PC User 1997 April

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ PC User 1997 April / PCU_APR_97.ISO / general / dos / mm804 / mmquick.doc < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1996-09-01 | 17.4 KB | 400 lines

**************************************** * * * MEAL-MASTER * * Quick-Start Instructions * * * **************************************** *** WELCOME TO MEAL-MASTER! *** Thank you for trying Meal-Master. Meal-Master is a menu-driven database system tailored to manage recipes. It will help you store, update, and print your recipes in a variety of formats. But the real power of Meal-Master lies in its search and utility functions! For example, you can search for recipes using any combination of Title, Category, or Ingredient criteria. Recipes can be "marked", and then used to create a shopping list that totals the quantities of like items. Recipes can be re-scaled by simply changing the yield amount -- all the ingredient quantities are automatically adjusted. Other features allow you to print a recipe index by title or category, "batch" print a set of recipes, or "export" recipes to a standard DOS file, so you can use them in a word processor or upload them to a bulletin board system. Exported recipes can also be "imported" back into Meal-Master without retyping - making recipe exchange with other Meal-Master users a real snap! *** REQUIRED EQUIPMENT AND CONFIGURATION *** Meal-Master should run on any IBM-PC, PC-XT, or 100% compatible with at least 512k of memory. It will run on floppy or hard disk systems, with either a color or monochrome monitor. While intended as a DOS application, it is fully compatible with Windows, Windows95, WindowsNT, Desqview, and OS/2. *** CAPACITY *** Meal-Master can be used to create one or several databases. Each database must be located on a separate disk or subdirectory, and is capable of storing over 65,000 recipes, subject to available disk space. Each recipe is limited to a combined total of 100 direction lines and ingredients. On the average, you can expect to store about 300 recipes on each 360k disk, 600 on each 720k disk, 1200 on each 1.44mb disk, and several thousand on a large hard disk. The actual number will depend upon the average size of the recipes you create. Page 1 Meal-Master Quick-Start *** STARTING THE PROGRAM *** To start using Meal-Master, you need only the program file, named MM.EXE. When you type "MM" and press return, Meal-Master should begin running. Meal-Master stores your recipes in three files: INDEX.MME, INGRED.MME, and DIRECT.MME. It uses a fourth file, PARM.MMF, to store information such as what kind of forms you are using on your printer. Finally, a fifth file named CATFILE.MME is used to store a list of valid recipe categories. If any of these files are not found when Meal-Master starts, they are created automatically. This makes Meal-Master very easy to install: Just copy the MM.EXE file to the diskette or hard disk directory of your choice, type MM, and press return. Meal-Master will ask you for the operating parameters it needs to build the PARM.MMF file, then create a new recipe database. For Meal-Master to run properly you must have the file CONFIG.SYS in the root directory of the disk you boot from, and it must contain a "FILES=xx" statement, where "xx" is at least (20), or at least (40) if you run a multi-tasking environment like Windows or Desqview. If not, some Meal-Master functions will not operate. If you're in a hurry to see how some of Meal-Master's advanced features work, you can try it out with the sample recipe database provided. Use the Import function on the Utilities menu to import the recipes in the SAMPLE.TXT file. Then try out the search, shopping list and batch print options. You can keep these recipes and add to them, or delete the files and start your own database. *** USING THE DATABASE *** ADDING RECIPES -------------- Selecting 'A' from the main menu allows you to add new recipes to the file. You will be prompted for the title, categories (each recipe can reference up to five categories), and yield. When asked for categories, a window will be displayed containing all the valid category names (If more than one page of names exist, the PGUP and PGDN keys will move through the categories; and category names can be changed, added, or deleted from the Maintenance/Setup menu). You can highlight the desired category names using the up and down arrow keys, or press ESC to type the names in directly. Next, Meal-Master will display the ingredient screen. Enter a quantity, unit of measure, and name for each ingredient. Page 2 Meal-Master Quick-Start The quantity can be entered as either a common fraction (i.e. 1/2) or as the decimal equivalent (i.e. 0.5), but will be displayed in the format selected on the Maintenance/Setup Menu (MM comes setup to display common fractions; if you want to see decimal equivalents, simply change the format option on the Maintenance/Setup Menu). The quantity field will also accept an "H", to allow a heading to be entered for a group of ingredients. When you have entered the quantity, press the Enter key to move on to the unit of measure field. While the cursor is in the unit of measure field, pressing F1 will display a window listing the valid codes you may use. Use the PgUp, PgDn, up-arrow and down-arrow keys to view the list. You may select a unit of measure from the list by highlighting it with the up and down arrow keys, or press ESC and type in a value manually. After selecting a valid code (or adding a new one), press the return key to move on to the ingredient name field. Enter the ingredient name and press return to complete the ingredient entry. When you press Enter, the cursor will automatically move to the quantity field on the next line. You can also move between fields using the Tab, Shift-Tab, and arrow keys. When finished entering ingredients, pressing the ESC key will proceed to directions entry. Recipe directions are added using a editor similar to a word processor. Simply type in the directions, and the cursor will automatically "word- wrap" at the end of lines. You can create multiple paragraphs by leaving a blank line, or indenting a line by at least one space. Review the legend at the bottom of the screen for the most common editor commands. These commands will help you move around in the text, reformat paragraphs, delete lines, and more. For a complete list of commands, see the printed User's Manual. Press ESC when the directions are complete. SEARCHING FOR RECIPES --------------------- Selecting 'S' from the main menu takes you to the heart of Meal-Master. Here you can specify search criteria to find the recipes that match. You can instruct Meal-Master to select only those recipes that: a) Contain a certain word or phrase in their title; b) Reference a certain category or categories; c) Use a specific ingredient or combination of ingredients; d) Any combination of the above three criteria. Once you have entered your search criteria, pressing "S" will start the search. The number and title of each recipe that qualifies will be listed. If you start the search without entering any search criteria, all recipes in the file will be listed. You may also use the PgUp and Page 3 Meal-Master Quick-Start PgDn keys to page forward and backward through the list of recipes found. With the title search criteria, you can limit the search to only recipes whose title contains a certain word or phrase. For example, entering "Cheesecake" would find all recipes which had the word Cheesecake anywhere in their title. Entering "Apple.." (note the two periods) would select all recipes whose title BEGINS with the word Apple. When entering the ingredient or category search criteria, you can specify multiple ingredients and "connect" them with "And" and "Or" to form complex searches. For example, you can search for "Chicken or beef and -salt" to find all the recipes that contain EITHER Chicken or Beef, but no salt. You are also able to search the Directions section for any word or phrase by entering Directions Criteria on the search screen. This is especially useful for finding recipes by any information you may have included in the directions section, such as the recipe's source cookbook or author. LISTING, REVISING, and MARKING ------------------------------ As each page of recipes found in the search are displayed, Meal-Master will pause and ask if you want to View, Print, Revise, Mark/Clear, or Export any of the recipes found. Simply use the arrow keys to highlight the desired recipe, then press the key corresponding to the command you want. Pressing Enter or "V View" will display the highlighted recipe on the screen (if the "Serving Sizes" option on the Maintenance menu is set to "Prompted", you will be asked for a number of servings first). Pressing "P" will print the recipe using the parameters specified in the "Maintenance/Setup, Printer Setup" section of the program (Access the Maintenance/Setup menu by pressing 'M' on the Main Menu; there you can specify what size and type forms you are using and enter special printer controls for type size and margins. Pressing "R" will open the Revise menu for the highlighted recipe. From here, you can update the selected recipe title and category list; add, delete or revise ingredients and directions; or change the number of servings. When changing the number of servings, Meal-Master will ask if you want the ingredient quantities adjusted. If you answer yes, Meal-Master will adjust all the ingredient quantities in the same proportions as the serving size change you have made! The Revise menu will also let you Delete a recipe from the database. Page 4 Meal-Master Quick-Start Pressing "M" will toggle the Mark status of the highlighted recipe; if currently unmarked it will be marked, or if currently marked it will be unmarked. Once you have marked some recipes, you can use the 'Shopping List' and 'Batch Print' features on the Utilities Menu. These options only process marked recipes, allowing you to quickly print several selected recipes, or produce a consolidated list of ingredients to use as a shopping list! Pressing "E" will Export the recipe to a DOS file so that it can be exchanged with another Meal-Master user, or posted to a Bulletin Board System (BBS) or time-share service like Prodigy, Compuserve, or GEnie. Pressing "#" will flag the recipe for delete, hiding it from future searches. The recipe is still in the database, and can be found by changing the "Hide flagged deletions from search" option to "NO" on the Search menu. Pressing "#" again on a recipe that is already flagged will "unflag" it, allowing full access to it again. Recipes flagged for delete remain accessible in this way until the "Rebuild" option is run from the Maintenance/Setup menu, at which time they are deleted permanently. *** IMPORT/EXPORT FEATURE *** A very useful feature of Meal-Master is its ability to export and import recipe files. These options allow you to move recipes between the Meal-Master database and standard DOS files, allowing easy exchange of recipes between Meal-Master users. Thousands of recipes are available in Meal-Master Export format, and conversion programs are available to convert other popular formats into Meal-Master format. Recipe files can be found on many electronic bulletin board systems, the Compuserve Information System (tm), GEnie (tm), and Prodigy (tm). By acquiring these files and importing them into Meal-Master, you can build a large recipe database with little or no typing! Individual recipes can be Exported directly from the Search results screen, as described above. From the Utilities menu, the "E Export" option also allows exporting all marked recipes or a numerical range of recipe numbers. The Import feature is primarily designed for use with recipes previously exported from Meal-Master, to allow easy exchange of recipes between users. However, it includes a built-in editor and lots of helpful messages that also allow reformatting most other recipes into a format that Meal-Master can import. The included "CONVERT" program will accept recipes from several common recipe programs, and automatically reformat them into Meal-Master format. The converted recipes can then be imported into your Meal- Master database. Page 5 Meal-Master Quick-Start *** SHOPPING LIST *** After using the Search feature to "Mark" several recipes, the Shopping list function can be selected from the Utilities menu. The ingredients from each marked recipe will be extracted and combined into one list, sorted alphabetically. Quantities of ingredients that occur on multiple recipes will be combined, and their unit of measure automatically converted when needed. *** MORE HELP *** This file is not intended as a complete user's manual, but as enough information to introduce the main areas of the program so you can try it out. These brief instructions and some experimentation should get you started. When you register Meal_Master, you will receive a comprehensive user's manual with over 120 pages of text and illustrations that explain Meal-Master's many features. As a registered user, you will also receive top priority technical support should you have questions or problems that need our help. *** REGISTERING MEAL-MASTER *** Meal-Master is shareware. That means it is not free, but you get a chance to "try-before-you-buy". Registration is not optional, and if you continue to use the program you need to register. Registered users receive a registered master disk with the latest version of Meal-Master and the User's Manual. The User's Manual is professionally typeset and bound, with over 120 pages of description, examples, and a helpful index. Registered users are given complete technical support, receive discounted upgrade offers on future releases, and receive a Registration number needed to access features designed for registered users only. Because of the manner in which evaluation copies are distributed, the copy you have now may be days old or years old. When you register, you will be assured of getting the latest version. As an additional benefit of registration, several utility programs are included on the registered master disk. These utilities will allow you to customize Meal-Master's text and background colors, do global search and replace operations on recipe categories, globally change the format of recipe titles, and see statistics about your recipe database, including analysis and projection of how many more recipes can be entered based on the average size of your existing recipes. An integrated menu utility is also provided, which puts the main Page 6 Meal-Master Quick-Start Meal-Master program and all the utility programs on a single menu. These utilities are not shareware, and are provided only to registered users. The fastest way to register is by using your credit card and our secure internet site on the world wide web. Vist our web site at address http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/s_welliver for more information. If you prefer to order by mail, you can create an order form in a couple of different ways. The easiest way is to use Meal-Master's built-in registration order form. From Meal-Master's Main Menu, select "R Registration Menu", then "O Order Form". Simply fill in the blanks, and then press your PrintScreen key (or Shift and PrintScreen together if running Windows) to print the form. Mail the completed form with a check or money order in U.S. Funds for the amount specified, or with your credit card information, to: Episoft Systems Suite #143 10121 Evergreen Way Everett, WA 98204 There is also a plain text order form in the file ORDER.TXT, so you can print this file and fill it in if you wish. As with the built-in form, once completed it should be mailed to the address above along with your payment. If you have an account on the Compuserve online service, you can also register online! This is the fastest way to register, and is the best way for overseas customers to register since the billing and currency conversion is taken care of by Compuserve. For more information or to register Meal-Master using this method, use the "GO SWREG" command on Compuserve, and choose program number 11237. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Compuserve Information Services, Prodigy, and GEnie are registered trademarks and are not associated with Episoft Systems. Page 7