DVO Enterprises Cook'n Recipe Organizer, Version 12

Like most programs this was clearly written for a PC and tried to be marketed for mac as well. One feature that was important to me was its ability to read and import scans and photos taken with an ipad ,, iphone, or scanner. It does neither although the have a demo showing it and clearly have pull downs on menu that simply do not work. Contacted their technical support and they gave me a link to fix the problem and said they were aware of this. Link did not work and I contacted them again. They admitted it was more difficult a problem than they expected for macs and have NO solution at the present time.I already inputted too many recipes through the internet feature, which works just ok, had to google a lot to find recipes rather than going through their software. I will stick with program but be aware that they have not worked a lot of bugs out of their mac version.

Unlike the previous vendor's cookbook I used, this software delivers a sense of intuitive features and initial trust. Where this software may be a bit overwhelming at first, I STRONGLY suggest you download the manual and just read it - once thru it, you should have a good understanding of how to use the features. The software delivers, and does great things to simplify your life in that you don't have to sit and type each and every recipe out - I have scanned, downloaded, pinned, and even taken photos thru the IPAD to upload about 300 of my recipes that I have held onto for many, many years. The ability to capture and move blocks of text into the recipe software is OUTSTANDING - could not have done this without that feature. I was absolutely dreading the task of typing each of them.... On another note, we did purchase the MasterCook interface, it worked like a charm - just make sure to export an then import into Cook'n.One thing to note - Where the cloud idea is really fantastic, giving the ability to interface between my PC, Ipad, and Iphone, please know that there are some buggy features, that will need to be worked out. We have experienced a few problems with it, but Customer Service, has been very supportive and responsive to our emails. Don't rename cookbooks once established on the base system - the cloud hates it - so think out your organization of cookbooks. Fear not though, the software does do a back up on the system of record, without relying solely on the cloud - think of the cloud interface as an interface tool where you can check recipes on your iphone while at the store for instance. We do back up frequently and the backup is actually easy to find!!!In the end, this software is well worth the price, if you are really interested in capturing recipes from the web, such as Pinterest, blogs, or other established cooking sites. In owning this software for just over a week, I could not be happier with the intuitive features, good design, and ease of just doing the simple things, let alone the more advanced internet interfacing. I want to thank DVO Enterprises for their vision - cookbook software that FINALLY delivers - hands down.

Initially, I was seduced by Cook'n's incredibly vast array of features. This is what it claims to do:1) import recipes from other recipe programs2) download and import recipes directly from the Net3) import scanned recipes4) do nutritional analysis5) create a shopping list5) save your recipes in the cloudThe problem is, most of these features don't work, or work only intermittently. And getting consistent support is equally difficult. To be fair, I had great support twice but absolutely none whatsoever on any of the dozens of times I requested it. And for all this, I paid $70!I have since purchased Living Cookbook (which you can only buy now at their website [...]) for exactly HALF the price of Cook'n. It's not as fancy but is much more intuitive and easy to use.But all these features also mean there's a whole lot to learn, and it can be frustrating at times. The company does provide tech support via email and if email can't solve the problem, it's possible to initiate a remote access session.Cook'n advertises that it will allow imports from other recipe programs (after you buy a $10 plug-in), be able to download recipes directly from the Net and can import scanned recipes, complete with photos. However, I have been unable to get it to do most of those things, and customer support has been unable to help. It might work out if I could call them and have them walk me through the steps, but they are adamant that support is only available via email, and that route has been little more than an exchange of "I can't get the program to do X" vs. "Oh yes you can!" Very unsatisfactory! That said, the built-in recipe search engine has performed flawlessly, as has the old-fashioned typed-in-by-hand method of recipe addition. .

The program works fairly well but you cannot download your Pintrest recipies. You still have to go in one at a time and and put them in. Also scanning in a hand written recipe is not transferring over the way the demo shows. Other than that it is fairly easy to use.