Warning

This guide is for Paprika 4, which is currently in beta. Switch to the Paprika 3 guide.

The Settings window on Windows, on the General tab: the tabs across the top, then the Browser, Appearance, Recipes, Keyboard and Advanced groups.
  1. Settings tabs Accessing the Settings Window
  2. Account tab Account
  3. Browser settings List of Settings
  4. Appearance settings List of Settings
  5. Recipes settings List of Settings
Settings in Paprika for Windows.

The settings window allows you to configure Paprika's default behavior.

It also provides access to your Paprika account and syncing. Paprika's import and export tools live in the File menu — see Import Recipes and Export Recipes below.

Accessing the Settings Window

Paprika's settings can be accessed by navigating to File -> Settings in the menu bar. The settings window is divided into five tabs: General, Email, Groceries, Meals, and Account.

Note

Sync -> Settings in the menu bar opens the settings window directly to the Account tab.


List of Settings

General - Browser
Home Page Can be used to set the default home page on the browser screen. By default this is Paprika's directory of favorite recipe sites.
GPU Enabled Whether the built-in browser uses your graphics card for rendering. If web pages render incorrectly on your hardware, try turning this off. Paprika will ask you to restart the app for this change to take effect.
Open Links In Where links in your recipes open, such as the source link and links in the recipe text: Paprika opens them in the built-in browser, and System Browser in your default web browser.
General - Appearance
Startup Screen The section Paprika shows when it starts: Recipes, Browser, Groceries, Pantry, Meals, Menus, or Sharing.
Recipe Font Size Adjusts the font size of the ingredients and directions on the recipe screen.
Show Image Placeholder Shows a placeholder for recipes that do not have a photo.
Recipes List Rows Choose which details are displayed for each recipe in the recipes list: Name, Rating, Categories (the default), Name, Rating, Source, or Name, Categories, Source.
Enable Spellcheck Whether spelling is checked (with the familiar red underline) while you edit recipe text.
General - Recipes
Auto-Suggest Categories If turned on, Paprika suggests categories automatically when you add a recipe from the browser, the clipboard, or a scan. See Suggesting Categories. Requires Paprika 4 Premium.
Suggest New Categories If turned on, category suggestions can include categories you don't have yet. Turn it off to use only your existing categories. Requires Paprika 4 Premium.
General - Keyboard
Show Text Formatting Buttons Whether the formatting buttons appear above a recipe text field while you edit it. The keyboard shortcuts keep working when the buttons are hidden.
General - Advanced
Render Mode Choose between Default and Software Only rendering for the app itself. If you see graphical glitches, try Software Only. Takes effect the next time Paprika starts.
Email
Default Recipient Sets a default recipient in the To: field for any email messages. Note You can enter multiple recipients by separating them with commas.
Send Email With Which service to use to email recipes, grocery lists, etc. Choose Gmail to send through your Google account, or SMTP Server to configure an outgoing mail server manually using the settings below.
Email The email address to send from.
SMTP Server The name of the outgoing mail server to use for sending email from Paprika, such as recipe emails. smtp.gmail.com is one example.
Port The SMTP server port to use. 587 is one example.
Username The username to use when sending email. john@gmail.com is one example.
Password The password for the above username, used when sending email.
SSL Whether or not to use a secure connection when sending email. The connection type can be set to Auto, SSL/TLS, or STARTTLS.
Groceries
Consolidate Ingredients If turned on, the grocery list will attempt to consolidate similar items with one another. For example, if one recipe calls for 2 eggs, and another recipe calls for 3 eggs, the consolidated listing will display 5 eggs total. If turned off, the grocery list will display each item individually.
Show Recipe Names If turned on, the recipe name will display in the grocery list underneath the ingredient and quantity.
Aisles Click Customize to change and reorder the grocery list aisles. You can add new aisles, delete aisles, and rename them.
Meals
Week Starts On First day of the week. Used when displaying a week of meals or selecting a date for a meal.
Meal Types Click Customize... to add, remove, change and reorder the existing meal types. You can also associate a color and a time with each meal type.
Calendar Feed Creates a link that calendar apps can subscribe to, so your meal plan appears in them and stays up to date. See Calendar Feed. Requires Paprika 4 Premium.

The Account tab is described under Account below.


Account

The Account tab of the settings window (called Cloud Sync in earlier versions) is where you create or log into your Paprika account, manage your account details, and control syncing.

Paprika Cloud Sync

Paprika Cloud Sync is an automated backup and syncing service for your recipe collection. It will automatically upload your recipes, cookbooks, categories, grocery lists, pantry, meals, and other data to our cloud servers, ensuring your data is safely backed up.

If you have Paprika installed on multiple devices, you can also use Paprika Cloud Sync to keep your data synced across all of those devices.

Note

Syncing will not be enabled until you set up a Paprika account.

Note

Paprika Cloud Sync is not available in the free version of Paprika.


Creating an Account

You'll create one Paprika account for all devices sharing the same recipe collection. You can do this through the settings pane of any version of Paprika, and then log in to that same account on all other versions of Paprika.

To create an account, open the Settings window, and then select the Account tab. Then select Sign Up.

Enter in your name, and the email address and password you would like to use for this account.

Note

If you already have an account, please login to that account instead of creating a new one. Recipes synced with an existing account will not be available under a new account.


Logging In

If you already have an account, you can log back into it using the Log In button on the account screen. You can also press Set Up Sync at the bottom of the left sidebar to get to the same place.


Managing your Account

After logging in, you can manage your account and sync status from the Account settings pane.

Account Status
Email The email address associated with the account.
Manage Account Contains Change Name, Change Email, and Change Password. Note Your name is shown to recipients when you send in-app messages.
Log Out Pressing this lets you log out of your account and cancels the sync, if running.
Sync Status
Last Synced The date of the last successful sync attempt.
Status The result of the last sync attempt. This will say Success if you were able to successfully sync. If your device was not able to connect to the sync server, the associated message will be displayed here.
Update

You can choose how often you would like to sync using the Update dropdown.

  • Automatically - The sync runs every 5 minutes on any available network, and it also runs whenever you start Paprika. It also runs whenever you make a change (like adding a recipe) and listens for changes occurring on other devices.
  • Manually - The sync only runs when you press a sync button.
Sync Now Pressing this will initiate a new sync immediately.

Quick Sync

If you are logged in, your account email and sync status are displayed at the bottom of the left sidebar, and you can initiate a new sync from there using the sync button. You can also choose Sync -> Sync Now in the menu bar.


Import Recipes

Paprika can import recipe databases from several other applications. To perform an import:

  1. Go to File -> Import in the menu bar.
  2. Select the file to be imported. Paprika selects the matching format automatically based on the file's extension; you can also choose the format yourself using the Format dropdown.
  3. Choose the cookbook to import the recipes into using the Cookbook dropdown. It starts out set to the cookbook you're viewing.
  4. Confirm the import. A progress dialog is displayed, and Paprika reports how many recipes were imported when it finishes.

Shortcut You can also simply double-click a .paprikarecipes file in File Explorer — Paprika will open (or come to the front if it's already running) and show the import dialog for that file. Recipes imported this way are added to the cookbook you're viewing.

Note

Paprika export files can contain entire cookbooks. To recreate them, check Import cookbooks from file when importing a Paprika file — each recipe is then added to the cookbook it was exported from, and any of those cookbooks you don't have are created.

The currently supported file types are:

Supported File Types
.paprikarecipe & .paprikarecipes Paprika's emailed recipe format and its export format.
.yml A plain YAML file. See below for more details on this format.
.mx2, .mxp & .mz2 MasterCook export formats.
.mmf MealMaster export format.
.zip & .db Pepperplate export file or database file. Click here for instructions on how to get your database file from Pepperplate.
.zip Copy Me That export file.
.dvo Cook'n export format.
.fdx & .fdxz Living Cookbook export formats.
.mcb My CookBook export format.

YAML Format

YAML is a simple, plain text file with sections delimited by key-value pairs. To indicate a block of text, use an initial pipe character, as shown in directions and ingredients. Consistent indenting should be used, but the order of the fields does not matter, and most are optional with the exception of the name, ingredients and directions. It is recommended that you use an online YAML validator such as this one to validate your file if you're experiencing difficulties importing.

Note

The YAML format is quite strict with regards to whitespace and indentation. Please also make sure your file is saved with a UTF-8 encoding.

YAML recipe example:

name: My Tasty Recipe
servings: 4-6 servings
source: Food Network
source_url: http://www.google.com
prep_time: 10 min
cook_time: 30 min
on_favorites: yes
categories: [Dinner, Holiday]
nutritional_info: 500 calories
difficulty: Easy
rating: 5
notes: |
  This is delicious!!!
photo: (base-64 encoded image)
ingredients: |
  1/2 lb meat
  1/2 lb vegetables
  salt
  pepper
  2 tbsp olive oil
  4 cups flour
directions: |
  Mix things together.
  Eat.
  Tasty.
  Yum yum yum.

YAML multiple recipes example:

- name: My Tasty Recipe
  servings: 4-6 servings
  source: Food Network
  source_url: http://www.google.com
  prep_time: 10 min
  cook_time: 30 min
  nutritional_info: 500 calories
  on_favorites: yes
  categories: [Dinner, Holiday]
  difficulty: Easy
  rating: 5
  notes: |
    This is delicious!!!
  ingredients: |
    1/2 lb meat
    1/2 lb vegetables
    salt
    pepper
    2 tbsp olive oil
    4 cups flour
  directions: |
    Mix things together.
    Eat.
    Tasty.
    Yum yum yum.

- name: My Tasty Recipe 2
  servings: 4-6 servings
  source: Food Network
  source_url: http://www.google.com
  prep_time: 10 min
  cook_time: 30 min
  nutritional_info: 500 calories
  difficulty: Easy
  rating: 5
  photo: | (base-64 encoded image)
  notes: |
    This is delicious!!!
  ingredients: |
    1/2 lb meat
    1/2 lb vegetables
    salt
    pepper
    2 tbsp olive oil
    4 cups flour
  directions: |
    Mix things together.
    Eat.
    Tasty.
    Yum yum yum.

Export Recipes

Paprika currently offers two different export formats:

Export Formats
HTML A standard portable data format that allows you to preserve a copy of your recipe collection. Your recipes will be exported to a directory, with an individual HTML file for each recipe, and an index.html displaying the list of exported recipes. Each recipe file will contain hrecipe or schema metadata in the HTML.
.paprikarecipes Paprika's bulk recipe export format. These files can be easily imported into any copy of Paprika.

How to export your recipes

  1. Go to File -> Export in the menu bar.
  2. Select the destination file you would like the export to be saved to.
  3. Choose the categories to export using the Categories button. By default all recipes are exported, but you can restrict the export to one or more categories if you would like.
  4. Choose either the HTML or Paprika Recipe Format.
  5. Press Export.

Note

If your recipe names contain non-English characters, check Use Unicode filenames to preserve them in the exported file names.

Shortcut To export only certain recipes, select them in the recipes list, then right-click and choose Export....


Find Duplicates

Over the years, it's easy to end up with the same recipe saved more than once. The Find Duplicates tool helps you clean these up. To open it, go to File -> Find Duplicates… in the menu bar.

Under Match Recipes By, check the fields that must match: Name, Source, Source URL, Ingredients, or Directions. Recipes are considered duplicates when all of the checked fields match. Click Search to find duplicate recipes.

The matching recipes are listed in groups, with columns such as the rating, times and date added to help you tell them apart. Click a column header to sort within each group, and double-click a recipe to open it. Click Select Duplicates to select every recipe except the oldest in each group, review the selection, and then click Delete to move the selected recipes to the Trash.


Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
    1. Table of Contents
  2. What's New
    1. Highlights
    2. Other Changes
  3. Beta Testing
    1. Before You Start
    2. What to Test
      1. Adding Recipes
      2. Organizing
      3. Nutrition
      4. Sharing
      5. Pantry
      6. Meals
    3. Sending Feedback
  4. Overview
  5. Adding Recipes
    1. Adding a Recipe
    2. Adding a Recipe from the Clipboard
  6. Scanning Recipes
    1. Scanning a Recipe
    2. Editing a Scanned Recipe
    3. Scanning Tips
  7. Browsing Recipes
    1. Browsing by Category
    2. Browsing Subcategories
    3. Searching Recipes
    4. Searching Categories
    5. Advanced Search
    6. Saved Searches
    7. Sorting Recipes
  8. Editing Recipes
    1. Editing a Recipe
    2. Deleting Recipes
    3. Recipe Fields
    4. Inserting Recipe Text
    5. Adding Recipe Photos
  9. Viewing Recipes
    1. Recipe Actions
    2. Printing Recipes
    3. Timers
    4. Scaling & Converting Ingredients
    5. Crossing off Ingredients
    6. Marking Directions
    7. Pinning Recipes
    8. Photo Gallery
    9. Keyboard Shortcuts
  10. Nutrition
    1. Entering Nutrition Facts
    2. Analyzing Ingredients
    3. Viewing Nutrition
  11. Categories
    1. Assign a Recipe to a Category
    2. Suggesting Categories
    3. Adding a Category
    4. Editing Categories
    5. Built-In Categories
  12. Cookbooks
    1. Switching Cookbooks
    2. Adding a Cookbook
    3. Managing Cookbooks
    4. Moving Recipes between Cookbooks
    5. Sharing a Cookbook
  13. Browser
    1. Using the Browser
    2. Clipping Recipes Online
    3. Clipping Recipes from Social Media
    4. Manually Saving Recipes Using the Clipboard Tools
      1. Tips
  14. Groceries
    1. Adding Ingredients
      1. Adding a Recipe to the Grocery List
      2. Adding a Custom Item to the Grocery List
    2. Editing the Grocery List
      1. Editing Grocery List Items
      2. Removing Items from the Grocery List
    3. Using the Grocery List
      1. Marking Items as Purchased
      2. Filtering Grocery List Items
      3. Sorting the Grocery List
    4. Managing Multiple Grocery Lists
      1. Viewing your Grocery Lists
      2. Adding a New Grocery List
      3. Renaming a Grocery List
    5. Grocery List Actions
  15. Pantry
    1. Adding Items to the Pantry
    2. Editing Pantry Items
    3. Pantry Locations
    4. Sorting the Pantry
    5. Pantry Actions
  16. Meals
    1. Viewing the Meal Planner
      1. Switching Views
      2. Monthly View
      3. Weekly View
      4. Daily View
    2. Adding a Meal
      1. From the Meal Planner
      2. Drag and Drop from the Recipes Sidebar
      3. From the Recipe Screen
    3. Editing Meals
      1. Changing a Meal's Date or Type
      2. Deleting Meals
      3. Moving or Copying Meals
      4. Viewing Recipes from the Meal Planner
    4. Meal Planner Actions
    5. Calendar Feed
  17. Menus
    1. Adding a Menu
    2. Adding Menu Items
    3. Drag and Drop
    4. Adding a Menu to the Meal Planner
    5. Menu Actions
  18. Sharing
    1. Family Sharing
      1. Inviting Family Members
      2. Managing Family Members
    2. Messages
      1. Sending Recipes & Cookbooks
      2. Receiving & Importing Recipes
      3. Checking for New Messages
  19. Settings
    1. Accessing the Settings Window
    2. List of Settings
    3. Account
      1. Paprika Cloud Sync
      2. Creating an Account
      3. Logging In
      4. Managing your Account
      5. Quick Sync
    4. Import Recipes
      1. YAML Format
    5. Export Recipes
      1. How to export your recipes
    6. Find Duplicates
  20. Software Updates
    1. Checking for Updates
    2. Installing an Update
  21. Resources
    1. Technical Support
    2. Frequently Asked Questions
    3. Changelog