How to Help Solve Secret Recipez!

[000000005]

I wish the spreadsheet worked for me, what kind of file is it?

Originally Posted by monkeecj

I usually do 9 or 18 at a time as well. The only exception is when I get down below 30 ingredients left to eliminate I usually just buy all at the same time, but if there are 95 foods to try I only buy 9 or 18 at a time (it is easier to keep track of and seems to keep the job moving a little bit faster - I have a goal to reach in the short-term which makes it seem to finish more quickly).

Really? I've been hunting for an easier way than buying 300 foods then doing them all. It takes about 1 hour for me to do a combo

[ClaraZ25]

Originally Posted by monkeecj

I usually do 9 or 18 at a time as well. The only exception is when I get down below 30 ingredients left to eliminate I usually just buy all at the same time, but if there are 95 foods to try I only buy 9 or 18 at a time (it is easier to keep track of and seems to keep the job moving a little bit faster - I have a goal to reach in the short-term which makes it seem to finish more quickly).

yes i do more than 9 at the end because i get to impatient. I also find that by doing smaller sections at a time that if I do make a mistake I only have to redo 9 combos instead of the entire set. I also normally do my combos on my smaller secondary account so that special foods that i have stored in my dock on my main account don't accidentally wind themselves up turned into gak.

[000000005]

I should interview Achip on how she does it...

Wa-hoo! My 4500th post was here!

[cocoabean]

Originally Posted by 000000005

For a suggestion, how about a section on how to use the WI Cookbook? Like how to find a recipe and all the different ways, what buttons do what, etc.

First post

Cool idea! I often use the WI cookbook when I'm looking for recipe comparisons too!

---- Added after 2 minutes ----

Originally Posted by monkeecj

I don't know if this helps, but I ALWAYS keep written records of the combos I do - I might get really confused over the Spreadsheet method (LOL). Well, what I do is make a list of all of the ingredients in the W Shop and then cross out the combos that I do with that ingredient as I go - when I begin I cross out all of the ingredients that have already been used in a combo with that particular ingredient.

I didn't even think of this until today, but I just made up a Word document of all the W Shop foods and now I am printing out a sheet when I want to eliminate an ingredient and it is easy to then cross out the foods as I go. Here is a picture of my example:



I write the name of the food I am eliminating at the top and then in the parenthesis I write the appliance and any other information I want about the eliminations, for example, "Only for YTT," or something to that effect. Then I cross out the eliminated ingredients as I work.

That is awesome! I'm going to add this to one of the first posts if that's ok with you! If you can attach the word doc to a post for me too I can add that with this for others to download if you don't mind!

---- Added after 8 minutes ----

Originally Posted by ClaraZ25

Cocoa this guide is excellent.

Thank you!

Originally Posted by ClaraZ25

CJ this is brilliant. I used to write out all the ingredients and then cross them out but typing them up once and then printing is a lot easier. Also when i elimintae I do 9 foods at a time. For instance if i want to eliminate almonds + apple. I buy 9 apples, 9 almonds, and then 1 apple juice, asparagus ... bottled water. and then i eliminate those. I then sell those 9 gaks and do the next 9 combos. Until I am done.

I usually do between 9 & 27 at a time too, because I'm marking them on my spreadsheet as I do them. I think when I put up monkeecj's method on one of those first posts that I will expand on this. My memory isn't good enough to remember what the last combo I did is unless I mark it as I go! It's really pathetic! When I do a full combo of 95 and don't want to mark as I go I have to buy all at once, because otherwise I would totally forget where I left off!

---- Added after 11 minutes ----

Originally Posted by monkeecj

I usually do 9 or 18 at a time as well. The only exception is when I get down below 30 ingredients left to eliminate I usually just buy all at the same time, but if there are 95 foods to try I only buy 9 or 18 at a time (it is easier to keep track of and seems to keep the job moving a little bit faster - I have a goal to reach in the short-term which makes it seem to finish more quickly).

Sounds like we all do this so far! Like I said above, I have a pretty bad memory... so I'm always marking as I go which is necessary for old people w/bad memories like me! It seems like most chefs here keep records of what they do AND mark off as they go.

---- Added after 6 minutes ----

Originally Posted by 000000005

I wish the spreadsheet worked for me, what kind of file is it?

Really? I've been hunting for an easier way than buying 300 foods then doing them all. It takes about 1 hour for me to do a combo

It's an excel file which should work for excel versions from 97-2003. I can include a link to a 2007 version also if this is the one you have. That would be part of Office 2007 on your computer.


Also, I think that once you start using some form of record keeping that buying in smaller quantities makes a lot of sense!

Let me quick make a word doc of all the foods until I get monkeecj's up there...

brb

[monkeecj]

Originally Posted by cocoabean

That is awesome! I'm going to add this to one of the first posts if that's ok with you! If you can attach the word doc to a post for me too I can add that with this for others to download if you don't mind!

I tried attaching the document and it didn't work... It told me the file extension for my Microsoft Word was ".docx" and it only accepts ".doc".

???

[000000005]

Could you make it a 2007 also? Thanks!

[cocoabean]

Originally Posted by ClaraZ25

yes i do more than 9 at the end because i get to impatient. I also find that by doing smaller sections at a time that if I do make a mistake I only have to redo 9 combos instead of the entire set. I also normally do my combos on my smaller secondary account so that special foods that i have stored in my dock on my main account don't accidentally wind themselves up turned into gak.

Yes that is very true about mistakes. On rare occasions I'll add 2 of the "3rd foods" usually I catch it immediately, but sometimes not, so it is better for me to do less at once but track as I go so I know where I left off!

---- Added after 15 minutes ----

I made a couple of word docs saved as 97-2003 which are attached to post number 3 now, and I'll add monkeecj's explanation there soon as well.

You should be able to open any of these older versions with 2007.

---- Added after 8 minutes ----

Originally Posted by monkeecj

I tried attaching the document and it didn't work... It told me the file extension for my Microsoft Word was ".docx" and it only accepts ".doc".

???

That's the extension that my 2007 version saves word docs in. My 07 version of excel saves those docs in .xlsx ... the x must be the common factor in docs saved in the 07 version...

You could try renaming it with the extension being .doc ... all I do to do that is click rename and add .doc to the end of it and it worked for me.

saved one on my webspace here

hmmm... monkeecj, do you have office 2007? That's what mine is but when you click the "office" button in the upper left and choose "save as" one of your options should be "save as word 1997-2003 document"

You should try opening the "blender combos" workbook on my webspace, or right click and save as and see if you can open it... I'm curious why some people can't open them and others can. What version of excel do you have?

I can open any older file with office 2007, even my spreadsheets that I save as 97-03 .xls files and word docs that I save as .doc files.

[Jumping Wizard]

Great guide, I just noticed this. I think it should be stickied!

[cocoabean]

Originally Posted by Jumping Wizard

Great guide, I just noticed this. I think it should be stickied!

Thank you so much! It's a work in progress so keep checking back on the first 5 posts for updates!

[monkeecj]

Yes, I do have Office 2007. I can open any of the Excel spreadsheets as well because of this. I tried to save as a 1997-2003 document (hadn't noticed that before) and it worked!

But it is just the same as the one you attached to the third post.