I like it for the price

Pros: I went searching for an affordable recipe program and found Recipe Center 5. This program is really helpful to me to organize my recipes I have found online, in cookbooks, as well as storing family favorites. It is user friendly and pretty simple to use right from download. One of the best feature is that I am able to print in 3x5 or 4x6 format, which I did not see in any other downloadable management database. I also like that you can import pictures of the recipe.

Cons: There are downsides - one is stability of the program (major), the ability to import from other formats and some feature that are quirky and seem pointless. (minor).

The stability of this version of the product is a major issue. When I downloaded RC5, it seemed fine for about ten minutes. Then it crashed. I went to save a recipe, it crashed. Then an ad came on, it crashed. I was about to uninstall the software, when I saw the ad for the 5.1 version. I quickly installed the update and most of the stability issues were fixed. There are still here and there crashes, but very few from what I experienced.

I am really unsure if the product is being used correctly as the Help feature is lacking serious depth. It tells you things that are obvious but does not go into real support. (Then again, it is a free download.) There is an import feature that I cannot get to work. It asks for STMP information to import, email and to change the color of the layout – I don’t know why this information is needed to change the color. Once the information is correctly inserted, I still cannot get the email/import feature to work.

Then there are seemingly pointless features, like the encoder for cut-n-paste recipes. I don’t know how this works. It is suppose to easily format the ingredients for insertion, but typing the proper format takes longer than just typing the ingredients (which most are already in the database) and amounts. I keep getting the same error message.

Lastly, creating separate databases was pretty easy for me once I found the folder to copy the database.

Other updates should only increase the stability and help functions.

Posted: 05-Sep-2006 05:02:12 PM