Frequently Asked Questions About
Now You're Cooking!

Cookbooks - Troubleshooting

When I delete recipes with images from a cookbook, the image archive (.ima file) does not reduce in size, making me think the images did not get deleted.

That is the way the image database works. If you delete recipes, NYC only changes the index, and deletes nothing from the archive. You have to defrag the image archive to make it smaller and remove the unused data in it (Tools… Data Mgt… Cookbooks tab… Defrag Image Archive).

When I use Open Cookbook, I cannot see my network drives in the file dialog, so I cannot open cookbooks that reside on other drives.

You will need to map the drive you need so it shows up with a letter in the open cookbook file dialog. This is done in Windows File Explorer. In XP’s Explorer, use Tools… Map Network Drive… . Use the equivalent capability in Vista or Win7 File Explorer.

I get errors related to my cookbook’s “.cdx” file when changing recipe categories. How can I fix this?

Try defragging your cookbook.

When I use File… Unzip Cookbook… , my zip file does not get unzipped so the cookbook does not show in my list of cookbooks.

There are several reasons why this might occur:

1. Zip file is corrupt (try recreating the zip file).

2. Another user sent you the zip file and it was created with a version of NYC’s zip engine that is not compatible with the version you are using (make sure both of you are using the same NYC version).

3. Zip file does not contain a cookbook (NYC will unzip the file anyway, but you won’t see a new cookbook in your list).

When I use anything that accesses a zipped file, like File… Zip Cookbook… or Unzip Cookbook…, I get “Error 449 Argument not optional”. What is happening?

This can occur if the version of the internal zip engine that NYC requires is not consistent with the installed version. The zip engine NYC uses is “activezip.ocx” – it is a shared file in your windows \system (or \system32) folder. If you use other applications that require “activezip.ocx”, either NYC or the other application may fail due to need for a different version of “activezip.ocx” to be installed as the shared file. Usually this problem can be fixed by downloading and installing the latest version of NYC, which will install the latest “activezip.ocx” file.

When I open a certain cookbook, I get the message “For this cookbook: NAME.GCF the category index file (.cdx) is longer than it should be. It may be corrupt.” What is happening?

You will get this message using NYC 5.69 or earlier on a cookbook that has previously been opened by NYC 5.70 or later. NYC 5.70 or later rebuilds the category index for a maximum of 500 categories rather than the previous 200, which was the limit for versions prior to v5.70. Note that this could have occurred using NYC 5.70 to import or search a cookbook in your NYC 5.69 user folder. You should discontinue use of v5.69 or earlier after you start using v5.70. If you want to use 5.69 again on your cookbook, you can rebuild the cookbook’s index using v5.69 and Tools… Data Management… Cookbooks tab… Rebuild Indexes.

When I open my cookbook, all the recipe images are mixed up and no longer coincide with the right recipes.

We have had reports of this happening on rare occasion during either the File… Upgrade… operation or during File… Import Recipes… and we are investigating. In the interim, rebuilding the image index (see Tools… Data Management… Cookbook tab…) seems to fix the problem.

Using File... Open Cookbook... , I see no indication which cookbooks are empty and which ones are not. I only get a list of the *.gcf files. How can I see the number of recipes like the Help indicates should be there?

If you are not seeing the # recipes, you need to turn on "annotation" in Tools... Options... Cookbooks... so you get the normal NYC Open Cookbook dialog window instead of the Explorer type Open Cookbook window. With “annotation”, when you use File… Open Cookbook… you will see the # recipes in the list beside each cookbook name to determine emptiness.

Here is what “annotation” does:

checked – user annotations can be added to cookbooks and displayed in NYC’s default Open Cookbook window.

unchecked – no user annotations to cookbooks, Explorer-type file dialog for File… Open Cookbook… .

NYC’s File… Unzip Cookbook… gives Error 20005 “Can’t open file!” whenever I try to unzip a file not zipped by NYC. I am using NYC 5.56 with Windows 2000. What gives?

We fixed this problem in NYC v5.57 and higher by updating NYC’s internal zip engine (activezip.ocx) from v3.3.0.0 to v3.3.7.0. We suggest you download and install v5.57 or higher if you are using Windows 2000. This problem is specific to use of v5.54 - 5.56 in Windows 2000 only - it does not occur in Windows XP, Me, 98, 95, or NT4. Until v5.57 releases, you can obtain a pre-release copy of 5.57 (with the fix) by contacting tech support .

When closing a cookbook, I get: ‘Dir Only: VB Error 5...Probably no directory found in path. DP,X=///’ last error: ‘VB error 75 reading cookbook in Path’. I never seen this before.

Error 75 is "attempting to write to a file marked read-only". Did you restore that cookbook from a CD backup? CD backups will cause files to be marked read-only. Also, use of a cookbook over a network when you do not have write access authorization over the network will cause it. This could also happen if you are using XP or another NT product and you don't have write access to the NYC folder or to another folder where you are storing cookbooks.

In Windows Explorer, rt-click the cookbook file and its indexes (*.gcf, *.cdx, *.cli, *.idx, *.ima, *.imx, *.rdx, *.rli, *.tag), select Properties, and see if any of these files have ‘read-only’ checked and uncheck it on each.

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.

When I try to move a recipe from one cookbook to another I get the message “Filemerge form load: Error opening cookbook c:\program files\Nyc537\user\name...” I open cookbook, recipes, highlight recipe to be moved, select move, select destination cookbook and try to move; that is when the message appears. It doesn’t happen in all cookbooks but does seem to happen to all recipes in the affected cookbook.

You probably have a corrupted recipe or cookbook index in the affected cookbook. Try defragging and reindexing (in that order) the affected cookbook using the defrag and reindex options in Tools… Options… Cookbooks tab.

When I go to close a cookbook, I get an VB Err 75 saying that if I'm using the software over a network, I must have read AND write access. I also get VB Err 62 when I am searching for a recipe across the cookbooks. What is happening?

Re: Error 75 -
When you close a cookbook, NYC needs to write to the cookbook file and it is being stopped from doing this, meaning that you have read-only access to the file. For the cookbook in question, you should make sure the cookbook (.gcf) and its indexes (.cdx, .idx, .cli, .tag, .ima, .imx) are not marked read-only. Changes to 'read-only' can happen during a backup operation because some backup software (especially if you are backing up to CD) defaults to read-only copies of your software. Check for read-only by right-clicking the files in File Explorer to make sure the read-only box is not checked. If so, uncheck it.

Re: Error 62 -
This error can be generated as a result of problems created by the above 'read-only' access problem. Also, if you restored your cookbooks from a backup, your cookbooks may need to be upgraded to work properly with a later version of NYC, depending on your previous version. You should copy your old installation onto your computer, then install and run the latest NYC version (from www.ffts.com/nyc32dl.htm ). Run the latest version nd use File... Upgrade... to bring over/upgrade user files from your old installation, rather than simply copying files from your backup to your new NYC \user folder.

In NYC Light 4.28, I was adding recipes to one of my cookbooks and didn't realize the size of the file I was adding. The import aborted and said I exceeded the maximum file size of 30,000 recipes. I tried to sign back into the program and got the message that "file size is greater than 30000 recipes, please reduce file size now". When I answer "OK" it begins reading the index of the cookbook and then comes up with the message "overflow". When I answer "OK' to this message I get kicked out of the program. How can I reduce the size of the file when I can't access any of the program features? Is there anything I can do without losing all the recipes I have loaded?

This is handled much more gracefully in the full version of NYC (latest is v5.17). I suggest you download the full version from our website at http://www.ffts.com/nyc32dl.htm . You will be able to use it for 60 days before it shuts off. In that time you can use it to open your large cookbook and break it into pieces (export recipes to other cookbooks, then delete them from the big cookbook).

NYC opens a cookbook, but it crashes with a message about ATI2DRAB.DRV when I try to open recipes. What gives?

We have only seen this once with a WinBook running Windows 98. The problem was a conflict with the WinBook video driver, and the solution was to quit using the WinBook XL3 video driver and use the WinBook XL2 video driver.

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Last Updated: 01/16/2025

Frequently Asked Questions About Now You're Cooking!

Cookbooks - Troubleshooting

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Frequently Asked Questions About
Now You're Cooking!