Now You're Cooking! Tip - March-April 2009

March-April 2009

Cookbooks and Folder Paths

XP Installation Path and Default User Folder Location

In XP, NYC installs into the following locations:

NYC program and NYC support files (e.g., the Help file "nyc.chm") into “<drive>:\Program Files\FFTS\NycXXX”

where XXX is the version number without decimal.

NYC user files (e.g., sample cookbooks) are copied to a " \user" subfolder under the above folder.

Vista Installation Path and Default User Folder Location

In Vista, files that can be changed by NYC cannot reside anywhere in the Program Files folder. NYC first installs files into the same locations as in XP. On first execution of NYC, it moves your alterable files to the following locations:

If the user elects to share cookbooks with other users of the same PC:

NYC support files (e.g., the Help file "nyc.chm") are copied to "<drive>:\Users\Public\FFTS\NycXXX"

NYC user files (e.g., your cookbooks) are copied to a "\user" subfolder under the above folder.

If the user elects NOT to share cookbooks with other users of the same PC:

NYC files (e.g., "nyc.chm" Help file) are copied to "<drive>:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\FFTS\NycXXX"

NYC user files (e.g., your cookbooks) are copied to a "\user" subfolder under the above folder.

Ramifications of Moving the User Folder

Except for the “\user” folder, the above folder locations are fixed (you should not change them). You can move the user folder to another folder or drive location using Tools… Options… Interface… User Folder. However, this action has certain ramifications you should be aware of. You may forget you have moved the user folder, then when you want to move NYC to a new computer, you cannot locate your user files. Prior to moving NYC to a new computer, you should always use NYC to move your “\user” folder back to its default location under “…\FFTS\NycXXX”. This will facilitate your migration of the entire NYC folder to a flash drive, and will help when you run NYC on your new computer and use File… Upgrade… to bring over user files from this previous version.

Ramifications of Using Cookbooks Outside Your User Folder

You can open and use cookbooks in a folder other than your “\user” folder. This practice has certain ramifications you should be aware of. First, this will change the startup cookbook to the one outside the user folder. Second, operations across cookbooks (menu planning, searches, etc.) will be confined to the folder containing the open cookbook. So if some of your cookbooks are in one folder and some are in your “\user” or other folder, your search across cookbooks won’t use them all. Also, cookbooks that are not in your “\user” folder won’t be upgraded when you install and run a new version of NYC and use File… Upgrade… to bring over/upgrade user files from your previous version (only cookbooks in the “\user” folder get upgraded as they are brought over from your old user folder). So it is best to leave all cookbooks in your “\user” folder.

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