Hi, I have Living Cookbook both on my desktop and my laptop and wonder how I ever did without it. I chose it because it is more versatile than MC and it works beautifully on Vista (both 32 and 64) and Windows 7 (32). I haven't updated my desktop to 7 yet so I can't speak to 64 but don't expect any problems. I highly recommend it. Here are some of my comments on it from the CI forum:
The first thing I did after I got the program was to make a backup called rejected cookbooks. I then deleted all the ones that came with the program. I started adding the recipes already in my computer and those online recipes I could easily copy directly into it. The capture feature makes copying recipes that are already in Word is very easy. I do those and online ones on my laptop while watching tv. I hate doing just one thing at a time. Actually, the most tedious part for me was cleaning up the ingredient database. It had a lot of stuff I'll never use and is missing a few (e.g., miso, Thai curry paste). There is a site that has
Living Cookbook that has all sorts of recipes already in the LC format. I just found one cookbook with 506 Ina Garten recipes. I have all her books and really love her recipes. I had a few in there already, but the program identifies those so you can easily delete the duplicates. It will save me having to look them up to see if they are online. Big plus for me. Giada's is pretty comprehensive as well. They have a lot of others but I don't want to get overwhelmed since I have 2629 recipes I looked up and inputed and want to try or make again. BTW, recipes can be exported via email as a fdx file which means it goes into Lc wihtout having to copy and paste. Being somewhat of a geek, I am having fun entering the data for the inventory so I can create shopping lists that include non-recipe items like TJ's candy and fresh fruit. BTW, one thing I do for recipes in magazines or books that are not online is to type the recipe name, a couple of key ingredients and the source. That way I can easily find it and not have to type the whole thing immediately. I transferred a few recipes before the plus site went down, but not enough.
I wanted to share my wonderful 21st century experience. I was planning a whole bunch of new meals and needed to get a good portion of the ingredients. I used Living Cookbook and scaled the recipes. I then copied the recipes to Evernote and synced them with my Iphone. I also had Living Cookbook create a shopping list of the items needed for my recipes by store and aisle (I planned Costco, TJs and a supermarket, Raleys in this case). LC created the list, I took out stuff on hand such as salt, pepper, etc. I printed the list, but also copied it to Evernote since I have a habit of losing the lists while shopping. I was able to complete all my shopping in 2 1/2 hours which is great considering the stores where on opposite sides of town. LC has the best customer support of any software I've seen. I suggest that you check out:
the Living Cookbook forum for lots of good information. Probably more than you wanted, anyway I would be happy to answer any specific questions. One caveat, the program is addictive.
In the interest of full disclosure I should point out that
after I paid retail for my two licenses , I was so impressed with the program I asked DH to include it in our affiliates at our website
ArtzQuest.