Edit and Compile Your Recipes! Do you have ambitions to be a successful food writer?

Or do you simply want to compile all of your favourite recipes into one easy to manage volume? Cookbook software is becoming increasingly popular, and various apps are available on all of the major operating systems. Whereas you might have previous collected recipes in a notebook, or typed them up in Microsoft Word, you can now purchase cookbook software for Mac OS X. You can even download it for free!

We’ve collected a stellar selection of the best cookbook software for you to consider. If you’re looking for a way to create and edit recipes, MacGourmet should be your first port of call. Along with the standard cookbook software features, this app also allows you to maintain notes, build custom lists and even include publishing and clipping from web pages as well as offering notes for nutritional analysis. Most importantly, you can also use MacGourmet to compile an actual cookbook! As with all the best modern Mac software, you can also sync recipes to an iPhone or iPod Touch, a great way to share your creations! This really is a feature-packed application, and it is well worth trying out the demo.

Available for $24.95, you can download MacGourmet (requiring Mac OS X 10.4 or later) from. The Computer Cookbook X 3.1 for Mac.

In sharp contrast to the high functionality of MacGourmat comes The Computer Cookbook X 3.1, a much simpler application that does away with bells and whistles and gets on with the task of allowing you to add ingredients, amounts, directions and photos. This application is a great option for anyone wanting to collate their own recipes purely for their own use, although the interface design could do with some updating.

Compatible with Mac OS X 10.0 – 10.3, you can get a copy of The Computer Cookbook X 3.1 from, priced $21.95. CookWare Deluxe Cookbook Software for Mac OS X. A more polished example of cookbook software for Mac OS X computers, Cookware Deluxe combines the usual recipe writing, management and printing features with an excellent search facility – find recipes by searching on recipe name, ingredients, course, region of origin and more!

Units of measurement can be converted, spelling can be checked and Cookware Deluxe also offers a range of printing options. This is a feature-packed application available for $35.95, and it certainly seems to be worth every cent. Download a trial version – suitable for Power PC and Intel Macs – from. Computer Cuisine Deluxe. With an attractive notebook style use interface, Computer Cuisine Deluxe is comprehensive cookbook software for Macs, with a range of features including the usual unit conversion and printing options as well as the more interesting unit multipliers (useful for scaling-up a meal for 2 to a meal for 5), a weekly planner and a nutritional guide.

Compatible with Mac OS X 10.5.7 or later, Computer Cuisine Deluxe has recently been updated to allow integration with a free 'Cuisine to Go' iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad app – this allows you to take a shopping list on your portable device. Visit to purchase Computer Cuisine Deluxe for $29.95 Yum 4.0.2 for Mac. The latest version of Yum has been released in late 2010, an application that includes options to copy recipes to your iPhone, organize recipes on your Mac by category, tag and more. You can even browse photos of your recipes in question rather than search by title, and if you’re still lacking inspiration, check recipes in the Yum cloud! Ingredient multiplying (for changing a meal for 2 into a meal for 3, for example) is also included, and Yum can also be used to print shopping lists based on the ingredients you need. Mac OS X 10.5 or later is required to run Yum 4.0.2; costing $29.00, Yum is available as a trial download from.

Mac Novel Writing App

Available free on the Mac App Store, iBooks Author is an amazing app that allows anyone to create beautiful textbooks — and just about any other kind of book — for iPad, iPhone, and Mac. With galleries, video, interactive diagrams, 3D objects, mathematical expressions, and more, these books bring content to life in ways the printed page never could.

Give your book a great beginning with templates. You might want to begin with a blank page and let your imagination guide you. But if that’s a little intimidating, just start with a beautiful Apple-designed template. Choose from a variety of styles, like classic textbook, cookbook, or photo book, in both landscape and portrait orientations.

And you can choose from a number of page layouts in each template or create one of your own. Building a book is as easy as dragging and dropping. IBooks Author makes it simple to add text, graphics, movies, and more, so your book looks exactly the way you want. Drag and drop a Pages or Microsoft Word document to the Book pane to add it as a new section. Then, when you drag and drop in images, your text automatically flows around them.

You can even import Adobe InDesign and EPUB files and edit them to perfection in iBooks Author. Customize with a click. IBooks Author has everything you need to create a great-looking book — beyond the written word.

Add shapes, charts, tables, text, and widgets anywhere on the page with a single click. Style your text down to the letter with custom fonts, write elegant mathematical expressions using LaTeX or MathML, and add video or audio elements to liven up the read. Add widgets. Add interest. Widgets add Multi-Touch magic to books on iPad, iPhone, and Mac. They bring your reader swipe-friendly photo galleries, animations that burst off the page, scrolling sidebars to linger over, Pop-Over widgets for an element of surprise, and engrossing 3D objects that are entertaining and interactive.

And widgets can be set to play automatically, offering your readers a fun surprise when they turn the page. With iBooks Author, it’s easy to create a book that’s as much fun to explore as it is to read. Accessibility built right in. IBooks Author lets you create books that people with disabilities can read and experience. The table of contents, glossary, widgets, main text, and more are built to automatically take advantage of VoiceOver technology. Add accessibility descriptions to any widget or media — including movies and reviews — so those with vision impairments can use them. Get the word out.

As you’re editing, use iBooks Author to preview your book on iPad, iPhone, or Mac. When you’re ready to publish, iBooks Author walks you through a step-by-step process to help you submit it to iBooks for purchase or free download. And to keep your work current, add updates by publishing new versions of your original title. IBooks will automatically notify your readers that a new version of your book is ready to download. You can also export your book to share on iTunes U or to give to anyone with an iPad, iPhone, or Mac.