Frequently Asked Questions About
Now You're Cooking! 
Miscellaneous Troubleshooting
When I use the Notepad text editor, I see multiple tabs left over from previous Notepad sessions. How do I avoid this?
Open Notepad and open Settings (gear icon at top right). In the menu under “When Notepad starts…”, select “open a new window”.
When I am in recipe edit or view mode, I cannot see the ingredients list unless I drag the cursor across them.
You are probably using one of the Windows high contrast settings. NYC lists are not compatible with any high contrast setting. Go to Display Settings> Accessibility> Contrast Themes and make sure “None” is selected.
When I use NYC to go browse to any online feature (FAQ, NYC website, Recipe Library, etc.), NYC launches Word as the browser to see the web page. Any suggestions?
This may happen if your default browser is set to IE, or IE is out of date, or you have Word as your default browser. Go to Windows Settings, Default Apps, and change your default web browser to an updated version of MS Edge or Google Chrome or other modern browser. Then NYC’s online features will work as you expected.
I use NYC with Windows 11. Sometimes certain images on the NYC interface turn black. Any suggestions?
The easiest fix for this is often to close NYC and restart it. Or reboot your computer. Or close other apps and retry NYC. The issue is likely related to your video card driver, in which case you could uninstall the driver, then install the latest driver offered by your video card manufacturer. We have not seen this on any computer with integrated graphics, but we saw it once on a computer with a graphics card. Windows will sometimes switch between graphics drivers based on your power saving settings, and this switching may cause an issue. If you see two display drivers installed in Device Manager, you can force the use of one driver or another for NYC by going to Settings > Display > Graphics and add Now You’re Cooking to the list. Select Now You’re Cooking and use the Options button to specify which graphics driver to use to open NYC (Windows 11).
After some research, one thing we did here was reset Microsoft Photos. See Windows Settings… Apps… search apps list for ‘photos’, then click on the 3 vertical dots to the right of the MS Photos app listing, click Advanced… then scroll down to Repair and Reset, and click Reset. This will delete the data associated with the Photos app. Not sure why, but in our case, this fixed the black images problem in NYC, but only for a while. But it happened again, so with the PC set to use the integrated (Intel) graphics driver for NYC, we tried the same steps here in Settings… Apps… MS Photos where we clicked Repair (not Reset), then rebooted the PC. This seemed to solve the issue for a long while. However, when it happened again, we turned off MS Outlook and Google Chrome browser and it worked again. So closing other apps (especially Outlook) when running NYC may help as well.
I am having trouble with copy-paste in NYC using Windows 8.1. Any suggestions?
We don't believe this issue is in NYC, rather it is in Windows 8.1. This is based on the following comments from what NYC users are saying about the issue:
"I am using the latest 8.1 update and NYC 5.90. I have
tried the cntl-c, cntrl-x, and cntrl-v combinations and they all work perfectly
for me.I then tried the tool bar edit/copy, edit/cut and edit/paste. They also
worked fine. I then tried the right-click functions and they all worked
OK. So, for my machine and software setup, they all work as
intended."
"I have the same problem, Ctrl C or Ctrl V will not work."
"I have seen a lot of problems with Cut/Copy/Paste using ANY of the recognised methods in 8.1 (both versions) and 8.0. More importantly, it's not just in NYC! If you run a search on Copy and Paste problems in Windows 8, you'll get hundreds hits with lots of people having found that Windows 8 just seems to drop the copied element. Has Microsoft radically changed the way that the Win 8 clipboard handles data elements I wonder. In my case, I've found that data is dropped most often if a new software package is opened after the data has been copied. So, I find a recipe I want and open NYC to use the screen import feature (very useful!). Copying from web page to NYC usually works OK - as long as NYC is open first. I usually have the problem when I copy a picture and then try to paste it into Paintshop Pro to resize it before saving as a jpg, prior to import into NYC via Browse. The pic never comes over - I always have to copy and paste again - with PSP already open. A real PITA. Many others clearly have similar problems and my own experience of 6 months or so is that copy/paste in Win 8 is EXTREMELY flakey. Microsoft seem to be very quiet on the whole subject area! "
"You can do a Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V and they
work. If you try to use the pull-down menu and select
"Copy" and "Paste", they do not work."
"I have been using 'Now you're Cooking' for several years now and have really enjoyed the program. Up until recently I have always been able to use "Copy and Paste" to create new recipes within NYC copied from Word, Wordpad, Web pages etc. All I had to do was highlight the text from Word, Wordpad or a Web page, use copy (or Ctrl-C) then within a new Recipe page on NYC use paste or Ctrl-V to input the text. For some reason that has stopped working. It's always worked before using Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7 and even Windows 8 on both 32 and 64 bit OSs on various Windows machines."
Using NYC 5.90, if I delete all ingredients in the ingredient droplist, then Update Using Recipes, then Save, the list goes BLANK.
This is a known bug in NYC 5.90 that was not in previous versions. We will fix it in NYC 5.91.
For now, the workaround is to click the “linked” radio button below the ingredient list just before you Save.
I am using Win7 and Outlook is my default email client. When I try to send recipes via email from NYC, I get “Error 48389 – trying to send MAPI email” with no other explanation.
One user has reported this problem, but we could never reproduce it here. NYC email works perfectly for us using Win7 and the same Outlook version as this user. Thus, we suspect a setting difference somewhere, but we have yet to find it.
Important: NYC email did work for this user when he selected Windows LiveMail as the default client, but not with Outlook as default. Either worked for us.
When I click any link on your website or in NYC to see the file containing changes in each NYC version, I get garbled text.
We have not been able to reproduce this. It appears to be browser dependent, so you might try a different web browser. Here is the experience of one NYC user who had this problem:
“If I access the changes file using Mozilla (Firefox) then the changes display fine, as they always have. However, I have started using Safari more often and that is where the problem lies. If I access those changes through Safari and either select the "open" button or the "save" button (and save it to a file; I put it on the desktop for ease) then the information is garbled when I display it. Now that I know that it has something to do with the Safari browser I can get around it.“
I want to copy my NYC user folder to a flash drive for transfer to another computer. I have checked Tools… Options… User Folder and see that the user folder is in my AppData folder, but Windows 7 (or Vista) hides the AppData folder so I cannot access it. What to do?
A few customizations to your Windows Explorer are needed:
- Open Explorer (rt-click Start… Explore…) and click on Organize, then click Folder and Search Options. Click the View tab and click Show Hidden Files and Folders. Now the AppData folder should show under the \Users\Username\ folder. You may need to close Explorer and reopen it to see the AppData folder.
While you are at it, you should make these highly recommended changes to Windows Explorer:
- After you click on Organize, select Layout> Menu Bar. This will give you easy menu access to the Map Drive feature (see Tools… Map Drive…), which is useful for mapping network drives if you are on a network .
- Click on Organize, Folder and Search Options, View tab, then uncheck “Hide extensions for known file types” as this Hide option keeps you from seeing what file types you have (who would not want to know what their file types are?).
The NYC program uses MS Outlook Express to email a recipe or cookbook. Is there anyway to set it to use MS Outlook?
NYC uses your PC's default email program, which is set by you in Windows. To change your PC's default email program to Outlook, use your PC’s Control Panel and look for Internet Options... Programs...
Sometimes NYC menu selections are disabled (grayed out). What is happening?
NYC disables (grays out) menu items that should not be used when certain NYC windows are open. Try closing a few NYC windows, or restart NYC to restore the grayed out menu selections.
I just changed email address, and now my emails to the NYC-MM group are bouncing. How do I get Yahoo Groups to recognize my new email?
1. Click on the link “Change settings via the web” at the bottom of any NYC-MM (or other Yahoo group) email.
2. At the top of the resulting page, where it says “[Sign out, My Account]”, click on the link “My Account”.
3. Enter your Yahoo groups password (or Yahoo id and password if necessary).
4. Under “Member Information” click the link “Edit”.
5. Under “Email Information” add or remove emails and specify which is to be primary (this is the email that groups will send email to). You can send email to a group from any of the Alternate Email addresses.
You may be requested to verify that a newly added email belongs to you. Follow the instructions to do this (click Verify, then when you get the activation email, click the link “Important…” as directed). This may require several times where you need to enter your Yahoo id and/or password.
Sometimes when I press a button in NYC, a completely different program pops up, like Media Player or an Office installation program. What is happening?
NYC sometimes uses hotkeys to press other buttons after you press one, and the other program that is firing up probably has a shortcut key set to the same key sequence that NYC is using. Right click on the other program’s desktop icon (or its Start Menu entry if it has no icon), go to Properties, and clear any Shortcut key (set it to None or at least to another key sequence).
Subfolders under my user folder do not get backed up during File… Backup… and they do not seem to 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 use a certain hot key sequence like Cntl-Alt-Shift with N, R, P, or L in any of my software, certain NYC-related windows pop up instead. What is happening?
Those hot keys are used by NYC. If you don’t want NYC or any NYC-related file to activate when you press those hot key combinations, you must open the Properties of the NYC files and delete the hot key setting. Use the Start Menu, Programs, then right-click Now You’re Cooking Help, License, or other file (the one that is popping up) and select Properties to open the properties for these files. Then clear the hotkey sequence by clicking on the hotkey textbox and pressing your Delete key.
I cannot get NYC’s email functionality to work (v5.62 and higher). What am I doing wrong?
NYC uses a protocol named MAPI (Mail Applications Program Interface) to "talk" to your e-mail program. MAPI is a standard interface that allows NYC and other programs (including Windows itself) to instruct your e-mail program to create a new message, attach a file to it, etc. If MAPI is not properly configured on your system, then NYC, Windows, and certain other programs can't create e-mail for you. "Properly configured" means that:
1. You have a 32-bit MAPI-compliant e-mail program installed (NYC’s email will NOT work with a 64-bit email client);
2. The e-mail program properly supports the "Simple MAPI" interface that NYC requires; and
3. The e-mail program is configured to be the default e-mail program (sometimes called the "default MAPI client").
Examples of popular MAPI-compliant e-mail programs include, but are not limited to, MS Outlook, MS Outlook Express (simple MAPI), MS Exchange, MS Mail, Groupwise 5.0, AOL 7.0, AOL 8.0, and Eudora. AOL versions 4.0, 5.0, and 6.0 are not MAPI-compliant and therefore do not support NYC's e-mail features.
If you cannot send email using the Email/Edit button on NYC's recipe selection window, then your MAPI features are not correctly specifed in your e-mail program, or you do not have a MAPI-compatible e-mail program installed.
If NYC's e-mail support is not operating correctly, yet you know you are using a 32-bit MAPI-compliant email program, see the “Setting Up Your MAPI-Compliant Email Program” link in NYC Help… Reference… File… Email Cookbook… to get program-specific help on configuring your system. Please note that the MAPI email software listed above is not all-inclusive! NYC should work with any full MAPI-compatible e-mail program.
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.
Some buttons on the recipe edit window and meal plan window for moving up/down or forward/back appear to be missing the arrows. Why?
This may be something as simple as a temporary resource problem, which would be fixed by rebooting.
It may also be a rare problem related to your video card and/or driver. One user (the only one I know with this problem) fixed it by reducing the hardware acceleration closer to None than Full, in Control Panel… Display… Settings… Advanced… Performance tab. She was able to see the red arrows on those buttons after that, just like everyone else. And when she contacted Gateway for a new video driver, the problem was solved (she got the red arrows with full hardware acceleration). Another user who had a video card go bad one time lost the red colors on his computer but all the other colors were fine, so it might be an indication of a video card that is about to fail.
Why do the radio button labels not display properly in the recipe selection window? They all are either cut off or run on into each other?
You are probably using a screen font setting of Large Fonts (see Control Panel… Display… Settings tab… Advanced button), or you have the windows scheme set to something other than Windows Standard (see Control Panel… Display… Appearance tab… scheme setting). NYC works best with the following display settings:
Font setting: Small Fonts (or 90 dpi fonts)
Scheme setting: Windows Standard
Video resolution: 1024x768
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Last Updated: 11/13/2023