. I definitely would not have figured it out on my own, despite my multiple attempts.

[gperls]

I just read a tip elsewhere on a better way to import from Word into MC.

Save your Word document in html format. Then, open it in your browser (Internet Explorer). You can then use version 8's recipe tagger to get each recipe entered into MC. This way, you can put each recipe into whatever cookbook you want.

[Judy K.]

I read the same post and tried this. I couldn't figure out how to save my Word document in html format. So, I gave up. Does anyone on this board know how to do that?

[PamN]

Judy, use File > Save As and, in the next window that opens, use the drop-down menu beside the box "Save as type" to choose Web Page (*.htm, *.html).

You may need to use the down arrows at the bottom of the File menu flyout to see all the choices available.

[lindaofthelakes]

I have tried several times to access the tripodmc6help link as shown in PamN 's post above. EVERY time my computer hangs up and won't get into the link. Anyone else have this problem?

I am frustrated since I am a brand new MC user and know there are some great tips here to access.

(I have also tried the same link from the Yahoo site as well as several other posts but it always hangs up.):( :confused:

[sneezles]

Originally posted by lindaofthelakes
I have tried several times to access the tripodmc6help link as shown in PamN 's post above. EVERY time my computer hangs up and won't get into the link. Anyone else have this problem?


Linda,
I just tried it and yes it got hung up for me as well. Had to shut down Explorer becasue it was not responding.

[Judy K.]

I just tried it and it worked for me.

Here's another link to a different but related page with lots of Mastercook tips:
Mastercook Cupboard (http://mastercook_cupboard.tripod.com/).

[lindaofthelakes]

I was just able to finally get into this link without it hanging up and have sucessfully downloaded the tips(They look like they will be very helpful.) Thanks Sneezles and Judy K. for getting back to me. I hope to soon be a Mastercook "whiz" or at least semi-competent.