What should I learn to create a program for this?

neviditelny · 5 Dec 2016 at 06:23

I have had an idea to make a document or a small program to store all my recipes and cook books in to save some space in my accommodation.

I'm looking to do something that looks like a website in the looks, with an index to the left with the different categories as "fish", "meat", "sauces" etc and when clicking on each category you get the next list with the various recipes.

And when clicking on a recipe the recipe loads up in the main "window" more centrally on the screen.
I'm also thinking about having a print function included as well.

Any one have some suggestions in how or what I can do to accomplish this?

tnx · 5 Dec 2016 at 06:47

First thing which springs to my mind is Autoplay Media Studio.

Could make a .exe for that purpose. Can be a complicated tool to use though.

What about a .pdf file ?

Or buy some web space, get Dreamweaver and build a designated web site for your recipes then share with the world.

neviditelny · 5 Dec 2016 at 07:32

I forgot to mention that I never done any programming before.

I was planning to not have it web based as I would like to be able to have access to it even when offline, so for example keeping it in a file on a usb-stick and so.

Can I do something like this project in a pdf file? I have never actually created a pdf-file before.

Deleted member 77746 · 5 Dec 2016 at 09:17

What's up with something like Dropbox ? There will already things created that does exactly what you want.

hargi · 5 Dec 2016 at 12:30

Try rails .... heres a tutorial for you https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhdzE1yNs-0&list=PL23ZvcdS3XPLNdRYB_QyomQsShx59tpc-&index=3

AHarvey · 5 Dec 2016 at 13:07

You could have a PDF, chapters for categories, sub headings for each recipe.

When you click on the content it would load the page up.

I've used Adobe before for it but it's not the cheapest solution and I'm not sure about free alternatives.

You could put USBwebserver on a mem stick and just create a simple WIKI or website on it. That way it's not live online but still functions like a website.

You could even go a little old school and look at a html help file http://www.helpndoc.com/

tnx · 5 Dec 2016 at 13:53

neviditelny said:
I forgot to mention that I never done any programming before.

I was planning to not have it web based as I would like to be able to have access to it even when offline, so for example keeping it in a file on a usb-stick and so.

Can I do something like this project in a pdf file? I have never actually created a pdf-file before.

Sounds like your gunna be learning summet new. Just have fun doing it.
I have made simple 3 or 4 page .pdf documents but not one that sounds like what you want to make.

If I get time in the next day or two I may just have a play at making one with links, pictures and the like. Could be fun trying that out.

As for the Autoplay Media Studio, I made a complicated .exe which had many menus, a multi page display which installed a wide variety of software at the users choice. That was fun to do.

Have you got Excel ? You may be able to do it using that, not had much to do with that app.

Can html files be saved and used off line ?

tnx · 5 Dec 2016 at 20:29

Just been messing about with Acrobat Pro and made a very simple interactive two page document.

Loaded up onto my Google Cloud thingy

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B26JX1zI-khoYU1CZThBLWotZFU

Download it, give it a look, may give you an idea of what Acrobat can do.

ohhhhh, Hope these links are allowed. If not, mod just remove..OK..

Rroff · 5 Dec 2016 at 20:44

If you are digitalising physical books/notes remember to backup and have a good backup at that - awhile back an acquaintance of mine lost years and years of cooking notes, etc. due to only having the one copy.

tnx · 5 Dec 2016 at 21:22

Did a quick mess about with Autoplay media Studio and made a simple three page interactive project.
Zipped it up and put it

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B26JX1zI-khoYlRxdFE2Y1R3azg

give that a download, unzip and run it. It will show what the app can do ( a whole lot more than what I know how to do ).

This may help in deciding what app to use and how to go about getting what you a re after.

tnx · 5 Dec 2016 at 21:23

Thought about scanning ya books directly into a .pdf document.
My scanner does this and its only an off the shelf Cannon.

AHarvey · 5 Dec 2016 at 21:53

tnx said:
Just been messing about with Acrobat Pro and made a very simple interactive two page document.

Loaded up onto my Google Cloud thingy

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B26JX1zI-khoYU1CZThBLWotZFU

Download it, give it a look, may give you an idea of what Acrobat can do.

ohhhhh, Hope these links are allowed. If not, mod just remove..OK..

The problem is, how much is Acrobat Pro? £14 a month or £400+ even monthly it's a bit steep for a cheap personal project.

If you follow the link I posted earlier the software is free and you can create:

pdf's
chm mods
html doc
word doc
epub's
mobi/kindle ebooks
QT help files

I've had a quick play to create a pdf using helpndoc and it's simple to use and save as various versions BUT there is a downside, the free version does add banners to it but tbh, they aren't that bad. You also don't need to export at all, you can use it directly in the software.

Here is an example: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/59330081/Cook Book.pdf

One option that hasn't been mentioned here is OneNote, you can download and install it and it also syncs online, easy to copy and paste into and save snippets from websites. You can create a tab across the top for each subject and then list the individual recipes down the right side. There is also a massive plugin support for it giving it loads of extra bits.

radderfire · 5 Dec 2016 at 21:56

neviditelny said:
Any one have some suggestions in how or what I can do to accomplish this?

I suggest teaching yourself very basic HTML. Just create extremely basic pages using paragraph tags and use hyperlinks to link up the pages. You can then just open it in your browser.

neviditelny · 6 Dec 2016 at 07:31

Tnx, i have been thinking about scannign the books too, but at the moment i dont have a scanner, but that is something im looking to get after xmas.

Rroff, I always have back up stuff. With my music and movies I got them on a standard hdd in the computer, one external hdd and then a third backup on my computer back home in Sweden

For important documents I got them on dropbox and a usb-stick, and some being backed up on my mail too.

I'm starting to look into html as well to see what I could make of that.

AHarvey · 6 Dec 2016 at 09:10

neviditelny said:
Tnx, i have been thinking about scannign the books too, but at the moment i dont have a scanner, but that is something im looking to get after xmas.

Rroff, I always have back up stuff. With my music and movies I got them on a standard hdd in the computer, one external hdd and then a third backup on my computer back home in Sweden For important documents I got them on dropbox and a usb-stick, and some being backed up on my mail too.

I'm starting to look into html as well to see what I could make of that.

If you use the software that I posted above, you can create HTML files with it. Then it's just a case of going into the code and removing the "created by..." code on each page. I'm starting to use it to create a how to manual for noobs at work.

neviditelny · 6 Dec 2016 at 10:25

I had a quick look at that helpndoc thing yesterday, and it looks interesting so I gonna have a closer look into that during the week

Really think it is time to start challenge my head a bit more. Learn to program something would be a good start, just as the courses I've applied for at uni could help too

tnx · 6 Dec 2016 at 13:38

AHarvey said:
The problem is, how much is Acrobat Pro? £14 a month or £400+ even monthly it's a bit steep for a cheap personal project.

If you follow the link I posted earlier the software is free and you can create:

pdf's
chm mods
html doc
word doc
epub's
mobi/kindle ebooks
QT help files

I've had a quick play to create a pdf using helpndoc and it's simple to use and save as various versions BUT there is a downside, the free version does add banners to it but tbh, they aren't that bad. You also don't need to export at all, you can use it directly in the software.

Here is an example: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/59330081/Cook Book.pdf

One option that hasn't been mentioned here is OneNote, you can download and install it and it also syncs online, easy to copy and paste into and save snippets from websites. You can create a tab across the top for each subject and then list the individual recipes down the right side. There is also a massive plugin support for it giving it loads of extra bits.

That looks pretty nice... :cool:

balanceballs · 6 Dec 2016 at 20:23

You could do all of the above, or just use OneNote which will be sufficient for your needs