Frequently Asked Questions About
Now You're Cooking! 
Recipe/Cookbook Handling - Troubleshooting
When I edit a recipe
and change the directions, then press the “X” button to close the
recipe edit window, the directions get deleted (all but a few characters).
This problem is fixed in v5.82 and higher. The workaround in earlier versions is to use
the Cancel button to close the recipe, and not the X button.
When I edit a recipe
and use the Clear, Add, Replace buttons, sometimes the recipe name gets
truncated.
This problem is fixed in v5.81 and higher.
When I use
File… Unzip Cookbook… , my zip file does
not get unzipped so the cookbook does not show in my list of cookbooks.
There are several reasons why this might occur:
1. Zip file is corrupt (try recreating the zip file).
2. Another user sent you the zip file and it was created with a version of NYC’s zip engine that is not compatible with the version you are using (make sure both of you are using the same NYC version).
3. Zip file does not contain a cookbook (NYC will unzip the file anyway, but you won’t see a new cookbook in your list).
When I use anything
that accesses a zipped file, like File… Zip Cookbook… or Unzip
Cookbook…, 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. 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 install the latest “activezip.ocx” file.
When I open a certain
cookbook, I get the message “For this cookbook: NAME.GCF
the category index file (.cdx) is longer than it should be. It may be corrupt.” What is happening?
You will get this message using NYC 5.69 or earlier on a cookbook that has previously been opened by NYC 5.70 or later. NYC 5.70 or later rebuilds the category index for a maximum of 500 categories rather than the previous 200, which was the limit for versions prior to v5.70. Note that this could have occurred using NYC 5.70 to import or search a cookbook in your NYC 5.69 user folder. You should discontinue use of v5.69 or earlier after you start using v5.70. If you want to use 5.69 again on your cookbook, you can rebuild the cookbook’s index using v5.69 and Tools… Data Management… Cookbooks tab… Rebuild Indexes.
When I open my
cookbook, all the recipe images are mixed up and no longer coincide with the
right recipes.
We have had reports of this happening on rare occasion during either the File… Upgrade… operation or during File… Import Recipes… and we are investigating. In the interim, rebuilding the image index (see Tools… Data Management… Cookbook tab…) seems to fix the problem.
I changed a recipe
and saved changes and now the recipe has disappeared from my cookbook. What gives?
Your recipe is still there. The # of recipes in your cookbook probably exceeds your list buffer setting in Tools… Options… Cookbooks…. In such a case, the recipe will no longer appear in the batch of recipes you have listed, but it will now appear on the last batch of 2000 (or whatever your list buffer is set to).
Here is a little more detailed explanation about what goes on when you save a recipe:
When you change and save a recipe, your old recipes is actually deleted and then a new one is added with your changes in it. Where its name appears in a recipe list depends on the list buffer setting in Tools… Options… Cookbooks… .
If the list buffer exceeds the # recipes in your cookbook, then there is only one recipe list to scroll through (it’s not buffered into groups of 1000, or whatever your buffer setting is). Since there is only one recipe list, the saved recipe will appear alphabetically in the list you have open, right where you would expect it.
If the # recipes in your cookbooks exceeds the buffer setting, then in each recipe list you will be shown the recipes in batches of 1000 (or whatever the buffer setting is). Press the little “+” button above the recipe list to scroll through the batches of recipes. Your saved recipe will appear on the last batch of recipes.
A low buffer setting opens the recipe list quickly, but does not show them all to you (you need to press the “+” button to see each batch). A saved recipe will appear on the very last batch, because it was deleted and added back to the database at the very end. It has been saved in your cookbook but you probably expected to see it on the batch of recipes that is currently listed, not on the last batch.
A high buffer setting with lots of recipes will take some time to display the list of recipes, since there are so many. But once they are listed, you see them all and saved recipes appear in the single list where you expect them.
The list buffer setting gives you control over whether you want recipe list speed (low buffer setting) or recipe list all-in-one simplicity (high buffer setting). Users with faster computers can use a higher setting; those with slower computers should use a lower setting.
Even though I have
“enable entry guessing” and “add items to droplists”
checked in Tools… Options… I cannot get certain items to au
The auto-add feature has a very strong filter on it to avoid adding “junk items” that clutter your ingredient droplist. The special character “&” and the word “and” are both rejected by the filter, precluding “half and half” or “half & half” from being stored in your droplist.
Temporarily uncheck “add items to droplists” in Tools… Options…, then save the recipe with “half and half” or “half & half” and it should auto-store as a new item in your ingredient droplist.
I cannot save a recipe I created because
the Save button is disabled in the recipe edit window. What to do?
Buttons
are disabled (“g
Using File... Open Cookbook... , I see no indication which cookbooks are empty and
which ones are not. I only get a list of
the *.gcf files. How can I see the
number of recipes like the Help indicates should be there?
If
you are not seeing the # recipes, you need to turn on "annotation" in
Tools... Options... Cookbooks... so you get the no
Here is what “annotation” does:
checked – user annotations can be added to cookbooks and displayed in NYC’s default Open Cookbook window.
unchecked – no user annotations to cookbooks, Explorer-type file dialog for File… Open Cookbook… .
When I try to
open a recipe in edit mode, I get "VB Error 339 - Could not load recipe".
Probably
one of the shared files that NYC needs was trampled on when you installed
another program after NYC. You will need
to reinstall NYC in this case.
Reinstalling over your previous version won’t damage any cookbooks
or your reg info (for v5.x and higher), but you may overwrite some droplists or
other info you have cus
However, it may just be a temporary resource problem, fixable with a simple reboot of your PC, so you might try that first.
NYC’s File… Unzip Cookbook… gives Error 20005 “Can’t open file!” whenever I try to unzip a file not zipped by NYC. I am using NYC 5.56 with Windows 2000. What gives?
We fixed this problem in NYC v5.57 and higher by updating NYC’s internal zip engine (activezip.ocx) from v3.3.0.0 to v3.3.7.0. We suggest you download and install v5.57 or higher if you are using Windows 2000. This problem is specific to use of v5.54 - 5.56 in Windows 2000 only - it does not occur in Windows XP, Me, 98, 95, or NT4. Until v5.57 releases, you can obtain a pre-release copy of 5.57 (with the fix) by contacting tech support .
When closing a cookbook, I get: ‘Dir Only: VB Error 5...Probably no directory found in path. DP,X=///’ last error: ‘VB error 75 reading cookbook in Path’. I never seen this before.
Error 75 is "attempting to write to a file
In Windows Explorer, rt-click the cookbook file and its indexes (*.gcf, *.cdx, *.cli, *.idx, *.ima, *.imx, *.rdx, *.rli, *.tag), select Properties, and see if any of these files have ‘read-only’ checked and uncheck it on each.
When I try to add ingredients to a new recipe, I get “Run-time Error 30009 – Invalid Row Number”. What gives?
This problem only happens if you inadvertently click on the empty ingredient list after creating a new recipe. You should be clicking on the ingredient entry text boxes to enter ingredients, not on the list itself. But at any rate we have fixed this problem in NYC 5.47 and higher.
Recipes that I change seem to "disappear", i.e., the recipes do not show up when the All Recipes button is checked. If I go to Tagged Recipes, they are there, but not in the All Recipes list. I have 2,126 recipes in the cookbook.
When you modify a recipe, NYC actually removes it from the database and replaces it with the modified version. When it is replaced, it goes to the last set of 2000 in the list of recipes (if you have over 2000, which you do). So you will find it there – use the + button to scroll the list 2000 recipe at a time until you get to the last set.
If you want to see all your recipes at once in a single sorted list, you must download and install v5.46 or higher, where we added an option where you specify the size of the sorted list (Tools... Options... Cookbooks... max # recipes in sort buffer). Set this buffer size higher than the number of recipes in the cookbook and you will see altered recipes back in the sort list right where you expect them.
NOTE: Using a high
sort buffer size on a slow computer can cause NYC to perfo
I am using the Ge
Try unchecking "case sensitive" in the spell check
options (Tools... Options... Spell Check... Configure...).
When I try to move a recipe from one cookbook to another
I get the message “Filemerge fo
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.
When I go to close a cookbook, I get an VB Err 75 saying that if I'm using the software over a network, I must have read AND write access. I also get VB Err 62 when I am searching for a recipe across the cookbooks. What is happening?
Re: Error 75 -
When you close a cookbook, NYC needs to write to the cookbook file and it is
being stopped from doing this, meaning that you have read-only access to the
file. For the cookbook in question, you should make sure the cookbook
(.gcf) and its indexes (.cdx, .idx, .cli, .tag, .ima, .imx) are not
Re: Error 62 -
This error can be generated as a result of problems created by the above
'read-only' access problem. Also, if you restored your cookbooks from a
backup, your cookbooks may need to be upgraded to work properly with a later
version of NYC, depending on your previous version. You should copy your
old installation onto your computer, then
install and run the latest NYC version (from www.ffts.com/download.htm).
Run the latest version nd use File... Upgrade... to bring over/upgrade user
files from your old installation, rather than simply copying files from your
backup to your new NYC \user folder.
In NYC Light 4.28, I was adding recipes to one of my cookbooks and didn't
realize the size of the file I was adding. The import aborted and said I
exceeded the maximum file size of 30,000 recipes. I tried to sign back
into the program and got the message that "file size is greater than 30000
recipes, please reduce file size now". When I answer "O
This is handled much more gracefully in the full version of NYC (latest is v5.17). I suggest you download the full version from our website at http://www.ffts.com/download.htm. You will be able to use it for 60 days before it shuts off. In that time you can use it to open your large cookbook and break it into pieces (export recipes to other cookbooks, then delete them from the big cookbook).
NYC opens a cookbook, but it crashes with a message about ATI2DRAB.DRV when I try to open recipes. What gives?
We have only seen this once with a WinBook running Windows 98. The problem was a conflict with the WinBook video driver, and the solution was to quit using the WinBook XL3 video driver and use the WinBook XL2 video driver.
When I add a new recipe and save it, I do not see it in the list of recipes. Why not?
You probably have over 2000 recipes in your cookbook (500 in v4). In this case you will not see the new recipe in the 2000 recipes showing in the list; rather it will appear in the last set of 2000. Press the + button at the top of the recipe list, scroll to the last set of 2000 recipes, and you should see the new recipe there.
You can increase the default buffer size of 2000 using Tools… Options… Cookbooks…
When I try to save a recipe, I get "type mismatch". What should I do?
That problem has been fixed in versions after v4.52. You should download the latest version from our website.
I must have a corrupt recipe in my cookbook, because I get "bad record number" and "pointer" errors. What is the best procedure to fix this?
Try these things in the order listed, checking after each to see if the problem is corrected (if so, try no more):
1. Try to delete the recipe using Recipes... Recipes... select the recipe, then press Delete button.
2. Open a new cookbook (File... New Cookbook...), and import all recipes from the cookbook (File... Import Recipes...), or if you know which one is corrupt, import all but that one.
3. Defrag the cookbook with the corrupt recipe (Options... Tools... Defrag Cookbook...).
Last resort if all else fails (this will uncategorize all your recipes in the cookbook):
4. Rebuild the cookbook index (Options... Tools... Rebuild Cookbook Index...).
What does the Error 62 "Input past end of file" mean?.
This error occurred in previous versions when a user embedded a double-quote in a text string for some data entry. Quotes are used to delimit fields in NYC so they are illegal input characters. NYC now flags and disallows illegal characters so this error should no longer occur.
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Last Updated: 4/23/2007 8:09 PM