Frequently Asked Questions About
Now You're Cooking! 
Cookbooks
Is it possible to compare 2 recipes that are in different cookbooks?
Yes, sort of. NYC has no direct way to do this, but there is a workaround using a search across cookbooks. Let’s say you want to compare 2 bruschetta recipes in different cookbooks. Do a search ‘across cookbooks’ for the word ‘bruschetta’. Select 2 recipes in the search results (even if they are in different cookbooks), right-click one, and select Compare from the popup menu.
If you want to compare recipes across cookbooks that use a wok, search for ‘wok’ in the directions and recipe name across cookbooks, then select 2 recipes in the search results, right-click one, and select Compare.
I have NYC on three computers and I create recipes on all three. How do I keep the cookbooks the same on each computer?
If your 3 computers are networked, you can designate the NYC user folder on one of them as the “official” repository. This designation is made in your mind – you don’t need to do anything special. Note that NYC already stores the user folder in the Public folder, which is already shared to other computers on the network. So just make sure your other computers have read and write access to that official drive and user folder. Then on your non-official computers, map the official drive, then run NYC and use File… Open Cookbooks… to browse to the mapped drive, and open an official cookbook there. Then you can make changes from any of the 3 computers to the official cookbook(s) in the official folder. Note that for this to work, the official computer needs to be on and awake while other computers access it.
If the computers are not networked, you could email your official cookbook to/from the non-official computers after you make changes, but there is more chance for forgetting to make the transfer with this method.
What is the best way to organize cookbooks and categories?
The answer will depend on how many recipes you have.
If you have 5,000 recipes, you could just keep them in 1 cookbook and the 500 categories per cookbook should cover it. Just use default categories like meats, desserts, salads, etc.
If you have 50,000 recipes, you might want separate cookbooks for MEATS, DESSERTS, and SALADS with categories in the DESSERTS cookbook for pies, cakes, cookies, etc.
If you have 500,000 recipes, you might want a separate cookbook for PIES, CAKES, and COOKIES with PIES categories like apple, peach, lemon creme, etc.
Is there a quick way to display the total count of all recipes in the User Folder?
Total recipe count for all cookbooks in user folder is at the bottom of the cookbook list displayed when you select File… Open Cookbook… (Make sure you have Tools… Options… Cookbooks tab… “NYC-type with cookbook annotation” checked).
I keep cookbooks in subfolders under my user folder, but they do not get backed up during File… Backup… and they do not get brought over during File… Upgrade…. What is happening?
NYC only backs up or upgrades files directly under your user folder. We may modify this in the future, but for now that is what happens. It is best to keep all your user files directly under the user folder, not in any other folder and not in subfolders of the user folder.
Is there any disadvantage to having cookbooks saved to a directory outside of NYC?
NYC recipe editing works with cookbooks in any folder, but we highly recommend keeping them in the official NYC user folder. There are 3 disadvantages to keeping cookbooks outside the NYC user folder:
- Search “across cookbooks” only includes cookbooks in the current cookbook's folder - i.e., if you had cookbooks in several folders, NYC would find only those in the folder with the open cookbook.
- File... Upgrade feature for bringing over cookbooks from previous installations only looks for user files in your old user folder, so this automatic upgrade process would not work for cookbooks outside the user folder next time you installed a new version and did a File… Upgrade….
- File... Backup... feature only backs up files in NYC user folder.
What is the best way to email an NYC cookbook?
If you have NYC v5.62+ and a 32-biy MAPI-compliant email program, use the File… Email Cookbook(s)… menu selection.
For previous versions, or if you don’t have a 32-bit MAPI-compliant email program, use File… Zip Cookbook… to zip up a cookbook. Find the .zip file in your NYC \user folder using Windows Explorer. Right click the file, and select Send To> Mail Recipient.
How can I clear all tagged recipes across all cookbooks?
To clear all tagged recipes from all cookbooks:
1. Select Tools… Data Management… Cookbooks tab…
2. Click on “all cookbooks” and press Untag Recipes…
Once a cookbook exceeds 1,000 recipes, it begins a second listing of the next 1,000 recipes and so on. Each 1,000 recipe list is in alphabetical order, but I would like to know if there is any way to see all recipes in one list, or to reorder the entire cookbook to alphabetize across these 1,000 recipe boundaries.
Yes, in NYC 5.46 and higher (see latest version ), there is an option in Tools... Options... Cookbooks tab... where you can increase the size of the recipe list sort buffer to display all recipes alphabetized together. If you have a fast machine, set it high (5,000-30,000); if you have a slow computer, set it low (1,000-5,000). The setting of 5000 recipes is the default.
How many recipes can I keep in one cookbook?
Theoretically, about 32,700. But you may encounter RAM, disk space, or performance speed problems before then, unless you have a really supercharged PC. The main issue is that NYC stores indexes for the open cookbook in RAM for quick access to recipes, and even the indexes get large with 30,000 recipes in a cookbook. Accordingly, NYC performance will slow with large cookbooks.
For most PCs, we recommend limiting cookbook size to 5000-10000 recipes maximum for best performance. With searches, meal planning, and duplicate deletion across cookbooks, there is really no need for one large cookbook. More cookbooks allow better hierarchy in organization as well, since each cookbook can have its own 500 categories. See all the NYC limits.
How do I find and list all tagged recipes in all cookbooks?
From the recipe selection window (Recipes... Recipes...), select the "tagged" radio button, then press the Search... button. In the search dialog, click the "all cookbooks" radio button. Leave the search keyword text box blank (v5.15 and higher) and press the Search button.
This will find all recipes in the search range, so tagged recipes from all cookbooks will be listed in the Search Results window.
Should I use multiple cookbooks or keep all my recipes in one cookbook?
We suggest multiple cookbooks if you plan have more than about 5,000 to 10,000 recipes, even though each NYC cookbook can have 32,700 recipes. With NYC capabilities across cookbooks (dupe kill, menu planning, recipe searches, recipe printing), there is really no reason to keep all recipes in one cookbook, and smaller cookbooks yield faster NYC performance. Besides that, multiple cookbooks give you another layer of categorization hierarchy, and you probably need it with that many recipes. See all the NYC limits.
How many recipes can I keep in one cookbook?
Theoretically, about 32,000. But you may encounter RAM, disk space, or performance speed problems before then, unless you have a really supercharged PC. The main issue is that NYC stores indexes for the open cookbook in RAM for quick access to recipes, and even the indexes get large with 30,000 recipes in a cookbook. Accordingly, NYC performance will slow with large cookbooks.
For most PCs, we recommend limiting cookbook size to 5-10 thousand recipes for best performance. With searches, meal planning, and duplicate deletion across cookbooks, there is really no need for one large cookbook. More cookbooks allow better hierarchy in organization as well, since each cookbook can have its own 500 categories. See all the NYC limits.
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Last Updated: 01/15/2025