Discover-a-Dish

Frequently Asked Questions

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Why can't I install/uninstall/run Discover-a-Dish under Windows 2000?
Local Administrator access is required for Discover-a-Dish to run properly under Windows 2000. This means a user must be in the Administrators or Power Users group to install, uninstall, or run the software. To add someone to one of these groups, perform the following steps (as an Administrator):
  1. Click on the Start button and go to Settings->Control Panel.
  2. In the newly opened window, double click on the Users and Passwords control panel.
  3. In the newly opened control panel, click on the user you wish to give access to in the Users window and click on the Properties button.
  4. In the User Properties screen, click on the Group Membership Tab. To make someone a Power User (recommended), click on the Standard User radio button. To make someone an Administrator (not recommended), click on the Other radio button and choose Administrators in the dropdown list.
  5. Click all OK buttons to return you back to the control panels.
  6. That's it! The next time the modified user logs in, he/she will be a member of the group you selected.

Why doesn't Discover-a-Dish disappear from the Add/Remove Programs dialog after uninstalling in Windows 98/ME?
There is a limitation in how Windows 98/ME handles the refreshing of the Add/Remove Programs dialog and in the uninstall system that Discover-a-Dish uses. If you close and reopen the Add/Remove Programs dialog, the entry for Discover-a-Dish should disappear. Then you can be assured that Discover-a-Dish has been uninstalled properly. This problem should not appear in Windows 2000/XP.

Can Discover-a-Dish keep track of dietary restrictions such as those with diabetes or lactose intolerance?
There are no specific features to deal with special dietary restrictions. However, many people categorize their meals to meet their restrictions. Vegetarians, for example, will categorize their vegetarian meals into a "Vegetarian" category. People concerned about their carbohydrate intake will use a "Low Carbohydrate" category. This could be used in the same way for other dietary restrictions. After meals are searched for, those categories could be looked at to determine which meals can be made. The economical shopping list also allows categories to be chosen so only those categories will be taken into consideration when minimizing the number of ingredients you have to buy.

Can Discover-a-Dish automatically adjust my meals based on food allergies?
This would require keeping track of individuals and their allergies and then somehow knowing what is appropriate for substitution in place of the offending ingredient. It is difficult to solve this problem in a way that is easy-to-use and solves the problem in an acceptable manner. We will consider adding a feature to keep track of people and their allergies for future versions. Then, the user would be warned if people that will be eating those meals are allergic to one or more of those ingredients. The substitution, however, would have to be made by the user cooking the meal. Until something like this is put in the program, we suggest you temporarily un-highlight all offending ingredients when searching for meals. That way, all meals that require those ingredients will not be found during the final search. After you've determined the meal you wish to make, re-highlight the ingredients so you can still find those missing meals in future searches.

Can Discover-a-Dish substitute ingredients? For example, I usually use apples, but today I want to use bananas. Can it give me other choices of fruit I could use in its place?
There is no feature like this in Discover-a-Dish because it would require also categorizing all of your ingredients as well as meals so the software could determine suitable substitutions. However, one thing that you could do is use a generic term for the ingredient instead of a specific one. For example, use "fruit" instead of "apple" or "banana". Or, use "ground meat" if either "ground beef" or "ground turkey" would work just fine for your recipe. Then, you can pick what you feel like using when making the meal.
Discover-a-Dish is a registered trademark of Jeff Shipman. © 2002 ShippySoft
Please report errors or omissions to support@shippysoft.com.