Anyone who cooks, bakes and saves recipes has a file or box of recipes that are hand-written or clipped from newspapers. Often these recipes are family favorites that have been handed down through the generations. Yes, you can find almost any recipe by googling it, but somehow the results just aren’t quite as tasty as great-grandma’s potato salad or dad’s barbecue sauce. A much stained recipe card holds the magic ingredients and process and may be on its last legs. It’s time to digitize!

I can think of two ways to digitize these old recipes–take pictures of them or scan them. This blog will discuss using your iPhone or iPad camera to digitize your recipes. Digitize Your Old Recipes–Part 2 will show you how to scan and organize them using the Notes app.

It’s easy enough to take a picture of a short recipe. Set the hand-written version on a flat surface in good light and snap.

You may have to take multiple pictures if the recipe goes on a second page or the back of a card.

Now you have to decide how to organize all of your recipe images. They will appear in your Photos app where you can organize them into albums and folders.  The albums will be your categories–desserts, entrees, salads, and so on. A folder titled “Recipes” will hold all of your recipe albums. Here’s an image from our course More Hidden Gems on Your iPhone & iPad that shows how folders and albums work in the Photos app on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac.

This image is from the video entitled “Use Folders to Organize Your Photos,” one of eight videos focusing on cool features on your iPhone and iPad. The video takes you step by step through the process of organizing your photos into folders and albums.

Here are a couple hints to get you started if you have never created a folder or album in your Photos app.

First, open your Photos app (iPhone or iPad) and tap on Albums.

Tap on the + sign in the upper left hand corner.

You will have the choice of creating a folder or an album. Remember you need to create the folder first!

If you are using a Mac, click on My Albums in the left-hand menu and then go to File/New Album or New Folder. Again, make the folder before you add albums.

A reminder–you can get the step-by-step directions for adding folders and albums on your iPhone or iPad in our course, More Hidden Gems on Your iPhone & iPad.

One last hint…remember if you have more than one Apple device and you’ve linked their apps via iCloud, you will be able to access your recipe folder and its specific recipe albums on any of your Apple devices. Go to Settings and tap on your name to see if you have linked your devices’ apps through iCloud.

You just need to decide which device you want to bring into the kitchen.

One last thing before I end, if you enjoy cooking and baking, you might enjoy BoomerTECH Adventures’ course, Cooking With BoomerTECH Adventures.

Here’s a summary of the videos–do they make you hungry?

Look for Digitize Your Old Recipes–Part 2 in a few days.  You will learn to digitize by scanning your recipes and then organize them into folders in your Notes app.

Originally Published on https://boomertechadventures.com/

Ed Brazee Co-founder of BoomerTECH Adventures

Ed Brazee is co-founder of BoomerTECH Adventures with colleagues Jill Spencer and Chris Toy. BoomerTECH Adventures helps fellow boomers develop their digital expertise while modeling and encouraging compassion, honesty, fairness, respect for diversity, and adherence to ethical behavior. Using technology in this day and age is much more than knowing what buttons to push!

Ed is professor emeritus of education at the University of Maine where he taught for 25 years. He was also publications editor for the Association for Middle Level Education, and directed a highly regarded summer institute for teachers.