This page last updated
22.03.2018
The app is a menu planner that enables you to store dishes in a database and to assign these to specific meals on specific days. The software tracks the assignments and organises the list of dishes so that you are reminded of items you have not eaten recently. Dishes can be categorised by the assignment of predefined and user-defined attributes (e.g. "Usually eaten for Lunch", "Don't plan on Weekdays", "Mother-in-law doesn't like this", "Only for dinner parties"), so that the list of suggestions can be restricted, by setting appropriate filters, to items relevant to the day and occasion you are planning.
The main displays are a monthly calendar, which provides an overview of the meals you have planned, and the dish list, which contains the list of items (dishes) you may like to eat, and shows when each dish was last eaten. Detailed displays for dishes, showing all assigned attributes and characteristics, and for a single day, showing all details of the menus for that day including any notes you may have made, are also available. You can attach notes to individual dishes and to the day-specific plan for meals (to note who came to dinner, for example).
The planning process can be configured to suit individual requirements. Up to five meals per day can be defined (you can decide what you want to call them), and up to five courses per meal (also freely nameable). If fewer meals per day are defined (usually it will be two or three), the displays are restricted to these, so there are no "empty slots" for unwanted meals in the dialogues. A basic system of categorisation is provided on installation. This can be extended as required - for instance, you can define "who likes what" categories, or price categories. Any categorisation that you define is automatically incorporated in the filter system.
Additionally, the software incorporates a recipe manager, so that recipes can be attached to dishes. Recipes can be imported as text files or can be created in the app using the editor functions provided. Ingredients checklists ("recipes") from IK-Shop can also be imported. If recipes are stored, these can be displayed while preparing a meal, and can also be used to prepare your shopping list. The ingredients from the recipes for the planning for selected days can be passed to IK-Shop for incorporation in the shopping list. The processing in IK-Shop is similar to that for checklists, so it is possible to check requirements against available supplies before a final shopping list is created.
For dishes without recipes, a list of shopping requirements can be defined using a special function in IK-Shop. Such lists are then combined with the requirements from recipes to generate a complete shopping list.
The app comes with preset data that can be installed if required to create a basic structure and dish list. This is intended to simplify familiarisation with the app and enable you to use it without extensive manual setup. The data can be edited and extended as necessary to conform to individual requirements. Note that, although the app contains this preset data, including a few recipes, it is not intended as a "recipe app". The purpose of the app is to provide a system for organising data, not to provide the data itself. There are already thousands of recipes freely available on the internet, and we see no reason to add to them.
The app can be installed on any number of devices. Synchronisation of the data is provided through dropbox, using your personal dropbox account.
Provided you purchase a licence, the amount of data that can be handled is limited only by the available device capacity. For unlicensed software in the Android variant, the number of dishes that can be defined and the number of days that can be planned is limited to a data volume that should be adequate to enable you to evaluate the software. There are no functional restrictions in the unlicensed version.
The data base incorporates a backup system and the possibility to recover to a prespecified checkpoint, so that a planning operation can easily be cancelled and restarted if required.
The app has a comprehensive help system. Every function has its own help text, which is automatically displayed when the function is executed. The help texts can be turned off, either individually or completely, when no longer required, and can be reactivated (individually or completely) as necessary. In addition, the help panel of the app provides direct access to the on-line user manual.
The app is available in PC and Android variants. These are functionally identical.
The PC variant is variant is free of charge and and can be downloaded from the Kippsware web site.
The Android variant is obtainable from Google Play. It is free to download. The amount of data that can be handled is restricted. A licence must be purchased by in-app purchase to remove these restrictions.
We assume the Android variant will be used in day-to-day planning and probably to read recipes while cooking, while the PC version will be used mainly for preparing and editing recipes (keyboard, easier cut/paste from external sources) and possibly for larger planning activities. However, there are no functional restrictions on either variant.
The software, including the help system, is available in English and German. The user manual is currently available in English only. The software is able to synchronise between installations using different languages, should this be required.