Hands-On Tech 211: Moving Recipes to Apple Notes

Release Date: April 13, 2025
Host: Leo Laporte
Podcast: All TWiT.tv Shows (Audio)

Introduction

In this episode of Hands-On Tech, host Leo Laporte tackles a practical tech challenge submitted by a listener. The focus is on efficiently managing and formatting recipes using Apple Notes, BBEdit, and other specialized applications.

Listener's Question: Organizing Recipes in Apple Notes

Listener Wayne reaches out with a conundrum: He has been using the Notes app on his iPhone, which syncs seamlessly with his Mac, to copy recipes from Apple News. His plan involves using BBEdit to reformat these recipes into HTML using a custom template. However, he's fallen behind and discovered that Automator cannot access Notes as needed for his workflow.

Wayne's Inquiry:
"I have been using notes on my iPhone that syncs to the Mac to copy recipes from Apple News, etc. The plan was to use BBEdit to copy Reformat the recipes into HTML using a template that I have. Obviously I'm way behind. I was figuring I could use Automator to copy the title to the top of the HTML template, copy the ingredient list to below the first table and the direction list to the middle HTML direction list. As things turn out, Automator doesn't access Notes. Sigh. So Wayne says, any thoughts?"
[01:43]

Leo's Response: Streamlining Recipe Management

Leo acknowledges Wayne's challenges and offers a more efficient solution by recommending specialized recipe management apps over the current method involving BBEdit and Automator.

Leo Laporte:
"Wayne, thank you for taking the time to write in with your question. As things turn out, Automator doesn't access Notes. Sigh."
[07:20]

Recommendations:

Use Purpose-Built Recipe Managers:
- Paprika: Available on the App Store, Paprika is highly recommended for its ability to format recipes effectively. It extracts essential elements like the title, ingredients, and directions from cluttered text sources and presents them in a user-friendly format.
- Crouton: Another excellent choice, often highlighted by RoseMary Orchard of iOS Today, Crouton offers robust features for recipe organization and formatting.
Leveraging the Share Sheet:
- Both Paprika and Crouton integrate with the iOS share sheet, allowing users to effortlessly share recipes from Apple News directly into these apps. This bypasses the need for manual formatting and ensures consistency.

Leo Laporte:
"Paprika will properly format the recipe. It will go to those sites that have the huge paragraphs of text before you actually ever get to the recipe and find exactly what the recipe is, find exactly what the instructions are and then format it in a way that makes sense."
[08:10]

Cross-Platform Syncing:
- Paprika is available not only on iOS but also on macOS, Windows, and Android. This ensures that recipes are accessible and editable across all devices, enhancing flexibility and convenience.
Exporting and Printing:
- After formatting, recipes can be exported from Paprika to Apple Notes, BBEdit, or other preferred platforms. Additionally, Paprika offers a robust printing feature, allowing users to create PDFs or print recipes on index cards or standard US letter-sized paper.

Leo Laporte:
"This is going to be a much easier process than trying to use BBEdit to reformat the recipes in a way that you want them."
[07:20]

Advantages of Specialized Recipe Apps Over BBEdit and Automator

Efficiency: Specialized apps automate the extraction and formatting process, saving time and reducing manual effort.
Accuracy: These apps accurately identify and separate recipe components, ensuring clean and organized entries.
Enhanced Features: Beyond formatting, features like meal planning, grocery lists, and syncing across devices add value.

Final Thoughts and Encouragement

Leo wraps up by reaffirming the benefits of using dedicated recipe management tools and encourages Wayne—and all listeners facing similar challenges—to adopt these solutions for a more streamlined and enjoyable cooking experience.

Leo Laporte:
"Wayne, thank you for taking the time to write in with your question... I encourage you if you are unsure of the kind of answer that I've provided or if there are other questions that you have, you can always get in touch and we can figure out some other steps to take to get to an answer and a solution that works for you."
[09:20]

Additional Resources

Club Twit Membership:
- For listeners seeking an enhanced podcast experience, Leo promotes Club Twit, offering ad-free access to all TWiT shows, a members-only Discord server, and exclusive content for just $7 a month with a two-week free trial.

Leo Laporte:
"Club Twit would love to see you in the club. You gain access to every single one of our shows ad free. Just the content, access to the members only Discord server, access to the TWIT plus bonus feed plus so much more."
[09:48]

Notable Quotes

On Recipe Management Solutions:
"Paprika will properly format the recipe... make it easy for you to create your recipes."
[08:10]
On Listener Engagement:
"Wayne, thank you for taking the time to write in with your question."
[07:20]
On Seeking Further Assistance:
"If you are unsure of the kind of answer that I've provided or if there are other questions, you can always get in touch..."
[09:20]

Conclusion

This episode of Hands-On Tech provides valuable insights into optimizing recipe management on Apple devices. By leveraging specialized applications like Paprika or Crouton, users can significantly enhance their culinary organization, moving beyond the limitations of general-purpose tools like BBEdit and Automator.

For more tech tips and solutions, tune in to future episodes of Hands-On Tech on TWiT.tv.

Transcript

Leo Laporte (0:00)

Coming up on Hands on Tech, let's take a look at moving recipes to Apple Notes. Stay tuned. This is twit.

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Leo Laporte (1:43)

Race the rudders. Race the sails. Raise the sails. Captain, an unidentified ship is approaching. Over. Roger, wait. Is that an enterprise sales solution? Reach sales professionals, not professional sailors. With LinkedIn ads, you can target the right people by industry, job title and more. We'll even give you a $100 credit on your next campaign. Get started today at LinkedIn.com results, terms and conditions apply. Hello and welcome to Hands On Tech. Or welcome back. If you've been here before, thank you for joining me this week. This week we have a question that's come in from Wayne. Wayne writes in to say, I have been using notes on my iPhone that syncs to the Mac to copy recipes from Apple News, etc. The plan was to use BBEdit to copy Reformat the recipes into HTML using a template that I have. Obviously I'm way behind. I was figuring I could use automator to copy the title to the top of the HTML template, copy the ingredient list to below the first table and the direction list to the middle HTML direction list. As things turn out, Automator doesn't access Notes. Sigh. So Wayne says, any thoughts? All right, so when it comes to sort of getting these notes into your, into your, rather getting these recipes into your Notes app, right? There are obviously multiple ways to do this. You can simply just hit the share sheet, tap on the Notes app and boom, that information will be posted into a new note. But it sounds like what you're trying to do is format these recipes as you keep them stored in the Notes app. And you were kind of using BBEdit as a go between, right to to make this happen. I think there's a better go between when it comes to organizing and storing your recipes. And that is an app that is purpose built to format recipes. And the good news is there are many options out there. I am going to mention Paprika, which is available in the App Store as the one option for you, but there are so many recipe apps out there. Crouton is another great choice. RoseMary Orchard of iOS today talks about Crouton a lot. And these apps are going to provide you, I think, Wayne, with what you're looking for, which is a really well formatted recipe recipe. So when you mentioned Apple News, this is actually a relatively new, very new feature in Apple News that now there are very sort of, sort of perfectly crafted, specifically built for Apple News recipes. So there's a whole new kind of section, segment of Apple News that involves recipes. So you've probably gone on there, found some that you are really into, want to check, check out, and you have added them to your Notes app and it's been complicated thus far, right? So what I recommend doing is getting a recipe manager like Paprika, like Crouton, and using the share sheet to share it to that app. Once it's been shared to that app, Paprika will properly format the recipe. It will go to those sites that have the huge paragraphs of text before you actually ever get to the recipe and find exactly what the recipe is, find exactly what the instructions are and then format it in a way that makes sense, that makes it easy to understand, that makes it easy for you to create your recipes. After that you can take those recipes and export them and then what do you do? You pop them into Notes or you pop them into BBEdit or wherever you want to put them. And by doing it that way you are getting a much better experience of getting those formatted exactly how anyone would expect a recipe to be formatted in the first place.