2a. Purpose and Use of the program CookBook U.S.A. is designed to rapidly locate, display, and print any one of over 1 million recipes. These are the favorite recipes of over 200,000 different cooks from all parts of the country. They were gathered from over 4,000 different regional cookbooks.
With over a million recipes to choose from, you will be able to find just about anything you can imagine. In many cases, more than one cook submitted a similar titled recipe, but you will be able to see the variations that made each one unique. You will be able to find the best recipe that fits your family's needs and the ingredients on hand.
You will be able to prepare 3"x5" recipe cards of your favorite recipes. If you wish to prepare your own cookbook, you can download the recipes into a file, that you could edit with Word Perfect or the equivalent. With over a million recipes, I'm sure you can find what you need.
In the original Cookbooks, the categories (chapter titles) were created by the original authors. We have tried to preserve these categories as much as possible. We have broken down the recipes into 52 general categories (Chapters). When an category from one of the original cookbooks matched a general category, all the recipes were copied into that category. However, most of the original cookbooks only had between 8 and 12 categories, so the categories were quite broad. For example we find pies in 'Desserts', 'Fruit Dishes', 'Men's favorites', 'Pies', etc. So remember, don't just look in the category of 'Pies'.
Whenever a search is done, the list of categories (chapters) is reduced to just those categories (chapters) that have at least one recipe that matches the search.
2b. Organization of the Screens
There are four basic screens that makeup CookBook U.S.A. The startup Screen, the Table of Contents Screen, the Search Screen and the Recipe Screen.
The Startup Screen
This screen is the first screen that you see when you start up the program. It is made up of a Introduction Window, plus three buttons.
The Introduction window contains a brief description of CookBook U.S.A. This is a scrolling window. By putting the cursor within this window (through the use of the mouse or TAB key), you can scroll through the text for a brief introduction. (Use the up and down arrows on your keyboard or the scroll bar with your mouse.)
The Buttons are 'Setup', 'Exit', 'ReadMe' and 'Cookbook'. The 'Setup' button causes the installation program to start, where you can make any desired changes to default parameters. 'Exit' should be obvious, you will be returned to DOS. The 'Read Me' Button will take you to this instruction manual. The 'CookBook' program takes you into the 'Table of Contents Screen'.
The Table of Contents Screen
This is the main screen of CookBook U.S.A. This screen is made to resemble an open book, with chapter headings showing on the edge of the book.
It is made up of three primary areas, The Descriptor area, the Chapters area, and the Control area.
The Descriptor Area- To begin with, this shows 'Table of Contents' and below that '1,094,579 recipes'. This will also show the recipe count for any given chapter, when selected. After a search is preformed, the number of recipes that match the search is displayed.
The Chapter Area- This lists all the chapters that match the results of a search. Initially, since there hasn't been a search, all 52 chapters can be seen by scrolling the list. If a chapter is clicked on once, the Descriptor Area is changed to the Title of that Chapter and the total recipe count for that chapter.
The Control Area- Is made up of 5 buttons at the top of the screen. They are 'Search', 'Jump', 'Title List', 'Clear', and 'Exit'.By selecting one of these buttons, various actions will be taken as described below.
The Search Screen
This is where you can make selections for words from the title, various ingredients, and or the preparation methods. You can use any combination of these items to help you locate a recipe.
The Recipe Screen
This is the screen that actually displays the Recipes. It is comprised of 3 text areas and 7 buttons.
The top text area is the Title Area. It is made up of two parts, the recipe number and the recipe title itself. If the title is longer than will fit on the line, the line can be scrolled to the right to display the full title.
The Next text area is the Ingredients Area. It is a scrolling window, so that all of# the ingredients can be viewed. Note the scroll bar on the right side of the window that can be activated by a mouse. To scroll without a mouse, move the highlight to the Ingredients window by pressing the tab key until the highlight is in the window, and then use your up and down arrows to scroll the ingredients.
The last text area is the Preparation Method Area. It is a scrolling window, so that the entire preparation instructions can be viewed. It can be controlled just like the ingredients area.
The Table of Contents button will take you back to the Table of Contents screen.
The Next Button will change the recipe to the next recipe. If no search has been done it will be the next higher numbered recipe. If a search has been done, it will change to the next higher numbered recipe that matches your search criteria.
The Previous Button will change the recipe to the previous recipe. If a search has not been done, it will be the previous numbered recipe. If a search has been done, it will change you to the previous numbered recipe that matches your search criteria.
The Save Button will save the entire recipe to the filename that you specified in the Installation screen, It will automatically append to the previous contents of the file.
The Print 3x5 button will print the recipe in 3" x 5" format to the printer that you, specified in the installation screen. The printer will draw the 3" x 5" format and will print multiple cards as necessary on a 8.5" x 11" paper. You can then cut them out and mount them on rigid 3"x5" cards.
The Print Page button will print the entire recipe on a 8.5" x 11" page to the printer that you specified in the installation screen.
The Exit button will return you to DOS.
2c. Using the mouse to get aroundAll the buttons can be activated by clicking on the mouse. The text windows have scroll bars with a foot. The foot can be dragged by the mouse to scroll the text, the arrow within the scroll bar can be clicked on, which will cause the text to scroll a few lines at a time. In the Table of Contents, if you click on the chapter title once, the Descriptor area will be updated with the complete title of the chapter and the recipe count for that chapter. If you double click on a chapter, you will be taken to the recipe screen that contains the first recipe in that chapter. If a search was not done then the first recipe within the chapter will be displayed. If a search was performed, then you will be taken to the first recipe within that chapter that matches the search. The chapters list also contains a scroll bar so that all the chapters can be accessed.
2d. Getting around without a mouseAll the buttons have one of the letters of the button name in a different color. If you press the 'ALT ' key plus that letter, you will activate the button. The tab key will cause the focus area to move from button to button and through the text areas. Once a button has the focus, you can then press ' Enter ' and it will be activated. The scrollable text areas can be scrolled by moving the focus to the text area with the tab key and then you can press the up/down arrows to scroll the text. In the case of the chapters text area, once the area has the focus, if you press the Pgup/down arrows, the high lighted Chapter will change and the Descriptor area and the count will be updated. When you reach the desired chapter, press the ' Enter ' key to go to the first recipe of the chapter.
