Frequently Asked Questions About
Now You're Cooking! 

 

Recipe Import/Export Troubleshooting

When I use Quick Web Recipes, I get “Error 449 Argument not optional”.  What is happening?

 

This can occur if the version of the internal zip engine that NYC requires is not consistent with the installed version.  The zip engine NYC uses is “activezip.ocx” – it is a shared file in your windows \system (or \system32) folder.  Thus, if you use other applications that require “activezip.ocx”, either NYC or the other application may fail due to need for a different version of “activezip.ocx” to be installed as the shared file.  Usually this problem can be fixed by downloading and installing the latest version of NYC, which will contain the latest “activezip.ocx” file.

 

Sometimes when I use Screen Import, the first character of a line is missing in the imported file.  If the missing character is the first letter of the recipe name, the second letter gets capitalized (i.e., Garden Salad becomes Arden Salad).

 

This sometimes occurs when there are special or hidden characters in the text that you copy-pasted into the Screen Import.  Try copy-pasting the text into Notepad, then copy-paste from Notepad into Screen Import and see if that fixes it.

 

I get “Error 67 in ImprtGo2” when I try to import recipes. What is happening?

 

You have too many files in the folder you are trying to import into.

 

When I try to move a recipe from one cookbook to another I get the message “Filemerge form load: Error opening cookbook c:\program files\Nyc537\user\name...”  I open cookbook, recipes, highlight recipe to be moved, select move, select destination cookbook and try to move; that is when the message appears.  It doesn’t happen in all cookbooks but does seem to happen to all recipes in the affected cookbook.             

 

You probably have a corrupted recipe or cookbook index in the affected cookbook.  Try defragging and reindexing (in that order) the affected cookbook using the defrag and reindex options in Tools… Options… Cookbooks tab.

 

Whenever I try the Screen Import feature, I get "Run time error 7:  Out of memory".  I have reinstalled NYC and get the same thing.  I have checked and I have richtx32.ocx in my Windows \system folder.  When I press the OK button, the whole program crashes.  What is the problem?

Another user who had that problem was using Windows 98 release A.  When he upgraded to Windows 98 release B (i.e., second edition), it fixed the problem.  We believe it to be some conflict between release A and the rich textbox control that is used on the screen import window. If your Help... About Windows 98 says "Microsoft Windows 98   4.10.1998" it is release A and you need the upgrade to B.

Another source gives this guidance:

Open up Windows Explorer and press F3 or choose the search function. Make sure the files “riched32.dll” and ”riched20.dll” are in your system and copy down the exact location they are in. Obtain another copy of these files from a trusted friend with the same operating system as you or locate the newest version on the internet. Be cautious of where you obtain those files and simply overwrite the old ones. Depending on your operating system, replacing “richtx32.ocx” may also fix the error.

I keep my main recipe cookbooks in one folder.  In a separate folder, I keep "specialty" cookbooks for certain ingredients, e.g. tomatoes, pasta, pepper.  I create a specialty cookbook, e.g. "pepper", then I try to import from the big collection in the other folder.  I point to one of the cookbooks in the main collection folder, then I "search all cookbooks" for "pepper" using the Search... button on the import window.  Then I want to use the Apply button on the search results window to put the search results into the import queue, but NYC won't let me.    Does this mean that I have to do a separate search in every single cookbook to create a specialty cookbook?

Here is the best way to accomplish what you want to do.  Create a new specialty cookbook named PEPPER in the folder with your main cookbooks.  Import to it using a Search across all cookbooks (in that folder) and use the Apply button on the search results window to put the search results in the export/import queue.  Once the recipes are imported, do a Save Cookbook As... on your PEPPER cookbook to save a copy  in your specialty folder.

The best way to interact with NYC without such issues is to keep all your cookbooks in one folder.  This does not have to be your NYC \user folder, but your cookbooks should be together in one folder so the search across cookbooks can see them all.  If you want to keep cookbooks in different folders, then use a search across cookbooks, recognize that NYC only searches the "from" (source) folder if called from the Import/Export window, and the Apply and Open buttons on the search results window will not work if you searched a folder different from the one in which your open cookbook resides. The search will work properly but it won't do you any good because you cannot Apply or Open recipes in the search list if you did the search in a folder other than the one your open cookbook is in.  This is because the search list does not store the full path of the cookbook (it only stores the cookbook name).  "Across cookbooks" in NYC means across all cookbooks in the folder where your open cookbook resides.

I am using Windows 98 and MS Internet Explorer.  I cannot download any recipes successfully.  I did manage to download one file, it is now in the documents section.  I cannot get it unzipped, don't know how to.  I also cannot get anything to download to NYC \temp file--don't even know if I have a \temp file.  Can you help --step by step, please?

Here is a step-by-step on how to get NYC's Quick Web Recipes feature working, which would be the most helpful in your situation.

First, you need to have a zip/unzip utility installed on your PC and you need to tell NYC where it is.  I suggest you go to our download site at http://www.ffts.com/download.htm and see the utilities download area near the bottom of the page.  Download PKZip 2.5 (command line version) or WinZip and install it on your PC.  Then run NYC and use Tools... Options... External Applications..., select your zip utility preference (the one you installed) and press the button below it and specify your zip utility in the file dialog (either pkzip25.exe or winzip32.exe) - you will dbl-click in that file dialog
until you find the folder where this file is installed.

Second, when you use NYC's Quick Web Recipes... utility to download recipes from our site, you need to know how to specify what folder your browser should put the download into.  Do this by right clicking the file (in Netscape or MSIE) and selected "Save File As..." or "Save Target As..." or something similar to do the download into your specified folder.  Read your browser Help on all the right click menu commands you see until you find the right one.  Specify NYC's \temp folder for your Quick Web Recipes downloads anytime you use File... Quick Web Recipes....

In summary, if you have a zip utility installed, and NYC knows where it is, and you use Quick Web Recipes to download files into your NYC \temp folder (yes, you have one - it gets created when you install NYC), then NYC will download the file, unzip it, create a new cookbook, and import the recipe file into the new cookbook automatically.

Sometimes I get "No recipes converted!!  Possible bad format..." when importing text recipes, but I swear I have them in the proper generic or Meal-Master format.  What is happening?

You could be trying to import a file that has Unix origins.  Unix files typically have carriage return but no line feed at the end of each line.  NYC expects both carriage return and line feed at the end of each line.  The fix for this is to open the file in the DOS editor and then Save it to add the line feeds.  The file should now import if this was the problem.

NYC 5.14 now automatically offers you this DOS Editor fix when it suspects a file of Unix origin.  If you want to manually open the DOS editor outside of NYC, change to the folder where you have the text file (CD \foldername),  then open the file in the DOS editor (e.g., type:  "EDIT filename.txt"), then Save the file using the DOS editor.

Tabs or other special characters in your file could also be causing the problem, and you will not see these characters with your text editor.  Use Word or another word processor to remove the tabs, then resave the file as a text file.

When I export to a generic text file using "no line breaks", I still see line breaks in the file when I edit it with my word processor.   What is happening?

In v5.14 and higher, exporting to a generic text file using "no line breaks" removes extra spaces and double line feeds in the directions. So you are probably using v5.13 or earlier.

In versions prior to v5.14, the "no line breaks" option meant NYC did not add any line breaks to the file during the export.  If the file was imported with line breaks, or if you added them yourself in the NYC recipe directions, you may see line breaks in your exported file.  To remove line breaks regardless of how they got there, open the recipe in NYC's edit mode, press Directions..., and press the Format button, which removes line breaks in the NYC recipe.  Then press OK and save the recipe.  Now when you export to generic text format, the line breaks will be gone.

In v5.12, when I use the generic text import format and I import a recipe with a qty less than 1 (e.g., "1/4" cup), NYC jams the 1/4 into the ingredient description instead of the qty field.  Is this a bug?

We accidentally broke this in 5.12; it was fixed in 5.13 and higher.  Download the latest version at http://www.ffts.com/nyc32dl.htm  -OR-

If you prefer to stick with v5.12 for now, you can work around the problem by placing a 0 in front of the qty, like "0 1/4".

I am trying to use File... Quick Web Recipes... to download recipes from your website.  Step 1 (download) works okay but when I click on the button for Step 2 (unzip the downloaded file), I get "Run time error '53'.  File not found" and the program closes.   What is wrong?

This occurs in NYC v5.07 and earlier if you have not specified an external zip utility for NYC to use.  Use Tools... Options... to specify your external zip utility and the file path to your zip program.  Then your Quick Web Recipes feature should work properly.   The current version of NYC has its own internal zip engine, so this situation does not arise.


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Last Updated:  11/3/2005 11:20 AM

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