? - Re MasterCook 8 and 9

[madpots]

I recently purchased MasterCook 9 with the intention of making it "My Cookbook" - that is just putting in Tried and True Recipes. I have a lot of such recipes in MC 8. My problem is that I cannot open both 8 and 9 at the same time. I have Windows XP Home and Internet Explorer.
Can somebody help me?

[PamN]

You cannot have both v. 8 and v. 9 open at the same time.

You can copy your cookbook files from your installed MC 8 to your MC 9 -- use the Merge function that installed with your MC 9 to combine your cookbooks and other personalized files, such as your MC Ingredients.ing, print designs, etc.

BUT -- if you have a "My Cookbook" for your recipes in both your MC 8 and MC 9, you must rename one of them, or the merge will overwrite your current files. Open MC 9 and use Tools > Customize Cookbook to type in a new name for "My Cookbook". You could just put the number 1 in front of the existing name, or rename it altogether. Then perform your merge.

If the problem is just that you don't want to "see" all those other cookbooks when you open up MC, use Tools > Manage Collections to REMOVE some of your collections. This will just make MC forget they are there -- it will not delete them from your computer. If you decide you want to view them again, you can either use File > Open to open a single cookbook or use Manage Collections to ADD those collections back to MC's "memory". You can create other collection folders and move your cookbook files around so that you only see those specific cookbooks you want when you open the program. Note that all cookbooks in MY COLLECTION will always be active (showing) -- we cannot "remove" My Collection.

For more advice and tips, this Yahoo group is designed to get into the nitty gritty:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MastercookDiscussion/

[madpots]

Thank you, PamN, that's the information I needed. However, my plan for a nice clean cookbook won't work!
Alton

[PamN]

However, my plan for a nice clean cookbook won't work!


Why is that? If you "remove" those collections containing what you consider "messy" cookbooks, you won't have to look at them -- but you could do so any time you wanted.

You don't even have to keep your collections in your MasterCook folder. You could set up another folder on your hard drive and call it "Black Hole of Recipes" and stuff all your files in there -- open them only if you need to. :)

[madpots]

That sounds like a very workable plan...I never would have thought of it.
Thanks again!