Welcome to Paprika Recipe Manager!

This guide will introduce you to all of the features available within Paprika. You will learn how to add recipes to Paprika, browse for recipes online, create grocery lists, make meal plans, and more.

If after reading this guide you have any questions that have not been addressed, please consult our knowledge base.

Table of Contents

Paprika is divided into four main sections, each of which is accessible by pressing the corresponding button in the tab bar.

Browsing recipes

All of your recipes are displayed on the recipes screen. The left pane displays the list of recipe categories, while the right pane shows the recipes themselves.

All Recipes is the default selected category, which displays all of your recipes in alphabetical order. If you would like to change the selected category, simply tap on a new category to highlight it.

Note You can change the recipe view to display more recipes by pinching inwards over the recipes list.

Searching for recipes

The recipes screen contains a search bar that you can use to search for specific recipes in your collection. Simply start typing and your recipes listing will be filtered by the search term.

By default, the search bar searches for your recipes based on the name of the recipe. You can use the results button on the right to change the search type between: name, source, and ingredients.

Note You can search for multiple ingredients at the same time by separating them with commas. For example: chicken, spinach.

Adding a recipe

To add a new recipe, press the Add Recipe button in the upper right hand corner of the recipes screen.

An empty recipe screen will appear, allowing you to enter in the recipe information you would like to save, such as: name, difficulty, servings, prep time, cook time, and categories.

You can edit the ingredients and directions using the compose buttons on the right side of each pane.

Optionally, add a photo from your photo library by pressing the plus icon on the placeholder photo.

When you're finished entering in your recipe, press the Save button to save your changes. You can edit the recipe later by pressing the same compose buttons in the corner of the ingredients, directions, and recipe info box.

Recipe Fields

These the fields that you can enter when you create or edit a recipe:

Viewing a recipe

From the recipes screen, tap on a single recipe in the listing in order to open the recipe.

This is the main recipe view. The ingredients are displayed on the left, information about the recipe is displayed near the top, and the directions are displayed below.

Note If the recipe has a source URL, the source will be highlighted blue. You can tap on the source to load the original source URL in the browser.

Recipe toolbar actions

The toolbar contains several actions you can perform with the recipe:

1. Add to meal planner - You can add a recipe to the meal planner using this button. Select the date and meal you would like to add this recipe to, and then press Save.
2. Add to favorites - Add this recipe to your favorites.
3. Add to grocery list - Add this recipe to the grocery list. You'll be asked to choose ingredients first.
4. Tools - Displays the recipe tools: timers, unit converter and ingredient scaler.

Less common actions are placed under the actions button in the upper right corner of the toolbar:

1. Delete Recipe - Permanently deletes the recipe from your collection. Note When a recipe is deleted, it is also removed from the meal planner.
2. Email - Email recipients can import the recipe into their copy of Paprika by tapping the .paprikarecipe attachment.
3. Print - Printing recipes requires an AirPrint-enabled printer.

Setting timers

To set a timer for a recipe, tap the Tools button and then tap Timers.

To add a timer, tap Add Timer from the timers screen. You can choose a name for the timer; the recipe name is the default. Press Start to begin the timer, or Cancel to remove the timer. You can remove existing timers by tapping the Edit button in the upper left corner of the toolbar in the timers screen.

To change the name or time of a timer, tap the timer in the timers view. You can also pause, resume and cancel the timer from this screen, and see the remaining duration of the timer. The Done button in this screen dismisses the popover.

Timers will fire and play a sound even if the app is not open. If you run into issues, ensure that your device is not muted.

Scaling a recipe

You can scale the ingredients of a recipe by tapping the Tools button and then tapping Scale Ingredients. When the ingredients scaling popover appears, select the amount you'd like to scale the ingredients by and they will change automatically. If you add a scaled recipe to the grocery list, the grocery list items will preserve the ingredients scaling.

Note Paprika anticipates this ingredient format: quantity unit ingredient, i.e. 1 cup milk. We will be adding more formats in the future.

Crossing off Ingredients

When you are cooking, you may find it useful to cross off ingredients once you have used them. Simply tap the desired ingredient in order to cross it off. (Tap again to un-cross it.)

Marking Directions

You can also highlight the current step of your directions by tapping on it to help keep your place.

Categorizing Recipes

Paprika allows you to organize recipes into categories to make them easier to manage.

Assign a recipe to a category

To edit a recipe's categories, navigate into the recipe and tap the compose button in order to edit the recipe. From here, scroll down and press the Categories button to access the recipe's categories. You can check one (or more) categories to associate with the recipe. Press the Save button when you are done.

Shortcut From the main recipes listing, tap the category name on the right side of the recipe cell to choose the categories for that recipe. This allows you to quickly assign categories to a recipe without having to open up the recipe itself.

Adding a new category

You can add a category by pressing the + button in the categories toolbar.

Editing categories

Press the Edit button in the categories toolbar in order to rename, sort, and delete categories.

Built-in categories

There are 5 built-in categories. These categories cannot be removed and provide special ways to view your recipes:

Paprika's built in web browser lets you easily search the internet for your favorite recipes and save recipes from many different websites.

Using the browser

The browser toolbar contains an address bar, and buttons for the standard browser actions: back, forward, reload, and stop.

There is also a convenient search bar to help quickly perform Google searches.

The bookmarks button displays your current bookmarks. From there you can load a bookmark into the browser, edit a bookmark, and add new bookmarks to the list.

Clipping recipes online

Paprika supports clipping recipes from hundreds of different recipe sites. In order to clip a recipe:

1. Use the web browser to browse to a recipe you would like to save.
2. Press the Save Recipe button in the upper right corner of the toolbar.

3. Paprika will attempt to clip the recipe from the page. Press the Done button to save it.
4. If Paprika cannot figure out how to clip the recipe, it will display an error message. You can then use the manual clipboard tools (described next) to clip the recipe manually.

Manually saving recipes using the clipboard tools

If Paprika wasn't able to clip the recipe for you, you can use the clipboard toolbar at the bottom of the browser to manually copy/paste the recipe information from any website.

To use the clipboard tools:

1. First, find the name of the recipe on the website. Then tap and hold your finger over the name until the blue selection handles appear.

2. Drag the selection handles until the name is fully selected.
3. Tap the Name button in the clipboard toolbar. The selected text will be copied into the Name field.

4. Repeat the same process with the Ingredients, Directions, and any other fields you would like to capture.
5. To save an image, tap and hold your finger over the image. Then select Copy Image from the popup that appears.

6. When you've copied all the fields you would like to save, press Create Recipe to transfer all of your copied information into a new recipe.

7. Press Done to save the recipe, or Cancel to go back to the browser without saving.

Tips

• You can press the Reset button in order to clear your copied selections and try again.
• You can press any of the Name, Ingredients, Directions, etc buttons at the bottom to reveal the existing text that you have copied into them. From there you can also freely make changes to the text.
• If text already exists in a field when you tap the button, the current selection will be appended to the existing text.

Paprika's grocery list makes it easy to shop for your recipes. You can add entire recipes to the grocery list, as well as your own custom items.

When you open the grocery list, you will see the name of each recipe that has been added to the grocery list in the left pane, and the list of ingredients in the right pane.

By default, your grocery list will be sorted into aisles based on the type of ingredient. For example, milk will be placed into the Dairy aisle, and spinach will be placed under Produce.

If you have Entire Grocery List selected, 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.

Note You can turn off both the the grocery list aisle sorting and consolidation features in the Settings panel if you do not find them useful. If you turn off sorting by aisle, your grocery list will be sorted by recipe instead.

Adding a recipe to the grocery list

To add an entire recipe to the grocery list, open the recipe and press the shopping cart button in the toolbar.

An ingredients pane will pop up displaying that recipe's ingredient list. Here you can check/uncheck ingredients before they are added to the grocery list.

(For example, if you already have salt at home, you can uncheck it before adding the recipe to the grocery list.)

Once you have the correct ingredients checked, press the Add button to add those ingredients to the grocery list.

Shortcut You can also add recipes to the grocery list from the main recipes listing, by tapping on the shopping cart icon in the recipe cell.

Adding a custom item to the grocery list

Custom items can be added to the grocery list by pressing the + button in the upper right corner of the screen.

If you are adding a common grocery item, the aisle will be automatically selected for you as you type. You can also tap on the Aisle button to set a specific aisle.

Marking items as purchased

Mark an item as purchased simply by tapping it once. A checkmark will appear to indicate that the item has been purchased. You can mark the item as unpurchased by tapping it once more.

Filtering grocery list items

You can filter grocery list items according to whether they are purchased or unpurchased using segmented control in the toolbar. (When you are shopping you may find it easiest to select: To Buy, to only show the unpurchased items left on your grocery list.)

Removing items from the grocery list

You can remove individual items from the grocery list by pressing the Edit button in the right pane, and then select the items to remove.

Alternatively, you can remove an entire recipe from the grocery list by pressing the Edit button in the left pane, and then selecting the recipe to remove.

Grocery list actions

You can access these actions by pressing the actions button in the upper right corner of the toolbar.

• Clear Grocery List - Tap this to clear all items or to clear purchased items.
• Email - Send an email containing the contents of the grocery list.
• Print - Print out the grocery list.

Paprika comes with a built-in meal planner that can be used to create weekly meal plans. Meals are shown for each week, and you can select a day to see all of the meals you have scheduled for that day.

Changing the selected week

To change the week you are viewing, press the calendar button in the upper left corner of the toolbar. Use the calendar control to highlight a different week.

Shortcut Alternatively, you can swipe left and right between weeks to navigate to the previous or next week.

To add a new meal

Adding meals can be done from the recipe screen, or the add meal button in the meal planner.

From the recipe screen:

Open a recipe, and then press the calendar button in the toolbar to add that recipe as a new meal.

Select the date for this meal, and then the meal type (Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Snack), and then press Save.

From the meal planner:

To add a meal from the planner, press the Add Meal button.

Either type in a custom meal name or choose a recipe by tapping the Recipe toggle at the top, and then choosing the recipe from the list.

You can also choose the date and type of the meal. Once you've finished, press Save.

To edit a scheduled meal

Select the day that the meal has been scheduled for. Press the Edit button in the upper left corner in the day pane. Tap the blue arrow next to the meal you'd like to edit; use the popup which appears to make changes. Press Save when you are done.

To delete a scheduled meal

Select the day that the meal has been scheduled for. Press the Edit button in the upper left corner in the day pane. Press the delete button for the meal you would like to delete.

Meal planner actions

These actions are accessed by pressing the actions button in the upper right corner of the week pane.

• Add day to grocery list - Add the ingredients for all of the recipes scheduled for the currently selected day to the grocery list.
• Add week to grocery list - Add the ingredients for all of the recipes scheduled for the currently selected week to the grocery list.
• Email - Send an email containing the currently selected week's meal plan.
• Print Week - Print the selected week's meal plan.
• Print Day - Print the selected day's meal plan.

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

It also provides access to Papika's syncing, backup, import, and export features.

Accessing the settings panel

Paprika's settings panel can be accessed by pressing the gear button in the toolbar on the recipes screen.

List of settings:

Paprika Cloud Sync

What is Paprika Cloud Sync?

Paprika Cloud Sync is a free online backup and syncing service for your recipe collection. With the exception of the available space on your device, there is no limit to how many recipes you can store, or to how many devices can use the same account.

Note Paprika Cloud Sync is different than Apple's iCloud, although if you'd like you can use the same credentials for both, but you will need to create a separate Paprika Cloud Sync account through the Settings panel of Paprika.

What does it do?

Paprika Cloud Sync will automatically back up your recipes, categories, bookmarks, groceries, and meals to our cloud servers, ensuring that your recipe collection is always safely backed up.

You can also use it to keep Paprika's data synced with other devices.

How much does it cost?

Paprika Cloud Sync is free.

Accessing Paprika Cloud Sync

Paprika Cloud Sync can be accessed by pressing the sync button on the recipes screen. It can also be accessed via the Cloud Sync option in the Settings panel.

Creating an account

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

To create an account, open the Settings panel, and then select Cloud Sync from the list of options. Then select Create Account.

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

Logging in

If you already have an account, you can log back into it using the Log In button on the sync screen.

Managing your Account

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

Quick Sync

If you are logged in, the sync button on the recipes screen acts as a shortcut button that will initiate a new sync.

Import and export

Import

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

1. Add the file to Paprika via iTunes file sharing.
2. Navigate to the Import Recipes screen in the settings panel.
3. Select the file to be imported.

The currently supported file types are:

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 We've added several new fields: on_favorites takes a yes value and indicates that the recipe should be added to your favorites. categories is a YAML list; the category will be created if it does not exist. photo is a base-64 encoded image. All these new fields are optional.

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.
      

- 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

Paprika currently offers two different export formats:

How to export your recipes

1. Navigate to the Export Recipes screen from the settings panel.
2. Choose a category to export. By default All Recipes will be selected, but you can choose to export a different category if you would like.
3. Choose either the HTML or Paprika Recipe Format.
4. Press Export.
5. The export file or folder will be written to Paprika's documents directory, which can be retrieved using iTunes file sharing.

Manual Backup

It is possible to import and export manual backup files via iTunes file sharing.

Warning These backups are not meant to be shared between cloud sync accounts; they are meant to manually backup a single account's collection. Use the .paprikarecipes export to share your collection with others.

To create a new backup

1. Press the Create New Backup button.
2. A new backup file will be created that is accessible via iTunes file sharing.
3. Use iTunes file sharing to retrieve the backup file and store it someplace safe.

To restore a backup

1. Press the Restore Previous Backup button.
2. You will be prompted to select a backup to restore from.
3. Paprika will need to be restarted in order to perform the restore.
4. Confirm that you would like to quit and restart Paprika.
5. Re-launch Paprika to complete the restore process.

Note We highly recommend using Paprika Cloud Sync as your primary backup mechanism, instead of relying on manual backups. It's a lot easier to use. Once you set up your sync account, your recipes will be backed up automatically, and you don't have to worry about managing your backups manually.