In this section, you'll learn about some advanced LargoRecipes features. For these, I don't provide tutorial examples, just an explanation of how to use them - so you don't have to be in Demonstration mode to follow along.
If you haven't completed the first section of this tour or the second section, please do that first. In this section, I assume that you've mastered the tasks in the two earlier sections.
In this section:
Using the edit button and frame
The edit button appears on recipe and list frames and looks like
this: 
. When you
click it, you get the edit frame, which looks like this:
The edit frame helps you enter ingredients in a more structured way. There are two natural times to use it:
In the first case, the edit frame is helping you to understand what your choices are - for instance, if you forget how to spell "yoghurt".
In the second case, you are helping LargoRecipes - there are some (hopefully rare) ingredient phrases that LargoRecipes doesn't understand yet, and you need to use the edit frame to enter them. When you encounter such an ingredient phrase, please tell the author of LargoRecipes, so he can improve the program.
Using the edit frame is easy - you just enter each element of the ingredient in the appropriate box, using the pick lists for measures and ingredients. LargoRecipes shows you the text version of the ingredient at the bottom of the edit frame, as you type; the elements are laid out in the order they appear in the edit frame, with a comma between the ingredient and the final adjective. Here's an example of a filled-in edit frame with text:
Click the OK button to enter the ingredient as shown into your recipe or list. Click Cancel to close the edit frame and return to normal typing.
Making a shopping list
Shopping
lists are my favourite feature of LargoRecipes! They really take
the drudgery out of planning an event or just the week's meals.
To make one, type in or fetch a plan in the Plan frame, then
click the shopping list button 
.
(You could try this with the Largo Brunch plan from
the previous section.)
The result is a list frame containing every ingredient in any of the recipes or lists in the plan. Notice that ingredients are combined (four eggs in one recipe and one in another make five eggs in the final list) and measures are converted during the combination (2 teaspoons honey in one recipe and 1 tablespoon honey in another make 4 teaspoons honey in the final list). Neat!
After I make a shopping list, I usually modify or delete the ingredients that I have some or all of, then print the list and save it. I take the list to the grocer and buy everything I need - and if I lose the list, I have it saved in LargoRecipes and can just print it again later. Wow!
Remember to save
the shopping list you create, if you want to be able to use it again
later. You can also change its title if the one LargoRecipes provides isn't what
you want.
Entering reference data (measures and ingredients)
LargoRecipes comes with a wide variety of common measures and ingredients already installed, so most of the time you won't need to enter your own. However, you will probably encounter some ingredients, and maybe some measures, that aren't included. For example, you might need to make a recipe calling for "1 log Lancashire cheese" and you aren't sure whether LargoRecipes knows about a measurement called "log" or an ingredient called "Lancashire cheese". What do you do?
Well, first, you can check the reference data frame, which shows all the measures and ingredients LargoRecipes knows about. To open it, click Reference and choose View measures and ingredients. You get this frame:
Scroll up and down to review the list of measures, and click Ingredients to see a similar list of ingredients. Check for the measure or ingredient you want.
If it turns out that LargoRecipes doesn't know about your measure or ingredient, you can enter it using one of the other two choices on the Reference menu. Click Reference and choose either New measure or New ingredient. You get one of the two frames shown in this screenshot:
Of the two, the Measure frame is a little easier, so let's start with it. You enter the singular and plural version of your measurement in the fields shown, then choose how you would like LargoRecipes to report quantities of this measurement, as fractions like 1 1/2 or as decimals like 1.5. Generally, metric quantities are decimal, while other quantities are fractions. You don't have to follow this convention, however.
(Note that you can always type in quantities as either fractions or decimals - but LargoRecipes will change, say, 1.5 gallons to 1 1/2 gallons for you, since gallons is a measurement set for fractional quantities.)
If your new measure has common abbreviations, or if another name is commonly used for it, enter these in the Synonyms table. Include both singular and plural versions, if they exist. For example, if your measure is "liter", possible synonyms include "l" and "litre" - in the latter case, be sure to include "litres" also.
Once you've entered all the data, click the Save button to record it. If you have more measures to add, you can click the New button to clear the information and start again.
The Ingredient frame is not much different, but here you have to pick between two types of ingredients. Some ingredients, like eggs, have singular and plural forms that you use all the time - sometimes you want 1 egg, and sometimes you want 2 or 3 or 4 eggs. Some other ingredients have only one form in common use in recipes - you don't talk about 2 or 3 or 4 parsleys, for example - and others have singular and plural forms, but you almost always use just one of them - when was the last time you needed just one kidney bean? Notice that you don't need to use a measurement if the ingredient has a singular and a plural form (1 egg, 2 eggs) but that you do need a measure if the ingredient has just one form (1 tablespoon chopped parsley, 1 tin kidney beans). And there isn't anything wrong with using a measure in the first case (1 box eggs), it just isn't required.
LargoRecipes distinguishes between these different types of ingredients so it can show them correctly in recipes, so you need to choose which kind you have when you enter a new ingredient. The rule is this: if people normally use only one form of the ingredient in recipes (even if another form exists), pick Use only one form. Otherwise, pick Use singular and plural forms.
Depending on your choice, you either get two fields to enter - singular and plural - or one. Enter the appropriate form or forms of the name of the ingredient, then click Save. Just like the Measure frame, you can click New to clear out the data and enter a new ingredient.
If you forget what the difference is
between the two types of ingredients, click the What's this? button to get a brief reminder.
This is a preview of integrated help features that you'll see in a future version of LargoRecipes.
Visiting web sites
LargoRecipes makes it easy to visit several recipe-related web sites. Just pick Internet from the main menu and select one of the choices; your default browser opens and shows you the web site. You can keep using LargoRecipes after you open the web site.
LargoRecipes tries to use an appropriate browser for your operating system when you pick a web site from the Internet menu. However, if you want to change the browser, try one of the options available for the "Browser command" property -- see the properties frame instructions.
LargoRecipes in your language
LargoRecipes is fully internationalised, which means it is ready for translation into any language. The program comes with the resources it needs to display in English, its default language.
To localise LargoRecipes for a different language, you need a special resources file that contains translations of its messages. To see a list of available languages and to get the one you want, see the download page. If the language you want isn't available, consider translating LargoRecipes yourself.
Once you have the resource file and have put it in the proper location, start LargoRecipes. If your machine is already set to use the language you've installed, you should see LargoRecipes messages in that language straightaway. (On Windows 2000, for example, to set the local language you click Start, then Settings, then Control Panel, then Regional Options, and pick the appropriate language.)
Customising LargoRecipes
You can customise LargoRecipes in a number of ways using the Properties frame.
Be careful with the Properties frame - it
gives you a lot of power over how LargoRecipes works, so it is easy to change things you didn't really
want to alter. Use the Reset button to restore the original settings if you start seeing strange or
unwanted behaviour.
Open the Properties frame by clicking LargoRecipes on the menu, then picking Properties. You see this frame:
Change the values in the second column to affect the program's behaviour. The third column explains the effect of your change. Changes take effect immediately - you don't have to click a save button or anything. Click the Reset button to reset the options to their original settings.
For instance, if you pick "plainbackground.jpg" in the first
row, the third column changes to indicate that plainbackground.jpg will now be your background image -
and lo and behold, the background is instantly plain. (You can substitute your own background image
by placing it in images/backgrounds inside the folder where you installed LargoRecipes.
It has to be a GIF or JPEG image, and its name has to end with .gif or .jpg.)
The other options are really only for power users, who will be able to figure them out without help
from this tutorial. Change them at your own risk! (If you get really stuck and you can't even open the
Properties frame to change the settings, you can modify the properties.txt file directly. You should
only do this as a last resort though!)
Last updated 28 October 2002
LargoRecipes source code, program, and web site copyright 2001-3 D.
Squirrel
This product is RecipeML compatible.