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QuikBook Recipe Manager
Version 0.96 Beta
User's Guide
Copyright (C) 1989, 1990 by
Robert J. Butler
All Rights Reserved
Robert J. Butler
7432 Sheridan Avenue South
Richfield, Minnesota 55423
Sysop of Erewhon BBS
(612) 866-4178
Fidonet 1:282/36
QuikBook Version 0.96ß User's Guide (draft/4) Page: 2
Contents
2
2
Contents 2
Overview 3
License 4
Standard Disclaimer 5
Installation 6
Getting Help 7
Starting QuikBook 8
Configuring QuikBook 9
External Programs 9
Printer Configuration 10
Video Configuration 11
Miscellaneous Configuration 12
Relinking or Rebuilding the Index 13
Working with Single Recipes 14
Adding Recipes 14
Displaying Recipes 15
Exporting Recipes 16
Importing Recipes 16
Working with Groups of Recipes 18
Searching for Recipes 18
Marking Recipes 18
Printing Indexes 19
Technical Information 20
QuikBook Files 20
Why use archives? 21
Import Specifications 22
Quick Entry Quick Reference 23
Credits 24
Registration Form 25
QuikBook Version 0.96ß User's Guide (draft/4) Page: 3
Overview
QuikBook (or QBook) is a program designed to help you maintain
a database of recipes.
Recipes are almost completely free-format and are stored as
text files. QuikBook will optionally store the recipes in a
compressed file using a utility such as PKZip, ARC or LHARC.
You can search for recipes using titles and keywords. A
recipe can contain any number of 60 character keywords.
QuikBook allows you to easily select and work with groups of
recipes. The recipe selection function works together with
the searching function so you can search for a particular
keyword and then select some or all of the recipes that match.
QuikBook's Import and Export functions allow for easy exchange
of recipes and easy addition of existing recipes files into
QuikBook without retyping. QuikBook can also Import recipes
that have been exported by Episoft System's MealMaster.
Although QuikBook has many configuration options, it comes
pre-configured for the average user. You can customize your
printer, screen colors, the editor you want to use to edit
your recipes, the utilities you want to use if you compress
the recipe files, any many more options.
QuikBook can be used as a stand alone program, but is designed
to be used with an external file compression utility (such as
PKZIP/PKUNZIP, ARC, etc) and an external text editor or word
processor. If you use a word processor, it must have the
capability to save an ASCII (or unformatted text) file with
line breaks.
QuikBook can be run either from floppy disks or from a hard
disk, although a hard disk is recommended. If recipe or
archive files are not found, QuikBook will ask if you want it
to try again, to allow you to change diskettes on a floppy
system.
The newest version of QuikBook may be obtained from Erewhon
BBS (612) 866-4178. First time callers will be able to
download the program. QuikBook is also File Requestable as
QBOOK from 282/36 (3/12/2400 baud). QuikBook is also File
Requestable as QBOOK from 282/31 (14.4 HST) although new
versions may take a day or two to appear there.
QuikBook Version 0.96ß User's Guide (draft/4) Page: 4
License
QuikBook is Shareware. It is NOT Public Domain software and
it is NOT free software.
The program QuikBook, this document and the help screens
displayed within QuikBook are all Copyright (C) 1989-1990 by
Robert J. Butler. All rights reserved. You may use, copy and
distribute QuikBook only under the following conditions:
Non-registered users have a limited license to use QuikBook on
their systems for an evaluation period of thirty days. Any
use beyond this period requires that QuikBook be registered
with the author.
If you use of QuikBook (or any shareware product) beyond the
evaluation period without registering it you are stealing.
QuikBook may not be modified in any way for any reason. This
includes, but is not limited to, removal of the opening
"reminder" screen. The only legal way to remove this screen
is to register the program.
You may distribute QuikBook to others under the following
conditions:
1) You distribute only the shareware version and do not
distribute the program or any utilities that are provided
to registered users.
2) The program is distributed in its original form and with
its original files. You may, however, change from one
compressed format to another (ie: from ZIP to ARC)
provided all files are kept in the compressed file.
3) If you charge to distribute the program (excluding on-
line fees for BBS systems), you must obtain PRIOR WRITTEN
PERMISSION from the author at the address listed on the
registration form. You must also CLEARLY AND EXPLICITLY
STATE to your customers that the fee you charge does not
register the program, and that they are still required to
register the program with the author if they use it
beyond the evaluation period.
QuikBook Version 0.96ß User's Guide (draft/4) Page: 5
Standard Disclaimer
QuikBook is provided AS IS with no expressed or implied
warranties.
Use QuikBook at your own risk. The author will not be liable
for any damages or loss of data resulting either directly or
indirectly from the use of the program. The author will not
be responsible if the program fails to operate as desired by
the user or as described in this manual or the help screens.
Put simply, the program comes with absolutely no guarantees.
The program has been thoroughly tested, but it is always
possible to miss something. Always keep backups of your data.
QuikBook Version 0.96ß User's Guide (draft/4) Page: 6
Installation
To install QuikBook, copy the file QBOOK.EXE to the disk you
want to use for the program. You may place it in a
subdirectory if you want.
QuikBook can be told to look for its data files in a directory
or on a disk other than the one you put the program in. The
DATA directory (see Configuring QuikBook) will contain the
help file and the three index files that QuikBook will create
the first time you run it. If you don't specify a data
directory, QuikBook will look for these files in the directory
you run the program from.
If you want to use a data directory, create the subdirectory
if necessary and copy the file QBHELP.DAT there.
QuikBook will pack all of your recipes into a compressed
archive file unless you tell it not to (see configuring
QuikBook). You can tell QuikBook to store these archive files
in the ARCHIVE directory (which can be a subdirectory or a
disk other than the one the program is on). If you don't
specify an archive directory, QuikBook will store the archive
files in the directory you run the program from.
If you want to use an archive directory, create the
subdirectory if necessary. QuikBook will create the archive
files as you add recipes.
When you work with a recipe, QuikBook looks for it in the WORK
directory. If you are using archives, QuikBook will extract
the recipes from the archive and temporarily store them in the
work directory. If you are not using archives, the recipe
files will permanently be stored in the work directory. If
you don't specify a work directory, QuikBook will store the
recipe files in the directory you run the program from.
If you want to use a work directory, create the subdirectory
if necessary. If you have one, a RAM disk makes a good choice
for the work directory if you are using archives.
If QuikBook can't find a file in the work directory or the
archive directory it will allow you to change diskettes. It
must ALWAYS be able to access the files in the data directory,
however, in will abort if they are not found.
The rest of the installation process is done from within
QuikBook.
QuikBook Version 0.96ß User's Guide (draft/4) Page: 7
Getting Help
Unless QuikBook is busy printing or reading or writing to the
disk, the Alt-H key will always pop up a help screen. Many
help screens have more than one page, and you can see
additional information by pressing the Page Down (marked PGDN)
key. Each help screen is linked to related help topics, you
can select the topic you wish to view with the arrow keys and
then press ENTER. The Help Index is selectable from all of
the help screens and lists all of the help topics that are
available.
Another key that is useful is the ESCAPE key. This key will
get you out of wherever you are and pressing it repeatedly
will eventually bring you to the main screen. Pressing escape
from the main screen will cause QuikBook to ask you if you are
sure you want to exit. If you do, press Y, if not, press N.
QuikBook Version 0.96ß User's Guide (draft/4) Page: 8
Starting QuikBook
Type QBOOK at the DOS prompt. QuikBook will look for the file
QBOOK.CFG in your current DOS directory. If it doesn't find
it, it will also look for it in the directory that QBOOK.EXE
is in. These two directories are normally the same.
The file QBOOK.CFG is used by QuikBook to store your
configuration (information on how you want the program to
work). If it is not found (and it won't be the first time you
run QuikBook), QuikBook will create the file with a default
set of options and display the configuration menu to you to
allow you to change things.
QuikBook accepts three command line parameters. If you have
an older color adapter and the screen flickers when QuikBook
runs, you can turn on CGA snow checking by typing "QBOOK /S+"
at the DOS prompt
QuikBook normally writes direct to video memory. This is a
fast method of displaying information on the screen, but
occasionally causes problems (for example in a multitasking
environment). If you want QuikBook to use BIOS screen writes
instead of direct screen writes, type "QBOOK /B+" at the DOS
prompt.
Both snow checking and BIOS writes can be turned on
permanently (see Configuring QuikBook).
The final command line parameter tells QuikBook that you want
to make configuration changes before it tries to load its data
files. For example, if you move the data files to a different
directory in DOS instead of in the program, QuikBook will not
know where to find them. You can type "QBOOK /I" at the DOS
prompt and you will go directly to the configuration menu
where you can make your changes.
QuikBook Version 0.96ß User's Guide (draft/4) Page: 9
Configuring QuikBook
The first time you use QuikBook, it will set up the default
configuration and display the configuration menu so you can
make whatever customizations you desire.
External Programs
If you want QuikBook to store your recipes compressed in
archive files, you need to tell it what external programs to
use to do this. If you don't want to use archive files, just
blank out all of the commands dealing with archives (just
press the delete key before any other key to erase a data
entry field).
QuikBook comes set up to archive the recipe files with the
shareware programs PKZip and PKUnzip from PKWare. These
programs were chosen because they are widely available and
they work well. If they are the programs you want to use, you
do not need to change the archive commands.
If you want to use utilities other than the ZIP utilities, the
following commands need to be defined. In all cases, put "%A"
in place of the file name where the program is expecting the
name of the archive file, and %F in place of the file name
where the program is expecting the name of the recipe file.
The command to get (extract) the recipe file from the archive.
Examples are "PKUNZIP %A %F" for zipfiles and "LHARC e %A %F"
for lzhfiles.
The command to copy the recipe file to the archive. Examples
are "PKZIP -U %A %F" for zipfiles and "LHARC u %A %F" for
lzhfiles.
The command to MOVE (copy and delete the original) the recipe
file to the archive. Examples are "PKZIP -M %A %F" for
zipfiles and "LHARC m %A %F" for lzhfiles.
The command to delete the recipe file from the archive.
Examples are "PKZIP -D %A %F" for zipfiles and "LHARC d %A %F"
for lzhfiles.
QuikBook Version 0.96ß User's Guide (draft/4) Page: 10
QuikBook also needs to know what external editor you want to
use to edit your recipes. You will need to specify this
unless you never want to add or change your recipes. QuikBook
comes set up to use the shareware program QEdit, from Semware,
again because it is widely available and works well. If you
would rather use a different editor or a word processor, the
only requirement is that it be able to save files in ASCII
(unformatted text) with returns after each line.
For the editor command, put "%F" in place of the file name
where it is expecting the name of the file to edit. Examples
are "Q %F" for Qedit, and "EDLIN %F" for the DOS line editor.
Printer Configuration
QuikBook allows you to customize the way it prints recipes and
indexes. These are advanced options and you do not need to
change them if you just want to print the recipes and indexes
on a standard 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper.
Each of the following options can be set differently for
recipes and for index printing:
Device: This can be a file name, in which case QuikBook
will write the recipe or index to the disk
file, or it can be a DOS device (such as a
printer port). Normally, this is your standard
printer device, PRN. The device or file name
can also be changed at the time you print.
NOTE: printer initialization and
deinitialization codes are sent even if you are
printing to a file.
Page length: This is the number of lines your printer prints
on a single form or sheet of paper. You may
want to print recipes on index cards, in which
case you would change this. You will have to
experiment and find out how many lines your
printer prints on an index card.
Margins: This is the number of blank lines printed on
the top and bottom of each page.
Init: This is a list of codes to send to your printer
to set it up before printing the recipe or
index. If you don't understand how to control
your printer with escape or control sequences,
consult your printer manual before setting
these. You don't need to set them unless you
want to use advanced printing options.
QuikBook Version 0.96ß User's Guide (draft/4) Page: 11
The codes should be a list of ASCII values that
set your printer properly for the way you want
things printed. For example, on an Epson
compatible printer you can set 12 cpi and a
left margin of 1 inch with the following: "27
77 27 108 12" or you can set condensed mode and
8 lines per inch (good for recipe cards) with
"27 15 27 48".
DeInit: This is the list of codes to set the printer
back to normal after printing the recipe or
index. The codes should be in the same format
as for Init.
Bold on: This is the list of codes to turn on bold
print. It is only used in the combined index
to make recipes titles easier to find. The
format is the same as Init and DeInit.
Bold off: This is the list of codes to turn OFF bold
print. Again, the format is the same as Init
and DeInit.
QuikBook always expects to be able to print 80 columns across,
if you make any changes to the standard printer configuration,
make sure your paper width, margins and print pitch provide 80
columns for text.
Video Configuration
The first time you run QuikBook all screens will be displayed
in monochrome (black and white or maybe amber or green
depending on the type of monitor you have). If you want to
use QuikBook's default colors, you can quickly select them by
selecting Video Configuration from the configuration menu and
then pressing Alt-C. If you want to go back to monochrome at
a later date, you can do so by pressing Alt-M from the Video
Configuration screen.
If you want to customize your colors, you can tell QuikBook
what color attributes to use for each type of screen. The
help screen for the Video Configuration screen provides a
chart to assist in determining attributes.
As was mentioned in the section "Starting QuikBook", you can
also permanently turn on BIOS screen writes or CGA snow
checking.
QuikBook Version 0.96ß User's Guide (draft/4) Page: 12
Miscellaneous Configuration
Search mode: There are two methods of searching available
in QuikBook. Quick searches and Full searches.
Quick search uses a very fast search method to
find recipes. However, only those recipes
where the search string matches the beginning
of a title or keyword will be matched. For
example, if you search on "Chicken", "Chicken
Stir Fry" would match, but "Stir Fried Chicken"
would not. Careful use of keywords can give
you the speed advantage of Quick Search and
still give you flexible searches. For example,
if you gave "Stir Fried Chicken" a keyword of
"Chicken" it would have matched in the above
example. Keywords are discussed in more detail
in the section "Working with Recipes: Adding
Recipes"
Full search examines each entry in the index
and matches all recipes where the search string
appears anywhere in the title or keyword. In
the above example, Full Search WOULD match
"Stir Fried Chicken, even if you didn't give it
a keyword of "Chicken". Full Search is much
slower than quick search, but gives you more
matches if the keywords are not detailed
enough.
Menu and QuikBook has two user interfaces, or ways for
Quick Entry you to choose functions: Menu mode and Quick
modes: Entry mode. You may switch between the two at
any time with the F1 key.
If you are using menus, you select your choice
from the menu and are prompted for any
additional information required.
Using Quick Entry, your options are a lot more
flexible but not as straightforward. You will
see a prompt that says "Enter a recipe number
or a search string or use Alt keys." The Quick
Entry keys are listed in Appendix A, or you can
see the list by pressing Alt-H at the main
screen.
QuikBook Version 0.96ß User's Guide (draft/4) Page: 13
Cleanup Mode: If you are using archives, QuikBook will
normally leave the changed recipes in your work
directory (see below) and move them to the
archive as a group. If you would rather have
QuikBook move the recipes to the archive
immediately, you can tell it to do so.
If you are using archives, you can tell QuikBook how many
recipes you want it to keep in each archive. Copying recipes
to an archive tends to slow down when it gets large, so
depending on how fast your disk drive is, you may want to make
this number smaller. This number is normally 100, and that
works well for most hard disk systems. On a floppy disk
system you may want to reduce this number to 50 or even 20.
If you change the number of recipes per archive, QuikBook will
ask you if you want the files converted and convert them for
you if you say yes.
As mentioned in the section on installation, QuikBook can
store its data files, the archive files, and the recipe or
work files in separate directories and/or on separate disk
drives. If you change one of these directories, QuikBook will
ask you if you want it to move the file for you and do so if
you say yes.
QuikBook needs to have enough memory to load the archive
programs and the editor in addition to itself. The
Miscellaneous Configuration screen shows you how much memory
is available for the external programs, and lets you fine tune
the memory usage to allow yourself more memory if you don't
have enough. Normally this is not necessary.
Relinking or Rebuilding the Index
No matter how many safety and error checks are built into a
program, there is always the possibility that something can go
wrong -- disk errors, power outages, etc -- and damage the
data files.
The relink option reads the index file and re-sorts it. If
searches don't work, relinking will probably fix the problem.
Relink does NOT compare the index to the actual recipe files,
it assumes the information in the index is correct, but the
record links are damaged.
If relink doesn't fix things, The rebuild option should be
able to fix your database unless recipe files or archives are
damaged. Rebuild erases the current index files and rebuilds
them by reading the information from each recipe.
You would normally only use rebuild if you somehow lost one or
more your index files (QBOOK.DT0, QBOOK.DT1 and QBOOK.DT2).
QuikBook Version 0.96ß User's Guide (draft/4) Page: 14
Working with Single Recipes
A "recipe" to QuikBook can be anything at all. It doesn't
need to be instructions for preparing a food item. For
example, if you have a lot of cookbooks with favorite recipes,
rather than typing them into QuikBook you can simply add a
"recipe" that is a reference to the page number in your
cookbook. This way you can utilize the searching capabilities
of QuikBook without having to type in recipes that you already
have somewhere else.
Other ideas are to store conversion tables or titles of
cookbooks that you'd like to find someday. QuikBook makes
them easy to find when you need them.
Adding Recipes
To add a recipe, choose the option from the main menu, or if
you are using Quick Entry mode, press Alt-A. If you type in a
title before pressing Alt-A, QuikBook will use that title for
your new recipe.
When you add a recipe, QuikBook creates a file called
RECIPE##.###, where ##,### is the number of the recipe being
created. If you create a file named TEMPLATE.QBK and place it
in your data directory, QuikBook will use that as a template
(ie: it will be copied to your new recipe prior to loading the
editor) when you create a new recipe. If it is not found,
QuikBook will put create a file with a "Title:" line and a
"Keyword:" line for you.
The first thing you should do is type in the title of the
recipe you are adding. If you want to take advantage of
QuikBook's indexing and searching capabilities, the next thing
you should do is add keywords, which are used by QuikBook to
search for a recipe. You do this by typing "Keywords: " (if
it isn't already there) on line two and then typing in your
keywords separated by commas. If you have too many keywords
to fit on a line (80 characters across), just add another line
beginning with "Keywords: ". Do not put a comma at the end
of a keywords line, even if there are more keywords on the
next line.
Choosing keywords carefully makes it much easier for you to
find the recipe you are looking for. QuikBook doesn't have
the capability to search ingredients or the text of the
recipe, so it is a good idea to list major ingredients as
keywords. The best way to choose keywords is to think in
terms of an index in a cookbook: What would you look under if
you wanted to find this recipe and couldn't remember the
title? You can have as many keywords as you want. Only the
first 60 characters each keywords and title are indexed.
QuikBook Version 0.96ß User's Guide (draft/4) Page: 15
Once you have entered your title and keywords, all you need to
do is type in your recipe. Each line of your recipe should be
less than 80 characters. Once you are done, save the file and
exit the editor. QuikBook will add the recipe to the index
and move it to the archive if you specified a command to do so
when you configured the program. If you deleted the default
command and left it blank, the recipe will not be moved and
will be left in the RECIPE##.### file. Otherwise, the
RECIPE##.### file will be deleted since it is now stored in
the archive.
Displaying Recipes
To display a recipe, choose the option from the main menu, or
if you are using Quick Entry mode, type the recipe number and
press Enter. You can also display recipes from the mark/view
screen by selecting the recipe with the arrow keys and
pressing enter (see Marking Recipes).
When a recipe is displayed, the title, recipe number and
keywords are displayed on top. This header information does
not scroll, the rest of the recipe can be scrolled with the
Up, Down, PGUP and PGDN, Home and End keys. The Up and Down
arrow keys scroll up or down one line at a time, PGUP and PGDN
scroll a whole page at a time. Home displays the first page
of the recipe, End displays the last.
The following Quick Entry keys may be used while displaying a
recipe. There is no menu mode while displaying a recipe since
the menu would hide the recipe text.
Alt-E: Loads the external editor that you specified when
you configured the program and allows you to edit
the recipe. On exit, if any changes were made to
the recipe, those changes will be added to the data
files.
Alt-T: Allows you to change the title without loading the
external editor.
Alt-K: Allows you to change or add keywords without loading
the external editor.
Alt-O: Asks you for a file name and then writes the recipe
to the file, adding to the end of any existing text
in the file.
Alt-P: Prints the recipe.
QuikBook Version 0.96ß User's Guide (draft/4) Page: 16
Exporting Recipes
Importing and exporting provide an easy way of exchanging
recipes. When you export a recipe, QuikBook writes the
recipe, its title and all its keywords into a file along with
lines that mark the beginning and end of the recipe. The
markers are necessary because one file can contain many
exported recipes and QuikBook needs to be able to tell where
one recipe ends and another begins. An exported recipe isn't
formatted in any special way, aside from the begin and end
markers.
Exporting provides an easy way to exchange recipes. Just give
a file of exported recipes to someone, either on floppy disks
or by uploading to a computer bulletin board system (BBS), and
that person can quickly import all of the recipes into his or
her copy of QuikBook. Exported recipes can also be posted as
messages on a computer BBS and other users can save them and
import them.
To export a recipe, press Alt-O (for OUTPUT) from the recipe
display screen.
Importing Recipes
Importing is the complement of exporting. When you import a
recipe, QuikBook reads a file that has been exported by
someone else and adds the recipe to your database without you
having to type the recipe in.
You can also modify a recipe that isn't in the proper format
to "fool" QuikBook into thinking it was exported by another
QuikBook database.
All you need to do is edit the file containing the recipes you
want to import into QuikBook and type "-Begin Recipe Export-"
(without the quote marks, but with the dashes) on a line
immediately before the start of the recipe. Then go to the
end of the recipe and type "-End Recipe Export-" on a line
immediately after the end of the recipe. There can be as many
recipes as you want in a file, but each one must have the
begin and end markers. Anything between the end of one recipe
and the start of another will be ignored by QuikBook.
Recipe text is exactly as described in the section "Adding
Recipes". There should be a line in the recipe (preferably
the first) identifying the title, "Title: <title>". (you
replace <title> with the title of your recipe) If there isn't
a title tag, QuikBook will still import the recipe, but will
give it the title "<unknown>".
QuikBook Version 0.96ß User's Guide (draft/4) Page: 17
It is recommended that there also be one or more keywords
(preferably following the title line). The keyword lines
should start with "Keywords:" and multiple keywords on a line
should be separated by commas. There can be more than one
keyword line.
QuikBook can also import recipes exported from the program
Meal-Master, another fine recipe database. You do not need to
modify Meal-Master's exports in any way, QuikBook will be able
to read them without modification.
To import a recipe, choose import from the main menu, or press
Alt-I in Quick Entry mode and you will be prompted for a file
name. If you press ENTER without entering a file name, a list
of files will be displayed and you can choose from them using
the arrow keys. In Quick Entry mode you can also type in a
file name and then press Alt-I and importing will begin
without prompting you for a file name.
QuikBook Version 0.96ß User's Guide (draft/4) Page: 18
Working with Groups of Recipes
Often you want to work with more than one recipe at a time.
QuikBook's Marked Recipe functions allow you to select a group
of recipes to work with. If you choose the "Mark Recipes/View
Titles" command from the main menu, or press Alt-M in Quick
Entry mode, QuikBook will ask you for a search string (see the
next section). In Quick Entry mode, you can also just type
the search string and press either Alt-M or Enter and QuikBook
will begin searching without prompting you.
While in the Mark/View screen you can go directly to the
recipe display screen by selecting a recipe with the arrow
keys and pressing ENTER. If you press ENTER a second time, or
press the ESCAPE key, you will return to the Mark/View screen.
Searching for Recipes
When you search, you will be prompted for a search string (the
keyword or title you want to search for, or just the first few
letters of the keyword or title). If you don't enter a search
string, QuikBook will assume you want to work with all of the
recipes. The section on Miscellaneous Configuration describes
QuikBook's two search modes, Quick and Full.
Marking Recipes
The Marked Recipe screen shows the recipe numbers and titles
of all recipes matching the search string you entered. You
can scroll through the list using Up, Down, PGUP, PGDN, Home
and End.
You can mark and unmark individual recipes by pressing the
space bar. When a recipe is marked, arrow symbols will appear
on each side of the recipe number. To mark all of the recipes
in the list, press Alt-M (mark all). To unmark all of the
recipes that are marked, press Alt-U (unmark all).
Once you have marked all the recipes you want to work with,
you need to tell QuikBook what you want to do with them. You
can pop up a menu by pressing the F1 key, or you can use Quick
Entry keys. If you pop up the menu, you will not be able to
mark or unmark individual recipes unless you press F1 again
and remove the menu. If no recipes are marked, QuikBook will
assume that you want to use the command on just the recipe
that is highlighted by the cursor.
QuikBook Version 0.96ß User's Guide (draft/4) Page: 19
The following Quick Entry keys perform the exact same
functions as the corresponding menu choices:
Alt-D: Deletes all of the marked recipes and removes them
from the index and the archive (arc, zip, etc)
files. If you are not using archives, the recipe
file itself is deleted.
Alt-P: Prints all of the marked recipes.
Alt-O: Output or Export. This command writes all of the
marked recipes to a file of your choice. If the
file exists, the recipes will be added to the end.
See Exporting.
Alt-M: Mark all of the recipes in the list.
Alt-U: Unmark all of the recipes in the list.
Printing Indexes
There are three types of indexes that can be printed: titles,
keywords and combined. The title index lists all titles in
alphabetical order, along with the recipe numbers (which are
assigned in order as you add or import recipes).
The keyword index lists the titles alphabetically, but grouped
by keywords. For example: The keyword "Candies" would be
listed followed by an indented list of the titles of all
recipes containing that keyword. Recipe titles are ONLY
listed under the appropriate keywords, if a recipe does not
contain any keywords, it WILL NOT BE PRINTED in the keyword
index.
The combined index, as the name suggests, is a combination of
the keyword index and the title index. The combined index
resembles a good cookbook index where you can look up either a
keyword or a title. Titles appear in boldface in the
alphabetical listing along with the keywords, they also appear
in the indented list of each keyword that the recipe is
indexed under.
QuikBook Version 0.96ß User's Guide (draft/4) Page: 20
Technical Information
QuikBook was written using Microsoft QuickC version 2.01. The
video functions (screens, menus, etc) are performed by Mike
Smedley's Shareware function library, CXL (version 5.2).
QuikBook Files
QBook creates three index files. QBOOK.DT0 is always 8K and
simply tells QBook which recipes exist. Each bit in the file
identifies a recipe, thus there can be 65,536 recipes maximum.
(The zero recipe is used for maintenance purposes, so you
really only get 65,535). QBOOK.DT1 is used for indexing and
its size depends on the number of recipe titles and keywords.
QBOOK.DT2 is a quick lookup title index. It contains as many
61-byte records as you have recipes. These files are stored
in the DATA directory defined in configuration.
If QuikBook finds the optional TEMPLATE.QBK file in the DATA
directory, it will use it as a template for creating new
recipes.
QBook expects to find the file QBOOK.CFG either in the current
working directory or in the same directory as QBOOK.EXE. This
file contains the configuration information for QBook.
Recipes are given a name of the form: RECIPE##.###, where
##,### is the recipe number from 1 to 65,535. If you are
using archives, these files normally won't be physically
present (they are kept in the archive files), but if you
reboot or lose power while using QBook, they may be there.
They will be moved to the proper archive file the next time
you run QuikBook. These files are stored in the WORK
directory.
Finally, the REC##### files contain the RECIPE##.### files.
The extension of these files depends on the compression tool
you use (there is no extension for subdirectories). For the
default configuration, the name is RECIP###.ZIP. These files
are stored in the ARCHIVE directory.
The ##,### portion of the archive file name identifies the
number of the first recipe it contains. For example,
REC00100.ZIP contains recipe00.100 through recipe00.199 (if
using the default 100 recipes per archive file).
QuikBook maintains all these files for you, so all you need to
do is back them up regularly in case of disk failure or human
error. Make sure you get all the archive files AND the
QBOOK.DT? files when you back up the data.
QuikBook Version 0.96ß User's Guide (draft/4) Page: 21
Why use archives?
QuikBook stores the recipes as individual files for a number
of reasons. Primarily because it is much easier to lose all
of your data if all the recipes are stored in a single file.
If one of the QuikBook's recipe files becomes corrupt, you
still have the rest of your recipes.
All of the information about a recipe is stored in the file
itself, so even if the index files are erased, they can easily
be rebuilt.
The disadvantage to storing recipes this way is the amount of
disk space used. At first, this may not seem like much since
recipe files are often very small, usually less than 1024
bytes.
Unfortunately, DOS has an inefficient method of storing files,
especially when those files are small. The problem is the
cluster size of the disk. The amount of disk space taken up
by a file is in multiples of this number. The cluster size is
typically 1, 2 or 4K bytes. (On a high density floppy it is
512 bytes and on a low density floppy it is 1K)
When you compress recipes into archive files, you have less
files and thus less disk space wasted.
In an example taken from the author's system, 533 recipes
totaling 544,796 actual bytes take up 1,167,360 bytes on a
hard disk with 2K clusters. Those same files stored 100
recipes per archive total 388,096 bytes and take up 393,216
bytes of disk space.
Those same recipe files moved to a hard disk with 4K clusters
take up an incredible 2,199,552 bytes of disk space! That's
75% wasted! Stored 100 recipes per archive, the amount of
disk space used shrinks to 397,312 bytes.
Storing the recipes in archives does slow things down
slightly, so you will have to decide whether time or space is
more important to you when determining whether to use
archives. On a floppy system it might make more sense to not
use archives, since the speed difference will be more
pronounced and the disk space wasted less pronounced.
QuikBook Version 0.96ß User's Guide (draft/4) Page: 22
Import Specifications
When reading an import file, QuikBook will start loading a
recipe when it finds a line containing "Recipe Extracted from"
OR "-Begin Recipe Export-". It keeps reading until it finds a
line containing "-End Recipe Export-" or IF AND ONLY IF it
started with "Recipe Extracted from" it stops when it finds a
line that DOES NOT start with two blank spaces, is EXACTLY 77
characters long, and ends with at least eight dashes.
It DOES NOT let recipes that started with a "-Begin Recipe
Export-" end with a line of dashes, but it does let recipes
that start with "Recipe Extracted from" end with an "-End
Recipe Export-".
There can be text before the first begin marker, and between
an end marker and the next begin marker -- QuikBook will
ignore it.
If an end marker is spelled incorrectly (or a Meal Master
import has been changed so the last line isn't as described
above), QuikBook will keep going until it finds an end marker
or the recipe exceeds one of the size limits set in
configuration.
If QuikBook comes across a second begin marker while reading a
recipe, it just assumes it is part of the recipe. It only
stops when it sees an end marker.
The begin and end markers are not case sensitive in version
0.96 or later. They must, however, be exactly as described
above (without the quotes and with the dashes). There can be
no spaces between the dashes and the letter they precede or
follow.
After reaching the end of a recipe, QuikBook looks for
"Title:", "TITLE:" or "title:" and takes the 60 characters
following the colon as the title (skipping preceding spaces
and ending at the end of the line).
Next, it looks for any lines containing "Keyword:", "KEYWORD:"
or "keyword:" and expects keywords to be comma separated or on
separate lines.
If the recipe was a Meal Master export, it looks for
"Categories" and identifies individual keywords as starting
with capital letters. "Categories" is changed to "Keywords"
and commas are added.
QuikBook Version 0.96ß User's Guide (draft/4) Page: 23
Quick Entry Quick Reference
From the main prompt, This is what
if you: will happen:
Enter a recipe number The recipe for the number you
selected is displayed.
Press ENTER The Marked Recipe screen will be
displayed with all titles shown.
Enter a search string or The Marked Recipe screen will
Type a search string and be displayed showing all titles
press Alt-M matching the string. See
"Searching for Recipes" and
"Marking Recipes"
Press Alt-M The Marked Recipe screen will be
displayed and you will be
prompted for a search string.
Press Alt-A The external editor will be
loaded to allow you to enter a
new recipe. See "Editing
Recipes"
Type a title and The same as Alt-A, but the
press Alt-A recipe will be given the title
you entered when it is loaded
into the editor.
Press Alt-I You will be prompted for a file
name to import from and
importing will begin. See
"Importing".
Type a file name and QuikBook will begin importing
press Alt-I from the file name you entered.
Press Alt-P You will be prompted for the
type of index you want to print.
See "Printing".
Press Alt-C The configuration menu will be
displayed.
QuikBook Version 0.96ß User's Guide (draft/4) Page: 24
Credits
ARC is a trademark of System Enhancement Associates
Epson is a trademark of Epson America, Inc.
Meal-Master is a trademark of Scott Welliver and Episoft
Systems
MS-DOS is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation
PKZIP and PKUNZIP are trademarks of PKWARE, Inc.
Thanks to the participants of the Fidonet Cooking Echo for
giving me the inspiration and incentive to write this program.
A special thanks to the people who have Alpha tested this
version and provided many suggestions and bug reports: Sheryl
LeWinter, Bill Danahey and Mike Avery.
Thanks also to the other active participants on the QuikBook
Beta and support echo: Ellen Cleary, John DeCarlo, Hobert
Keaton, Barbara Tucker. (And to Willie Wilson and John
Woodward for carrying the echo for their users).
And thanks to the other users who have take the time to send
me comments and suggestion.
And finally, thanks to my wife, Dori Butler, for helping me
make this documentation more readable and understandable.
QuikBook Version 0.96ß User's Guide (draft/4) Page: 25
Registration Form
QuikBook is Shareware. If you use it beyond the thirty day
evaluation period, you must register it.
For $20 (US) you will receive a diskette containing the most
recent version of QuikBook and a set of QuikBook utilities
that are only available to registered users.
If you register or have registered a version of QuikBook prior
to version 1.00, the following introductory offer applies:
If the paid registration is postmarked on or before April 20,
1990 the registration cost is $10 (US). You will receive a
diskette with QuikBook 1.00 and utilities when it is released.
Please send your registration to:
Robert J. Butler
7432 Sheridan Ave. South
Richfield, MN 55423
QuikBook 0.96 beta registration form
Name:__________________________________________
Address:____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
Fidonet address (if any):_______________________________
If the registration is postmarked on or before 4/20/90:
____ Copies of QuikBook @ $10 each: $__________
If the registration is postmarked after 4/20/90
____ Copies of QuikBook @ $20 each: $__________
Disk format: 5 1/4" _____ 3 1/2" _____
Comments/Problems:
